The Benson signal., 1918-10-26

be brought face to face with an issue
at the next general election which
some time ago had a counterpart in
Congress witness a small group of
wilful men, as our President would
express it, arraying themselves
against the. interest of the majority,
and attempting by means that to say
the least are peculiar, to coerce and
inveigle the county at large to donate
to them something they have no logi-
cal right to have, and for which they
assure no one of just return. The
terms peculiar" "coerce" and Gin
veigle" will be duly explained as we
proceed with our case The question
at issue is whether the county seat
shall be removed to Douglas-not
whether it shall be removed from
it's present site, but whether it shall
be removed to Douglas. The parties
hereto are the Douglas Cham
Der of Horrors on the one side (com-
prising the so-called small group of
wilful mem and the voters of the
county on the other. BY this it is
not meant that no one but the above
chamber approves of the removal
far from it-for instance these advo-
Gates of fair dealing, by assuring the
people of Warren that they stood an
equal chance of securing the county
seat, obtained something less than 200
Count them, gentlemen, not 5O0)
signers to their petition at that place.
For the reason that the press of Bis
bee has been a consistent advocate of
fair play these Jealous workers we are
informed, did not trespass on that
community's sacred soil.
Let us first see why the county seat
should be removed to Douglas, there
being few reasons therefor, that we
may the better see why it should not
be. Historically this movement has
some interest, but in order not to be
burdensome we will start only as far
back as the petition that was respect
fully consigned to Oblivion last year
on motion of a Douglas man. Being
a strong advocate of fair play / be-
took myself to the supervisors Office
and announced to them that l was a
self-appointed and self constituted
smelling committee of one, who, as a
citizen, and resident, and taxpayer of
the county respectfully solicited the
opportunity of seeing the signatures
on the petition. What l beheld rath-
err jolted my faith in a certain COM
munity that apparently cloaked its
political moves with the sanctity of
Justice. For example, the signature
of the then secretary of the Douglas
Chamber of Horrors appeared in Pc
culiar regularity on the documents.
One petition, if | remember rightly,
had this ornament three times; and
all told it made it's presence felt to
the extent of about dozen. The Sc
quence of the names on the petitions
in some cases was startlingly like
the current issue of the telephone di-
rectory; and in many cases the writ
ing of the successive names bore such
resemblance to each other that one
would think the signers had all al
tended the same school of penman-
ship Some people whose names an
peared even averred that they had
never been approached to sign. To
the reply that this was a former Pc
tition and not the present one, let the
answer be that this county seat re-
moval case is one issue, and the
above is submitted as collateral evil
dence. The instances given are not
given to cast any aspersions on the
present petitions, but to lay before
the voters of the county the full mean
ing and significance of "fair play"
County division with Wilcox as the
county seat of the new unit (and the
double CROSSE, the argument for War
ren's opportunity of legally securing
the much-coveted prize (when as a
matter of fact it is not incorporated)
are further enlightening instances of
this strange doctrine of 'fair play"
Douglas, or rather its G. OF H.,