may be
inflexible. If a showing of need, gain, or advantage is to overcome the
barrier, then it is scarcely worth while to declare a limitation. Only
a belief that the limit is inflexible will promote care and economy in
administration. If this bill becomes a law, how can Congress refuse to
any county in any of the Territories the right to subscribe to the stock
of a railroad company, especially where the subscription would not
exceed the debt limit, upon a showing of the advantages of better and
cheaper communications?

Maricopa County is one of great extent. Its northern boundary is 95
miles long, its southern boundary 66, its eastern 45, and its western
102. This great area is to be taxed to construct a road which can, in
the nature of things, be of advantage to but a fraction of it. There is
no unity of interest or equality of advantage. It may very well be that
a section of these lands along the line of the road, and especially
town lots in Phoenix, would have an added value much greater than the
increased burden imposed, but it is equally clear that much property
in the county will receive no appreciable benefit.

The existing bonded indebtedness of Maricopa County is $272,000; the tax
assessment of the county is about $5,000,000, and the population is
estimated, by multiplying the vote cast in 1888 by 6, at about 12,000.
It will be seen that the bonded debt, to say nothing of a floating debt,
which is said to be small, is already largely in excess of the legal
limit, and it is proposed to increase it by a subscription that will
certainly involve $200,000, and possibly $250,000. If the bill becomes a
law, the bonded indebtedness will very closely approximate 10 per cent
of the assessed valuation of the property of the county.

The condition of things in the county of Yavapai, lying immediately
north of Maricopa, and through which this road is also to run, though
not directly affected by this legislation, is very instructive in this
connection.

By an act of the legislature of Arizona passed the year before the act
of Congress to which I have referred Yavapai County was authorized to
subscribe $4,000 per mile to this line of road. The total length of the
road in the county was 147 miles, and 74 miles, to Prescott, have been
constructed. The secretary of the Territory, in response to an inquiry,
states the debt of Yavapai County at $563,000 and the assessment for
taxation at "between six and seven millions." Th