Arizona republican., 1909-02-15
TERRITORIAL
 INSTITUTION Concerning Old Question ofan
 Arizona Museum EXHIBITS Many Are No Longer Avail able--Some Valuable Col lections, One of Birds and Animals, Are Now Offered at Bargain Prices.

Why not have an Arizona museum Now that the legislature is in ses-
 sion it is a most timely subject for
 consideration, made particularly so by i the fact that there are now available 1 in the territory, several private col | lectiOns offered for sale at ridiculous | ly low prices, that will certainly be sold before another two years rolls around, and most likely to parties
 living outside the territory. The mat
 ter would not be nearly so important
 if these collections could be easily
 duplicated, or duplicated at all On
 the contrary some of them contain | specimens that it is not likely could ever be duplicated, and those that
 are more common can be bought at this time, for much less money than
 similar exhibits could be collected
 for by any later day museum curator. | It is an unwholesome fact, but a fact nevertheless, that already many of the most desirable curios, relics
 and historical exhibits ever unearth- ed, discovered or collected in Ari- Zona have been bought in years gone by. by collectors, museums, schools, colleges and wealthy faddists, carted
 out of the territory and can never be replaced. Compared with the rich fields for research available in the past, it will be poor picking indeed for the territory, even if it begins now the work of gathering up those things that should form a state mu- scum, though there is more left than many states ever had. But the picking" will be beautifully less day | by day as the years go by.
 This is not a matter that has been allowed to go by default by those ap- | preciative of conditions, though it has ever been frowned upon by the
 legislature which felt that the terri
 torys financial resources were too small to be thus expended. though
 never a legislature has passed in the i territory that more money was not
 expended foOlishly, or in some mea- sure of what the muck rakers might call graft, even though it was legal. than would be necessary to establish such an institution. The nearest the legislature ever came to doing any thing was about ten years ago when few enthusiasts formulated a bill asking for the establishment of such
 an institution in connection with the territorial library, the librarian to
 be in charge, his duties to be the
 packing and storing of such things
 as might be contributed, against the
 time when they could be displayed
 to good purpose, and all the expense
 asked for was a few dollars a month to pay the librarian for his trouble
 and to buy a few drygoods boxes or show cases to store things in. Immediately the Pima delegation sought to make a still larger appro-
 priation and amalgamate the exhibit
 with the University, and as promptly,
 the friends of the original measure
 very properly killed the bill. What
 is wanted is a territorial institution in the capitol building and if it is
 not large enough now to accommo- date such a display the exhibits can
 be safely stored until it is. No one objects tG the university museum
 and all favor encouraging it, but it
 can never perform the functions of
 state museum.
 At the time spoken of, the territory
 was very much in debt and the talk of economy had merit, for it is
 recognized that in the natural order
 of things there is bound to be more
 or less biennial appropriation for