The oasis., 1897-09-04
POLITICAL MANHOOD.


 The following editorial from the Lordsburg Liberal is so truthfully applicable to Arizona that TIE OASIS copies it entire:
 Many people have likened the con ditiOn of territory tO that of a youth \ manchild is born, he Is weak and helpless, he has to be cared for by his father, he increases in years. in strength in wisdom aud in power. At last comes the time when he has reached the estate of manhood. Then comes the question: Shall he % out into the world, fight his own battles, care for himself, be mang Or shall he stay with his father, do a httle work for him, let the old man fight his battles and depend on his pOcketbOOk for the rights and priv ileges others secure for themselves. A territory is carved out of the public domain of the United States. The federal government considers 10 as a child. It provides governor, judges and other officers, and pays for it's legislature and other expenses. lt is the father of a child. People move in, they become numerous and pros porous They are able otO care for themselves. They think they can pay their own expenses. The spirit Of manhood begins Go assert itself. They want to be men among other men. They want the territory to 'come of age aud take it's place with the other states of the nation. They .f pg rfaH fha richest They think, however, that they can make their own way in the world and if they cannot acquire all the riches necessary to make them equal with the richest, nor the wisdom necessary to class them with the wisest, they will, nevertheless, have the manhood necessary to make place in the world and they are willing to take the best place they can get, and then work for a better In this territory there are, the Liberal is sorry to see, certain men who are like the molly cOddles, who are afraid, or too lazy, to break away from the fathers protecting arm and pocketbook and go out in the world ard make place for them. selves. They say New Mexico is not able to care for itself, that it cannot pay it's bills, that it must stay ter ritnry, and denend on appropriations from congress to help pay it's expenses. They say there is no material reason why the territory should be made state, that 1t will not increase any faster in wealth or population when d state, that it will have to pay it's own bills and will not have much money with which to do it. Which boy do you think the most Of, the one who stays at home long after he reached the age of twenty-One, lives with the old man, wears good clothes, and has his bills paid from the paternal pocketbook, or the young fellow who gets out and hustles, deprives himself of some of the necessities of life, but gets along in the world and is q man? Will the people of the territory listen to these old fogies who want Co keep New Mexico a territory so that the United States will pay some of our bills, or will they get out and assert their manhood, take up the duties of manhood, along with it's trials and tribulations, and demand recognition as a state? The Liberal believes that a majority of our people are men, not papa's boys, but with sorrow, it admits there are more of the latter class in the territory than it likes to ace.