The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1885-01-09
IMPUDENT NEVADA.

The Philadelphia Times recently re-
peated the old suggestion that the best
way to solve the Utah question would
be to attach this Territory to Nevada,
the idea being that the State would then
adjust its own internal affairs easier
than the national government can regu-
late the morals of the people of the
Territory. The Nevadans do not take
kindly to the proposition, and their news
papers are trying to blow up storm
over it, just as if the thing were proba
BILE, which it is not by very large ma
jority. They profess fear thatit may
be done, in which case instead of
Nevada becoming master over Utah,
Utah would assume control of Nevada.
The sage-brushers are correct for once in
teeir lives. As there are 80, 900 voters
in this Territory. and the number is an
nually increasing, and as there but 49,
600 voters in Nevada, and each
year the number is growing smaller, the
immediate result of the annexation is
plain enough TO be seen. But however
earnestly opposed to the scheme our
western neighbor may be, her opposition
cannot be half so earnest and de-
termined as that of Utah. This Terri
tory has ne desire to be saddled with
broad waste OF sage-brush plain, inter
sected and broken by mountains from
whose depths all their value has been
extracted; we do not want to be tied to
sickly and dying commonwealth, the
chief ambition of which is to abuse the
best privileges of citizenship by buying
and selling votes in the open market
Utah is vigorous, healthy and progress
siye, and Nevada is effete, sickly and in
a rapid decline. The proposed union
would mean her advantage and our
misfortune, and while we are charitable
in our nature and instincts, our benevo-
lence and consideration for others do
not run to the extent of sacrificing so
much as the project noted implies.
This subject calls up another matter,
and one in which the Nevadans are
really interested, namely; the preser-
walton of their statehood. If things go
on as they are going, the public senti-
ment of the country will soon demand
that the enabling act of the State be
taken away from the sage-brushers and
their worthless wilderness be remanded
to the condition of Territorial servitnde,
the few remaining inhabitants being
pauper charge upon the nation. There
is feeling throughout the Union, that
the wrong imposed upon the nation by
the existence of Nevada as State can
only be righted by reducing the inn
pu6ent commonwealth TO Territorial
position This feeling is a righteous one
end well grounded When we come to
consider and compare populations, the
political power that Nevada yields APP
pears grossly outrageous. We will il :
lustratc by making comparison with
one State, that of New York. The pop
ulation of Nevada, which in 1880 was
g.. 266. is conceded by alto have dwin-
died to not more than $1,000, in which
there are less than IL, 800 voters as shown
by the late election returns; thus New
ada, with 5000 voters, has two seats in
the United States Senate, and one in the
House of Representatives: or, putting
it in another way, 1880 voters in New
ada have a Representative in the Ma
tional Congress, while New York, with
its 5,500,0Oe people, and l, POO, 900 voters,
has but 36 Representatives in the same
body. Thus 4, 800 men in Nevada are
equal to I52. ia in New York Nevada's
voice in the Senate is equal to that Of
New York; or $3.50 Nevada voters are as
potent in the Senate as 100000 in New
York. Assuming that this is Nation
with big u, in order to equalizet things,
New York shsHld have 1856 Senators;
and 277 Representatives to Nevada's 2
and 1 respectively. New York has .
Senators and is short 1873, and 81 Repre-
sentatives, and IS 243 short, while Nevada
has her full quota. What makes the
matter good deal worse is the fact that
while votes in New York are real, repre-
sehtIs tIe Will "a lAe voters, III Nevada
they are merely a commercial COM
modify representing the money OF the
half-a-dozen wealthy mine-owners and
operators, who are in fact the sovereign
State of Nevada, in so far as it figures in
the affairs and councils of the nation
When the figures are applied the in
fanny of Misunderstanding the privileges
of statehood becomes apparent. The
little rotten borough" should sing low
lestit be shorn of its strength.