Arizona republican., 1913-02-25
All Testimony in Support of Charges Made by Citi- zens of Florence Against Present System Present ed Yesterday
THREE LONG
 SESSIONS HELD
Side of Administration in
 Controversy Will Likely Be Presented Today When Warden Sims and
 Parole Clerk Will Testify

Before the joint committee of the house and senate of the legislature of the state of Arizona, the citizens of aggregating eight hours sitting, pre- scented their testimony in support of the petition recently sent by them to the legislature complaining of the actions of the cOnvictS fO the state prison To- cated near Florence and demanding that some change be made that would guarantee them greater feeling Of security against possible fnroads from what are regarded as unguarded con- Vict gangs either at work in that vii cinity or at liberty upon the streets of the town. When the hour of ad- journment was reached at ten last night. the case for the petitioners as far as can be obtained at this time without the issuance of additional sub- poenas was complete It is quite likely however in view of the testimony given and the invitation extended by the witnesses that the committee or a portion of it will journey to Florence for the purpose of examining the lady signers, who it was stated felt some embarrassment at appearing and a number of whom were sick and unable , to come.
 The hearing was held in the open house and all senators and represen- tatives were present and were per- mitted to ask questions relative to the matter in hand, of which privilege they freely availed themselves through the entire morning and afternoon sessions. but at the night session at which much important evidence was submitted i there was much less rapid fire Ques- tionng from the body of the legisla- ture. All the members appearing cons i tent to allow the questions and cross- questions to be made by the members of the committee.
 i Prior to the opening of the morning session the committee held a short meeting and decided that in view of l the indisposition of Sen. Harrison that i c. B. Wood or Maricopa should act as chairman, which he did in par 1 ticularfy able manner. The vacant place on the committee was then l filled by pressing Senator Cunniff of
 Yaapai into the breach and he took particularly prominent part in the questioning especially with regard to the possibility of additional legislation 1 being necessary to meet the conditions complained of by the citizens of Flor
 ence. His pet question seemed to be,
 What legislation would you suggest?" In answer to this question the wit nesSeS were divided. Some believed and so stated that a law should be passed prescribing particularly the liberties and privileges of the convicts
 as well as the actual duties of the
 superintendent and prison officers. l While others went so far as to state
 that their knowledge of the situation
 was such as to lead them to believe
 that rigid enforcement of the exist ing law was the first step toward the
 reformation of the alleged intolerable
 existing conditions. All of the wit
 nesses testified that they were not anil
 mated by any personal bias or pre-
 judice for or against Governor Hunt
 or Mr Sims warden of the peniten-
 tiary. but on the contrary were anx-
 ious that the situation be mitigated
 without embarrassing the administra-
 ton. Some of the witnesses were of
 the opinion that the penitentiary ought
 to be moved from Florence.
 With the exception of one or two 2 points, of which some of the witnesses were not familiar the evidence of the f whole chain of testimony during the s entire day was largely corroborative. The method used by Chairman Wood to put the witness at his ease and get
 a definite statement from him before Q the questioning of the representatives 1 began was to hand the witness a copy e of the petition. ask him if he had 2 the matters and things set out in the n petition and to tell what he knew of each section beginning at the top.
 The first section of the petition com plained of the buggy ride of Miss Kate
 Bernard Louis V. Eytinge through
 Florence one Sunday afternoon. The econd section of the petition referred } to the alleged mingling of the con- e victs with the youths of the city. The
 third proposition was the charge the
 prison management competes with the merchant in selling groceries and the v | fourth was that theconvictS were al ' lowed around town without guard. The first witness was J. B. Heating U 1 of Florence. a saloon keeper, chair man of the county board of Supervis-
 ors, town councillor, former member oi
 Continued on Page Two)