The Beatrice Daily Express

THEY ARE NOT YET STATES.

Do not jump at the conclusion that North and South Dakota, Montana, Washington are already states of the American Union. They are still territories. The bill passed by Congress providing for their admission and was signed by the President February 22nd was simply an enabling act prescribing the conditions under which they may be admitted, all of which must be complied with before they become states.

The chief of these conditions is that they shall elect delegates to constitutional conventions in May; that the conventions shall meet at the respective territorial capitals (except that the South Dakota convention is to meet at Sioux Falls) on July 4th; that the conventions shall then proceed to frame constitutions which are to be submitted to popular vote on the first Tuesday in October; that a majority of the people shall vote for their adoption; and that the result shall be transmitted by the territorial governors to the president. The latter is to examine matters carefully, and if he finds that everything is regular and in compliance with the requirements of the enabling act, that the elections have all been fair and square, and that the constitutions adopted are republican in form, he is to issue the proclamation certifying to the facts, and upon such issue the four territories become states and members of the American Union. State officers and representatives to Congress are to be provisionally elected in October when the constitutions are voted upon. The state officers then chosen will assume their functions upon the issuing of the president's proclamation, and the congressional representatives will then take their seats as soon as Congress thereafter assembles. United States senators will of course be chosen by the new state legislatures in accordance with general and existing law. It will thus be seen that a good many steps must be taken before four new stars are added to the American flag. Not probably before the first of December next will we be enabled correctly to say that there are forty-two states in the Union instead of thirty-eight as now.