The Arizona sentinel., 1910-09-01
Putting the Cart
 Before the Horse

Ol Ghc OulGCt ICGdIcS III lEd dulluS Arizona consultation lesSenS one's respect for the intelligence of the people who indnlge i'll such talk.
 The provision in the enabling act for submission Of our consti- tuition to the president and con gross Was not inserted as bluff. It was made an importantf feature of the law because of the preva lent distrust of radicalism in this territory.
 The law makers at Washington have lively recollection of the freak constitution adopted in Arizona and sent to Washington twenty years ago. Fhat consti tuition made Arizona u laughing stock i'll the nation.
 has been exceedingly difficult to convince the national law makers that there has been any change iu the thought out here. Indeed, tisey were only partly convinced at last. They suid, in substance; We think you boost CTS for statehood are mistaken as to the character of your peo- pie. Our idea is that populism and socialism are the distinguish tug features of your peoples ideas. Possibly we are mista- ken. We also think that it is too early to admit Arizona. To settle the question in practical wHy as to whether we are right or you are right, we will so phrase the enu bling act that you will not be admitted unless you frame and adopt such constitu- tion as will mect our approval. :"
 So much is conceded, we think, by every citizen of Arizona, for there has been ITO excuse for transformation on the subject.
 The talk of ''detiance" of Washington does not undertake to dispute what we have here set forth. It is, rather, to the effect that if we cannot get statehood in the form thnt we want it, we prefer to do without it.
 Of course, it is scarcely worth while to argGe with citizen who is so fanaticaE and short-sighted Us tO take this position. He has <slsc liberty of saying by his bal Lot on the 18th of Septem Der whether he prefers to lose state hood in order to uphold certain theories that he entertains as to the sort of state governmeat we Ought to have.
 But the great mass of intelli- gent citizens do want statehood. They realize what 1t will mean to Arizona to be admitted into the Union They know that there will be an enormous immi- .gration int0 Arizona if the ter ritorg is admitted and~that land values will boom They know that # such a cOStitution is framed as will defeat statehood, the territory will receive u black eye that it will carry for years, and that investors will shun the territory,
 They know, on the other hand, that under the republican plan constitution will be framed which will honestly reflect the sentiments of the conservative citizenship of the territory, aud which will insure the admission of the tcritt0ry-aud at the same time a constitution which eau be amended at any time in the fu- ture by mere majority vote.
 These citizons know that there is ITO emergency confronting the ! territory that makes it at all ad ] .visabie to throw away statehood l merely in order to register a verdict in favor of suGary so- cialistic "isms." "
 They know that if, after care ful consideration, 1t is found ad ! visablc to experiment with any | of the so called progressive" | ideas in legislation, the people will have full power to put them in force.
 They know know that to try to ''settle" every question relat-