The passage through the American House of Repre-
• sentatives of the Enabling Act for Arizona and New Mexico, both acquired from Mexico after the war by the Treaty of 1818 and the Gadsden purchase in 1853, raises the number ' of States to forty-eight, and only leaves Hawaii and Alaska as representatives of Territorial Government. The scope of a Territorial Legislature, as the Times Washington correspon- dent points out, is wide, but Congress may annul or modify its Acts, the people of a Territory have no voice in a Presidential Election, and their delegate in Congress has only a voice and no vote in national affairs. These facts may account for the delay in admitting Arizona and New Mexico into the Union. The Territories are Democratic, and the Republican majority in Congress has naturally been unwilling to sanction " an arrangement which will send four new Democratic Senators and four more Democratic Congressmen to Washing- ton." But it is now stated that, partly out of gratitude to Mr. Taft, both States may go Republican. At the same time, it is doubtful whether they will be able to vote at the next Presidential Election, so slow is the State-making machinery.
