The Alaska citizen., 1916-07-31
THE GREATER UNITED STAT ES !;

. 900 mark. Puebla, the capital or | the same named state has popu- lation of 1O1214: Guadalajara, the | capital of Jalisco. has a mark of 11S.799. Take the twenty-seyen state centers of Mexico and they can be placed in comparison with twenty seven States capitals of the United States and make as good a showing in the matter of population.
 So the fifty-four Greater United States senators and the presumably sixty Greater United States con gressmen who may come to the Greater United States capital at Washington to represent their MexI- can constituents in 1926 will have as dignified and important legisla tive burdens to bear as any of their associates north of the Rio Grande They will not be the spokesmen for the interests of great uninhabited stretches of land. important mostly in the magnitude of mileage, as was the case when Texas and California were annexed They will come to debate the national affairs of a real nationality. already existent and not awaiting growth to become of more than rural importance. It is not at all unlikely when you have stepped into the gallery of the house of Representative in 1926 that you will hear something like this:
 The Chair recognizes the gentle man from the Third Jalisco Dis triCt but he advises him again that requests to be scheduled for parti cipation in the debate on the bull fighting restriction measure must be presented in English We have repeatedly called attention to the rule of the house that Spanish Is not the legal legislative language for communications of any character" :"
 bty Ouu dl uOuDl lllt udllDudl leg islators representing Mexican dis tricts after annexation would be prone to hang together" but this does not signify by any means that they would form permanent Mexi can party for supposedly strictly Mexican ends. Experience has shown that they have not loved to hang l together" when individual ambitions have conflicted with patriotic duty Once beaten and annexed, the make up of the Mexican character, in the main. does not portend a solid MeXi- co to be reckoned with in affairs political and legislative, as was the case with the solid South" for years after the Civil war.
 In the more superficial matters, however, they may be expected to mingle effectively They are no i kindergarteners in political plotting, and they would revel in the cabinet and behind locked-doors routine con- nected with conventions and slate makings. When the annual Rivers and Harbors bill might be preparing then they would manifest an activity i fully equal to their northern associ- ates. And appointments to office? 1 They are past masters in the art of putting them through.
 i In the blending of the Gringo and i the GreaSer the Spanish language will long remain a barrier-a barrier 1 hard to beat down. When 15,000,- 900 people speak a common tongue how are you going to change that vehicle for another? And yet an neXation means that it will have to be done. The United States has al ready had some experience along this line. In the island possession of Porto Rico Spanish and English are used in common in court and legislature. It is very wearisolne, and of course the same procedure could not obtain where the theatre of activities is as large as that in which the United States government and the United States courts move.
 One of the amusingly interesting illustrations of the attempt to use Spanish and English in common may be found in the sessions of the executive council, the upper house of the legislature of Porto Rico. An American member of the council arises gravely and address es the presiding officer in the usual parliamentary way, MT President" Before the chair recognizes him the indispensable interpreter also arises and for the information of five Porto Rican members of the council trans
 lates the application for recogni- i tion into Spanish. "Senor Presl- dente." Then the presiding officer recognizes the American member, who begins his speech.
 Does he sail in and wax eloquent? He does not. If his first sentence is a short one he talks along to his period and then comes to a dead halt. Why? Why, to let the inter- preter translate that one sentence into Spanish, so the Porto Rican