Alaska and Statehood
Philadelphia Ledger
The Duluth News Tribune - December 2, 1899
Transcribed and Contributed by: Frances Cooley
Governor Prady, of Alaska, in his annual report makes a strong appeal to congress to clothe the territory with statehood. The movement for the admission of Arizona, New Mexico and Oklahoma will doubtless be revived also. New Mexico was organized as a territory in 1850; Arizona in 1863; Alaska in 1868 and Oklahoma in1886. So far as propriety of organization can enter into the question New Mexico and Arizona have a better claim to statehood than Alaska, and the admission of Alaska would probably assist the older territories in their aspirations. But these are considerations which do not properly enter into the question of statehood.
Each application for admission to the union must stand upon its own merits. The vastness of the Alaskan domain is scarcely realized by most Americans. It contains 577.390 square miles or more than twelve times the area of Pennsylvania. Neither the area nor the number of residents in a territory determines its claim to statehood. It was urged by the governor of New Mexico last year, in recom-mending the admission of the territory that, with the exception of Dakota, none of the territories recently admitted was as populous as New Mexico now is. The matter of admission lies within the sound discretion of congress. The character of the population of the territory. Its advancement in civilization, the stability of its Institutions and prosperity, sometimes merely political considerations, settle the question of statehood.
In the case of Alaska a peculiar situation presents itself. The boundary is not permanently fixed. It is an open issue with Canada, temporarily quieted by an arrangement with Great Britain. Whether this condition of things would affect the Alaskan application for admission, other features of the claim being unchallenged and favorable, remains to be tested. From the vast expanse which passes under the name of Alaska many large sized states could be carved, if the country becomes sufficiently populated and developed. When we had the boundary dispute with Great Britain as to where the line should be run through Maine. Lord Ashburton said that two or three degrees of latitude were not worth quarreling over, and the Ashburton line was drawn without great friction. When Alaska, or any portion of it, is admitted to the union it should be free from boundary uncertainties and complications; but in the case of Maine the boundary dispute was not settled until more than 20 years after its admission to the union.
