Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1905-02-08
Senate Votes to Admit Okla
homa and New Mexico.
ARIZONA ELIMINATED
CLOSE MARGIN ON THE IMPORT
ANT DIVISIONS.
Action in Committee of the Whole Re-
versed by the Senate Sitting as the
Senate and Then Confirmed

After a continuous sitting of almost nine
hours the Senate at S:45 O'Clock last night
passed the joint statehood bill. AS passed
the bill provides for the admission of the
states of Oklahoma, 20 be composed o&
Oklahoma and Indian territory. and New
Mexico according to its present bound
aries. with Arizona eliminated
The long session was characterized by eX-
citing incidents and many surprises. Be-
ginning promptly upon the converting at II
o'clock the Senate proceeded to consider the
various amendments which had been sug-
gested by the committee ON territories, and
which had been passed over. One of the
first of these taken up was the amendment
prohibiting the sale of Intoxicating liquors,
in what is now Indian territory, for the
next ten years, and this displaced with
q substitute offered by Mr.. Gallinger, which
extended the amendment to the entire state
for period of twenty-one years, and his
was adopted.
! The first surprise of the day came when
the committee accepted Mr. Foraker s
amendment providing for separate vote
by each of the territories of Arizona and
New Mexico on the constitution to be
adopted by the proposed state of Arizona.
That provision had scarcely been made a
part of the bill when Mr.. Bard presented
his amendment which had been originally
offered by Mr.. Patterson and which pro-
vided for the admission of New Mexico as
a state without the addition of Arizona.
This amendment proved to be the point
around which all the subsequent proceed
ings of Importance revolved. 1t was at
first adopted by the close vote of AZ to
40. This vote was taken while the SEN
ate was sitting in committee of the whole
and was reversed in the Senate proper by
the tie vote of So to So.
Subsequently the Senate decided by
vote of IS to SO to entirely eliminate New
Mexico and Arizona from the bill, and this
result had hardly been announced when
Mr.. Bard, in slightly changed form, re-
newed his proposition for the admission Of
New Mexico as a state and this time the
amendment prevailed by the vote of 40 to
81. One of the affirmative votes was, how
ever cast by Mr.. Beveridge, in charge of
the bill, for the purpose of moving the re-
consideration of the vote. He was prompt
in entering this motion as soon as the re-
suit was announced but the motion was
laid upon the table by a vote of 80 to 81.
The effect was to eliminate Arizona from
the bill and to establish a state of New
Mexico and another of Oklahoma and In
dian territory. In this form the bill passed
The bill originated in the House and will
now go to conference.
The defeat Of the Bard amendment In
the Senate after 1t had been adopted in
committee of the whole gave rise to some
interesting incidents. Mr.. Bailey intimated
that there had been trade" regarding
the adoption of amendment adding a
portion of Arizona to Utah. The Mormon
question also received an airing during the
day. While the provision for the separate
admission of New Mexico was under con-
si6eration Mr.. Burrows, chairman OF the
committee on privileges and elections, an
nounced his opposition to the bill, and
stated that it was due to the practice OF
poIygamy in that territory to such an ex-
tent that he considered it unwise to take
the administration away from the federal
authorities
Mr. Dubois, Mr.. McComas and Mr.. Platt
of Connecticut referred to the question OF
polygamy and to the revelations before the
mi