The Indianapolis journal., 1893-09-16
TIE END OF A CRUEL FARCE.

The country is TO be congratulated on
the fact that the Cherokee Strip will be
opened for settlement to-day. The
event will be accompanied by a great
deal of excitement and disorder, and by
many violent and outrageous acts. but
it will at least put an end to the farce Of
registering which has been going on for
several days past. and which has been
the cause of untold suffering and many
deaths. This registering business has
proved a stupendous blunder. 1t was
devised by the present administration
as an improvement upon or departure
from the methods of the last one. As
in the Hawaiian matter the President
and Secretary of State were chiefly
anxious to do something different from
what had been done by the last ad-
ministration, so in the opening
dent and Hoke Smith were
especially desirous of adopting different
regulations from those adopted IN open
ing Oklahoma. So they hit upon the
idea of prohibiting any person from en-
tering claim VINO had not previously
registered. The result has been that
great many thousands Of men have been
compelled to 60 through an utterly
needless ceremony, standing In lines
more than mile long day and night,
scorched by the sun and parched by hot
winds. thirsting, faintiag, struggling
and dying that whim of Hoke Smith
might be complied with. AS if to i'm
pose the hardest conditions possible on
the people seeking new homes, the reg
istration booths were located four miles
from shelter and water, at a point where
the hot winds showered binding
clouds of dust on the sweltering
thousands who were compelled to sub
nit to this senseless edict. At one
booth fifty men were overcome in one
day, Of whom six died. AT another.
twenty were sunstruck and two died.
At another there were twenty-five sun
strokes and two deaths, and at n fourth,
eighteen strokes and one death. This
was done to prove that this administra-
tion could originate new methods. On
the third day of this cruel farce all the
newspaper men along the border joined
in dispatch to Secretary Hoke Smith.
begging him to change the location of
the registry booths and put on a larger
force of clerks or abandon registration
at once, adding, "For the honor and
welfare of the administration, we beg
you to take immediate action.n The
cattlemen of the Southwest united in
the following dispatch to the Secretary
of the Interior:
We. the underslgned. cattlemen thor
Oughly posted upon the condition of affairs
fere, respectfully protest against the reg
istry system. seven thousand people are
now In line. and thousands arrive on each
train. A conflict between parties not reg
istered and troops is imminent unless the
sy stem is abandoned. The honor of your
administration ia being jeopsrdized. Com
mon humanity demands relief for honest
settlers desiring to enter the Strip. but W b o
cannot register. Immediate action is nec-
essary. Registration Is o farce.
No action was taken. The difficulties
of registration were 80 great that we
shall not be surprised to hear that thou
sands, unable to register before last
night, were debarred from entering the
promised land at all. The untold suf-
fering. the gross injustice and the scores
of deaths caused by this senseless pro-
ceeding are due I'd the egotism and in
competence of an administration which
wanted to do something original. Hap
PLY, the cruel farce is ended.