The copper era and Morenci leader., 1916-05-19
EDITORIAL OPINION
GOV. HUNTS "cRIsIS"
(Jerome News !

Ever since Gov. Hunt announced
 some six weeks ago that he had been
 called to a third term as chief eXecu,
 tive of Arizona by the existence of | 'an imperative public crisis,'' the
 thinking voters of the state have been
 wondering whether such a condition
 of affairs really exists. The charge that great conspiracy is on foot to deprive the people of their rights is a serious one, obscured though it be | by the high-sounding phrases of Mul- | ford Winsor, on whose vocabulary great demands are made whenever the governor wants to say anything es- pecially important.
 Either such a conspiracy exists or it does not. Gov. Hunt says it exists, and because there is a great public | crisis in Arizona he feels it up to him to again seek reelection. He believes that the existence of a conspiracy against the people justifies him in again seeking the office he has held for the last four years.
 Assuming that the governor is right and that a great conspiracy is afoot in Arizona, does it thereby follow that he George w. P. Hunt, is the only man capable of handling such a crisis, of leading the fair young state with her spotless garments around "the mire of ruthless capitalistic exploita- tion?" Has he in the two terms he has been governor demonstrated his ability to deal sanely and fairly at all times, to keep his head, and to act, as he says, without malice or resentment? If he has, does it fol- low that he is the only man in Ari- zona who can save the state?
 Anybody who knows the governor at all, knows that he is very resent ful. He is very sensitive and easily offended, and his anger does not cool quickly. Four years of public life have added to his exaggerated idea of his own importance but they have not sweetened him any. Even his best friends admit that he is extremely stubborn, a fact borne out by his re- peated refusal to remove one of his appointees in the face of requests from the war department and possi- ble dissolution of the national guard Furthermore, he is man with an obsession, and a man with a deep and undying hatred. His obsession is that the corporations are trying to gob- ble Arizona, and his undying hatred is for all who do not think as he does. ''; Gov. Hunt has been in office for over four years. If great con- spiracy exists, as he says it does, then the people of Arizona will want to know why he has not brought out the facts before, why he, as chief execu- tive, has not crushed this serpent un- der his heel. The reason is plain For four years the governor has been fostering and encouraging, by his public and private utterance, and by his official acts, class hatred and strife. Instead of working to bring about harmony, and good feeling, instead of making life more worth while for the men struggling to build their homes in the new state, he has, Intentionally or net created distrust and suspicion between classes. Stubborn to the ex- treme he refuses to believe anything but what he has always believed, and now, on the eve of another election, he discovers" a still greater con spiracy than any he has yet found. . If any such great public crisis ex- ists as that which the governor says he has discovered, then Gov. Hunt is not the man Arizona needs to meet that crisis. No man is fit to handle such a situation who is not broad minded, who cannot be fair, who can see only one side of question, and that imperfeetly. But we do not be- lieye, and we do not think that the voters of Arizona believe, that such a crisis exists No evidence has been forthcoming in support of such theory. It seems to have been manu- factured for the occasion.
 If it does not exist, then the gover- nor admittedly has no other ground on which to run for reelection, Only the urgency of great need, he says, in which he, the Galahad of the new state of Arizona, is called again into the lists, would induce him to again run for office. The interests of his appointees, the clamorous, hungry crowd at the pie counter, these are as nothing. Their pleas have no weight. It is to save the state that he now comes forward, dragging by chain of verbiage his latest, fiercest looking bogie.