138 



THE IRRIGATION AGE, 



every farmer in western Texas. The proposed bill 

 is quite elaborate and provides ample safeguards at 

 every point. We have here sketched only its broad 

 outlines. 



The author of this new sample of con- 

 Its Strength 



and structive statesmanship proposes to call 



Weakness. a convention and submit his idea to his 

 fellow citizens. We shall read the proceedings of 

 such a convention with great interest. Like most 

 radical legislation, the bill has elements both of 

 strength and of weakness. It is, of course, in the line 

 of paternalism and will encounter the prompt and 

 vigorous opposition of those who jealously guard the 

 field of private enterprise against encroachment by 

 the Government. But this feature will attract sup- 

 port as well as foster opposition, for there is a large 

 and growing element in this country which believes 

 in the policy of public works, especially in the case 

 of enterprises that deal with natural monopolies. 

 Then there is the ever ready opposition to the use of 

 convict labor, and the number of honest men now out 

 of employment will give unusual force to the argu- 

 ment at this particular time. The strength of the 

 proposition lies in the fact that it proposes to tax only 

 its beneficiaries; that it involves the use of compara- 

 tively little cash capital, and that it distributes the 

 cost over so long a period as to render it a burden 

 that will scarcely be felt at all. A study of the work- 

 ings of the California district law will reveal certain 

 weaknesses that have not been referred to in this con- 

 nection. But we would like to see the Texas idea 

 have a trial. Western Texas ought to irrigate. 

 Either private or public works will pay. The thing 

 is to get water, to divide big farms into small ones, to 

 diversify the crops, so that, come what may, every in- 

 dustrious family will be sure of a living. We hope 

 Mr. Roesler will keep at it. Some day he will have a 

 monument. 



Herbert Mr. Herbert Heywood, the well-known 

 Heywood corr espondent of several of the most 

 Arizona, prominent daily newspapers in the East, 

 has been writing a series of entertaining letters from 

 the far West. He dealt with Utah and New Mexico 

 without arousing any conspicuous evidence of resent- 

 ment on the part of the people described, although 

 his letters were written with much candor, and made 

 no attempt to conceal such unfavorable impressions 

 as he received. But in the case of Arizona his com- 

 ments aroused a storm of criticism not unaccom- 

 panied with abuse on the part of certain newspapers 

 and individuals. The writer is well acquainted with 

 Mr. Heywood and knows him to be very much of a 

 gentleman, as well as a writer of ability and reputa- 

 tion. We are quite sure he would not attach his 

 signature to a statement which he did not believe to 

 be true, and yet we do not blame the Arizona public 



for its prompt and vigorous reply to his articles, nor 

 do we at all agree with the very unfavorable con- 

 clusions which he has spread before his army of 

 eastern readers. We do most emphatically dissent 

 both from the matter and the method of the personal 

 abuse that he has received, and most earnestly advise 

 the Arizona public to adopt a different policy in 

 dealing with persons of influence at such critical 

 times as the present. This we consider good advice 

 for reasons of policy, though there are better reasons 

 which should restrain self-respecting men from 

 indulgence in personal attacks in ordinary cases. 



The Case 



Mr. Heywood's letters charge that Ari- 

 ~Against zona is seeking Statehood under false 

 Statehood. p retenseSt He asserts that a majority of 

 her people do not wish to see the Territory become a 

 State; that her administrations have been a succes- 

 sion of black corruption; that she has grossly exag- 

 gerated her wealth and population; that she is on the 

 verge of bankruptcy, and will collapse financially 

 under the burden of State expenses; that her popu- 

 lation is steadily decreasing. This is Mr. Heywood's 

 case against Statehood, and the eastern press has 

 made most of it. The picture is a trifle gloomy as 

 one looks upon it through Mr. Heywood's eyes, but 

 there is very little to it after all. It is true that there 

 has been corruption in Arizona. So there always was, 

 and always will be, while the high officials are 

 appointed by a power two or three thousand miles 

 distant from the locality to be governed, and es- 

 pecially when political ne'er-do-wells are shouldered 

 upon Territorities to pay the campaign debts of 

 Washington politicians. The best way to stop cor- 

 ruption is to let the people govern themselves to 

 render their public officers accountable to the people 

 who made and unmade them, rather than to the presi- 

 dent of the United States. The statement that the 

 majority of the voters of Arizona do not want State- 

 hood is unworthy of consideration in view of the fact 

 that the man these same voters have sent to Congress, 

 again and again, is demanding, in their name, that 

 the Territory be admitted into the Union. Mr. Hey- 

 wood's opening sentence answers the assertion quite 

 fully : " Arizona wants to become a twinkling star in 

 the national flag's field of blue." That is precisely 

 what Arizona wants. In like manner Mr. Heywood 

 has answered all his other charges about lessening 

 wealth and decreasing population, for his final 

 sentence reads as follows: "At the present rate of 

 progress in development there is no doubt but in a 

 few years she (Arizona) will make valid her claims to 

 Statehood." Now, Mr. Heywood cannot mean that 

 after Arizona has got more into debt, after she has 

 lost more of her cattle and mining industries, and 

 after her population has dwindled to a few Pima In- 

 dians, " she will make valid her claims to Statehood." 



