Indian chieftain. [volume] (Vinita, Indian Territory [Okla.]) 1882-1902, 1891-02-05
NATiONAL OkaAgIzATIO,
THR QRRAT CRY.

W must ollot, is the cry on
every side by good men and
true" who have grown respondent
at the prospect before them. My
friend, did you ever stop and think
what it means ? Can you not hear
the cries OF poor people who are
being driven from their homes by
the very power you are inviting to
your doors by allotment? Go
among your renters and TO the
stranger within your gates ask
them-some of them gray haired
men--why they did not stay in
The states, and the answer will be,
Il lost my farm by mortgage and
came here to make raise and if |
can make enough ] hope to be
able to get another homo on new
land" I" Go to the depot in your
town any cold night and interview
the men and boys God pity them)
who esteem it a great privilege TO
set by the warm stove at night
go look upon this crowd and think
10 yourself, II am advocating a
system that will place my child in
the same condition as these out
casts, with no spot on God $ green
earth that they can call home. "
Do not shield yourself with the
assumption that YOU are too smart
to lose your lands and home by
debt, for men as smart as you arc
homeless to-day, after working
half lifetime TO provide one, that
these little boys you see as tramps
might be reared and educated un-
der the home tree. God never in
tended, my friend, that any Of his
creatures should wander, home
less, in the land lie gave them,
and the cor ditions such as we see
to day were caused in the first
place by changing their land sys-
TEN and allotting, as you are now
advocating.
The greatest curse that could
befall the children of to-day would
be this allotment which you offer
as a remedy tor every evil. When
ever YOU make it possible for n
parent to barter and sell the land
upon which his child should live,
you deserve the censure of future
gcneratiohs-and if the prayers,
tears and curses of two million
homeless wanderers, together with
the pinched faces of starving in
noconts in the United States alone
is not warning enough for you,
your case is a desperate one in
deed. Divide your lands to-day
ami n twenty years less than one
hall will own it all; forty years
from to-day perhaps ten per cent. /
will own it. Then you and | with
our locks white with sixty or
seventy winters viii be wandering
on the earth in search Of just such |
spot as we once loved, but lost. /
Our boys will occupy (many of
them perhaps) the depots on cold 1
nights and shower curses upon I
our white hairs for depriving them
Of the right to a home. Is this /
overdrawn? 1t may be in your
case, but do you not know many |
around you who will fulfill it lit /
crally2 Can you afford to live |
wholly for yourself? If you adyo-
cate allotment, under protest, for |
God sake don't do it, for it either
bcspeaks weakness, cowardico or |
inefliciency, and either one is a
crime to your country. Let every /
true man put his shoulder to the |
wheel and let's get the old vehicle |
out of the ruts that are worn hub |
deep by the constant travelling Of /
the old wagon, loaded down with 1
old party tricksters who have no /
remedy to offer and have out-livcd 1
their usefulness-have nothing TO
offer Us but the usual drunken cry I
we're all right" Adopt a linan- I
cial policy that will appeal to
every honest man and give to
every owner Of the soil compc- /
tency and we will have 40 need of /
allotment.