The copper era., 1909-10-21
PRESIDENT TAFT'S SPEECH.
Made at Phoenix October 18th Statehood
 Sure as Far as he is Concerned.

after all.
 y q should think so.)
 f "Governor Sloan, Ladies and Gentle
 men: I am glad to meet you. It's a , new sensation for me to talk to the
 people of territory, and, I may say
 thus far, it's very pleasant sensa
 tion.
 Good, good.)
 ''In the first place, want to com
 mend myself-and that is for having appointed Judge Sloan your governor. U Clear, hearD In the second place, I want to congratulate you on having such a territory and on having such energy and such enterprise as have
 called forth from the republican party l d pledge that you shall have state
 hood. Applause and cheers,) And,
 in order to esta blish my relations with
 you early, I want to say that, so far
 as I am concerned, I am gong to help
 to carry out that promise, so far as I
 can. Some etimes it's better to post
 pone the marriage and everything
 else in a novel till the end, but I al
 ways had the habit of looking through
 to see whether it ended all right be-
 fore I began, and I am inclined to
 think that the ladies before me gem
 orally follow that course. (Laughter.)
 "Now, gentlemen-and ladies, for I
 don't know whether you are going to
 let the ladies vote or not, and I speak, l fherefora uitb dna conciderafi fiop- you are anticipating statehood. You are anxious to show what you can do as an independent government, and I am afraid you are just like other peo- ple-or, unless you are very much bet ter than most men I know-you are anticipating the pleasure of that in dependence without fully understand ing, or at least responsibilities of it; and, therefore, if, after having made this announcement, I point out some of the difficulties you are going to have, you will excuse me. You have got to form constitution, after the congress says you shall come in, and I want to say a word about that con- stitution. In saying so, give you an earnest of the seriousness with which | I say that believe you will be made a state. The constitution is for the | purpose of laying down fundamental limitations upon your legislators and | your executives. Now, if you think that in that constitutional convention you ought to lay down all the limita- tions that are ordinarily included in statute, you are going to make great mistake.
 "The greatest constitution that was ever made is the constitution of the United States, and you can go through | that in a very short time. You take | the last constitution that was made it's the constitution of Oklahoma and it's geological galden of cranks. don't mean to say that it hasn't good | ideas in it-it has; but the idea of ty- ing down legislature which is to ex- pertinent, so to speak, with the laws that are to be adapted to new terri tory with long discourse, imposing all sorts of limitations, is a mistake which you ought to profit by.
 "I want to congratulate you on having room enough in this territory to grow. Applause and laughter) It's about four times the size of Ohio, and Ohio is a fairly large state. Of course, there is a good deal of soil out here that we wouldn't, at first sight, value in Ohio Qanghter) but by your energy and by the application of modern methods of agriculture you seem to be reducing it to con- dition where it brings forth wonder ful crops and enriches those who devote their attention to its culture. Then, the governor tells me that you have got another industry-you can't call it agriculture or horticulture-I mean the birth and bringing up of ostriches. I understand that this is the only state in which ostriches think it worth while not to pursue race suicide (applause and laughter), and the result is that there is an in- dustry-to call it by general term that is really profitable and that en- ables you to compete with South Africa Then the alfalfa fields, the fruit, and all the other products which you are able to bring forth, make your future one which I need not assure you is a most promising one.
 "But, as I said in the beginning, your assumption of statehood throws upon you responsibility that will not enable you thereafter to charge it all up to the federal government. When you get into difficulty out here and have bad officials, or your legislature gets you into debt in a county, or a state or city, you can't say it's all in Washington because Washington doesn't understand us. Then the fault will be on your own head. 1 have no doubt that you will stumble and fall, as other peoples and other Well Known Hotel Keeper Uses and