Santa Fe daily New Mexican. [volume] (Santa Fe, N.M.) 1885-1897, 1890-10-06
WHAT IT WILL MEAN,

There will be but one more issue OF the
Citizen before the day when the people
OF this territory are to record their YER
dict upon the proposed constitutional
verdict upon which will depend the fate
OF statehood for New Mexico. Ii the
constitution is approved by large popu-
lar majority, congress will probably con-
clude that people who endorse the pro-
gressive ideas of that document are COM
petent and worthy OF exercising the
rights and privileges of citizens of state
in the American union but if the con-
stitution is rejected at the polls, it will
confirm the opinion already too general
in the American public mind regarding
the generally benighted condition and
non-progressye character Of the
people of this territory, and we may
make up our minds to the fact that
the nineteenth century will close upon
New Mexico as territory. If the report
goes out to the world that constitution
embodyng all the best features of the
most progressive organic laws OF the day
has been rejected by the people of New
Mexico, the report can not go over the
country accompanied by an explanation
that it was rejected because Mr.. Ferguson
found fault with this section, and Mr..
Field and Mr.. Childers we're not pleased
with that one, but the cold, naked fact
will have to travel on its own merits, I'M
accompanied by any explanation or apollo
gy, and the matter will go to the country
simply as statement of the fact that
proposed constitution for New Mexico,
broad, liberal and progressive in all its
terms, is rejected by the people Of the
territory.
And what hope shall we have then OF
being able to draw to this country such i'm
migration as.we desire? Men in search
of homes and business locations-men
with money to invest III property or in
new enterprises, can not be induced to 60
to a country where the people vote against
progress, and prefer the methods OF the
last century to those of the present. As
matter of material interest therefore
as q matter involving the settlement and
development Of our country, and the at
tracing of capital to our midst, it will
not pay to vote against progress-and a
vote against the constitution will be
thus interpreted in every part Of the
country. If the constitution is rejected
it will do us no good to try to explain
that it was rejected because it was not
good, since the document will speak for
itself, and the public can see that it
compares favorably with the consttu-
ton of any state in the union, and see
ing this the public will conclude, and
justly, too, that a people who have any
desire for ststehood could not object to
the organization of a commonwealth
upon the foundation laid by such an Or
ganic law. The matter will present itself
to the people of the United States in the
simple statement that the people of New
Mexico are not progressive enough to de-
sire state government. Democratic
lawyers may be able to pettifog the point
and convince their ignorant followers that
the document doesn't mean what it says,
or says what it doesn't mean, but they
csn't deceive the world in that way; the
constitution will be placed in one column
and the verdict of the people in another,
and if that verdict is in the negative it
will be interpreted by the world as an off.
cial declaration by the people of New
Mexico that they are not sufficiently pro-
gressive to desire state government,
and as a notice to men of progress every
where that this is good country to stay
away from.-Albuquerque Citizen.