The Daily Ardmoreite. [volume] (Ardmore, Okla.) 1893-current, 1900-02-26
ECHOES OF rnE CONVENTION.
Views OF as Outsider ON the Meeting
and Its Results.

bg AOAaoWAuk AEOuA b0C 4SAAAnS 3NOWo
of Sunday presents a very clear idea
Of the constituent elements which
made mp the convention, of the tenn
per of the delegates and the views
of an outsider 90 to the business of
the demands made and the results
which might follow their granting by
congress. 1t says:
The convention made history. Its
work marks an epoch in the Indian
Territory, and q movement was put
on foot there that will result in q
change of laws, or at least change
in the operation of laws in the Ter
ritory, that will innure to the benefit
of both the Indian and the white
man. The shackles will be struck
from territorial enterprise and in
dustry; from territorial farms and
resources, and instead of stegnation
of business; instead of q stay on the
spirit of progress; instead of back
ward movement, retrogression OF
commercial and industrial enterprise
there will be q grand forward move
meni, and a country that is now un-
der the ban of uncertain and unsta-
BILE conditions and operation of law
will become one of the most prosper
GUS in the entire southwest.
That the Indian Territory is not
now developed-brcught into the
highest state Of cultivation, progress
and prosperity-is not the fault of
the Territory as to the resources. Its
tillabe lands are as rich as the valley
of the Nile. and everything that can
be raised in temperate climate can
be and is raised there in the most
bountiful profusion. Besides corn,
wheat, oats, cotton, hay and sorghum
there can also very profitably be
raised tobacco, rice, broomcorn,
fax, hemp, sugarcane, peanuts, po-
tatoes and ali kinds of vegetables.
Beside this, the country has the
richest coal fields in the southwest,
the richest oil fields, wholly undevel-
oped, and beyond this, there is known
to be copper ore, iron and lead ore
all of which is in a wholly undevel-
oped state, and which will never be
developed until there is a change in
conditions in the Territory-stability
of land titles, home government that
will shape the destinies OF the coun
| try and it's people and assure protec
tion alike to labor and capital.
Every class of citizen was repre-
sented at the South McAlester con
vsntion, not alone the lawyer, th'
merchant, the mine operator, thu
ONCE holder, the preacher, farmer
and stockman, but rs we'll there were
Indian citizens, some of them full
bloods, some of them from the hills
untutored in letters and unleRrneC
in literature, and others of thel
tribal brethren who are graduates o
Yale and Harvard, with all the pol
ished eloquence of the civilized, ed
ucated white man.
These men of learning and thei
unlearned brethren were not ther'
for any furtherance of their politica
or private ambition, but they wer,
there for the purpose of appealing
to the governing power in cOngres
for q redress of wrongs, for q lifting
and breaking of the shackles, ant
for just and equal government witt
other portions of the United States
| 1t was the sentiment of these peo
ple-these citizens by birth and blood
the rightful owners and heritors o
the lands-that they be given al
even start in the race of progres
and development, and that they hav
such remedial legislation as will al
low them to buy or sell lands as ma.
suit their convenience; to rent o
lease, trade and barter as occasion
demands. without the superintend
ence of the secretary OF the interio
and the interference of federal off
cials.
| 4ACy soy luGy WaAt " 20 IL 90 AACA
with . right to govern themselves a
the whites govern themselves. to owl
in Geveralty their lands without it'll
restrictions, and without the hamp
ering clauses of tenure that hav
been proposed by the federal govern
ment and its officials. They want t
be free.men instead of governmen
wards.
These are men of intelligence
highly civilized as any who boast tn
pure blood of the Anglo-Saxon AM
40 highly educated as the best Amer
can universities can educate them
They know what they want and VIII
they want it. They are ready now t.
have their lands segregated and t
join hands with their white brethrel
and 60 onward in the 'Iarch of pro
gress and development.
The demands of the coz Sention a
they appear in the revolutions adopt
ed do not overstep the bounds O