TERRITORIES: Ready & Waiting

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"We, the people of the State of Hawaii, grateful for Divine Guidance, and mindful of our Hawaiian heritage, reaffirm our belief in government of the people, by the people and for the people, and with an understanding heart toward all peoples of the earth do hereby ordain and establish this constitution . . ."

Flowers were everywhere, even around the delegates' necks. The Royal Hawaiian Band played; a hula girl slithered. At week's end, 61 delegates—haoles (Caucasians), Hawaiians, Chinese-Americans, Japanese-Americans—stepped up to sign Hawaii's new state constitution in Honolulu's Iolani Palace.

Like many U.S. states, Hawaii had anticipated Congress' invitation to join the Union; Hawaii was tired of waiting. As a territory, it pays more taxes to the U.S. treasury than some states; its chief argument for statehood—"No taxation without representation"—is straight from the original 13 colonies. So are most of the ideas in the 13,000-word constitution. Others are borrowed from Lincoln, and from Senator Wagner (the constitution guarantees labor's right to organize).

To the great disappointment of the eleven Hawaiians and part-Hawaiians among the delegates, the constitution did not borrow from Hawaii's own Magna Carta, the "law of the splintered paddle."*After heated argument, it was struck from the preamble.