Genealogy Trails
GREENLEE COUNTY, ARIZONA
NEWSPAPER ARTICLES
Prohibition in Greenlee
 
Greenlee County was not very enthusiastic in favor of prohibition at this time one year ago.  In fact, it was not in favor of it at all.  While there was a considerable prohibition sentiment in some of the outlying districts, the small agricultural districts where the population was sparse, it was overwhelmed by the strongholds of Clifton and Morenci.  But we suppose there are few people in Greenlee county now, and almost certainly none in the two big mining camps, that do not spend a part of every day in returning thanks that prohibition carried.  If the question were to be submitted now, Greenlee would probably be more nearly unanimous in favor of prohibition than any other county in the state.
 
Clifton and Morenci were delivered by the result of the election last fall from a present reign of terror.  What would have happened there within the last month if the peculiar population of those camps could have had access to inflaming liquor is something to make one shiver.  Conditions would undoubtedly have been worse there than those that ever attended a mine strike anywhere else in this country.  The saloons there were probably,a s a class, the worst in the state, and they were run by a class of citizens that would not have been allowed to conduct a saloon in many places in Arizona.  With liquor of the vilest kind running free, firing the passions of three or four thousand idle men, Arizona's national guard would have been utterly powerless to check the riot and destruction that would certainly have ensued.
 
As it has been, the strike has been fairly orderly.  Naturally there has been some violence, but within a month no one has been seriously hurt, notwithstanding threats and now and then a collision.  We believe there has been little or no wanton destruction of property, though some damage to property has naturally ensued upon the cessation of operation of the mines. 
 
Within a year, in a single spot, prohibition has visibly paid its way.  We need not take into account the intangible benefit which its friends claim it confers in the way of conserved energy, conserved time and money and conserved health and morals.
 
Source:  "The Tucson Citizen" reprinted in "The Arizona Republican", 26 Oct 1915
Contributed by: Kim Torp
Governor Hunt Appeals for Aid for Striking Miners
 
Governor George W.P. Hunt has directed a letter to The Citizen and other newspapers of the state requesting them to publish his proclamation calling upon the people of the state to aid the striking miners at Clifton.  The governor's appeal reads as follows:
 
"This is the season of harvests, that especial time of the year when toll is taken of nature's bounteous usufruct;  when industries are measured in terms of their products; when labor takes accounting of that which it produces;  and when prosperity is carefully gauged in its relation to human endeavor.  It is well, if at this period of the year when the day of thanskgiving approaches, they who have plenty may freely celebrate their good fortune with the comforting assurance that the grim spectre of woeful want is not abroad anywhere in the land.  For the observance of feast days when the hungry go unfed, the houseless go unsheltered and the sorrowing go uncomforted must savour sharply of sacrilege, and ever be tinctured with sadness.
 
"In the Clifton-Morenci mining district of Greenlee county, state of Arizona, there exists deplorably a condition whereby nearly five thousand working men are deprived of employment, and where consequently, hundreds of families with their slender savings exhausted are entering upon the rigorous winter season without any dependable supply of the necessities of life.  Words cannot express or pictures portray the extreme suffering that even now is baring its cruel visage to the worthy people of this stricken district.
 
"Pursuant, therefore, to the plain dictates of humanity, I, George W. P. Hunt, governor of Arizona, do herein proclaim the serious need of food, fuel and clothing in the Clifton-Morenci district, and do earnestly appeal to the generous people of this state for such contributions of money and supplies as will alleviate suffering and afford means of simple sustenance for penniless families in this time of industrial trouble.  All civic and benevolent organizations are especially urged to organize and conduct movements for the gathering and shipment of supplies to the Workmen's Relief Committee, care of the sheriff of Greenlee county, Clifton, Arizona, to the end that, through ministrations unto those who are afflicted, the spirit of mercy and brotherly love may be exemplified in our citizenship."
The Tucson Citizen, 30 Oct 1915
Contributed by: Kim Torp
Mine Timberman Sues Arizona Copper Co.
 
C.D. Thomas, a mine timberman of Greenlee county, today filed suit in the federal district court against the Arizona Copper Company Ltd for $50,000 damages on account of personal injuries alleged to have been sustained while employed in the company's mine.  He sets forth that a rock fell on his left hand rendering it useless.
 
The Tucson Citizen, 1 Nov 1915
Contributed by: Kim Torp