Evening star., 1903-11-23
Railway Building. .

! oklahoma leads in railway building, hav-
| ing completed over 1000 miles of new rail
road. and on March had over 200 miles
| Of main track and grade completed The
| assessed value of the eight lines of railway
| is 81. 7.s51. 1877. The territorial tax levy was
| GA mills. and the assessed value of taxable
property was sS4, 1344 returned by the
| assessors. which was on a basis of about
| ne-fourth actual value. The territorial In
| debtedneSs is ony Si6l IG6. - There were
| 7,451.91S acres of land returned for taxa
| ton.
| Oklahoma has 232 territorial banks, hav-
| ing combined capitalization OF S2,O26,33o,
i with deposits of over 81 ,0G0 G1.sand an av-
| erage reserve of - per cent, being nearly
| four times the legal requirement. There are
! 70 national banks. whose combined capital
amounts to s. 79250O; the deposits therein
| are over S10U0, 600, and they have an aver
! age reserve Of 20 per cent.
| There are 1913 licensed dentists, 403 regis
| tered pharmacists and l,2O0 practicing ply
| sCians
| oklahoma has 32G prisoners kept under
| contract in the Kansas penitentiary, at a
cost to the territory of s43742,62. There
| were 400 insane cared fer under contract,
| at a cost of $74,909.17 last year: also 81 deaf
mutes cared for and educated, at a cost Of
| $15.54S.53
| There ae 243 weekly newspapers pub
| lished in the territory. The public law Ii
| brary. located at Guthrie, Is valued a $50
| 900. The Oklahoma National Guard is com
posed of 9i5 enlisted men. There is a church
membership of nearly 100, 900. There are 60
| Touring mills, whose combined capacity is
| over 10000 barrels per day: $50 grain eleva-
| tors, having combined capacity of 3525, 900
| bushels. This years wheat crop was 36 900 =
UOO bushels, and the corn is eStima ted about
the same as last year-65 900 800 bushels.
''Oklahoma's commerce amounted to over
21,oO0 carloads of various commodities ship
ped into. and over 81, 600 carloads shipped
out of the territory.
There has been phenomenal growth of
all cities and towns indicated by statis-
| tics given
| There are undeveloped resources In the
| immense gypsum deposits, which are esti-
mated to be over 125 600 0GD,0oJ tons: also in
mountains of red granite and limestone
beds.
| cant land subject to homestead"
In connection with statehood Gov. Fergu-
son states:
Statehood
oklahoma is entitled to statehood-en-
titled to 1t now. There are in the territory
65000O intelligent American citizens. who
are deprived of the right of self-govern-
ment. conservative estimate of the
wealth of Oklahoma places it at $780,
| 100000. There are seven educational in
stitutfons of higher learning under the
control of the territory, besides numerous
| high schools and colleges under the control
of religious denominations. Our people are
| in every respect entitled to that which is
! dear to the heart of every progressive
American-the right to govern themselves
Against this proposition there can be no
logical objection. Okla ahoma has the intel
| lect, the wealth, the moral force the en-
erSy. the natural resources, the develop-
ment already achieved, and the promise of
a splendid future sufficient to justly entitle
her to careful consideration and congress
sfonal action. No logical reason can he
| urged against her early admission into the
sfsterhood of States.''