ARIZONA. 



17 



chilly. A new 1 own, called White Hills, sprang 

 up. The ore is rich in silver and gold, but us 

 distance I'ri'iii railroads will rvl;ml the develop- 

 ment <>f the region. 



Irrigation. For 1892 the Governor reports 

 the following .statistics respecting irrigation in 

 the Ten-it r\ : 



* Subirrigation. 



It is believed that fully one third of the area 

 of the Territory, or about 24,000,000 acres, could 

 be reclaimed if the maximum water-storage 

 facilities possible by a proper investment of capi- 

 tal could oe made available. 



Indians. There was no trouble during the 

 year with any of the Indian tribes in the Terri- 

 tory, with the exception of the Navajos. Be- 

 tween them and the white settlers there has been 

 friction for a long period, and several persons 

 have been killed on both sides within the past 

 year or two. The whole matter seems to hinge 

 upon the question what rights, if any, the In- 

 dians have on the public domain off their reser- 

 vation, and what the distinction is between the 

 rights of white and red men in this connection. 

 The Indians contend that they have as much 

 right on untitled land for grazing or other pur- 

 poses as white men, and that their agents so ad- 

 vise them, while the white men of the neighbor- 

 hood owning cattle and sheep insist that the In- 

 dians have no rights whatever on the public 

 lands beyond the limits of their reservation, 

 which seems to be the popular idea among the 

 settlers. An investigation has been made by the 

 Indian Bureau, and a report was published in 

 Angus! , which makes some recommendations 

 but does not attempt a final settlement. The 

 Navajos can muster over 5.000 well-armed men, 

 and in case of war could terrorize nearly all of 

 northern Arizona'. 



Penitentiary. At the Yuma Penitentiary 

 there were 176 prisoners in July. The prison 

 buildings are intended for the accommodation 

 of about half that number. 



Statehood. Tli.' proposed State Constitu- 

 tion, which was framed by a Territorial conven- 

 tion at Phenix in September, 1891, a synopsis of 

 which appeared in the "Annual ( 'yclopaxiia " 

 for that year, was submitted to the people of the 

 Territory for adoption or rejection on I>ec. 1 

 following its framing. It encountered consider- 

 able opposition in some quarters, on account of 

 its provisions respecting water rights and irriga- 

 tion, but as a whole it received the popular ap- 

 proval. The vote at the election was 5,440 in 

 favor of its adoption and 2,282 against it, only 

 VOL. xx xn. 2 A 



one county, and that a small one, giving an ad- 

 verse majority. A bill providing for the admis- 

 sion df the lerritory to the Union under this* 

 Constitution was immediately presented to Con- 

 gress, and on June <> of this year was passed in 

 the House of Representatives. No action had 

 l t ii taken by Die Senate before the adjourn- 

 ment of the session, but the people are confi- 

 dently expecting statehood at an early day. 



DeVelopment. The growth of the Territory 

 has been heretofore seriously retarded by lack of 

 sufficient railroad facilities. Two transconti- 

 nental lines, the Atlantic and Pacific and the 

 Southern Pacific, cross its limits from east to 

 west, one in the northern and one in the south- 

 ern portion, but there has been no north-and- 

 south line connecting these parallel roads. Aft- 

 er a long agitation the construction of such a 

 line was undertaken in 1892, connecting the cit- 

 ies of Prescott in the north and Phenix in the 

 south. The road is called the Santa Fe, Pres- 

 cott and Phenix Railroad, and will be about 210 

 miles long. Heretofore grain, vegetables, and 

 fruit have been imported at large expense into the 

 northern half of the Territory from Kansas and 

 California, while in southern Arizona those prod- 

 ucts were very cheap, because no market was eas- 

 ily accessible. 



Political. Early in April a Territorial Re- 

 publican convention met at Phenix and elected 

 two delegates to the national convention at 

 Minneapolis. A few weeks later a Democratic 

 Territorial convention selected delegates to the 

 Chicago National Convention. Neither of these 

 bodies named the candidates for Territorial of- 

 fices. On Sept. 8, however, another Republican 

 Territorial convention met at Prescott and nom- 

 inated William G. Stewart for Delegate to Con- 

 gress, and George Clough for Councilman-at- 

 Large. The platform adopted approves the na- 

 tional and Territorial administration, and con- 

 tains the following declarations : 



We favor the free and unlimited coinage of sil- 

 ver as being demanded by the best interests of our 

 nation. 



We point with pride to the general close observ- 

 ance of all laws, rx>th Federal and Territorial, and 

 challenge the comparison with any State in the Union, 

 and we earnestly urge the admission of Arizona into 

 full Statehood. 



We charge the leaders of the Democratic party of 

 Arizona with debasing the honest labor of the Terri- 

 tory by arraying against it the competition of con- 

 victed criminals, by passing a law authorizing the 

 leasing of the convict labor of the Territorial prison, 

 and we ask from even' laboring man a comparison 

 between this action of the Democratic Legislature 

 and the action of the Republican Governor in vetoing 

 tin 1 measure. 



We believe and urge as a public necessity that the 

 ownership of all railroad and telegraph lines be vested 

 in the General Government. 



l.arLre bodies <>t' land in this Territory are held by 

 vanous corporations, under congressional land grunts, 

 on which no taxes are paid, owing to their not being 

 surveyed and patented. We pledge our Representa- 

 tive to urge upon Congress immediate action to have 

 these grants and other unsurveyed land surveyed, 

 and thus increase the taxable property by many 

 thousands of dollars. We urge upon Congress the 

 ceding to the different States and Territories of all 

 arid lands now held by the Federal Government 



Two weeks later a Democratic Territorial con- 

 vention met at Tombstone and renominated 



