The Guthrie daily leader. [volume] (Guthrie, Okla.) 1893-1996, 1904-01-09
5 q O Q Q o o Q o O o o O o IA Q !.

Mr. Chairman. Members OF the ok
lahoma Bar Association and Citizens
of Oklahoma Two million fifty-six
Thousand acres is the measure of Ok
lahoma's present public land endow-
ment, and since seventeen-twentieths
of this is expressly reserved for the
support of education ! shall feel iusti-
fled in referring to the entire grant
as the school lands of Oklahoma.
Two million fifty-six thousand acres
on which a gain or loss of less than
fifty cents an acre means a gain or
loss of a million dollars to Oklahoma,
and for which a permanent public pol
icy is yet to be shaped, is an object of
contemplation that may well demand
the attention and the earnest consid-
Grafton of the greatest and the least
of the citizens of Oklahoma.
To the solution of this question must
be brought the highest qualities of
constructive statesmanship this ter
ritory has to offer, and serch for the
light that Is to guide us is not to be
made the mere grounds of party ex-
pediency and present advantage but
among the eternal principles of right,
truth. justice and common sense with
out which no question has ever yet
been settled right
] wish first of all to congratulate
the people of Oklahoma that this ques-
tion has at last come into its own
and has established itself in their
minds as first in rank of the problems
they have to meet and solve. Two
years ago so great were public ignor-
ance and Indifference on this subject
that l should have feared to see the
question of the disposition of these
lands submitted to popular vote. To
day there is nothing I more greatly
desire or on which / shall more earn
estly insist
With the wide spread and increas.
ing demand now springing up for the
right of direct individual ballot on
this question and with the wider
knowledge of the possibilities of a
leasing system into which territorial
administration, with increasing wis
dom of management, has educated the
people of oklahoma has come the
passing of my fears that we may per-
nit organized self interest TO make
such havoc with our school land en-
dowment as the older states have
suffered with theirs. | now know that
the present pending statehood meas
ure will not on this point satisfy pub
lie opinion in Oklahoma, because It
fails to provide for direct ballot by
the people on the sale of the land and
because it leaves the determination
of the great ~ 5stion of keep or SELF
to the tendel rercies Of the legisla-
ture.
we are not able to forget that
eighteen months ago the lessees in
territorial convention passed and pub
lished resolutions TO force the sale
of these lands TO themselves as raw
lands" and declared with a vigor cal
culated to strike terror to the stoutest
hearted politician eve pledge our
selves to the support of such men o
the territorial legislature as will do
all in their power to bring the school
lands on the market in accordance
with the above resolutions" And Il
may be that with this threat in mind
the State Capital, not without knowl
edge of the subtle operations of leg
islatures, was recently moved to cry
out. "who does not believe thai they
(the lessees) would control the first
legislature and create a Legislature
that would sell the lands?"
70 what else ] would ask does the
increasing length, scope and detail
of the state constitution point except
to the fact that the people fear he
legislatures of their own creation anC
having so often had their will defeat
ed by them thus put limitations OF
their powers?
Two years ago in a public address
I said and printed on page 81 of M
school land booklet, Men have beer
in Washington during the present ses
sion of congress whose purpose il Il
TO get a sale clause in the statehood
bill giving the lessees preferenc,
rights in the sale. If then the featur'
of competitive bidding can be lknocke,
out and method Of appraisemen
adopted the whole thing may be pret
ty safely regarded as in the hand
of the lessees." And I say now tha
If that is not a perfect description o
the school land provisions Of the pres
ent pending statehood bill then an
incapable of appreciating the effec
Of the English language
I therefore look TO see our presen
delegate and his Republican friends
as they value The future of the Repul
lican party. make such changes in tn
pending statehood measure as vii
satisfy this increasing demand for
direct ballot and also afford a reason
able period for popular discussion {
the subject
Turning back a few pages of histor
TO discover what blunders Oklahom
should avoid we find Ohio's grant {
million and a half acres, with n
constitutional protection, becomin
the prize of organized plunder On
l..sEa,