Wichita eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1886-1890, 1888-11-30
OKLAHOMA.
Medicine Lodge Index.

Medicine Lodge Index.
The proceedings of the Oklahoma
meeting held III Wichita last week are
published in the Index today. Many of
our people are interested in the question
| opening the Oklahoma country and it is
our opinion that if that country is opened
between now and next May, so that set
tiers can go i'll with the consent of the
| government, with the assurance that
they will not have to get out again, Bar
Der county will furnish at least 800
boomers men who are qualified as
| homesteaderS.
These will generally be men who have
proved up pre-emption claims here,
mortgaged them and, having had poor
crops for three years in succession, they
are now reody to try new country. OF
course they will give up all claim to
their land here and the mortgage COM
panies will foreclose their mortgages and
then will occur one of two things: either
new men with some capital will come in
and buy these claims or they will remain
| vacant for some time.
If new men come in they will likely be
of great advantage to the country. for
they will certainly make improvements,
buy stock and spread around money. If
the residents who remain here attempt
to buy the land, just for the sake of own
ing it and being considered rich land
owners, it will be an actual disadvantage
to the county. Barber county already
has too many men who are LAND poor. ;"
They do not properly utilize the land
they own and it keeps them poor paying
interest and taxes.
Those who are contented to remain
here and cultivate their land will find a
ready market for everything they can
raise in the way of meat, grain and veg
etables, in the Oklahoma country. Ev-
cry old citizen will remember that for
years after Barber county was settled.
that it hauled nearly everything that was
consumed-corn, hay, flower, potatoes.
vegetables, beef, pork, fruit, and in fact
everything. SO it would be with Okla
homa for several years. So the indus
triouS farmer who remained here could
do as the farmers of Sumner, Harper.
Reno and kingman counties did: get
rich selling the produce of their farms to
their less fortunate neighbors.
Much has been said about the overflow
that would occur if Oklahoma were
opened, it being contended that if Okla
homa proper, the entire Cherokee Strip
and No Mans Land, in all nearly twelve
millions of acres, were opened, that
every available Quarter-sectlon would be
taken within thirty days, and that there
would be thousands of families who
could not then be accommodated. These.
the overflow, it is contended, would nee
esSarily have to tind homes in Kansas.
There may be something IN this. If
there Is, Barber county would probably
be one of the first counties TO catch the
overflow. We have so much land on
which the sod has been unbroken-we
have SO many streams OF pure water
we have SO many pretty groves OF tim
Der that are always inviting, the county
is especially so when nature has put on
its garments of spring. Barber county
then would probably not lose much III
population. In the end.
And there Is another reason for believ- |
ing that the opening of Oklahoma would I,
add 10 our population and wealth. That |
country viii all go in under a modified /
homestead law. Not only viii the set /
tier he compelled TO live on the land three |
years, but he must pay 81 per acre for |
II. and then he can not select his land III /
long strips so as TO take IN water courses |
and timber, but he must take il IN square /