Bisbee daily review., 1909-03-06
SPEECH OF HON. MARCUS
 A. SMITH ON STATEHOOD

| TA i1oua lou can not even plead TOT
 ielay, far away back in the good old
 summer time you o1s cially, as a par | y, declared our fitness and promised
 immediate action. You yourselves
 have taken tho question from the
 field of debate. There is nothing left
 but Co act. and act now.
 Both sides of this House and both
 sides of the Senate nave had months
 tO consider the question Of statehood 1 @ith a view to immediate action when | Congress me-.
 1 You have too long delayed already.
 A suspicious mind would suspect that
 this long delay had a dire purpose at
 its back. Some folks will think that 1 [ this bill, getting out Of this House
 at so late a day, dies in the Senate l the purpose will stand revealed. This bin could have been passed before l the lota of January as easily as it
 can be passed now. The House has
 had ample time. If ole-tenth the
 zeal had been used for this bill that
 was put forth in the point sta e l measure it would have been in the | Scnste before the Chrisunas bolidays
 and would long since have passed
 that body.
 | l see no reason why these bills ! could not have been reported a month | ago. and I know of 10 reason way tLc long-delayed- report could not have | been acted on the neIt day after it ! the House has heen consumed in the | delivery of speeches. able enough, on
 every conceivable question. and the promise Of immediate statehood has ] been ignored. You got a rule eas.
 enough. setting a day for the joint | Statehood bin. which nobody wanted ' except the powers that be, but under
 exactly similar conditions you could not get a day for the separate state
 hood bill, which everybody wants cK- i cept few of the powers that be. tir. Speaker, if thss delay shall. as
 I fear Il win. prove fatal to these
 statehood bills at this session. then
 the purpose here will become manI-
 fest to the world and will again ac-
 centuate the necessity of less auto f cratic rtiic in this Chamber. I pray | God my fears are unfounded, and that
 your party. SIT. will keep in good | faith the promise made to the people l m the most solemn, binding way known to our politics. Hoping almost ] may be admitted at tniS session snd ! trusting against some evidence. that no member Of either House or Senate may be justly accused of circumvent- 1 ing by deceit and fraud the promise on which our people have relied. ! leave tb.s feature of the case for further development. If the Senate, or any one Member or it. wants to de feat the bill. failure to act sooner here has afforded ample excuse for the success of such opposition.
 That certain members of g co-oTdi- [ nate branch Of government do want | to defeat the bill is as well known to the Speaker of this House and to the House itself as it is to me. I have attempted 10 make our defeat . impossible. The Speaker. by refusing tO allow consideration at an earlier day. has made our defeat very easy indeed If this bill is to. pass the House only to be defeated by post pouemenJ in the Senate, then it were far better and deceuteT to defeat it here in the first place and make no . i1lse pretCusc about it J know and every man iu my hearing knows. that
 5he politics of the proposed States cut no figure iu this case. rNceut in the minds of a very few SO narrow that
 no appeal outside of party success cantouch them. The opposition hera and elsewhere to the admission of these States is no. that they are Dem "Cratic or Republican. but solely and HioEa because thpy are western. Why should Rhode Island object to the ad, mission Of either Of these Territories except that Rhode Island. being small and eastern. objects Co them because , they are biz and westeru2 Why stOuld any other Eastern State objCcJ when .t knows that t had ,ess pOpl- .u.i1n taau ours wuen 1t was admitted and vastly less known resouFces2
 ! can not for the life of me under stand wEy certain great men of the iat-. have so cOusU rf,y opposed the [ aGI issiOu cf Western states. We .u ! 2" cur country. On tha contrary we { lEe West have never been e. menace | furnish the means rlat made resUmp- ] '.,- of specie payments ssible. We | furnished mere than our quota oi men and money to the East in every hour of its need
 ' Far removed from the maelstr0m oi
 lo our eastern frenzieG finance. where
 tcHOr. fortune, virtue. and even our { country sand all it's interests would | aOme5imcs be readily bartared for a ! dirty dOlEr Joy the Worshipers of | HaumuH. wo lave produced w,
 build: you too often tear down O.
 destroy. We haze made homes for
 patriouc, broad-minded, poor. bat
 worthy men vt nave baat up tse
 waste places. We have tied patrit.t-
 ism to the soil, and man for man.
 fome for home. we Of the West car
 furnish more men ready tO give thcir
 Yves for their country taan any othe,
 people Cn earth. And all this Iov.
 they give iu spite Of all the wrong
 Congress has so long done the...
 Search history in vain for a parallel
 What mas the West ever done to for
 felt your confidence or excite vour
 fesr2 Have not the western rep, CT
 sentatives sn Senate and House stood
 well abreast with the eastern c0utirl-
 gent2 ] forbear to cite instances
 History answers the question. and the
 West Is not ashamed of that answer.
 Do you all forget that, we are bone
 Of your bone, flesh Of your flesa. i'm
 pelled by every high motive that act
 uates you with just a little less fesn
 than the East has in Droclaimipc
 these motives and defending them
 Tae West is made rp cf ftr. hest
 blood of the East. Those brave euoue-
 to break fhe tender apron stri1os tNaf
 hold so close to home, and knowing
 'bat bof"re th"m spread fife of
 danger and hardship, yet sought the