Santa Fe new Mexican. [volume] (Santa Fe, N.M.) 1898-1951, 1904-04-13
STATEHOOD
REPORTS
The House Committee on Terri
tories Presents Its Views
Upon the Omnibus Bill.
THE CAPITAL QUESTION
The Majority Wants to Keep It at San.
ia Fe Until 1910 and the Minority
to Leave the Question Open.

Special Correspondence New Mexican.
Washington, April 1.-THE full text
of the majority and minority report of
the House committee on territories up-
ON the omnibus statehood bill has just
been made public. The pamphlet COW
ers % printed pages and while it
brings out no new arguments for the
admission of the territories and it can
not be considered strong report at
all, the following extracts referring
particularly to New Mexico and the
proposed state of Arizona, are of inter-
est to New Mexico The minority re-
port after quoting the synopsis of New
Mexico resources and advancement as
published on the last pages of Cover
nor OteTo's annual report for 1908,
says:
In view of these facts, it cannot rea-
sonably be contended that each of the
four territories is not now entitled to
statehood by reason of sufficiency of
area, population, and resources. The
resources of each are more than suffi.
cient to support state government,
and much greater than those of ma
jority of the states now in the Union
at the time Of their admission, and
greater than many of them now
The area Of each of these territories
is greater than that Of many of the
states, and that of Arizona and New
Mexico is greater than any of them ex-
cept five.
Each territory has now greater
population than four-fifths of the states
when admitted.
In this connection the minority feel
constrained to point out that no effort
whatsoever has been made to secure
the consent of the five civilized tribes
to the union of Oklahoma with the In
dian Territory into one state, which
must be done unless it be deterniaed
to ignore all treaty obligations and
agreements with these Indians, and re-
verse the policy of the government in
its treatment of them for nearly hun
dred years.
If the policy advanced by the ma
iority for making two states out of the
four territories were accepted, the bill
itself is Objectionable because of the
inequality and injustice in represen u
tion at the constitutional convention.
BY the provisions of the bill Oklahoma
is given 60 delegates and Indian Terri
tory only so. The census of 1900 gives
the population of Oklahoma 398,331.
,1o4 >fT TpJ or
cordng to- the same census, was 392,-
060. There has been large increase
in population in each Territory since
that time, but it is doubtful as to
which has had the greater increase.
The hearings indicated that the
present population is purely conjec-
tural ranging in estimate in each from
500, 900 to 100000 inhabitants. Every
advocate of joint statehood from eth
er territory favored the proposition
that the territories should be admitted
with equal rights and privileges. No
valid excuse can be offered for giving
such extraordinary advantages to Ok
lahoma. The representation, in our
Judgment, should be equal; but if not
equal, Indian Territory should have at
least 81 of the 10 delegates.
In Arizona and New Mexico similar
condition is presented by the bill. Ari-
iona is given 40 delegates and New
Mexico 70, when. from any standpoint,
Arizona should have much larger rep
resentatiOn in the convention.
There should be no restriction on
either of the new states with refer
ence to their capitals, because the
state when admitted is to be admitted
upon the same terms and enjoy the
same privileges as any other state.
Other objections may be urged to the
bill, which we do not embOdy in this
report.
We cannot understand how the ma
iority can disregard their party obli.
cations and violate the specific pledg
es of their national platform on the
question of statehood. The Republican
marty in 1896 had this plank in it's plat
form:
We favor the admission of the re
manning territories at the earliest prac
ticable date, having due regard for the
interest of the people of the territories
and of the United States.
The same party in 1900 had this dec
laratiOn:
We favor home rule for, and the
early admission to, statehood of the
territories of New Mexico, Arizona ant
!. Oklahoma.
These pledges are plainly violated
in the failure to report a bill in favOl
of statehood for each of these terri
tories. Such a bill passed the House
Of Representatives in the last Con
gress, and each of them certainly ha'
a much stronger claim for recognition
5. now than it had in 1902 when tina
statehood bill passed. The delegat
from Arizona. near the beginning O