Arizona republican., 1902-12-22
CURRENT COMMENT
The Statehood Fight.

Statehood was promised Arizona, New Mexico and Oklahoma by the re- publican party. The majority report of the senate committee on territories denies statehood to New Mexico be- cause majority of the people speak Spanish. and to Arizona. because her
 mining lodges may pinch out.
 The right to elf-government is con- stitutional right. The constitution does not say that only those who speak En-
 glish have it. or that the immortality Of
 mineral lodges only can qualify terri tory for admission into the union. New Mexico asked statehood fifty-two years ago. At that time California had as great a preponderance of Spanish i speaking people as New Mexico. That ] language did not keep New Mexico ou-, but the slavery question. She was south of the Missouri compromise line of 36 degrees 20 minutes, and therefore was slave territory according to the 1 compromise of 1920. The more timid southern statesmen and the northern | leaders of public opinion felt that the bonds of national union could stand no | further strain arising in discussion Of | the slavery question. So California was
 admitted as a free state. with all her ! Spanish habits, population, practices and even jurisprudence upon her. and
 New Mexico was left to stew in her 1 territorial juice. Then came the death | and birth of parties. NThe whig party
 wrote it's obituary and the republican ] party issued it's prospectus. and the
 impetus of events was so rapidly toward civil war that nobody had time
 to stop and let down the bars to new 1 states.
 1 Now all these events are behind us. | New Mexico has shown self-supportinS ! capacity. She has great resources. = ! traversed by railways. has university
 normal school, high schools. and public i education is in full headwdy. She mas ! towns with every modern adjunct O.: 1 cities. and her people are as fit now for 1 lf-government as they will be fifty two years from now-as fit as Califor- ! mia was when she was admitted with 1 out passing a territorial novitiate at | all. As for Arizona, she has not only mines but timber, manufactures. agr:-
 culture. horticulture, stockraising ami ! a fuH catalogue of resources upon which 1 to nurture an increasing population 1 Given self government she and New Mexico will do just what all American communities have done when enfran- { chised with statehood. They will fiji 4 up with an American population and go i forward in development and enlighten- i ment
 | Self-governmenti is dear to the Ameri- <, can spirit. Every immigrant who goes 1 to territory goes expecting statehood | and because of that aspiration. With one exception the history of new states proves the vivifying effect of self-gov- 1 ernment. When Idaho and the Da- kotas were admitted they were back | ward. and that was pleaded agains. them as a reason for prolonging their
 novitiate. But there were enlightened
 men, like s. s. Cox, to deal with the matter then, who insisted that self
 government was a cure for their back 1 wardness, and it was. Neither of those states has any advantage in natural re-
 sources over New Mexico and Arizona and yet under the impulse of self-gov-
 ernment they have gone forward until
 their surplus products are sought as a
 prize in tonnage by the transportatIo:,
 companies, and a steady Stream of ;n,-
 migration has flowed into them unt.i
 they have the stable aspect of the old
 est states
 Let this prolonged wrangie over hri-
 zona and New Mexico cease Give
 them self-government with all its hon.
 ors and muniments. and leave them 70
 work out their American destiny. Ari- zona is the hinterland of southern Cali
 fornia. Through that part of our state she has access to deep water. Her de-
 velopment intimately concerns us. The
 good offices will be mutual This state wants another state on her southeast
 ern border We want that state devel- oped up to all it's possibilities and its resources. Therefore California stands for the application to the remaining
 territories of that germinal principle oi
 self-government in which our own
 progress had it's radix.-San Francisco