The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1898-12-30
CONTEST OVER HAWA AIT
BOOKED FOR THE HOUSE WHEN
LEGISLATION ON THE SUB
JECT STARTS
MINORITY is DETERMINED D
VIII Insist That Hawaii BE Govern
ed as a Territory, With View
to Ultimate Admission as a State
Philippine Problem Cited as
Reason for This--Dangers of
Propositions In Majority Report.

Propositions In Majority Reuort.
| WASHINGTON, Dec ga sharp
| contest will occur In the house over the
| legislation for the government Of Ha-
wall, as the majority and minority Of
| the committee on territories do not
agree as to the form of q BILL Neither
| do the majority agree with the report
of the senate committee on foreign re-
lations, although the differences are not
such as to cause great difficulty. The
majority report Of the house committee
changes the bill introduced by Mr.
| Hit only slightly, with the exception
| of the qualifications for senators and
representatives. The property qualifi-
cations are stricken out and any citizen
| no is a voter and has been resident
| Of Hawaii for three years is eligible
Those who were citizens Of Hawaii on
Aug. II, 1898, are made citizens of the
| United States. One house shall not
| be allowed to constitute the legislature
in case the other adjourns; nor will it
| be necessary to have the sanction Of
| three members to introduce a bill IN
! the legislature. The delegates to con-
gress shall have the same qualifications
as a voter. Bonds on the public do
m>ins shall be payable in not less than
five years, nor more than fifteen years.
Three years residence must be proved
to obtain citizenship.
The minority report was prepared by
Mr.. H. B. Ferguson, delegate from New
Mexico, who is a member of the sub
! committee. Mr.. Henry, of Texas, is
also a minority member but is now
absent
The report says the minority Is un-
able to agree to some prominent fea-
lures of the bill as introduced and as
approved by the majority of that sub
committee, and continues:
MINORITY REPORT
1T is important to emphasize the fact that
new territory as acquired should be governed
as other territories of the United States have
been from the foundation of the government,
with the view to ultimate admission to state
hood. Upon this theory we believe that Ha-
waii should be given substantially the same
form Of government as has been the other
territories Of the United States and the i'm
portance of this view is increased rather than
diminished by the imminent Philippine Ques-
tion-new territory, which we feel is unified
either from the character of It's population
or because of it's distance from our shores,
for statehood in the Union, and ought to be
left alone entirely.
1--WE therefore object to the provision Of
the bill making the supreme court Of the ter
ritory of Hawaii judge of the membership of
the house of the territorial legislature Of
Hawaii. We believe that each. house should
be the final judge of the qualifications of its
members. The innovation ntt only fails to
preserve the constitutional dependence of the
three great branches of the government, legis-
lative, executive and Judicial, but tends to
degrade the court to the level of political
squabbles and partisan bias It tends also
to increase the already dangerous power of
the courts in our system of government.
DANGEROUS POWER.
1--WE also object to the property qualifca-
tion for members Of the senate and the egls-
lature of Hawaii This disqualification also
extends to the voters for members of that
branch of the legislature. This is an innova-
ticn recognizing by law the right of wealth
to govern, which is dangerous tendency in
a country already threatened by the too great
ascendancy Of wealth.
"A residence Of three years in Hawaii is
also necessary for one to become a qualified
voter. AS our desire is, or should be, to
AmeTicanize those islands, we think a resi-
dence of even less than one year would be
preferable.
I'VE think also that tco great power Is
given to the governor; especially we object
to his being empowered to nominate part of
the Judiciary of that island for life. We be-
lieve that all the judges in other terri
tories of the United States, should be APP
pointed by the president and from bona fide
residence base of the territory, for term Of
four years. If life judges are to be ap-
pointed at all they should be appointed by
the president"
There are also other points of differ
erlces between the majority and minor
ity of the subcommittee, but the others
are the principal ones.
The minority make no objection to
the educational qualifications for citi-
zenship, as they believe this to have
| worked we'll in the South.