Bisbee daily review., 1906-06-24

TO mistake when it admits to full fel- lowship in the Union the new State of Oklahoma. Her people are of our kind. They have gathered there from every quarter of our common country, and
 they have brought with them the high est sentiments of patriotism and in
 tegrity from the communities i'll which
 they were born.
 As no State in the history of the Re
 public was ever made to wait so long
 for membership in the Union, so 1t
 will happen that no State has ever so
 rapidly risen to a position of import
 aIce and influence in the councils of
 the nation.
 It will he a novel spectacle to sec
 new State recently admitted equal
 here, as the great and the small have
 always been and must always be equal
 in this Chamber; but in the other
 branch Of Congress this new State will
 have a representation equal in inteili-
 gence and superior in number to some of the ancient COmmonwealths.
 With her population, with her ! wealth, with he resources, Mir. Presi- dent, it does look like she might have been permitted to select her own capi- tai in her own way, and order her do- nestle affairs according to her own will.
 Not only, sir, is she the greatest ever admitted, but you compel her to
 come into the Union with badges of dishcnor and incompetency never be- | fore put upon Commonwealth. You | have written it in the enabling act that | +o l,r nl -n | deal in their own way with the most vital of all police questions, the regula- | ton of the sale of liquor. If there be
 ore question above all others essen tially pertaining to local government, ! il is the right to determine whether or I rot intoxicating liquors shall be sold | and, if permitted at all, the circum-
 stances and conditions under which
 the sale may be conducted.
 But you have denied that sovereign l right to this sovereign State, and you | command her to write into her organic law, not the provision which accords
 with the will and judgment of her peo-
 pie, but the pryision which accords
 with the will and judgment of people
 ill other States. And that yoke of
 bondage has been put upon her by many Senators who come from States where no such law exists with refer
 Cnce to their people.
 The pretense-I will not say ore tense" because it is offensive to talk about Senators pretending; Senators dc not pretend, and there is enough 1 of false accusation against the Senate
 and Senators from those who know
 Ito better, without my joining in the | unjust clamor. Withdrawing that oi- 1 fensiye word, I substitute it is argued | that the justification for this course lies the fact that the Government
 owes some obligation to the Indian. So | it does; and it owes them a much | higher obligation than it ever has dis charged. But remind Senators that | the Indians ;n that country now are
 American citizens, and if you want to I live up to the spirit as wen as the let l ter of the Constitution. you must make ! no distinction between American citi- | Zens on account of their race or their color or their previous condition. The | Indians are American citizens and yet you treat them as children; either 1t ] was a wrong to make them citizens | when you did 1t, or else 1t is wrong | to treat them as children now. One | or the other must be true. But even | if the Indian. panoplied with all the | rights of an American citizen, is still | to be treated as a child, 1 appeal against the proposition to deny a mil lion and half of intelligent American citizens the right 10 exercise their own | judgment in a matter peculiarly local, simply because there happens to lite
 among them something like 50,000 i Indians. But, Mir. President. I waste my l breath and waste the Senate's time.
 know, of course, that nothing I could ! say would induce the Senate 10 take that obnoxious provision out of the
 bill. I know that nothing I could say would induce the Senate to amend the
 capital provision. Therefore I forbear
 to say more than that. with all the ; objections I have to this Federal inter- i ference with local affairs, rejoice in an opportunity 10 vote for report that