Jasper County Democrat, Volume 4, Number 50, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 22 March 1902 — ARIZONA IS AMBITIOUS. [ARTICLE]

ARIZONA IS AMBITIOUS.

Her People Are Now Pleading for Admission to the Union. Arizona has come to the front with an appeal for statehood. Gov. Murphy was in Washington a few days ago and made a vigorous plea for admission into the Union. He made it unmistakably clear to Congress that Arjzona was by no means "an humble mendicant’’ begging timorously at the congressional doors, but that she felt herself entitled to admission, and that this honor was a matter of due justice. Of the Arizonians Gov. Murphy said that they embody the atrongeat types of American citizenship and "strenuous manhood," and that her civilisation is as advanced a* that of any State in the Union. "The public school system of Arizona,” he continued, “her university and normal schools equal any in efficiency, and the percentage of illiteracy is not lower in any State of the Union. Her population has Increased 104 per cent in a decade. Her wealth increased $6,000,000 last year, and If it were all assessed would exceed $100,000,000 in assessable valuations. Every industry 1* prosperous and the territory has a greater variety of weal th-producing resources than any other State or territory in the Union. “We have 140,000 people made up of superior citizenship. We are capable, financially, of maintaining government. We desire to govern ourselves as a sovereign State, and no good reason can be advaaced why our rights in this respect, under the constitution of our fathers, should be denied. Very soon it will be Impossible for Congress to refuse statehood for the three territoriee, because public sentiment will become so aroused that it cannot be prevented.”