The copper era and Morenci leader., 1920-07-30
Chairman of State Tax Officials Meeting Tells of States Oppor-
 tunity

Meeting Tells of States Oppor-
 tunity
 Douglas-This year Arizona's total valuation will be approximately $780, 000, 100000; and within two years the state will reach a valuation of one billion dollars, according to c. M. Zander chairman of the meeting of tax officials which is being held in Douglas this week. MT. Zander, in his opening address before the assembly reviewed the progress made through the state.
 Arizona's Standing
 There are seventeen states that have a less valuation than has ,Ari- zona, and practically all of them but two have a greeter population than Arizona" he said, Now, while we are involved in the meshes of our own difficulties in Arizona, we perhaps are not cognizant, of the situation and the position that we occupy as well as we would be if we would stop to think of the significance of the position that have just now in two having more population and hay
 
 a significant fact.
 My opinion that we will have a billion dollars valuation in two years is supported I think by the develop ing facts that are showing all over this state. Copper at the present time and during the year of 1919, caused us to sustain shrinkage in mine valuation of about SPA 000, ,0e1.09, but I thoroughly believe that when we take politics out Of the peaces anC l.ut i'll it's place IEosperis'~ the price of copper will come pack, and we will not only regain the $24, 100000, but add that much more to it, and believe that the copper industry is preparing for it. -f.ss5a
 Steam Shovel Development
 "We have the steam shovel in Ari- zona, and lowly and unshapely in appeareance as it might be, this prob ply will be the instrument of the most wonderful development that kas ever come into the state. They are using the steam shovel at Ajo and are mining copper of less than one and one-half per cent.
 "They are getting ready to use
 it, and in fact are using it at Bis ] bee, right here, a neighbor to
 this town, and are going to re-
 duce a mountain up there that
 was up to the present time con
 sidered nothing but copper stain
 tThey are making preparations at Jerome very similar to the opera [ tions now under way at Bisbee, and are removing a mountain top, there with steam shovels and are going to extract all ore for five hundred feet from the top of the chute to that lev el with steam shoveS and put it through smelters that are now un dergoing an entire and complete overhauling and enlargement that will enable them to smelt ores that never heretofore were successfully smelted.
 l They are making preliminary in ] vestigations and negotiations at Cliff l ton and Morenci that bid fail to make that bigger mining district i than it ever has been, with the hope I that perhaps the steam shovel will ] solve the situation there. ! Water Development
 Irrigation has taken a wonderful development in the state, in fact it is | 1 it. The long staple cotton conspicu ously has revolutionized the agricul ! tural> industry and development ana 1 management in the entire state. 1 There is at this moment contracts for bids being called for on diver sion dam at Florence which will ul timately supply flood waters for over i one hundred thousand acres of land which, supplemented by pumps, vii l make it a certain and practical prop I osition to grow long staple cotton and will give a value to that land Oi anywhere from one hundred to five | hundred dollars an acre, which vii i run that countys valuation severa million dollars more than at the present time.
 Progress at Yuma
 At Yuma county they are actual, going forward with the practical worl of pumping water upon the mesa which is the only and absolutel! thorough citrus belt in the United I States And when that mesa is GOV cred with fruit, which will occur il the next five years beginning witl this next year. lands there will b. valued, instead of one, two or thre' }, hundred dollars an acre, all the wa. . from five hundred to two thousan' , dollars an acre.
 Will Increase Land Values
 "There is actually now under wa 5 west of Buckeye the construction o , a dam that will bring in eight 2 thousand acres of land around Gil } Bend, which with flood waters, an + supplemented with pumps, will mak