Arizona republican., 1910-10-16
PHOENIX, ARIz., OCTOBER 10, 1910
Answering Childish Complaints.


The Tucson Star undertakes to ex-
plain why there is extant in the terri
tory a feeling of hostility for Phoenix
and Maricopa county. The Star re-
prints in full The Republicans piece
on this subject, which closed with the
observation:
why the desire prevails TO throw
the hooks into MaricOpa' we do not
pretend to explain We only chronicle
the fact, regrettable as it is"
The Star then proceeds with its ex-
PLANTATION, which follows:
1.-The foregoing is from The Repub-
lican and is supposed to be a plain
statement of a regrettable fact. But
unconscious of the cause as The Re
publican processes to be, the real
cause is written all over the territory
and Maricopa county has done the
writing. Not to mince words, it is and
ever has been the hoggish desire of
the people of Phoenix to absorb every
thing in sight that had a dollar in it
to the detriment of the people and
places elsewhere. In the estimation
of the people of Phoenix, no one else
has a right they are bound TO respect
Pima county did much to take the
capital from her good friend Yavapai
and give it to Phoenix Up to that
time their Jesuitical policy had been
to play fair with her neighbors, but
no sooner had she succeeded in de-
spelling Prescott of the capital than
hn 70
undetermined means possible reached
for the United States land office, then
located here. In the end she sue
ceeded in getting it, but not until she
had robbed the northern district of
the land office located in Prescott, and
had succeeded in getting the two dis
tricts embraced in one, and that one
located in Phoenix The next thing
Phoenix reached after and succeeded
in getting from Tucson was the
weather bureau, and this was followed
up by the Mexican consulate. The
present generation will probably ask
why such things were permitted and
the answer is the Jesuitical tricks
worked under cover to get them. The
first intimation that Tucson had of
what was going on was generally
when the order came for them to
move.
when a town is unfortunate one
would naturally think that her sister
cities would not seek to take advan-
tage of her distress, but that is just
what Phoenix did when fire destroyed
the railroad shops here. They were,
however, informed by Mr.. Randolph
phnani~
That they did not succeed is due to
no fault of theirs. Had misfortune
overtaken Phoenix, instead of trying
to rob her, Tucson would have ex-
tended a helping hand.
Tucson could have had the capitol
at the time it was taken to Phoenix
but she waived her rights in favor
of Phoenix and was successfully
robbed for her pains. Other portions
of the territory have a like cause of
complaint. If there has been nothing
to affect them individually they have
been observant of what has been done,
and further, the knowledge has been
impressed upon them that they would
fare no better than their neighbors, if
they had anything Phoenix wanted.
The real cause over which The Re-
publican so innocently wonders can
be felt as well as seen, it is so no
toriously plain"
The Tucson Star itself, in the fore
going editorial, displays an astonish-
ing quantity of the backwoods, pro-
vincial spirit to which we have al
luded. The alleged grievances are
childish. The removal of the capital
to Phoenix, after it had been alter |
nateIy at Prescott, Tucson and Pres |
colt again, was simply logical result |
of the territory's development. The |
construction of railways made Phoe- |
nix most naturally the commercial |
and political center of Arizona; and |
being located in the geographical CEN
ter, and most easily reached from
every section of tAe territory, this
city became the capital as a mere |
matter of course. There are not a
hundred men in the territory today |
who would vote to remove the capital /
to any other point.
The consolidation of the two; land
districts into one, and the location of
the new land office at Phoenix, was
also a logical result of the territory's
growth. The people of Phoenix had
nothing to do with the land office re-
It was done at Washington,
and our recollection is that not even
Delegate Smith, who was resident
of Tucson, made any protest-until
The removal Of the land
office from Tucson brought possibly /
two families to Phoenix-a tremen-
dous blow at Tucson's prosperity,
surelyi
On what occasion did this commu-