Arizona republican., 1909-02-16

have not a single request to sign this bill.
 There are no doubt some people who are opposed to it; I have heard of some. l have suggested the Op- position by those who are, or would J if it were not for the Rangers, be violatOrs of the law themselves, and of these I have heard of some who claim some degree of responsibility, but who have felt the annoyance of the interferences of the Rangers with their at least culpable purposes. Of course, l would not be addressed by those people who have not been. It has been advanced by a small, and, I hope, an unimpOrtant element, that those counties in which the Rangers are not of frequent use should not be required to contribute ! to the maintenance of force whose
 principal activities are largely con- fined to other counties; that in that
 respect each county should look af-
 ter itself I cannot accede to so mar row and bigoted d consideration of 1 the matter.
 Every good citizen of Arizona is 1 interested in the development of the
 resources, the growth of an intelli- gent, orderly and law abiding popu- | lation in every part of the territory and in the preservation of peace and good order and the suppression of crime and lawlessness to its utter most confines. It ought not to be i said, and I trust that it cannot be trtuhfully said, that the people of any given section of the territory are indifferent to the maintenance of good order and the suppression of crime in every other part of it. ! Inconsistent as it may appear, the contrary view is entertained by some | of those whose concern for the con- duct of their neighbors and zeal for | legislation for the regulation of that
 conduct, are peculiarly conspicuous. l have heard, too, the argument
 that the retention of the Rangers in [ some degree adveTtises the lawless condition of the territory; that be- cause We retain such a force the in | ference may be that without it the territory would be overrun with des- peradoes of every sort The argu- ment, I confess, is a little too re- fined for my comprehension. Upon the same argument every city should abolish it's police force and it's fire department. That because we require that officers who receive and dis
 purse our public funds shall give bond for the faithful discharge of that trust, it is to be inferred that we have no honest men to entrust with those offices. Such arguments
 would justify the repeal of our crim inal laws.
 If there were no criminals to ap- prehend We would, of course, need no Rangers or other like force; if there
 were no men in the territory or none would come into the territory, who, if unrestrained. would not kill, steal plunder or commit other violence, We would just as certainly need no laws against such crime. One of the best advertisements this territory has had is that we have had just such force; that it has been efficient and that it has practically ridded the ter
 ritory of desperate characters or so overawes them as to render them harmless.
 am not at all convinced, however. that the proposition by the legisla- ture to abolish the Rangers is based LlfblA AlAt 4htd llAclA IL Alcio AADL bttAA or that it has ceased to be an eff cient force. It is, of course, always to be regretted that partisan politics should be injected into the considera- tiOn of any legislation. But it has been injected, as l shall show, and feel that I would be derelict if failed to notice it. It has been
 charged by a part at least of that particular party of which the ma jority of both houses of the assem- bly are members that the Ranger force has degenerated into a political instrument for the use of the eXecu- tive.
 If this charge be true, the mere abolition of the Ranger force would constitute too mild a rebuke.
 If the charge be not true, however, 1 it is a gratuitOus islander. upon as honest, courageous and faithful a set of men as I know, and as governor
 of this territory I cannot permit it to pass unnoticed and uncontradicted. The charge has been made, and
 made by a political party, and the passage of this bill is equivalent to condemnation. And the cOndemna- tion, involving, as it does, the asper- sion upon the character of men who
 at least had the right to be heard in their own defense, was in disregard of that right. They were condemned | unheard.
 Deprecating that it has. been made a political question as much as l
 may, I cannot ignore it nor avoid it.. | If the force had been charged with the commission of any other crime or | fault, it would certainly be my duty, | if the charge were untrue, to refute
 it. and because it is charged with
 being a political agency of the ap- | pointive power, it is just as much
 my duty to defend them against that charge, if in fact it be untrue even
 though that should necessitate the apparent discussion of politics. After the election of last fall, very many, if not most, of the democratic newspapers of the territory demand ed in their columns the abolition of
 the Ranger force and of the office of well the