The daily morning oasis., 1920-05-05
The Q U { { R { D
SEMLER SITE FOR A
FEDERAL Guiding

There appears an editorial in "The
Oasis" of Sunday morning on the
subject of the Federal Building Site
controversy that the editor of the
Oasis himself knows to be utterly
false as to demand an explanation.
The statement is made "when it
became known such an option had
been given, some sort of pressure was
brought to bear at Washington under
Which the option (Semler) was not
closed and construction of the federal
building was not begun. With an
appropriation in the U. S. Treasury
to purchase site and erect federal
building in Nogales, the matter laid
dormant number of years and is still
dormant. Douglas which was given
an appropriation for a federal build
ing after that for Nogales was pro-
vided, has had it's federal building a
couple of years or more and Nogales
is still without.
Who is responsible for the loss of
the federal building at the time relat-
ed "The Oasis" does not know.
This is not in any sense an argu-
ment for OF against any proposed fed
eral building site. l simply desire
to refresh the memory of the Editor
of the Oasis, whose signature is at
tached to report filed with the
Chamber of Commerce which said re-
port covers the site situation at the
time referred to.
Here are the facts:
In 1907, the Nogales and Santa Cruz
County Board of Trade first started
agitation for a Federal Building.
No results were obtained until Mar.
9TH, 1913, when Federal Building
Bill was passed. In fact, passage of
bills in the 1913 Session of Congress
for federal building at Nogales was
overdone. Two bills were passed,
one for a federal building site and
one for a federal building and site and
in lies the full answer to the question
as to who is responsible for the loss
Of the federal building at the time re-
lated 1t took from March 4th., 1913
until November 1918 to get the two
bills consolidated. AS a result how
ever of the consolidation, we obtain
ed an appropriation of $120,0OO in
stead of $4,000 the amount of the
or iginal Bill.
Almost co-incident with the passage
of the bill came the signing of the
Arm;stice, with it's resultant burdens
of re obstruction Il:.ced ueon the De-
part nents at Washington. During
're War and for nine months after
the War, the Bureau tina: handle.
| Pubic Bo'lding construct',a was COM
pletely out of existence. This brings
the nrtser down to the Fall of 1919
anu since which lime there has Eeen
activity in bringing about the selec-
ton of the site and in time the con-
struction of the building.
At no time since 1913 up till Sept,
1919 has it 0been possible to COM
mence construction of a Federal Build
ing in Nogales. 1t has however been
possible since November 1918 to OBJ
tain the money for the site, had site
been selected. Should a site have
been selected prior to November 1913
and one of the many options been TAX
en- up, it could have been done by the
public spirited men of Nogales form
ing holding company and advanced
the money. In one case, in an ef-
fort to close on a desirable site, q
member of the Building Committee
travelled all the way making a special
trip to California with check in his
pocket with which to close the deal.
He met with failure however and
the very best Federal Building Site
in Nogales was lost forever.
These are all facts of record with
which. the Editor of the Oasis is
thoroughly f:milar.
J. B. BRISTOL
Ex- Secretary Of
Chamber of Commerce