The Daily Alaska empire., 1950-06-08
THE STATEHOOD HEARINGS
 No. !
By BOB DE ARMOND

When the week-long hearing on Alaska statehood was held in Wash ington. late in April more than a quarter of a million words of testi- mony were given.
 A large part of it was devoted to the general proposition that hl- aska has the inherent right to become a state and that both AL aska and the nation will benefit if Alaska is made a state.
 We want statehood, any kind of statehood, and we want it now, was the theme of this group of statehood witnesses, which came mainly from the Anchorage area. This. under the circumstances, is an understandable point of view and will be discussed later in this article.
 A lot of the general testimony on the need and desire for statehood was interesting but it was not what the Senators particularly wanted to hear.
 Particulars Wanted
 Senator Clinton P. Anderson summed up the viewpoint of the Senators, addressing Judge Anthony J. Dimond who happened to be in the witness chair.
 Said Senator Anderson: q thiflH our difficulty. Judge, is this: you addressed your remarks chiefly to the questions of statehood, and most of us are completely sympa- thetic to the general idea of state hood. Our question is with refa- ence to the particular bill in front of us. We would like to be sure that the provisions of the bill in front of us are all right, and are not concerned so much about the general question of statehood which we are prepared to support"
 By persistent prodding, the Sen ators were able to get some opln- ions from the witnesses about the bill itself. Along with those opil- ions they had to listen to a lot of general conversation about Alas ka's history and her troubles, pa3. and present. as well as some rosy and frequently entertaining theor- ies about what will happen to Alaska when she does become state.
 Population Factor
 The pro-statehood people made much of Alaska's population which they estimated at all the way from 100000 to 135,000-and asserted over and over that it Is larger population than most ol the territories had when they wert admitted to statehood.
 Their statements and estimates were not disputed, but the Sex ators do not seem to have beer greatly interested in them. Nol apparently, were they impressed by showing that Alaska stacks III pretty well with earlier territorie in density of population.
 The Senators did take a profes. sional interest in population a it relates to Congressional repre- sentation.
 Senator O'Mahoney pointed ou that each Congressman, on tn average, now represents 345,00 people. The State of Alaska would of course be entitled to a minimum of one Representative in Congres and he would represent some where between 100000 and 135, ,00 people.
 Greater Representation
 On this basis, Alaskans Woult have somewhere near three time as much representation as peopl in other states The Senators didn' say they thought this would b bad, but they didn't indicate tha they consider it good. either.
 Senator Anderson gave some fig ures to show that most of tn other states, when admitted, hat nearly as many people as the Con gressional requirement. of that date some had more than the require ment and at least two had nor than double the required popula STATEHOOD HEARING Gal. 3 ... tion.
 The we-want statehood people in their testimony, set a great dea of store on precedent. They re