Arizona republican., 1912-06-07
Proposal to Leave It to the People by Referendum at the Presidential and Rep resentative Election in November
SCHEME REGARDED
 AS SORT OF JOKE
House Passes Its Election Bill; It Receives Boxing Measure With Signs of Disapproval;; The White Slave Bill

The Rooseveltian doctrine of every man his own constitutional lawyer was put into concrete form in the senate yesterday when President NJ. G. Cunniff and Senator H. R. Wood. both of Ylvapai county. introduced bill whose object is the settlement of the questions involved in the ten ure of office proposition by popular vote. In other words these two eminent opponents of Arizona states manship propose holding an election to determine whether there shall be an election The matter of spending S250OO additional to settle the matter presumably is regarded as mere in cident unworthy of serious cOnsidera- ton.
 Reduced to concrete terms the pro position is this There is a mOOted question as to the construction to be placed upon the terms of the consu- tuition regulating the election of state. county. and precinct officers. Eminent lawyers have said the men elected last December should serve only un- til January l. 1913. Other eminent lawyers have said they should serve until Jan. 1. 1915 It seems impossl- ble for these men to agree and there has been talk of a friendly suit to get all expression from the supreme court of the state. But Senators Cunniff and Wood see another way out of the difficulty. They propose having an election in November for the election of a representative in congress and for presidential electors; and at the same time they propose submitting referendum proposition to decide whether there shall be another elec- tion-one for state, county, and pre- cinct officers If the voters should decide that the constitution favors the short term. then there would be an election in February.
 It is understood, of course. that all though Woods name is attached to the bill he is a mere echo of the more resourceful Cunniff In fact this scheme was advanced by Cunniff long before the legislature met so if there is any credit attaching to-it the credit belongs to him.
 If one is to judge by surface indi- cations there are not many hopes for the Cunniff bill. It is recognized as the Roosevelt idea pure and simple the idea of submitting constitutional questions to popular vote and 1t ap- parently has made little impression on the senate where the bill was ln- troduced From expressions already heard there the bill is likely to be given short shrift, for the most dan gerous of all attitudes is observable the attitude of levity. The bill is not received seriously. so far as eXpreS- sions of opinion have been heard. In fact there is decided tendency to treat it as d good joke; and even the democratic legislature of Ari- zona would hesitate to enact into law proposition that it regards as a joke.
 This complicates the election pro- position still further. The house has just enacted it's bill, providing for an election the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November of this year. the date of the national and congressional election. The old senate bill has been amended to con form to the bill in the house, and is practically ready to be put through And now the Cunniff- Wood measure
  feet no one seems able to say.
 It would seem rather far cry from politics to prize fights but after all it is not so great a distance as one might imagine This remark is engendered by the fact that the prize fight measure. which recently passed the senate largely by the votes of the deacons and near deacons, came III in the house yesterday afternoon. The bill was not acted upon finally bu there was d test vote on sending i to third reading that may be re earded as decisive of the final result The vote was 19 to 16.
 Prior to that there was anothel vote with one absent. The first vot' was a tie-17 to IT.
 There were some rather interesting remarks made in explanation of votes Some said they were opposed to priz fighting yet voted for the bill for on reason or another One or tw couldn't see any particular harm il prize fighting yet voted against tn measure because they were conVinc ed the governor hadn't asked. them t legislate upon that subject And on representative said he would b ashamed of Arizona if it legalize prize fighting and would be ashame of himself if he voted for it.
 However, as already said. a major ity looked at the matter in a differer