The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1903-10-27
WHAT HEARST
saw ON TRIP
His New York Paper Com
mentS on His Journey.
SAYS PLEASANT THINGS
Took in Many Places and Saw
Much.

OF the trip of the Hearst party through
Oklahoma, the New York American, VIM
Hearst's paper, has the following:
The members of the congressional party
made a dash across the broad, rolling
territory of Oklahoma and south as fal
as Wynnewoed, in the Indian Territory
1t was series of ovations. At. every
place were found committees OF -wehconnC
ready TO take the visitors through the
town. ready 10 explain the advance made
in education, In business and profession
OF life
4 Everywhere the news Of the approach
Of the train had prepared the res dents
along the route to receive the guests of
Congressman Hearst with open arms
The visitors had no ned 70 ask questions.
The information they sought was brought
TO them by men capable Of debating the
question of admitting Oklahoma to state
hood and capable of giving reasons why it
should lie done.
The train passed through vast fields of
cotton. in which the pics1ers were busy 1t
entered city after city in the Gay $. run,
stopping a few minutes while the desegae
tions awaiting the train in each one made
q speech OF Welcome and presented the
leading men OF the place.
The great grain belt Of oklahoma was
seen by the visitors. FThe Santa Fe runs
for hundreds of miles through country
broken only by slight rises dat can hard
Iy be called hills The country roads well
kept, can be traced for miles IKE broad
ribbons over the llndulating prairies-
The farmers of Oklahoma do things on
q large scale They have no time for a
single pIow The small steel No. y plows
of the Middle states have no place in ok
Iahoma Tine is too valuable TO spend
It in turning q fuTrow at a time. Gang
plows do the work. 1t was a revelation
to the congressman to hear about this.
1T was as great a revelation TO hear that
apples peaches and all of the fruit crops
that are raised in the northern states
are also raised in oklahoma They heard
with surprise of the way farms of 5000
acres are handled here and how the crops
are harvested.
Alfalfa and miHet crops are handled
with the same case. Hand pitcffoi ks
are not used except on small farms of
perhaps Of 800 acres This would be called
large form in Massachusetts Or New
York, but it is regarded as small here
IN Oklahoma the hay or alfalfa is pitch
cd with a great horse pitchfo1k that
takes off the load in four forkfuis-
Most of the hay is stacked in the fields
where it is grown, and often pressed into
bales there for Shipment The shipment
of alfalfa is one of the great industries OF
this territory.
The women of the party were also inter-
ested. They listened with the greatest in
terest to the Information given by Bird S.
Mcclure. territorial delegate in congress,
who gave an outline of the great strides
made by Oklahoma in the last twelve
years, the entire life of the territory.
The cities seen by the visitors in Okla
bona and Indian Territory. the h'gh
grade of intelligence presented by the
citizens and the advance in education,
trade and internal wealth, as well as the
manner in which these territories have
Kept pace with the states in the intrdh
duction of new inventions ana modern
business methods. have all convinced the
TO statehood.
The question of whether they shall be
admitted singly or whether Indian Terri
tory and oklahoma shall be united as
one state does not materially enter into
this inquiry. 1t is a detail that can be
discussed later.
The main question that has been before
the members Of the congressional party
all through this tour is as to the fitness
Of the territories to become states and
the fitness oftheir people for self-govern--
men. This question, the visitors feel has
been answered in the affirmative in every
one of the territories.
In Oklahoma. especially the advance
made i'm twelve years. astonished the visit
ors. They had come prepared to hear Of :
schools. They were shown high schools.
normal schools and colleges. They had ex-
pected to find hotels in which they could
rest with comfort They found brick and
stone piles. with all Of the luxlFies of the
east Thev had LOOKED for reasonably
clean streets They found them in many
OF tho Oklahoma cities paved and severed
and lighted by gas ana electricity They
had looked FOR conveyances TO take them
from the train 10 points Of interest. They
found electric cars, broughams and auto
mobiles
They had expected to find in many in
stances men with trousers. thrust into
their boot tops. rude specimens Of FROM
tiersmen. with a lazy idea of what the
visit was about, and with stlIl hazier
ideas OF the sort of welcome appropr.ate F
10 the visitors. They found polished. edu-
Gated gentlemen, attired appropriately.