The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1894-08-23
ULTIMATE UNION OF STATES.
Will the Final Number be the Sa-
cred Forty Nine?

four years, and the proposed addi-
ton Of four more, it brings within
view the end of state-making from
the territory now belonging to the
United States. The ultimate I'M
! ion of states seems to be in sight.
There is little likelihood of the d.
vision of any existing states into
! more than one, or Of the cOnsolda-
ton Of two or more existing states
into one. The consent Oh their
people would be necessary, and
there are strong popular
predictions against either pro-
cess. Neither is it likely that
there will be any combination or
division of existing territories in
making new states.
There are now forty-four states,
and the proposed additions are four
Utah, New Mexico, Arizona and
Northumberland in order of
population so far as officially ascer-
tanned. There will remain only
the Indian territory and the great
outlying domain Of Alaska. VIII
the civilized remnant of the abo-
rhymes finally become an Indian
commonwealth in the heart of the
Union, the last to be fitted in, the
key-piece, as it were, of the great
combination? If so, the states of
the ultimate union will be forty
nine. From old Assyria through
ancient Israel the number seven
has come down to US with a kind
of sacred significance, and there is
a multiplied sauctity in seven
times seven.
Israel celebrated, in its first law
if not in it's practice, the compile
ton Of the cycle Of seven times
seven years with a jubilee on the
fftieth. VIII our final union be
that of the sacred combination of
numbers, with the jubilee number
represented by the District Of Col
umbia, which contains the national
capital, or perchance by the far-off
territory of Alaska, dim satellite
beyond the confines of the resplen-
dent galaxy?
Already the Union has been
more than a hundred years
a-making. The original thirteen
Of 1870 were just doubled in fifty
years, and were twenty-six In 1880.
The additions in the next fifty
years, or prior to the new process
of admission in 1890, were one
short of thirteen, making a union
thirty-eight states after Colorado
came in in 1875. There was then
a period without change in the
number longer than had occurred
before since the actual union Of
states was established.
The most significant political in
cident of this "indissoluble union
of indestructible states" is the
equal representation Of all in the
Senate. tits the chief strength Of
the Union and the chief weakness
of the Senate. 1t was the main
inducement to the earliest Access
sions and the main objection to
the latest. 1t was one of the COM
promises by which the Union was
brought about, one Of the forces by
which it was imperiled, one of the
factors by which it is made perpe-
tual. The equal representation of
states is an unequal representation
of the people. This inequality has
varied and widened amazingly in
a hundred years.
When Delaware and Rhode ISL
and insisted upon the same foot
ing in the Senate as Virginia and
Pennsylvania, the smallest state
had population of 1904 and the
largest 1860, by the census OF
1870. The ratio was about one to
thirteen. Our least pOpulous state
in 1890 was less populous than
Delaware in 1870, for Nevada had
but 5,161 inhabitants when the
last census was taken. But New
York in 1890 had more than eight
times the population that Virginia
had in 1890. When the Union
was established Virginia's two Sen
ators represented thirteen times as
many people as DeiaWare's two
Senators. but today the two Sem
ators of New York represent al
most exactly one hundred and
thirty times the population repre-
scented by those Of Nevada. Has
this disparity reached its limit, or
will it increase in the ultimate
union? 1t may increase as between
the extremes, for Nevada gives lit
tie promise OF future growth, but
the general inequality among the
states is likely to diminish. How
ever that may be, nothing is so
firmly fixed in the federal consti-
tuition as the equal suffrage" of
the states in the Senate.-Harper's
Weekly.