Weekly journal-miner., 1915-01-13
PENSION JAW IS ATTACKED IN
 THE COURTS
(From Fridays Daily.)

the county farm and turn all indi- gent and sick people now maintained in that institution out on the charity of the public, and divert the money received from the sale of the prop erty into the treasury of the state contrary to law-injunction papers were filed in the office of the clerk of the superior court yesterday to test the constitutionality of the so- called mothers pension law which was among the other crazy initiative measures the people of the state vot- cd into the statutes at the last gen. eral election.
 The Yavapai County Chamber of Commerce stands sponsor for the proceeding, and the complaint, which was prepared and filed by Norris & Mitchell and other attorneys is sworn to by H. D. Aitken, president of the organization. It Is a case which is being watched by all the boards of supervisors and commer- cial organizations of the state with absorbing interest and anxiety, be- cause upon its determination depends the fate of all the aims houses of Arizona and the care of no less than fifteen hundred people, including the fifty old pioneers in the only pioneers home in the United States, which is located in this city.
 Judge Smith was not at home yes terday, but as soon as he returns from Holbrool he will take the mat ter up, it being probable that de- cision will be rendered within few days, which will either be the grant ing of temporary injunction or the sustaining of the initiated law.
 The attorneys have brought the is sue squarely on the proposition that the carrying into effect of the new measure is directly in violation of law and contrary to the constitutional rights of Yavapai county. No place, however, does it mention the passage of a new law or otherwise touch up on the provisions of anything but the statutes of the state as they have existed previous to the last election, leaving the defendants, the Yavapai County Board of Supervisors to base their defense upon the initiated statute, in the form of an answer to the complaint by the county attor- ney, which will raise every point that is contained in the new law.
 Details of Complaint.
 In detail the complaint alleges that the board of commissioners of Yavapai county is a corporation or ganizcd under the laws of Arizona, and that they have under their charge property belonging to the county ill the formof a county poor farm and hospital where there are yearly average of from forty to fifty indi- gent, sick and helpless people cared for in direct compliance with the law It sets forth the fact that this prop erty was purchased and improved Dy money which was secured by the pro cess of taxation on property owned by citizens of Yavapai county. Ac- cording to the complaint, the farm has been cultivated and improved, fruit trees planted and cared for crops of grain and hay raised, and other industries carried on for the protection Of the indigcnt inmates On the farm are buildings and valu- able improvements consisting of a hospital, storage buildings, laundry bath house, large barn, well with q 40O,0O0-gallon water tank operated by an electric motor, four head Of horses, five milch COWS, five head ol other cattle, large number of farm implements, a large number of chick cns and turkeys, and othe valuable property, the whole of which IS valu- ed at fifty thousand dollars, all oI which funds were collected from the taxpayers of Yavapai county. It al lcges that all of these indigent and sick people arc wholly dependent on the support of the county and unable to support themselves or secure help from any other source than the coun- ty.
 After enumcrating the property al stake, the complaint states that the said defendants, without any right, legal authority or warrant of law, and in violation of the law and con trary to the statutes of Arizona, arc threatening to immediately discon- tinuc the said care, support, nursing and maintenance of said indigent, sick and helpless people, and are fur ther now threatening to immediately abandon the use of, discontinue and sell and dispose of said county farm and immediately turn the money real ized from such sale to the state ol