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Show THE CASE OF NEVADA. The Silver State thinks it is all right as it is. There arc jfew mo'rc mysterious things than State pride. Congress draws a few lines enclosing a certain space on the map, gives the space a name, and forthwith the people living liv-ing within those lines idealize thai space and that name and make them the objects of a patriotic devotion. Any one who might have been in danger of forgetting this curious trait of American human nature would have had his attention promptly arrested ar-rested by the reception extended in Nevada to certain remarks printed about the position of that commonwealth. common-wealth. It had been suggested at Washington Washing-ton that as Arizona would not consent con-sent to union with New Mexico and the President did not think her populous popu-lous enough to stand alone as a State, she might be united with Nevada, which would thus gain a needed accession ac-cession of population. In recording this proposition it was pointed out in these columns that such a union would be unnatural, and that if Nevada Ne-vada was looking for a partnership she could find one more satisfactory in union with California. The Rochester Ro-chester "Union-Advertiser" suggested Utah as a better partner for Nevada than California. This was quoted here with the comment that such an alliance would be inconvenient for most of the people of Nevada, but that apart from sentiment there would seem no reason why the eastern east-ern part of Nevada might not be joined to Utah and the western to California. "Apart from sentiment." That was where the trouble began. It seems that Nevada is simply soaked in sentiment. sen-timent. Sordid material considerations, considera-tions, such as the question whether the cost of a complete outfit of State officials and institutions is not a rather burdensome tax of fifty thousand people, arc scornfully dismissed. dis-missed. Th; "White Pine News" hurls the "Crime of '73" in out teeth and announces that "Nevada does not need suggestions from Collier's Weekly as to the management of her own affairs." The Tonopah "Sun cartoons Collier's as a stage "villian" preparing to bisect the sagebrush hero with a buzz-saw. A high-school instructor in Reno writes an eloquent elo-quent protest, announcing his intention inten-tion to take up his residence in a foreign clime "when our National Government becomes so unjust, so H basely ungrateful," as to deprive Nc- vada of her Statehood. M A' cursory examination of the Con- M stittttion of the United States would H reassure all these anxious patriots. H No State can be divided, annncxed, H or extinguished without its own con- H sent. When any shifting of bound- . H ary lines is proposed, therefor, the M first question is whether the people H affected think the change would be J good for themselves. If they do H not there is nothing more to be said H There arc various rearrangements of M existing state lines that have found M warm advocacy in the regions con- M ccrncd. Many people in New York M and New Jersey think it would be an J excellent thing to make a new State M of the metropolitan district of New H York, on both sides of the Hudson H River. Many inhabitants of the Nor- H them Peninsula of Michigan would H like to be transferred to Wisconsin. H There has been a strong sentiment H for many years, especially in the cit- rus belt, in favor of cutting Califor- H nia in two. A letter from Kingman, Arizona, suggests an elaborate scheme of partition in the South- west. The writer would extend the northern boundry of Arizona to the Pacific Ocean, making a new State M of Arizona out of the western two- H thirds of the present Territory, the southern point of Nevada and South- M crn California. The rest of Nevada M he would annex to Northern Califor- M nia, and the eastern third of Arizona, M from a point a little west of Nogalcs, ' M would become part of the State of M New Mexico. U Such schemes arc interesting sub- M jeets of discussion, and there is 110th- M ing in them offensive to any sensible M resident of the regions in question. M Nevada was once part of Utah, and M what is now its eastern part remained M attached to Utah some time nrtcr M the western part became a separate M Territory. When a boundary line is M nothing but a meridian of longitude M there is nothing sacred about its ex- M act location. Colliers' M |
