This bill proposes to confer authority upon the supervisors of the county of Maricopa to issue county bonds at the rate of $4,000 per mile in aid of a railroad to be constructed from Phoenix northwardly to the county line, a distance estimated at 50 miles, but probably somewhat longer.  The bill seems to have passed the House of Representatives under an entire misapprehension of its true scope and effect.  In the brief report submitted by the Committee on Territories it is said that “by the terms of the bill the county receives bonds in payment of the money proposed to be advanced,” and in the course of the debate the Delegate from Arizona mistakenly stated in response to a request for information that the bill proposed a loan by the county, in exchange for which it was to receive the bonds of the railroad company.  In fact, the bill does not provide for a loan to be secured by bonds, but for a subscription of stock.  How far this mistake may have affected the passage of the bill can not of course be known.

The bill does not submit the question of granting this aid to a vote of the people of the county, but confers direct authority upon the supervisors to issue the bonds.  It is said, however, that in April, 1889, an election was held to obtain the views of the people upon the question.  It does not appear from any papers submitted to me who were the managers of this so-called election; what notice, if any, was given; what qualifications on the part of voters were insisted upon, if any, or in what form the question was presented.  There was no law providing for such an election.  Being wholly voluntary, the election was, of course, under the management of those who favored the subsidy, and was conducted without any legal restraints as to the voting or certification.  I have asked for a statement of the vote by precincts, and have been given what purports to be the vote at twelve points.  The total affirmative vote given was 1,975 and the negative 134.  But of the affirmative vote 1,543 were given at Phoenix and 188 at Tempe, a town very near to Phoenix.  If there were no other objections to this bill, I should deem this alone sufficient, that no provision is made for submitting to a vote of the people at an election, after due notice and under the sanction of law, the question whether this subscription shall be made.

But again, the bill proposes to suspend for this case two provisions of the act of Congress of July 30, 1886—­first, that provision which forbids municipal corporations from subscribing to the stock of other corporations or loaning their credit to such corporations, and, second, that provision which forbids any municipal corporation from creating a debt in excess of 4 per cent of its taxable property as fixed by the last assessment.  The condition of things then existing in Arizona had not a little to do with the enactment by Congress of this law, intended to give to the people of the Territories that protection