Arizona republican., 1919-06-13
ONE REFERENDUM
 PETITION SEEMS JUST II VANISH
Disappears Too Late to Get Another-Added to List of Lost Articles - But Others Are Filed

One cannot leave anything of value lying around loose in Phoenix with any assurance that he will ever see it again. Now there is that tablet that mysteri- 0us,y disappeared a few days ago, and Charles T. Francis of Cochise had so laboriously prepared against the amended automobile law placing jit- neys under the control of the corpora ton commission That, too, is gone; 1t went too late to be replaced.
 Mir Francis. one of the representa- lives of labor in the legislature, op- posed the passage of that bill at every step, but he was unable to prevent it's progress. though he managed by the simple device of oratory to delay it. He refused to accept defeat and as soon as the legislature adjourned he set about the invocation of the referendum.
 He was backed by organized labor, for it was the contention of the oppon- ents of the act that it tended to create an Ohgarchy or aristocracy of jitney drivers where as it was the view of labor that jitney proletariat should he recognized; that the jitney business was one in which all should be allowed 10 engage. Labor had the sympathetic support of dealers in automobile access sories. for the more jitney drivers, the greater the demand for their wares.
 Mystery-The Petition Vanishes It was little or no trouble to secure the required number of names and MT. Francis arrived in town on Wednesday morning with the petition all but filled A little later it was entirely filled and could have been filed as well as not In the afternoon MT. Francis visited the office of the secretary of state to make | some inquiry about the procedure; if he had taken the petition along with him he would have been all right. But he left it in his room, No. 33, at the Ford, and when he returned it was mo- where visible to the naked eve and since then there has been no noticeable | improvement of the vision of AIr. Fran cIs with respect to that petition
 | Though Attorney General Jones had l ruled that petitions might be filed dur ing the legal day of yesterday, con- trary to the impression that Wednes- 1 day was the last day for such filings. it was manifestly and physically i1npos- slbie to secure another collection Of l something more than 2,500 names.
 One Measure Is Halted
 The only measure that seems to have been successfully halted by the refer endum was the 'fbottleggers' relief act. against which more than 2.ScO names were filed. It was believed on Wednes- day afternoon that enough names would be secured for the petition against the amending land act but it was an- nounced yesterday that there was a shortage of about 400, so that the fight against that act will have to be carried out in the courts, though there has been decision that unless a refer endum was interposed the act would become operative at the end of 90 days, just the same as if it had not been an emergency measure.
 The attorney general, who has held that the 9Oth day would not expile until 1 yesterday, had a conference with Act ing Secretary of State McGillen yester- day afternoon and the latter decided to accept all petitions received before the close of the business day, but 10 keep them separate from those previ- ously received, a precaution taken against any litigation that might arise over the question of the time of filing.