THE PROGRESS OF WESTERN AMERICA. 



139 



If his previous assertions were entirely sound the 

 conclusion would be that in a few years Arizona 

 would fall into the hands of the commissioner of 

 Indian affairs. No, Mr. Hey wood really perceives 

 the great and certain future of the coming State, and 

 entirely forgets the wall of impossible arguments on 

 which he has sought to build up his case against 

 political freedom for Arizona. 



We do not mean to intimate that he 

 The Mis- . . T1 



taken East- writes other than sincerely. He writes 



ern View. as tne e djtors-in-chief of his several pa- 

 pers, and the other leading citizens of prominent 

 eastern towns would have written if they had been in 

 his place. He represents the common eastern view 

 of a pressing western problem. It is a view which 



C. A. GREGORY, OF NEW YORK. 



forgets the past and closes its eyes tightly against the 

 future. It is unfair, but not intentionally so. This 

 mistaken eastern view is erected, first, on the erro- 

 neous assumption that population is the supreme test 

 of fitness for Statehood. To believe that this is true, 

 and that Arizona's present population is insufficient 

 to entitle her to be admitted, is to close one's eyes to 

 the history of state-making in this country. Popula- 

 tion is not to-day and never has been the test of fit- 

 ness. If it were, how could Delaware, with 168,493, 

 enjoy an equality with New York, having a popula- 

 tion of 5,997,853 V Does anybody propose to deprive 

 Delaware of her sovereignty? Does anybody doubt 

 that Arizona's capacity for growth is more than Dela- 

 ware's? Of course not. Many States have been ad- 

 mitted with less people than Arizona has to-day. 



Population is not a test. It never has been. Geo- 

 graphical divisions, conveniently located for govern- 

 ment from a common point, have been repeatedly 

 made into States. In the East these divisions are 

 generally small, and in the West generally very large, 

 but the idea of making a State or a locality sus- 

 ceptible of being properly governed from a central 

 point, and a locality whose people have common inter- 

 ests, has been the rule of action from the beginning. 

 These States have been given equal representation in 

 the Senate in token of their sovereignty, but in the 

 popular branch, and in the choice of president, they 

 have been measured simply by the number of their 

 population. In this way the great experiment of 

 combining many independencies under one nation- 

 ality, without prejudice to the rights of either, has 

 been carried to success. Those who favor the admis- 

 sion of Arizona are in the line of their country's tra- 

 ditions, and those who oppose it are taking a new and 

 dangerous step away from that safe ground on which 

 union was alone possible at the beginning. In the 

 presence of this great fundamental doctrine of our 

 institutions, how paltry and puerile sounds the talk 

 about the amount of money invested in mining ma- 

 chinery and the number of main and lateral ditches 

 that are in existence! Massachusetts, Michigan, 

 Nebraska, California and all the rest, from ocean to 

 ocean, from lakes to gulf, came into the Union of 

 States upon higher grounds than these. So will Ari- 

 zona. All these States even the much-abused Ne- 

 vadahave paid their way and maintained their in- 

 tegrity. Most of them have grown with the coming 

 of State pride and political freedom. Arizona will do 

 the same, and ten years hence the men who now op- 

 pose her admission, contemplating as they will then 

 the wonderful expansion of her population, industries 

 and wealth, will ask with some curiosity why they ar- 

 rayed themselves against the men who went out to 

 conquer another American commonwealth from the 

 wilderness another white star for the field of blue. 



One of the best indications of the rapid 

 Irrigation . . . . .... 



Journal- growth of popular interest in irrigation 

 ism. j g t k e D j rt h o f new journals devoted to 

 the subject. Three new ventures of this kind saw the 

 light^for the first time in March, making a total of 

 eight that have been started sinceTnE AGE appeared 

 three years ago. None of the new ones have yet 

 lived to an important age, but there can now be no 

 doubt that, sooner or later, there will be a number of 

 flourishing newspapers of this kind. When this hope 

 is realized, THE AGE will be entitled to wear a new 

 distinction father of a school of journalism. To 

 found a newspaper that survives is a creditable thing, 

 but to create a literature and a new class of journal- 

 ism is a famous thing, for it means that history and 

 institutions are to be made. We hope all the new 

 comers in the field of irrigation journalism will live 

 and prosper and do good. They are creditable to 

 editors and publishers. 



