From: johnl@iecc.com   
      
   >>If American Samoa wanted to get real representation in Congress, all   
   >>they'd have to do is hold a referendum on statehood.  Puerto Rico does   
   >>so every few years--and it is soundly defeated each time.   
   >   
   >Turns out it's more complicated. They wrote their own constitution, but   
   >Congress never wrote an organic law for them, so it's unorganized territory.   
   >I'm sure this could all be negotiated if American Samoa wants to change   
   >their status, but I agree with you; I've never heard that they do.   
      
   According to Wikipedia (our motto: better than nothing) the Samoans   
   prefer things the way they are.  They have asked to be excluded from   
   minimum wage laws for fear that the tuna cannery will leave.  There   
   used to be two, the other one shut down a few years back.   
      
   It's not sufficient to have a referendum on statehood--the Congress   
   also has to pass an act to add a new state, and there's no way that   
   would happen with Samoa.  It only has 55,000 people, an order of   
   magnitude less than Wyoming, the least populous state, and its per   
   capita GDP is $8000, a third of that of the poorest state,   
   Mississippi.   
      
   >As long as I was looking it up, I learned why American Samoa was never   
   >a Trust Territory despite being a former German colony   
      
   American Samoa was never a German colony.  When that 1899 treaty split   
   the Samoan islands, we got what is now American Samoa, the Germans got   
   what is now (Western) Samoa.   
      
   --   
   Regards,   
   John Levine, johnl@iecc.com, Primary Perpetrator of "The Internet for Dummies",   
   Please consider the environment before reading this e-mail. http://jl.ly   
      
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