Graham guardian., 1910-01-14
JANUARY ID, 1910.
WILEY E. JONES ON STATEHOOD

As the statehood question is be-
ing widely discussed at present we
give below extracts from speech
made by Wiley E. Jones before the
Senate Committee on Territories al
Washington. 1t was most favora-
ably commented on at the time, the
Phoenix Herald. then the leading
Republican paper of the Territory
pronouncing it the best speech that
had been made in favor of State.
hood. We give the following ex.
tracts from it, which may be Of in.
terest and new to some Of our
readers:
AREA
The vast area and varied re.
sources of Arizona will make her 8
valuable member of the sisterhood
of States. Draw a straight line
due north from Chesapeake Bay,
across Pennsylvania and New York
to Lake Ontario, and the vast ex-
tent of American territory lying
east of that line will not equal in
area that of the Territory of Ari.
zona.
She is larger than the combined
States of Illinois, Indiana and West
Virginia; larger than all Pennsyl-
vania, Maryland and New York;
larger than Kentucky, Tennessee
and South Carolina combined; larger
than both Iowa and Wisconsin
united; larger than the combined
three States of Michigan, Maryland
and Ohio. Omitting California,
Montana and Texas, she is larger
than any of the other forty-one
States of the Federal Union. She
is three hundred and ninety miles
in length and three hundred and
twenty-five miles in width, and en-
braces more territory than is in
cluded in all the States Of Maine,
New Hampshire, Vermont, hassa-
chusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island
Delaware, Maryland and South
Carolina.
She will carve up into ninety
states the size of Rhode Island; into
fifty-five states the size of Delaware;
into twenty-five states the size of
Connecticut; into thirteen states the
size of Massachusetts; or, into
eleven states the size of New
Hampshire or Vermont. One of
the counties of the Territory
Graham county, in which | reside
is larger than the three States of
Connecticut. Rhode Island and
Delaware combined. A journey
from New York City to Augusta,
Maine, will not equal in distance
the length of Arizona, and line
drawn from border to border across
her breadth will reach from Phila.
delphia to Concord, New Hampshire.
PEOPLE
The citizenship of our Territory
is good. The Mexican people mum.
ber about one-fifth of our popula-
ton, while the other four-fifths are
composed principally of American
born citizens. The foreigners of
European birth number about five
per cent. of our entire population.
Our Mexican people are steady,
industrious and law-abiding, and a
great many of the younger element,
now grown, have been born and
reared in the United States.
A great many of our Americans
have come from populous Eastern
localities, attracted to Arizona by
the varied inducements she offers.
There is quite a population of
Latter Day Saints, known as the
Mormon people, in Maricopa, Gra-
ham and Apache Counties. They
constitute a majority in Graham
County where / reside, and from
personal contact, acquaintance and
association with them, | desire to
say emphatically to this committee.
and through you, to the Senate,
that no more earnest, Industrious,
enterprising, progressive, hospitable
people are to be found throughout
the entire land. Simply to know
them is to speak of them as | do.
They came into that country and
found it a portion of the so-called
Great American Desert" which
stretched from Topeka, Kansas, to
San Diego, California. They ap-
piled their toll to the soil. They
turned across it the waters of the
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