Arizona republican., 1914-08-05
ATTACK MADE
 ON MIAMI C0.
Injunction Suit Brought Yesterday to Prevent Sec retary of State from Plac- ing the County Division Measure on Ballot.

The sufficiency of the initiative measure for the division of Gila county and the formation of Miami county was attacked yesterday in a bill filed by the office of the attorney general in the superior court of this county An injunction suit was brought at the instance of County Attorney Norman Johnson of Gila and Hon. George R. Hill of Globe, who arrived in the city the day be- fore. It is asked that Secretary of State Osborn be restrained from placing the county division p-oposi . tion on the official ballot Judge Phil lips issued a temporary injunction and set August IA as the date when the secretary should appear and show cause why the injunction should not be made permanent.
 This suit is brought under para graph 3327 of the revised statutes, giving to the superior court jurisdic- tion to inquire into the sufficiency of initiated measures. Such suits may not be brought by individuals but they must be brought by the state, fo1 the state would be the party in iured by vicious or scandalous legis- lation. This is the first time that the statute has been invoked.
 It is the theory of the Globe attor- neys that the proposed bill is one of the kind that the legislature had in mind when it invented the sitting Ixr nc of fC It is special legislation, not appli- : cable to any other county or to any other time It was not the intention 1 of the legislature, the attorneys con tend, that counties should be divided in this manner. by the votes of the people of the whole state, for the legislature enacted general law rel ative to county division, whose oper- ation has been suspended by the ! referendum.
 l Whatever may be the finding of tre superior court on the fra! hear ing. the matter will undoubtedly be ! appealed at once to the supreme court which will probably hear it al 1 once.
 1 fact that the proposed division ot the county of Gila. separate from the questionable legality of it, is most inequitable. The county of Gila con- tains 4,525 square miles. The pro- posed county of Miami contains about one nineteenth of this area, ol 2S5 square miles. The valuation o Gila county is s35,5OO,0O0. Of thi. amount s14,30000O or forty per cen
 is included within the small and ir- regular section proposed to be form
 ed into Miami county. It is further stated that every possible topograph | ical feature which would be burden
 some and expensive has been elim mated from the proposed county bN the promoters of it, whose real ob
 ject, it is alleged, is to increase tn.
 value of town lots in the town O l Miami, which has been designated al
 the county seat of the proposed nev county. It is stated that the distanc from the center of Miami to the cen
 ter of Globe, the county seat of Gil;
 county, is exactly four miles, but tha plated portions of the two towns Ii
 within mile of each other and vii
 ultimately impinge. There is a bou | leVard running from one town to tn
 other, so that as matter of fact
 they practically constitute one com
 munity now.
 Messrs. Hill and Johnson say tha
 if the injunction proceedings shoul
 fail it will devolve upon the citizen
 of Gila county to institute an expen
 sive state wide campaign against tn
 county division measure which ha
 already been filed with about 400
 signatures gathered from dfferen
 parts of the state. The division. tn
 attorneys say, would practical
 bankrupt Gila.