Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1900-07-13
The Prospective State Of Oklahoma.

hood of Arizona, New Mexico and
Oklahoma, leads us to believe that a
trio of new stars will be added to GU,
flag at no distant day. giving the Union
4S states. The territories of Arizona
and New Mexico, those descendants OF
Spain in the far Southwest are well
knewnto all, but few of us in the East
really understand the extent and grow
ing Importance of Oklahoma, that
staunch Republican territory which de-
family holds up the banner of the party
north of Texas, rock ribbed in its De-
mocracy. The visit of Governor Roose-
welt to the Rough Rider reunion in
Oklahoma has recently called national
attention to the territory which was it
self settled by rough riders on horse
back. and on the jump. laying out town
sites with the lariat when the strip was
thrown open to the world.
A recent writer in the New York Mail
and Express. tells us many interesting
facts about Oklahoma and shows that
there is much in the territory for the
country to be proud of. 1t is the latest
and most flourishing theatre for the ex-
ploitation of native American enter
prise. There is no state and there is
no territory in the Union with so pure
ly American population. On the wide
/ mr. aspiA nd has 40 h, hra, yts,I,
winding creeks of Oklahoma, the or
ganiZing genius of New England and
| the venturesome and restless spirit of
| the middle West have taken up again
the burdens and privations and the
| high mission of the pioneer. There are
few such romances of highly cultivat-
ed people leaving their comfortable
| homes to make fresh conquest of the
wild. taking their hardships lightly and
turning reverses into song as are
written in the lives Of these free-spirit-
| ed, stout hearted, masterful men of the
Mistletoe territory.
The very laws they have framed are
eloquent of strange conditions. They
include ordinances making it a crime to
set prairie fires. requiring the registry
| of the births Of animals, requiring the
registry of cattle bands. providing for
county inspection of hides, fixing 4
bounty for coyote scalps establishing n
permanent grand seal of the territory,
prohibiting Indian medicine men from
practicing, appOrtioning Indian lands
| in severalty. permitting range cattle to
enter the state and feed. untaXed fos-
terng irrigation. requiring Indians
with plural wives to make choice OF
one squaw and renounce the others,
and making the mistletoe the terri
| torial emblem.
I From the first day of its settlement
, Oklahoma has been the record territory
noon of September 16, 1893. the Chero-
| kee strip was without legal white in
habtant BY shutdown of the same day
| it had better title to admission into
| the Union than three states whose
stars were on the flag. At noon of April
%. 1889, the jack-rabbit hoped over the
| site of Kingfsher. By nightfall the
tented roofs of a city of 10000 souls
| dotted the prairie and within four
months afterward five daily news
| papers and six banks We're running,
and the city had founded water
| works plant and chartered street rail-
way and electric light companies. To-
day the territory is state in extent,
population. ambition. Its area Is great
er than Indiana's, and its estimated
population of 900 is $1,000 above
| North Dakota's, 100000 above Della
wares twice Idaho's, four times Wyom-
ing's. six times Nevada's and a trife
under Vermont's. With a white popu-
| lation about the same as the Trans
walls it has fifty times as much land
under tillagc, on which it grows crops
of Kaffir corn. wheat, oats, beans and
sorghum of an annual value of 100000
600
The platform adopted by the Repub-
lican national convention in Philadel-
phia. remarks: 1--WE favor home rule
for and the early admission to state
hood of the territories of New Mexico,
Arizona and Oklahoma The argu-
ment for this pronouncement is found
in this declaration from the territorial
Republican platform of 1894: We de-
mand statehood for Oklahoma in the
| quickest and best way it can be OBJ
tanned. submitting that a territory con-
tanning $50 900 stalwart intelligent peo-
pie and 500, 0OO, 900 of taxable wealth is
lentitled to immediate 5self-govern-
ment." This claim for recognition Will
probably be none the less favOrably
entertained by Republican Congress
because the Republican party in the
territory has repeatedly and decisively
| beaten every combination of its oppo-
nents in the last election having more
| than O OO0 votes tO snare in q total OF