Santa Fe new Mexican. [volume] (Santa Fe, N.M.) 1898-1951, 1904-04-13

this session, presented a bill for thu
admission of Arizona as a state The
delegate from New Mexico presented
a similar bill for the admission of New
Mexico, and the delegate from Okla
homa likewise presented bill asking
for the admission of Oklahoma to state
hood and in the hearings before the
committee each of them insisted thai
the bill presented by him reflected the
wishes of his people and insisted upor
a favorable report thereon.
The people of Arizona and New Mex
leo especially have repudiated the &C
tion of the committee in trying tC
make joint statehood for their terri
tories. Why should the committee or
the territories change it's base with
reference to this matter. What excuse
can be given to the country for this
utter disregard of party pledges and
failure to consider the wishes of the
people?
Under this bill Arizona, being mum
erically the weaker, could be forced in
to union with New Mexico, even
though every vote in Arizona were
cast against the consolidation, and
this applies with equal force to the
proposed union of Oklahoma and In
dian Territory. The stronger of the
two territories can merciIessly coerce
the other into union.
1t has long been settled doctrine
| IDf
and justice, that Territory of the
union is, upon organization, clothed
with the inchoate right of ultimate
statehood-a right to be exercised in
the discretion of Congress when the
Territory is capable, by reason of it's
resources and population, to assume
the duties and obligations of free
state.
The denial of this right the reversal
of this policy by an arbitrary exercise
of power by Congress in forcing an un-
natural union of territories against
the will of their people, the forcible
union of peoples distinct in customs,
habits, manners, and religion, is Jul
| traradical and revolutionary. 1t is a
pitiful illustration of the degradation
to which a party may fall when violat-
| ing, for party purposes, it's plighted
faith made to the people in the nation
al platform.
Should the Republican party pass
this bill, wicked as it. is in the denial
of equal rights in representation and
,,+ico in, oil cf itc OF tn,,io1 6ntoi1c
it will but afford another indecent ex-
ample of the suppression of individual,
territorial, and national rights to sub
serve partisan ends. Even more than
that. it is the surrender of the power
that four sovereign states would eXer-
else in the union if constitutional
methods were orderly followed in the
admission of states. 1t is the last ef-
| fort to minimize the influence of the
west and southwest in the citadel OF
| federal power, the United States Sen
ate
We are of the opinion that it. will ul-
timately be better for the union that
the territories opposed to consolida-
ton shall be denied statehood under
the theory of this bill indefinitely than
that the conditions that will be forced
by an unnatural union should exist.
The report is signed by seven men,
bers of the committee.
The majority report says:
New Mexico was acquired from the
Republic of Mexico by the treaty of
Guadalupe Hidalgo, February 2, 1S4S,
and by the Gadsden purchase of De-
cember 30, 1853
1t is $50 miles north and south by
34s miles east and west and contains
! 122580 square miles, or 7S,45l, ,20O
acres, on which, by the census OF 1900,
live population of 195,310, being l.6
persons to the square mile.
| AS in the case of Arizona the census
is claimed to be inaccurate, and the
delegate from New Mexico claims a
population of not less than $4,000, but
here again the committee does not feel
warranted in accepting speculative es'
Inmates.
| Arizona was part of the territory
acquired from the Republic of Mexico
by the treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo
February 2, 1S4S and by the Gadsden
purchase of December 30, 1858, and
was part of the original Territory o1
New Mexico, from which it was separ
ated and organized into territory In
1868.
1t is 37S miles long by 339 miles
wide and contains 113.929 square miles
or 100000 acres By the census Of
1900 it has population of 122,931, o.
whom 26,4S0 are Indians, being IL
persons to the square mile.
This committee consider the criti
cism as ill informed which finds faul
with New Mexico because of it's al
legged foreign population.
| Out of population of 195,S1O New
Mexico has only 13,625 foreign-born in
habitants, smaller foreign-born per
centage than most of the states in th'
Union.
New Mexico was made Territor.
in 1850, and ever since that time thu
people of that Territory have beel
electing their own legislatures, max
!. | 1or ftv1u