The Bismarck tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, N.D.) 1916-current, 1919-03-17
Friends in Paris, Moved
by Prohibition in u. S.,
File Imposing Docu-
ment With American
Delegates.

California's plea for autonomous
government is before the peace con
gress.
Which means that some one has
placed formal claim before peace
delegates for government indepen-
dent Of that Of the United States for
the great Golden State.
This will be the first information
that Californians at home have of the
fact,
But California has friends and loyal
sons In Paris-as everywhere; men
who talk Of the fire, not the earth
quake; who sit up all night singing
california and You; who walk out
Of restaurants that serve no California
wines; Who recite poems about the
California sun.
Most OF them We're peace conference
press correspondents (there were
few officials) all expert by now in the
phraseology of state claims and the ex-
sravagances Of diplomacy.
At a momentons meeting in Ameri-
can Press headquarters, following a
prohibition argument outlining the
growth of "the movement toward an
autonomous California, which has been
growing ever since the national pro-
hibtt1on amtndment threatened the
French restaurant industry. Sound
familiar?
Then they wrote for California, her
statement Of claims Here It is:
~ California advanced her full his
torE claim to the frontier Of lS47, we
should demand Nevada, parts Of Utah
New Mexico, Arizona and much OF the
American parts OF Texas.
However, we wish to respect. so far
as Possible the principle OF self-re-
termination; and with two or three
exceptions. we intend to follow eli
matte lines and confine the bounding
Of 1919 TO the Sierra Nevada noun.
taing. .'.< y =
The great exception is Nevada.
The original settlers Of Nevada
started for California and never ar.
rived. We Intend to bring California
to nPem.
Second. we advance the economic
claim. For years California has done
1Eore than her part in sustaining the
best known Industry of Reno: further,
we regard the Owens Valley basin as
necessary to our economic life.
Third, and most important, is the
meteorological claim. The climate of
Nevada owes salubriousness to the Cal
tfornia influence.
we might, on the same grounds,
claim part Of Utah but the religious
consideration couses us to draw the
new lin G at the Utah frontier.
uy;Il ho
question. 1t is our California irri-
denta s..r
with Oregon we shall be moderate.
We recognize the ethnic difference.
However, we must have possession, or
at least naturalization Of Klamath Lake
together with corridor giving us free
access. The breeding ground of the
Pacific Wild Fowl, it does it's part to-
ward supporting our French restaur-
ants, whose lamentable condition is
the economic cause of our demands
for autonomy. X III,
Los Angeles presents n perplexing
problem. We hold in the ristrict un-
doubted historic, economic and climatic
claims. However, we realize the eth
mic claim Of Iowa, and our present
policy is ta make Of Los Angeles and
and its surroundings, an enclave
San Pedro harbor should be inter
nationalized,. giving our southern San
Joaquin Valley free access to the sea
However, there is a strongly activist
Native Son element, whose claims we
may feel it our duty to recognize
The claim that Catalina Island
should also be internationalizsd on the
ground that it is used by fishermen
OF all nations, we regard as absurd.
That, and the other colonies such as
the Santa Barbara Islands and the
Farralones are ours by histaric right.
1--WE sholl howeyer-in case she
presses it--recognize on ethnic grounds
ltaly's claim to the small strips from
1rinales Bay northward
"A bigger, brighter, better Califor-
mia, with free Franch restaurant in
dustry, from Siskiyou to San Deigo.
from the Sierra to thsp Sea, is our ma