Arizona republican., 1905-10-30
PHoENIx, ARIZONA. OCT. 50. 1905.
Harpers Weekly and Joint Statehood.


 The current number of Harper's Weekly prints an editorial under the title Of "Tne Joint Statehood Bill Should Pass" This is followed by several reasons of the editor why It should pass and why a similar bill was defeated in the last congress. The article, or so much Of it as relates to this Territory and New Mexico, is printed elsewhere in The Republican.
 The Weekly fears that the coming statehood bill will be resisted with vfgor from motives unavowable" and as the measure is of 'urgent moment the American people should become thoroughly alive to its merits" The Weekly then proceeds to disclose the facts of a project conceived in the in terest of the country as a whole as well as of the two territories directly con cerned."
 The Weekly prefaces It's array of facts with the statement that mo ob jection can be made to it Cthe joint statehood biH) which is not local, self ish or corrupt It may te urged in reply that the main objection is nat uraIly local and it may be admitted that there is more or less seIfishness m it. If to insist that our material rights shall not be sacrificed to the preservation of the eastern equilib- rum in the senate of the United States is to be selfish. then the charge will lie against us. We believe that those local" patriots who a century and a quarter ago demanded from Great Britain the restoration of certain privileges and the granting of new ones rightfuHy belonging to them, were also indictable. The allegation of corrupt" objection to the statehood bill will be treated further along.
 The Weekly introduces into its ar gument the frequently alluded to fig ures of population of the two terri tories. We may move to strike thIs out as irrelevant. No sparseness of population could be reasonably urged in favor of the construction Of a joint state however strong an argument it might be against the admission of the territories as single states. We are not now seeking admission. On the advice of our friends in congress to be content and grow, we have ceased to regard statehood as an issue. The question has to do only with joint statehood.
 Now for the corrupt" influences which have been alleged to be opposing jointure. The Weekly has learned that the railways of the territory. the transcontinentaI lines as well as the network of mining railroads" which have done so much for the develop ment of Arizona, and wAich promise to do much more, "are interested in se- curing the greatest number of votes and voices in the United States sen ate" Then follows the somewhat H. logical statement that while the rail- roads could control the elections in separate states they could not control those of the joint state.
 But this is following The Weekly beyond the bounds of debate. If the railroads are opposing joint statehood, and we believe they ought to do so. they are doing what ninety-nIne out of every 100 property owners in Ari- zona are doing, for the same reason, for the protection of their interests. which are identical with those of the territory at large.
 In the statehood agitation, which has been going on for the past twenty years, we are net aware that the rail- roads have participated. We do know, however, that whenever the subject has been uppermost the charge has been made for political or other reasons that the railroads were oppos- ing the admission of Arizona as a sin gle state, contrary to the corrupt" and selfish" interests which The Weekly now ascribes to them. The mining interests of the territory are also found by The Weekly to be an tagonizing joint statehood for practi- caIly the same reasons as taose which sway the railroads, with the object of ultimately obtaining single state hood, though in the same breath The Weekly states that the mines are in absolute and corrupt control of the territorial legislatures. What more, may we ask should they desire? Why should they want a single state legis- lature?
 The Weekly finds in another circum- stance the reason for the building of the joint state. It is desired by four Arizona newspapers, the Nogales
 
 News Herald, and the Coconino Sun. We say in reply that against these jaurnals there are some fifty whose