i was a resident although very young of the state of what is now the state of Alaska in nineteen fifty nine when Alaska stopped being a territory became a state uh so i guess i have a left over positive feeling about the question even though i don 't know very much about Puerto Rico um i know that all the things that happened relative to that territory in Alaska have been very positive uh and i kind have a suspicion that that i believe that a that statehood is a good idea whenever you have a territory the size of Puerto Rico one ought either to make it a full-fledged state or or let it go one or the other what is your situation
Alaska stopped being a territory in 1959 .