ARIZONA 



3GO 



ARIZONA 



school. There are high schools, normal schools 

 at Tempe and Flagstaff, a state university at 

 Tucson, and schools for the Indians at Phoenix 

 and Tucson, in addition to those on the reser- 

 vations. In 1910 the illiteracy percentage was 

 20.9, but it is the Indians and Mexicans who 

 make it so high. Only 4.2 per cent of the 

 native white population over ten years of age 

 cannot read and write. 



Other Institutions. The state maintains a 

 prison at Florence, an industrial reform school 

 near Willcox, and an insane asylum at Phoenix. 

 There are, in addition, a Home for Aged and 

 Infirm Arizona Pioneers and a Children's 

 Home, the former at Prescott, the latter at 

 Phoenix. 



Government. Arizona is governed under the 

 constitution of 1911, which provides for a gov- 

 ernor, secretary of state, state auditor, state 

 treasurer, attorney-general and superintendent 

 of public instruction. Each of these "holds 

 office for two years, and all except the state 

 treasurer may be reflected. The legislative 

 body consists of two houses, a senate of nine- 

 teen members and a house of representatives 

 of thirty-five members. The most interesting 

 phase of the legislative question is the existence 

 of laws providing for initiative and referendum 

 (which see). The initiative permits ten per 

 cent of the electors at any time to propose a 

 legislative measure, and fifteen per cent to 

 propose amendments to the constitution. 

 Under the referendum five per cent of the 

 electors may request that any measure passed 

 by the legislature be submitted to the people 

 at the polls, and unless a majority of the voters 

 approve it, it does not become a law. The 

 governor may not veto any legislation initiated 

 and passed upon by the people, nor any measure 

 approved by them under the referendum laws. 



The judicial power in Arizona is vested in 

 justices of the peace, county courts and such 

 inferior courts as the law may provide, superior 

 courts and a supreme court. For purposes of 

 local government the state is divided into 

 counties, but the most important government 

 units are the cities. Any one of these may 

 frame a charter as soon as it has 3,500 in- 

 habitants, but every city as well as every 

 county is restricted by certain state laws as to 

 franchise and indebtedness. 



By the constitution any male citizen of the 

 United States, twenty-one years of age or 

 over, was privileged to vote, but in 1912 full 

 suffrage was granted to women. In that same 

 year the question of the recall of officers, much 



debated at the time the state entered the 

 Union (see subhead History, below), was set- 

 tled by the passing of a law which made every 

 elective officer, including judges, subject to 

 recall (see RECALL). A petition against any 

 officer may be circulated by twenty-five per 

 cent of those who voted at the last preceding 

 election. In 1914 an amendment to the consti- 

 tution was voted which provided for state-wide 

 prohibition of the liquor traffic. 



History. That the valleys of the Gila, the 

 Colorado, the Little Colorado and the Salt 

 rivers were once the home of Indian races well 

 advanced in civilization may be seen from the 

 ruins of pueblos which still exist. The fame 

 of these had penetrated to Mexico City, far 

 to the south, and the Spanish conquerors there 

 heard of the famous "Seven Cities of Cibola," 

 and their hoards of gold (see CIBOLA, SEVEN 

 CITIES OF). The first white man to enter the 

 territory was Marcos de Niza, a Franciscan 

 friar, who passed through the Santa Cruz val- 

 ley in 1539. In the next year Coronado (which 

 see) led by the desire for treasure, visited the 

 Moki and Zuni villages of Arizona and New 

 Mexico. Other journeys of exploration fol- 

 lowed, and the Roman Catholic Church estab- 

 lished missions among the Indians. There 

 have grown up in later times stories of the 

 cruelties which were practised on the Indians 

 by the Spaniards, and of their being compelled 

 to work in the mines, but these have been 

 proved to be without foundation. The first 

 settlement, at Tucson, the oldest town in the 

 state, was made in 1776. 



Formation oj a Territory. Certain Indian 

 tribes, notably the Apaches, made considerable 

 trouble, but in the early years of the nineteenth 

 century disturbances among them practically 

 ceased. When Mexico began its fight for inde- 

 pendence, and the loyal Spaniards were driven 

 out, Arizona became involved in ' the unrest, 

 and in 1827 a new rising of the Apaches prac- 

 tically drove out the Church. After the Mexi- 

 can War the territory, with New Mexico, came 

 into possession of the United States, except 

 the portion south of the Gila River. This was 

 acquired in 1854, and was known as the Gads- 

 den Purchase (which see). In 1856 petitions 

 for territorial organizations were sent to Con- 

 gress, but were ignored because each side in 

 the slavery contest feared that the other might 

 thus' acquire new territory. Arizona as it exists 

 to-day was finally separated from New Mexico 

 in 1863 and made a territory. Since 1889 the 

 capital has been at Phoenix. 



