Evening star., 1954-05-20
By Robert K. Walsh

Old Glory seems likely to go
along with its current 48 stars
for at least another year because
of a bogged-down dispute in the
House Rules Committee on the
question of giving Statehood to
Hawaii and/or Alaska.
The committee opened its
doors long enough yesterday for
a hearing on parliamentary and
other problems, but it recessed
without a definite date for hear
ing additional witnesses on the
statehood subject.
House Republican leaders pre-
dicted freely, but privately. that
Congress will adjourn without
acting on bills proposing state
acting on bills proposing State
hood for either or both of the
territories.
Complicated Situation.
The legislative situation is ex-
tremely complicated. So is the
political situation. The House
passed a bill last year for State
hood for Hawaii, 274 to 1872. The
Senate recently approved the
Hawaiian provision but added
an amendment for Alaskan
Statehood by a 81 to % vote. To
complicate matters, the House
Interior and Insular Affairs Com
mittee months ago reported out
a separate bill to make Alaska
a State. The latter measure
has been bottled up in the Rules
Committee.
From a political standpoint.
Republicans generally we're re-
garded as favoring statehood for
Hawaii on the assumption that
Republican Senators and Repre-
sentatives would be elected from
those islands. Democrats were
believed to favor Alaskan state
hood at this time in the belief
that their party stood a good
chance of electing their candi-
dates from that section.
A side issue has been injected
by some Texans who realize that
Alaska would be the largest
State.
A top-level Republican House
member told reporters today he
had grave doubts that Alaska
would go Democratic under pres
ent conditions. While denying
his partyVhad surveyed the pop
ulation or territorial situation, he
reported that Alaska today is
anything but a sure thing for
Democrats.
Committee Dilemma.
Principal questions put to the
House Rules Committee yester-
day were whether the "Siamese
Twin version" returned to the
House by the Senate should be
sent to House-Senate conference,
whether it should be sent to the
House floor for a vote by the
entire House membership, or
whether the Hawaiian and Alas
kan propositions should be voted
on separately in the House. In
1850, it was recalled. the House
passed an Alaskan statehood bill.
Delegates harrington of Ha-
waii and Bartlett of Alaska, who
serve in the House but cannot
vote. yesterday We'd with each
other in urging that both terri
tories be made States. Mr.. Far
rington, who has been testifying
on Hawaiian Statehood bills since
1948 before the Rules Committee,
said it was unfortunate that the
legislative fate of the Hawaiian
bill has been tied in so intimately
with that of the Alaskan aspira-
tions. He said he favored state
hood for Alaska but was GER
tain that an Hawiian statehood
bill alone would be approved by
both branches of Congress.
Mr.. Bartlett told the Rules
Committe that Alaska asked
only that the House be given a
chance to vote on statehood for
his territory with or without
Hawaii.
He conceded that Alaska, has
fewer than 100000 residents, in
cluding military personnel, and
that a 1916 referendum showed
only 5000 for statehood and 5000
against. But he insisted that
the situation and sentiment are
different today and that Federal
control of the territory discour-