Bisbee daily review., 1909-05-16
TERRITORIES HAVE QUALIFIED FOR
 STATEHOOD TWENTY-FIVE YEARS

(By Louis 3. Lane in the National
 Magazine)
 For twenty years the territories of New Mexico and Arizona have been qualified for admission as states. From the time when the qualification was demonstrated. the national dem ocracy recognized it. For upwards Of two decades the democracy has striven for the great act of justice which Arizona and New Mexico de- manded as matter of right. For two decades the republican party has kept New Mexico and Arizona out of statehood 1t has done this in flag rant defiance of the spirit and mean ing of the constitution. It has done 1t in open violation of it's pledged word It has been guided by no mo tive of public policy. It has had no excuse. It has sought in vain for even a pretext worthy of the name Its objects have been purely politi- cal. IL could not tolerate the weight which the admission of Arizona and | New Mexico would have added to the west, and undoubtedly to the de- mocracy. by the election of four new United States senators. It could not bear the substantial increase of west ern and democratic force in the house of representatives.
 So the republican party has lent it. self to gigantic fraud. Its course In the matter of separate statehood for New Mexico and Arizona has over stepped the fatal dividing line that differentiates political policy from political crime. It Is a political fel- ony which has only one parallel in American civic fraud-that other re- publican crime whereby Samuel J. | Tilden was cheated out of the pres idency to which he was lawfully elect ed. Over the territories of Arizona and New Mexico. one might imagine lowering the ghost of Zack Chandler. with its cry of 1S76-"Concede noth. ing Nothing has been conceded to New Mexico and Arizona. Nothing to the intention of the constitution, nothing to the precedents which have prevailed in the prior admission oi states. nothing to the opinion of the country. nothing to the protest of the democracy, nothing to innate justice and immutable equity, nothing to the honor of the republican party itself
 The blockade of statehood for two Iterritories which are states in every thing but name and privileges, is : steal by anticipation. IL is a case o
 getting off with the swag before tho real owner has a chance to put him
 self in possession. The republican.
 responsible for the crime against Ari
 zona and New Mexico have found 1
 new way of assailing the doctrine o
 state rights. They kill rights befor'
 they are born. They have taugh
 their party the shameful lesson tha
 annihilation of state rights prior tt
 their birth is as effective a method a
 strangling them in their cradle.
 This drama of preventing the es
 tablishment of two great common
 wealths. of depriving two population
 of representation in congress, of rot ping thousands of voters of the cleo tive franchise. has Mephistophele ' and it's Faust. The Mephistophele , is Aldrich. the Faust is Beyeridgt
 Ahlrieh is the incentor. Beveridse tn : tool.s Aldrich is the deyiser of way
 and means. who stands safely CT sconced in the shadows of the bacl ? ground. Beyeridge is the puppet wh ] takes the odium. In any event, A [ drich is the protagonist of the play. . And to pursue the comparison ful l ther. the drama of Arizona and Ne' ' Mexico. like the drama of Faust, ha . its Wagner-the conventionalist, tn , temporizer in the person of Presiden , Taft. Do you want proof of this
 Turn to the Taft letter to Aldrich i
 which Mir. Taft said he did not LII 1, derstand that the republican platforr : of 1908 pledged statehood to the tw
 territories before the regular sessio of the next congress. Digest tha statement and then read the stat hood plank of the Chicago platform II says:
 "We favor the immediate admisSiO