Bisbee daily review., 1906-02-11

Whe nthe joint statehood bill was up for finai passage in the house thir- ty minutes was allowed Hon. M. A. Smith. Arizona's delegate to Con- gress, who spoke in opposition to the bill.
 Mir Smith of Arizona said:
 Mir. Chairman: The plainest recom- mendation in the Presidents message is far the worst. He recommends the immediate admission of Arizona and New Mexico as one State. and makes this marvellous observation:
 There is no obligation on us to treat Territorial subdivisions-which are matters of convenience only-as binding us on the question of admis- sion to statehood"
 What remarkable language. Have the people no right to word about their own institutions? Has Congress been at last advised by the President of the United States that too much time has been consumed by Congress in considering the question of States admission into the Union and no more should be consumed, but the State must be made in way that nobody ever asked for. and which is obnox- ious to the best people of both Terri tories and absolutely calamitous to both in it's far-reaching effects?
 The President could not have known the conditions or he would not have made this recommendation. l infer from the very language of the mes sage that he obtained his information from a consideration-to use his own words-"of all that has been develop ed in the discussions of the ques- tions," and that must mean speeches made in the Senate when filibuster If I may properly use the term-was resorted to to prevent vote on the bill giving these two Territories sep arate statehood. If the President believed any of the statements made in that debate l only wonder how he could recommend statehood for those Territories, either joint or single. The distinguished Senator from New York and an equally justly distinguished Senator from New Jersey threw great light on the subject in that marvel GUS discussion of the question" the one on the educational qualifications of the blankea Indians and the other on the dangerous present effects of the Mountain Meadow massacre on our present western civilization.
 But I am not inclined to severely eensure or criticise the President. The mighty responsibilities which daily crowd on him, the great questions pressing hourly for solution, would not permit him to go as fully as is his habit into the actual facts which sur round this subject and on the proper understanding of which so much good or bad to my people depends. I re- gret that his informants were not informed I regret that much of his information came through channels which he believed, but which were wholly prejudiced and unreliable. acquit the President. as the whole world acquits him, of any intentional injustice. I know, and the world knows, that he hates injustice and op- precision; that he loves square deal. I know that he desires the prosperity and happiness of every part of this great country over which he wields for veal CT woe 50 remarkable an ln- fluence On account Of that great influence I regret that the people on whom this blight will fall could not have seen the President personally and have given him the actual facts of the situation. and have thus ob- tained his potent aid in a matter of life or death to them.
 I am sorry that this recommends ton was made, for it is against every fiber of the Presidents nature to visit a wrong on the people. wrong that can never be redressed, and which if carried out will not reach it's apex until long after all of us shall have passed away and history shall have left it's severest criticism of his mar yelcGsly active life upon this very recommendation. In it's effect II stands So out of joint with all his writings and public utterances and so out Of tune with his very nature that I know I am justified in my early as- sertion that the real facts were not at his hands when he wrote that part of his message. Let it be understood that whatever I shall say hereafter n this discussion which may seem a criticism is directed not at the Presl- dent. but at those. and one in particu- lar. who have been officious and Of fensiyely active in misrepresenting the state of the case, not only to the President but to the country.
 But the gentleman to whom refer, and whose egotism is so inordinate that it will permit no pent-up Uuca to contract it's powers, and his native State being too small a world for his conquering spirit. has invaded Arizona and New Mexico and pretends to rep resent both against the will of each, and actually thinks he is the author of a joint statehood bill for these un' happy Territories-unhappy enough even before they knew him.
 Long before he ever thought of the 0ouestion Mir. Lacey, of Iowa, made sreech to that effect in this House and Mir. Overstreet, of Indiana, moved an amendment (to the omnibus bill then pending, creating three States out of Arizona, New Mexico and Ok