The Coconino sun., 1916-01-21

Miami Miners Union and secretary of the local Greenlee county strike com mittee, has received the following in teresting communication from United States Senator Henry M Ashurst of Arizona:
 Washington ID. C., Dec. 21, 1915.
 Mir. H. s. McCluskey,
 Miami, Arizona.
 Dear Sir and Frined:
 thank you for your letter of the 18th instant, and for the information it contains. Personally, have always believed that the two oceans (the Atlantic and the Pacific) were of themselves strong defenses of our country.
 The democratic national platform of 1912 declares for "the maintenance of an adequate and well-proportioned navy, sufficient to defend American policies, protect our citizens, and up- hold the integrity and honor of the nation," and I believe that fairly efficient navy built for the purpose of defense rather than for offense would le all that was required if our nation pursued the paths of honor and strove manfully for peace; but, l am grow ing suspicious that the cry now split ting the ears of groundlings and reaching the high Heaven" tor down to low hell, I do not know which, for preparedness" is inspired somewhat by the steel trust, the munition makers, and the money trust. Their profits since the European war began have been enormous, and the more profits they make the greedier they seem to become; their appetite for money is growing upon what it feeds | upon.
 Things are in an amazing whirl here at the capital now, Not since our Civil war have stranger things | happened. The republican party, | which most politicians in all parties l thought was dead, is showing signs of life and is preparing to "come back" bringing to the front that | hoary, old fraud, the tariff question, as it's issue. Only recently dinner was given to Colonel Roosevelt in l New York city, at which dinner men representing fifty billions of dollars | were present, and believe these men will son launch T. R.'s campaign for the presidency. The "big interests" of the country yearn for high tariff, and they imagine that if they can in- duce congress to spend half billion dollars for preparedness" there will, | of course, come a great deficit in the treasury, which will force congress to levy high protective tariffs in order to get the funds with which to meet the deficiency; hence, l believe large part of this preparedness" propagan- da springs from those who want to restore the old rotten system in vogue in the days of Hanna, Roosevelt and Taft.
 To convince you that my suspicious are fairly we'll grounded, have tested out lot of those who are in favor of i, preparedness" and I have proposed that the moneyto pay for prepared ness" be raised by levying direct tax" on large incomes, tax on in- heritances, and an internal tax or excise tax on the munitions of war that our manufacturers are turning out so rapidly; but when l propose these species of taxes, those who ad- vocate preparedness" as rule, op- pose taxes on wealth, and always in- sist on return to protective tariff system. Ever since 1 have been in congress I have insisted that our naval ships, aeroplanes, submarines, powder, guns, and other munitions of war should be built and manufactured by the government instead of by pri- vate parties, for if these ships, war ihdtcAiaio thiiu ciuiPihShs "SiS A'"'o by the government it would take out the profit and would put the govern ment into a position where it would not be influenced by the fears and war cries of those who expect to see our country invaded every morning.
 regret to advise you that the preparedness" question has com pletely overwhelmed and engulfed every other question here in the east; how long this condition will prevail do not know; but let us hope that the chilling winds and snows and frosts of winter will have a. tendency to cool the fevered imaginations of people in the east who believe, or pretend to believe, that we are certain to be at tackled most any day. It is difficult, if not impossible, to get anyone in