Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1953-03-10
The Political Mill
4oth State Could Mean
Stronger 6. O. P. Rule
Success for Huwuii Bill
Predicted in Congress
By Gould Lincoln

By Gould Lincoln
The admission of Hawaii as a State
into the Union, which is now in it's
legislative process before Congress, will
mean the addition of two Senators and
two Representatives in the House.
Prompt action could mean the election
of these additional Senators and Rep
resentatives in the congressional cleo
lions in November, 1854, and upon
those elections in Hawaii might de-
pend the political complexion of the
84th Congress. It has been assumed
in some quarters that Hawaii would
go Republican. That, however, cannot
be determined until statehood has been
granted and political campaign has
run its course.
The admission of Hawaii as a State
to the Union has been supported and
opposed in this country and in Con-
greSS on many bases. Partisan politics,
however, has been and is kept in the
background. Indeed, the 1852 national
platforms of both the Republican and
Democratic Parties declared for Ha-
waiian statehood. The platforms diff
fered in one respect. The Democratic
platform called for immediate state
hood for Hawaii and Alaska. The Re-
publican platform called for immediate
statehood for Hawaii and said, I'VE
favor statehood for Alaska under an
equitable enabling act" President Eli
Senhower has RECOMMENDED immediate
statehood for Hawaii, but he has made
no such recommendation for Alaska.
Alaska Seen Democratic.
Just as it has been assumed that
Hawaii would vote Republican, it has
been reported that Alaska would wind
up in the Democratic column. This Is
not necessarily so. But the willingness
of some of the Democrats in Congress
to go along with Hawaiian statehood
has been chilled by the fact it is now
proposed to take Hawaii into the Union,
while leaving statehood for Alaska to
come at some future date.
Statehood bills were held up in the
Senate in the last Congress by a fili-
buster threat on the part of Democratic
Senators from the South. One reason
for this opposition. it was charged, lay
in the fact that with two or more new
Senators added, the chances of the pas
ooA6S VI WIN 4AS11GO
the hated FEPC, might be enhanced.
The presumption was. that Senators
from Hawaii, which has a population
embracing many races, would surely
support civil rights legislation, and that
the same would be true of Senators
from Alaska, whether they were Dem
ocrats or Republicans.
Strenuous efforts are under way, both
in the House and in the Senate, to
block or postpone the Hawaiian state
hood bill. The expectation, however, is
that 1t will pass the House, as it has
on previous occasions, and that this
time 1t will successfully run the CANT
let in the Senate. Not all the Southern
Democratic Senators are opposed to it,
and the Republicans are pretty we'll
lined up for it.
Distance Cited.
Arguments advanced against Hawai-
ian statehood 60 principally to the fact
that the islands are more than 1000
miles from the mainland of the United
States, that the Hawaiian population
is composed of many races, that the
whites are in a minority, and that
1t is unfair to give Hawaii, with its half
million population, the same voting
strength in the Senate as has the State
Of New York with it's more than Is mil
lion population. The argument is urged,
too, that today this country is engaged
in tremendous struggle against the
Communist forces, and that to take
Hawaii into the Union would add to
the complexities which face us.
The proponents of statehood reply
that statehood has been promised the
Hawaiian people for years; that Ha-
wall has greater population than four
Of the present States, and that it pays
more Federal taxes than considerable
number of the States. Hawaii was
annexed" by the United States
through action by the Hawaiian gov
eminent and our own-in 1898, and
incorporated" as a territory by act Of
Congress in 1900.
House Argument.
The House Committee on Interior
and Insular Affairs, in its report on
the present statehood bill, asserts en-
phatically that it is particularly to the
national interest to take Hawaii into
the Union at this time. 1.-THE Territory
Of Hawaii" the report says, lis America
in the eyes of the peoples Of the Pacific,
and as long as the people of Hawaii are
kept in a status of local inferiority
after they have shown for years they
can govern themselves and pay their
share of the costs of the Federal Gov
eminent, grist is supplied for the Com
munist propaganda mill in its attempt
to engulf the Pacific Basin by discredit-
ing the democracies. Statehood for
Hawaii, the point at which America
comes into contact with the Orient. will
be an action that speaks louder than
any words the Communists can utter.
and will do much to create good will
and confidence in the United States
among all the peoples Of the Pacific
area"