CHAPTER XI.

NATIONAL CONVENTIONS.

In this connection it would be improper to omit mention of the various planks in the platforms of the leading parties of the country as adopted in their National Conventions in presidential years; although their wording has usually been so careful and almost indefinite that their spirit might be violated without actually contradicting their letter.

In 1888 the Republican National Convention at Chicago, which was earnestly requested to recommend Statehood, passed the following resolution on that subject, which although excellent is rather general in the language employed:

"The government by Congress of the Territories is based upon necessity only, to the end that they may become States in the Union; therefore, whenever the conditions of population, material resources, public intelligence, and morality, are such as to insure a stable local government therein, the people of such Territories should be permitted, as a right inherent in them, to form for themselves constitutions and State governments and be admitted into the Union."

The Democraic National Convention at St. Louis in the same year took much stronger ground and mentioned New Mexico by name. It is to be remembered in considering these resolutions that at that time and until 1896 Utah was still a Territory and there was so much popular antagonism to the admission of that Territory that both parties handled the subject with considerable care. The following is the democratic plank:

"Resolved, That a just and liberal policy should be pursued in reference to the Territories; that the right of self government is inherent in the people and guaranteed under the Constitution; that the Territories of Washington, Dakota, Montana and New Mexico are, by virtue of population and development, entitled to admission into the

Union of States; and we unqualifiedly condemn the course of the republican party in refusing Statehood and self government to their people."

In 1892 the National Republican Convention gave very meagre space to its plank on this subject. The following is the resolution:

"We favor the admission of the remaining Territories at the earliest practicable day, having due regard to the interests of the people of the Territories and the United States."

The democratic convention at Chicago in the same year was rather more outspoken in its statement, as it had been four years before. Its plank was as follows:

"We approve the action of the present House of Representatives in passing bills for the admission into the Union as States of the Territories of New Mexico and Arizona, and we favor the early admission of all the Territories having necessary population and resources to admit them to Statehood."

Four years after, in 1896, the republican national convention again passed a resolution on the subject, but did not vary in a single word from the language of the resolution which was passed in 1892.

The democratic national convention at Chicago also followed very nearly the language which it employed four years before, but it added Oklahoma to the list of Territories specifically mentioned, the plank in their platform being as follows:

'We favor the admission of the Territories of New Mexico, Arizona and Oklahoma into the Union as states, and we favor the early admission of all the Territories having the necessary population and resources to entitle them to Statehood."

In 1900 the Republican National Convention at Philadelphia made its plank on Statehood even shorter than before but very much more distinct. The resolution reads as follows:

"We favor home rule for, and the early admission to Statehood of, the Territories of New Mexico, Arizona and Oklahoma."

The Democratic Convention at Kansas City made the most political capital possible out of the situation and in its promise went further than the republicans by the use of the important word "immediate." The plank in the National platform reads as follows:

"We denounce the failure of the republican party to carry out its pledges to grant Statehood to the Territories of Arizona, New Mexico and Oklahoma. We promise the people of those Territories immediate Statehood, and home rule during their condition as Territories."

In 1904 the Republican National Convention, which met in Chicago, added nothing to its previous declarations.

The Democratic National Convention, at St. Louis, added to its former statement a declaration in favor of separate Statehood for New Mexico and Arizona, as Joint Statehood had become somewhat of an issue. The Statehood plank in its platform is as follows:

"We favor the admission of the Territory of Oklahoma and the Indian Territory. We also favor the immediate admission of Arizona and New Mexico, as separate States." Finally we come to 1908.

The Democratic National Convention at Denver reiterated its former declarations and pledges in amplified form. The platform says:

"The National Democratic party has for the last sixteen years labored for the admission of Arizona and New Mexico, as separate States of the Federal Union, and recognizing that each possesses every qualification to successfully maintain separate State governments, we favor the immediate admission of these Territories as separate States."

The Republican National Convention, again meeting in Chicago, preserved its characteristic brevity of expression, but, in the two lines of its declaration, for the first time gave an unequivocal pledge in favor not only of separate Statehood, but of immediate admission. This concession by eastern republicans was not obtained without a long and vigorous struggle by the delegates from New Mexico and their friends. The credit for final success, by the in

sertion of the word "immediate," is due to Hon. H. O. Bursum, chairman of the Territorial Republican Committee, through whose tact and pertinacity it was achieved.

While the exact wording of political platforms is not always of great importance, and too often the platforms themselves are regarded as more for campaign use than an inviolable pledge of official action; yet in this case the clear and distinct declaration of the resolution has been of the highest value. Its very brevity added to its force. President Taft has taken the highest ground as to the obligation of a party and its official representatives to carry into effect the pledges of its declaration of principles. Finding in the Chicago platform this unequivocal statement regarding "immediate admission," he insisted that a Republican Congress was bound to carry it into effect. Without this conscientious construction of party honor and party duty, on the part of the President, it is more than doubtful whether the Statehood Bill of 1910 would have been passed. Without this clear-cut plank, he would not have felt obliged to insist on its fulfilment; so that while so many platform declarations above recorded have been without effect, the very important influence of the last one adds new dignity and respect to the solemnly adopted pledges of great parties.

CHAPTER XII.

HEARINGS IN WASHINGTON.

Since the revival of interest in Statehood about twenty years ago, and during the consideration of the constant succession of bills of various kinds relating to admission to the Union, by the Committees on Territories of the House and the Senate, there have been a number of hearings on the subject, many of them of importance, the printed reports of which shed much light on the progress of the struggle and the changing aspects in which the subject has been presented.

It is not necessary to enumerate all of these, but the principal ones, which led to results or influenced public opinion, will be briefly referred to.

1890.

The first of these was on May 5, 1890, before the Senate Committee on Territories, of which Senator O. H. Platt of Connecticut was then chairman. The committee was the one of fifty-four members appointed by the Governor at the formal request of the Bureau of Immigration, to visit Washington, principally in relation to a land court, to school lands and to irrigation. It was entirely a voluntary matter of patriotic service, each member paying his own expenses, and their character is shown by the fact that no less than twenty-nine-more than half the entire delegation appointed,-actually went to Washington, and remained there engaged in the work of their mission for nearly a month. It was undoubtedly the strongest delegation which ever visited Washington from New Mexico and the most successful in the accomplishment of results. The passage of the Act creating the Court of Private Land Claims, which settled the titles to the land grants in the Territory, was the most immediate result of its labors. It visited the President, every member of the Cabinet, the Assistant Secretary of the Treasury, the Commissioner and Deputy Commissioner of the Land Office and the Mexican minister; and was afforded hearings by the Senate