Arizona republican., 1902-03-18

the party desires the bills la be acted upon together, in an omnibus measure. W hile the wording of the resolution re- erred 10 does not bear out the con tenticn of MT. Smith. Delegates Roday and Flynn are perfectly willing that the three measures shall stand or fall together. Mir. Smith frankly admits that ne is afraid that the bill for the admission Of Arizona would suffer from
 Il political standpoint ii the bills were considered separately.
 It seems to ce generally conceded now that the statehood pills will pass the house without any serious opposition All of the democratic members are pledged t0 the support of the meas ures and nG republican has expressed any intention of making q fight against my of the bills. Chairman Knox of the committee GIT territories and mem Ders Hamilton of Michigan. Powers of Maine ard CushmGn of Washington, on
 the republican side. have taken Q deep interest in the statehood measures and will strongly advocate their adoption
 by the house. When the omnibus statehood measure has been reported it will become privileged and can be readily brought up for consideration. It is not certain now that advocates Of statehood will press consideratio tion of the bill in the senate at the present session. The work for the bill has been confined almost entirely to the house, and there is some disposition among the friends of the measure to allow it to remain in the senate as unfinished business until the adjourned session Of congress, which will convene in Decem- Der. There are several reasons in sup port of this plan Of action and not the least Of these is the political req son. Much of the senate opposition. 90 far as it has been expressed. has been based upon the fear that the three ter- ritoTieS. if admitted. might supply six democratic senators for the next con
 gress. Delegate RoGey of New Mexico and Delegate Flynn of Oklahoma both insist that their territories are safely republican and promise to remain so. Some of the republican senators are ir- clined to consider the admission Of the | territories from political standpoint
 and are disposed to defer action until
 after the congressional elections this | fail. If the territories return rcpubli-
 can delegates it will be considered that
 the political menace Of a reduced re- | publican ma jOritv in the senate has l been removed.
 1 Advocates of statehood have also dis
 covered what they believe to be an
 other reason for senate opposition to
 statehood legislation. They claim that
 the senators object to having six mem
 bers of that body added who would all
 be in favcl of national irrigation leg ! islation. This may seem inconsistent in
 view of the fact that the senate has passed the irrigation bill without op l position. Statehood workers ciaim that ] the senate is counting upon the house
 to kill the irrigation bill. If this is not accomplished another objection to statehood legislation would be removed. So thoroughly are the statehood advo- | caJes convinced that the fate of their bill is linked with the action Of con
 gress on irrigation that they dis posed to wait until that measure has been disposed of by the house before 1 taking any action in the senate on the l statehood measure.
 The delegates representing the three territories are the best qualified to de-
 terinine whether the bill should be pressed in the senate at the present
 session. Nobody doubts their earnest
 wish to succeed and if they decide in
 favor of waiting until the short session
 before insisting upon q vote in the
 senate. no fair minded citizen will criti-
 cize them. But no republican senator
 will receive the thanks of the repu5-
 !icans Of Arizona for interposing any
 question of politics as a reason for
 postponing action until the session of
 cext winter. The republicans of this
 territory are unanimous for statehood
 and they desire the most expeditions
 action possible.