Arizona republican., 1909-03-11
HIS VETO OF BILL R3
In His Second Message He
Marshals Additional Rea-
sons Why 1t Is Not For the
Good of Arizona That 1t
Should Be Enacted.

In his message to the legislature
yesterday disappearing OF the, second
educational qualifications bill, Cow
ernor Kibbey said:
| This is the second time a bill of
precisely this tenor has been trans
mitted % me. The first was known
as council bill No. 60. This bill is
known as council bill No. 123 and is
entitled, as was council bill No. so,
bill for IAN Act to Amend Para
graphs 22S2, 22S4, 22S5, 22SS and
Statutes of Arizona, 1901, Relating
to Qualifications of Electors and
Paragraphs 2374 and 2375, Chapter
TX, Title 20, Revised Statutes of
Arizona, 1901, Relating to Voting and
Challenging.
l duly returned council bill No. 60
without my approval, stating my OBJ
jections to it. l now return this bill
to you without my approval
1t is hardly necessary to reiterate
the objections which l stated to
council bill No. GO. They are applic-
able to this bill and are of course
presumably known to you, and I
regard them as sufficient grounds
for my disapproval of the bill.
Since the transmittal of my objec-
tions to council bill No. 60, this pro-,
posed law has been the subject of
some newspaper comment. 1t has
been sought by some Of a partisan
press to justify this law by a state
ment that it is taken from the con-
stitution of the state Of Maine.
1t seems to have been thought
necessary to cite some example of
like legislation to escape the imputa-
tion of gross injustice goposed to be
inflicted by this law by the dis
franchisement Of a large number of
citizens who ever since the organiza-
ton of the territory nearly a half
century ago, have had the right to
vote. Hence Maine is cited as a re-
spectacle precedent for this sort of
legislation.
And this naturally enough directs
our attention to the provisions of
the Maine constitution which are
cited as the excuse for this bill.
A casual consideration of the mat
ter discloses a singularly close anal
ogy between the copditions here and
in Maine, both past and present.
Maine was once a part of New
France just as Arizona was once a
part of New Spain.
Probably the earliest grant of
lands in North America by a Euro
pean sovereign was the grant by the
French king of lands which include
the territory of the present state of
Maine. That grant antedated the
Virginia grant by the English king
and in subsequent contests between
England and France for American
possessions the priority of grant was
practically conceded to be the basis
of right: but it was claimed that be-
cause the earlier French grant had
been subsequently annulled by the
French king. himself, the French lost
their prior right to that part at
least of New France which embraces
Maine.
But even earlier than this, Spain
had occupied and therefore claimed
a vast extent Of American territory
including what Is now Arizona.
A large part of Maine was early
settled by the, French and so a larg-
er part of the carly population of
Arizona was Spanish.
In Maine these French settlers and
their decendants . retained their
French speech as have the Spanish
settlers and their decendants in Ari-
zona retained their Spanish language
as their mode of intercommunication
The like causes operated in the two
sections; the one to the French and
the other to the Spanish, and like
conditions resulted. In Maine no
more rapid progress had been made
in substitution of the English for
the French language t1an has been
made in Arizona of the English for
the Spanish Indeed probably the
transition has not been as rapid in
Maine as it has been in Arizona.
In 1920 when Maine became state
of the American Union she had been
for one hundred and fifty years sub
ject to English or American institu-
tions; the English language was and
had been one of those institutions.
Yet in 1920 there were more citizens
Of Maine who spoke French than
there are now citizens of Arizona
who speak Spanish. In that year
1S2O) fully aware of these condi-
tions, Maine adopted her fist con-
stitution. In that constitution the
qualifications of electors We're that
the voter should be a male citizen OF
the United States of the age OF
twenty one years and upward, Nhavlng
his residence established in the state
and town or plantation for tFree
months next preceding an election.
There are the usual exceptions OF
insane and other ineompetents, and