The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1899-10-27
SNALLEY N THE STRIP
Tells the Eastern Reader of a
Wonderful Land.
RICHEST FARMING SECTION
In the United States, Soon. If
Spared the Drouth.
RICHEST FARMING SECTION

! peared- SmalIey is famous correspon
= dent and his letter is dated Enid, and ap
pears as follows in the New York Even
ing Post:
All the Oklahoma towns situated with
in thirty-eight miles Of the Kansas Dor
: der are locally known as "Strip-towns,'
because they lie within the boundries o.
the old Cherokee Strip, which separated
old Oklahoma from Kansas. The StriI
was purchased by the government from
the Cherokee Nation, and thrown open tc
the occupancy of homestead settlers al
noon on September II, 1898. Within twenty
four hours every quarter section valuable
for farmink bore the claim stakes of an
actual settler. Towns sprang up here and
there with marvellous rapidity, and the
whole vast plain throbbed with human
life. The newcomers improvised what
sort of shelter they could, many living in
tents, others bringing wagon loads of
boards to erect rude shanties, and still
others building huts of sod or scooping
| dugouts in the hilsides.
The people were all poor for If they
had been well off they would have re-
manned in their old homes, and their on
! ly hope for the future was that the land
would yet yield good crops. 1t did not
| diappoint them. Good crops have been
! raised year after year, until now these ad
! venturous pioneers live in comfortable
/ houses, built Of lumber brought by rail
/ from Texas or Minnesota; drive to town
! in their own carriages, possess well-im-
proved farms, and as rule have lit
tie money in the bank. Nowhere else in
all the far West has there been such
rapid accumulation of wealth from agri-
culture, and the result is a well-satisfied
community, that is constantly improving
its conditions, and is already in the en-
joyment of all the essential comforts of
life. If there are no crop failures from
droukht, Oklahoma will soon become the
richest farming state in the Union. From
its geographical situation one would say
that drought would be due here as Of
ten as once in five or six years, but this
limit has already been passed, and as the
territory has SO many other exceptional
features it<may escape the chief scourge
of Kansas, Nebraska, and the two Dako-
tas.
The principal Strip towns are New
and Pond Creek and Enid, on the Rock
Island, and the largest Of them is Enid,
which claims a population of 5000 It
makes a great showing of business in
multitude of little stores one or two
stories high, some Of them new structures
of brick, and many the cheap wooden
shanties of the first merchants.
The settlers in the Cherokee Strip are
greatly interested in what Is called the
free-home question. In opening the Strip
Congress did not put the lands upon the
same footing as other public lands. 1t |
applied to them the homestead law, with |
its requirement of five years occupancy !
before title IS given to the settler, but as
the government had bought the lands
from the Indians, the settlers were also /
required to reimberse the Treasury by |
paying for their home farms from $125 |
to $3.50 per aero at the end of the five |
years, the amount varying with the var
ious AMOUNTS that the government had |
paid the Indian tribes. Before the five !
years had expired an enthusiastic move /
mentj was organized IN the Strip to per-
suade Congress TO remit the payments
from the settlers and place the land up
on The same footing as the other public
land. This movement very naturally
claimed the support of the territorial del
egates in Congress, who once succeeded
In getting a bill through the House, which
failed in the Senate. The amount of mon
ey involved is about $4,000 900. There is
no opposition to this free-home move
ment in the territory. and all of the poll
ticians are very earnest in its arvocacy.
OP %; IL
homa about lack of money to do business
which used to be so common in the West
and South; the banks all have deposits
largely in excess OF their capital, and
their discount rate has declined from
Per cent. a month to per cent. a month.
Farm mortgages now bear 10 per cent.
as rule. The banks do not pay interest
on deposits except on large sums left on
deposit for at least year, and in such
cases the rate Is only 2 per cent per an
mum. Lenders now seek borrowers. and
the old custom of exacting a commission
in addition to a high rate OF interest has
gone with other conditions Of new set
Element. The free silver question as an
active political issue has become g mere
Nobody talks about 1t, and
no one would listen patiently If anybody |
were disposed 10 talk. 1t is impossible 20 !
keep any humbug about money alive in
4 community where a great majority OF
he voters have raised themselves from
poverty to comfort and independence In
/ few years time.
The politics of Oklahoma were brought !
7 from Kansas. That state has always .
bounded in politicians. and hundreds of
hem who saw no prospect Of getting Of
Ice in their old homes hocked over the !
inc into the neighboring territory with .
he great rush TO the Cherokee Strip
Among them were many Populists. who
ecured for their peculiar notions an in r
Mediate currency here. They fused with ,
he Democrats in 1885 and defeated for
collection the popular Republican dele :
.ate in Congress, Dennis Flynn. Mr.. .
flynn waited TWO years and made the ,
ace again in lS9S. winning by a majority !
I nearly 1900, as a result both OF the r
lose personal canvass he made and OF =
ne drift Of opinion away from free silver. ?
he PopUlists and Democrats combined I Fl
an figure out majority in the territory =
ut Popuhsm viii surely share the fate 7
has met in Kansas and viii repidly de
ategrate as political force.
Cklohoma is pretty good cotton coun- ,
~, lying, as il does, in the same lsti-
ude IS Tennessee, but there was not as .
inea cotton raised this year as last. 8
rom the fact that the farmers had ex-
erieneed great difficulty IN setting the :
rop picked In fact many fields were not s
licked at all and the farmers who TINS
Isl their cotton crops for the want OF z
aoor in the picking season went back - !
7heat and corn this year. Wheat Is /
ound TO be the sta-la nah. - -