The Savannah morning news., 1901-12-16

strong pull is going to be made at
Washington this winter to get Okla
homa, Arizona and New Mexico into
the Union. Both of the great political
parties are on record as favoring the
earliest possible admission of the
territories, hence as soon as the can
didates can show the necessary quail
fications there will be no delay in Civ
| ing them statehood. But 1t will be in
sisted upon that they must have the
| necessary qualifications. The horrible
example of Nevada is perpetually in
| the public eye, and no such blunder
as that was will be permitted to oc-
cur again. There is that little Stew
art-Jones peterborough, with much
less population than the city Of Savan-
nah, actually sending to the Congress
of the United States two senators and
one representative, when under the
congressional apportionment act ii is
| entitled only to about one-fourth of
one representative on the basis of
population. And the recent census
showed Nevada to be declining in pop
| ulation; losing what little claim to con-
sideration she formerly possessed. The
rule, however is "Once a state always
state" hence, if Nevada were to re-
vert to the bowling wlderness-which
wouldn't be a very great reversion-
she would still continue to be repre-
scented by two senators and a repre-
sentative, by virtue of her statehood.
| She has, and would have, as many
votes in the Senate as New York. or
Pennsylvania, or Georgia. There must
be no more Nevadas.
OF the three candidates for statehood
| Oklahoma seems to stand the best
chance of admission. and she may be
voting for President in the next cleo
ton. She has a population of upwards
of $4,000, and would be entitled at once
to two representatives in the House.
Her population is larger than that of
| either Delaware, Idaho Montana, Ne
vada, North Dakota, Utah, Vermont or
| Wyoming; and of that population, SO
per cent. are natives of the United
States. There are 10000 males of the
voting age and of these only per
cent. are illiterate-an exceptional
| showing. There are. more men Of the
voting age in Oklahoma than in the
three states of Wyoming. Idaho and
Nevada, which are represented in
| Washington by six senators and three
members of the House. BY comparison
1t would seem that Oklahoma is mod
est when she asks TO come in with two
senators and two representatives.
New Mexico and Arizona, however,
are not so well conditioned as Okla
homa. They are old Spanish Mexican
territory, and the Spanish language is
| heard oftener in them than English.
Neither has sufficient population to en-
title it to one congressman under the
| apportionment act. In both the per-
oentage of illiteracy is high, that of
New Mexico being 2S per cent. OF the
! possible voters, and that of Arizona
being "a per cent. With less than half
the population of Oklahoma, New Mex
leo has two and a half times the ilit-
not quite half OF the foreign-born in
| habitants of both these territories--a
/ pretty considerable proportion OF the
| total--are not citizens OF the United
States having never applied for natu-
radiation papers.
There has been some suggestion OF
the consolidation Of New Mexico and
Arizona and admitting them as one
state. That would give a state OF 1885,
900 square miles, second In size TO
/ Texas. The consolidation idea does
not seem to be popular in any section.
hence the chances are that the ola
Mexican territories viii be LETT TO work
out their salvation separately while
Oklahoma VIII become one Of the stars
Of the great galaxy