The Vancouver independent. (Vancouver, W.T. [Wash.]) 1875-1910, 1878-12-12
The State of Washington.

Ho can Il TduClSCo DUttetH, III
speaking Of the admission of Wash
ington Territory as State, says that
according to the census made last
Spring by the assessors Of the several
counties in the Territory of Wash
ington it contained population of
81, 1888, which has probably been in
creased by immigration to $4,000.
This, though majority of the popu-
lation requisite for a Representative
in Congress in the larger States from
which several Representatives are
chosen, is as great as was the pop
ulation of Nebraska or Colorado at
the time these States were admitted,
by which acts Congress established
the precedent that it is not necessary
FOR the new State to contain the full
lumber of inhabitants fixed as the
basis of representation under existing
apportionment laws.
But the new States which have
been organized and admitted to the
Union during the past quarter of a
century have been so organized and
admitted more from political consid-
erations than those based upon their
population. And considering the
present status of the proposed new
State, which has just elected Re-
publican Delegate to Congress, and
has shown a Republican preponder-
ance in the choice of county officers,
the prospects are not Hattering for its
admission into the Union by Dem
ocratic Congress. The result of its
admission would undoubtedly be to
add one Republican Senator to the
louise, and two Republican Senators
to the Upper House, inwhich the
Democrats will boast majority of
twelve after the 4th of March next.
The Democrats now controlling the
louise of Representatives will be
enabled to keep the State out during
the life of the Forty-6rth, can con-
tinue the exclusion for at least two
years longer, or until after the next
Presidential election.
But whether Immediately admitted
into the Union as State or held in
suspense for several years, there can
be no doubt that the action of the
people of the Territory in framing
and adopting a State Constitution,
and in asking admission, will be
greatly beneficial to them. There
will most likely be contest over the
question of admission in Congress;
and much discussion of the subject
throughout the country, all of which
will serve to direct attention to the
Territory, and familiarize the public
at large with its resources and gem
eral attractions, thus operating to in
viteimmigraton thitherward. Among
the masses east of the mountains and
in Europe but little is known of the
fertility of the soil, the geniality of
the climate, and the varied resources
of the region hitherto supposed to be
a wilderness inhabited only by sava-
ges and wild beasts. When it shall
appear that the Territory already con
tains white population ofupwards
of $4,000, which is increasing at the
rate of 10000 year; when the re-
ports of its vast products of timber
and lumber, of grain and cattle, OF
furs and fish become generally known
as they will! through the medium OF
the discussion invited by the applica-
ton for admission AS State, and
when the world shall be advised that
the climate, so far from being hyper
borean, is less trying than that of the
Middle States, while the soil is
equally fertile, and admirably adapted
either to grazing or grain growing, it
is safe to predict that there will be
rapid influx of population, which
will very soon place the embryo State,
in point of population, much above
the requirements of the most exact
ing stickler for precise quotas for
representation, and beyond the right
ful power of Congress to refuse its
admission as State on merely polit-
ical grounds.