Evening star., 1950-04-23
Alaska Hawaii on Verge Of State hood
Hearings Tomorrow
in Final Drive
to Win Goal
By Gould Lincoln

the Hawaiian bill. Both measures
already have passed the House.
1t begins to look as though the last
barriers to statehood for the two
Territories will be surmounted.
Although as chairman of the
committee, Senator O'Mahoney
Democrat, of Wyoming, is with
holding final Judgment, it is
known he is inclined to favor
statehood. In the 80th Congress,
the House also passed an en-
abling bill for Hawaii and Alaska.
The House Public Lands Com
mittee reported one for Alaska,
The determined opposition then
of Senator Butler. Republican, of
Nebraska, chairman of the COM
mittee, effectually bottled up the
Hawaiian bill and it died with the
Congress. Mr.. Butler is now the
ranking Republican member of
the committee.
The admission of the two Terri
tories would make the United
States an even 50-would bring
the membership of the Senate up
to 100, and would add two or
three members to the House. 1t
is 38 years since the two youngest
States were admitted-Arizona
and New Mexico. Five years earlier,
in 1907, Oklahoma-the combined
Oklahoma and Indian Territories
became a State.
Territories for Many Years
The two proposed new States
are non contiguous territory of the
United States. Both. however,
have been Territories for many
years. Hawaii was acquired by
annexation through treaties ap-
proved by the Senate of the United
States and by the Senate of the
former Republic of Hawaii shortly
before the turn of the century.
Alaska was purchased from Russia
in 1867. How wise that purchase
was has been demonstrated many
times-but never more so than
today when the relations of the
United States and Soviet Russia
have settled into a cold war which
may become a hot war at any
time. World War II has empha-
sized Alaska's strategic value, and
brought to memory Gen. Billy
Mitchell's statement that: "He
who holds Alaska holds the world"
Indeed. argument is made for
statehood for both Hawaii and
Alaska on the ground that each is
an important outpost. and that
under statehood, each would be-
come stronger.
Opposition to statehood for
Hawaii, at least on the surface,
has centered on reports of Com
munist inf1ltration and on the fact
that the population has many
large racial groups, particularly
japanese, which are foreign to the
United States. Senator Gordon,
Republican, of Oregon. a member
OF the Interior and Insular Affairs
Committee, during the 8Oth Con-
gress. made an extensive investi-
cation of Communist activity and
influence in the islands and re-
ported that it constituted no bar
rier to statehood. Today, an in
quiry into the same subject is
being made by a subcommittee of
the House Un-American Activities
Committee, now in the Territory.
and the findings of that commit
tee may have definite bearing on
final action regarding Hawaii.
Hawaii Tries Short Cut
Hawaii recently has moved to-
ward getting into the Union with
out the passage of an enabling
act by Congress. It has elected
delegates to a constitutional con-
vention to write a constitution for
the proposed State. When this con-
stitution shall have been drafted,
it will be submitted to the people
of the Territory for ratification
and if the people vote for it, the
constitution will be forwarded to
Congress for approval, with a petit
tion that Hawaii be admitted as a
State. This is a second string to
Hawaii's bow. Fifteen States have
been admitted after such a pro-
cedure, when Congress failed to
pass enabling acts in their cases.
Two States, Kentucky and Ver-
mont, as early as 1871, and two
others, Idaho and Wyoming, as
recently as 1890 acquired state
hood through such congressional
acts of admission, after drafting
constitutions in the absence of
congressional enabling acts.
This does not mean, however,
that Hawaii will cease its efforts
to obtain passage of the pending
enabling bill. Under the terms