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Show A NEW STAR. . Before the sun sinks into the Pacific ocean on next Thursday end leaves the American continent in darkness, another star will have been added to the blue firmament of the flag; another sovereign state added to the sisterhood making up the United States. Oklahoma will take the place occupied by Utah since 189G at the bottom of the list, and will become-the forty-sixth state of the union. The president has announced that he will sign the constitution con-stitution of the new 6tate and that he will issue his proclamation validating the enabling act and admitting ad-mitting the state on Xovember 10. We believe the announcement of such an, intention in advance is unuswal, if not without precedent in the case of any .other state, but in order to give the courts and the people in general a chance to prepare for the transition to statehood, the territorial officers requested re-quested it and the president acceded to the request. There seems no reason why the date and favorable intention should not have been announced thus. . The admission of Oklahoma carries an interesting interest-ing political question without parallel during the past half century. Oklahoma is solidly Democratic, Demo-cratic, or is generally believed to be, so there must be merit in the new state to have it admitted by a t Republican administration the year before a presidential pres-idential election. It is not, therefore, a political expediency 6tate, as some others have been. More than fifty years have passed since a Democratic Dem-ocratic state was admitted. West Virginia was created during war times and cast a 'Republican vote from its creation until ten years after the close of the war. Contrary to expectations of the Democratic leaders who supported the admission of Colorado in 1876, the electoral votes of the Centennial Cen-tennial state were cast for Hayes in that year. Oregon, too, upset the calculations of the Democratic Demo-cratic leaders in its first presidential campaign, and notwithstanding the fact that the vice presidential presi-dential candidate, Lane, was an Oregonian, the electoral votes in 18G0 were cast for Lincoln. Utah, Kansas, Xebraska and other3, although frequently fre-quently controlled by the Democracy, started out as they were expected to and rolled up comfortable comfort-able Republican majorities when they were needed. California, narly sixty years ago, was the last state admitted into the union which started out with a Democratic constituency, but that was long before the Republican party had grown into a power in the nation. Oklahoma, therefore, breaks into statehood under un-der circumstances quite different from those surrounding sur-rounding the admission of any other state during the past half century. That she will be Democratic Demo-cratic no one doubts, and that her loyalty to the. principles of free government and her fidelity to the nation will forever remain to augment the luster of the stars of the forty-five other states is equally beyond doubt. We extend to Oklahoma and Oklahomans the glad hand of fellowship and surrender the title of newest state to a worthy successor. suc-cessor. May she live long and prosper.. |