Weekly journal-miner., 1920-04-28
BOND REDEMPTION UNDER
 ENABLING ACT SOUGHT RY
 FOUR BURDENED COUNTIES
(F1om FrIday'= DailY.)

Steps by which Yavapai county and two other counties will be relieveo of the burden of the ancient rail road bond" debt now amounting to many hundreds of thousands of dollars will be taken at a conference of four boards of supervisors at Phoenix Saturday, it became known here yesterday.
 The million acre land grant of the enabling act whereby Arizona be came a state in 1912, is the objective to be reached in a legal drive by four county assemblies at the capital.
 Old timers will well remember the raging thirst of the people of Pres colt for a railroad in the early days and of the long. bitter fight that f. nally was won and gave them Q Jerkwater line called the Prescott ano Arizona Central. It ran from Pres colt to the Santa Fe at Seligman, anc it wasn't much of railroad, as such institutions go now. But 1t supplied an aching need, and they were grate ful for it in those days.
 In the early eighties, government as well as railroads were different It was manifestly necessary at that time, in order to induce capital to build the line, to make it well worth capitals time. Hence the bond issue It was a paitry S292,000, but it's in terest rate c percenD, and the long time elapsed since, has raised the total to nearly three quarters of a million dollars for this county alone
 Old Legislative Days
 A legislature of the kind they had in those days, passed an act per initting the sale of bonds. Yavapa issued $2o2,0OO. Maricopa put out $200000 and Pima issued $250,000. All these issues were sold during 1886.
 A little later buyers of the bonds attempted to collect on them, and suit resulted, which was taken clear to the Supreme court. The territory had funded the issues later and had issued its own bonds, carrying evi- denccs of indebtedness from the four counties Tn the Supreme court the ability of the legislature to authorize the bonds was questioned and the entire issue declared void.
 Bond holders in those days had pretty good grip on congress. In the last days of the Cleveland adminis tration they secured the passage of a bill validating the bonds and putting it up to the territory of Arizona tc pay them. This happened on June 6, 1896.
 Five years later, Coconino was split off of Yavapai county and the new commonwealth assumed one third of the total bonded and other of the mother county Yavapai county kept all her railroad bonds and Coconino county issued her own bonds for enough to cover her share of them, so. although the issue is charged against Yavapai county, Coconino has deep interest in the matter. "
 Enabling Act Clause
 When Albert Beveridge of Indiana was framing the act admitting Ari- zona to statehood, it was put up to i him that the government had ]! "breathed the breath of life into ccr- tain dcfunct obligations and that 1t | would be chubby of the United States to give the new state a means Of wiping the debt off the slate. About | ten million acres of land was asked for, but the act as finally passed set lside one million. In all, about 992,- 500 acres of this land have been talked out by the state land depart nent and some of 1t has been sold, prices ranging, it Is said, from S6 to