Arizona republican., 1902-12-28
A Contest With Ignorance.

In pressing for admission into the union, the territories have tound' ol course. that ignorance is the chief en- env with which they have to deal. It is necessary to overcome ignorance ol geography, ignorance of climate, ig- norance of the people, their resources and all their equipment for statehood and in addition to this, ignorance of the elementary principles upon which the federal government was founded. The prospects for the bill would un- doubtedly be brighter if there were not so many statesmen and newspaper writers who are. entirely lacking in understanding of the true theory of the federal union. The general discussion of the pending measure has brought out very clearly the need of better in struction in the public schools-or somewhere-concerni the fundamen- tai principles of the constitution of the United States. With the impetuous zeal which usually accompanies ignor- ance. the opponents of admission take the absurd ground that the population of any given state should not be greatly disproportionate to the population Of any other state.
 For the first time in American his tory, this nonsensical theory received the formal sanction of a senate commit tee when Senator Beverdige argued in his report in favor of waiting until Ari- zona and New Mexico each should have a population of 1850 900. his contention being that "any new state should have a population equal to the average pop uIation of the remainder of the states"
 Ignorance cannot be imputed to the Indiana senator, of course, for in his report he takes notice of the rule which has prevailed from the foundation of the government. namely, that new state should have, merely, population approximating the minimum popula- ton allotted to a congressional district. The senator states frankly in suD- stance, that the time has come for making a new rule, his reason being that the senate should not be permitted to become populous body. But the ignorance to which we refer is found among the people who insist that some be violated by the admission of Ari- Zona and New Mexico as they stand. An example is furnished by tine Los Angeles Times, which presents Itself as another witness in proof of the fact that primary instruction in the princi- ples of our government should be mor,. common. Says the Times. in derendlng the position taken by the opponents ol the omnibus bill:
 At the present juncture, however ardently the advocates of statehood may press their cause. they must rec ognize the fact that there are many and serious reasons for the position as' stunned by those who oppose them. There would be manifest injustice in giving to Arizona, with a population or jess than 100000 the same representation Tn the senate of the United States as the great state of New York has, with over 6,000,000 population. It does nos help matters to say that the state of Nevada, with a much smaller popuia- tion than Arizona, has two senators. A great mistake was made in the ad- mission of Nevada to statehood. The admission of other disqualified terri tories would not serve to remedy that mistake. Two wrongs cannot make a right
 There seems to be a general ignor- ance of the fact that the question Of senatorial representation was thor Oughly threshed out in the debates in the great assembly which framed tre American constitution. The argument was then advanced that it would be un. just for a small state to have the sarre representation in the senate as a state vastly greater in population, and while there were many answers to this con- tention the most forceful were these:
 1. That the question of liberty and self government under state autonomy was not properly dependent upon pop ulation, beyond requirement. that each state should have in addition 10