Daily Arizona silver belt., 1909-10-02
OUR WELCOME TO TAFT

On the thirteenth of thlS month the people or Arizona will have an opportunity to meet the president of the United States face to face at Phoenix, the territorial capital city. As this territory stands now on the verge of be- coming a member of the Union, the chance to extend heartfelt and earnest welcome to the nations head is one that may easily be fraught with great significance. Arizona IS reglon misunderstood. If the man who has lived here but few years will recall his first impressions of the territory as they were gained from those lying sisters, hearsay and cheap romance, he will readily remember that they were gro tesquey absurd in the light of present knowl- edge and experience. Arizona, to the world outside her borders is still the haunt of the curl ous the bizarre and the unfamiliar It IS more difficult to eradicate one false impression from the public mind that it is to instlll hundred correct ones into the intelligence of people wholly unpreiudiced But for the years leading back to the time when this territory had never given birth to an industry, the garret scrbber, the chronic liar and the itinerant peddler of in cidents that never happened have contributed their detestable share to the coloring of public opinion in way detrimental to the best inter- ests of this territory and of the truth as well It is not strange, therefore that even our Iegis- lators who, for some traditional cause are al ways credited with being darkly wise in regard to all things have acquired erroneous behefs as to what Arizona has to offer in justification of having statehood conferred upon her. On the other class of politicians who knowing the truth has kept the light of it under bushel instead of using it to light the way to fair and impartial action, it is not necessary to dwell. For they will eventually bring about their own condemna- ton at the hands of the people.
 But knowing that wrong impressions of Arl- zona do exist among people living elsewhere, It is absolutely essential that with an opportunity given to demonstrate to the president of the United States the readiness of this territory for statehood, the citizens themselves should not be found lacking in eagerness to grasp it.
 When Mir. Taft comes to Phoenix it is aIl-im- portant that he should receive the warmest kind of welcome not at the hands of the Phoenix populace alone but of all the people of the terri tory that can possibly take time to pay him homage with their personal presence
 Here partisanship has no part to play. For it is hoped that everyone who assists in the greeting of the president at Phoenix, or else where will do it in a spirit of loyalty to home and country. On the day that Mr. Taft passed from campaign activities to the White House as the choice of the people, he ceased to be merely a political factor and became heir to all the patriotism with which any true American should regard the nations chief executive. From being politician, he passed to the status of the most honored servant of some eighty millions of people who reverence Old Glory as their national emblem. Consequently, it is more than fitting, it is necessary that those who as sist in showing the president the hospitality of which Arizona is capable shall be imbued with no party feeling, but rather with spirit of rln- swerving featy to the man who has been honor ed with the nations highest office
 The action of Globes chamber of commerce in circulating a paper in the endeavor to ob-