The Minneapolis journal., 1905-10-09
Cheap Fuel in Exhaustless Quantity ando
High Grade Attracts Industrial Enter.
prises to the Great Southwest.
VARIED MINERAL, TIMBER
=. AND CROP RESOURCES
BY HERBERT vANDERHOOF.
Special Correspondence.

J BY HERBERT vANDERHOOF.
Special Correspondence.
= SOUTH M'ALEsTER, I. T., Oct 2-This
city may with propriety be called the Coal
City. What steel is to Pittsburg, beer to
Milwaukee, and flour to Minneapolis, coal
is to South McAlester and the other towns
OF this section. 1t may amaze many peo-
pie who have only limited amount Of
information about the resources Of Indian
territory to know that here is one of the
richest coal fields in the country, and that
while the field has only been partially
opened and worked, the annual output is
now somewhere between four and five mill
lion tons year.
South McAlester and its sister city,
McAlester, occupy the center of the Choc-
taw Nation coal fields, which comprise
over one million acres in extent. Nat
urally, the greater part of the inhabitants
Of this city, which has about 10, 900 popu
1ation, consists of miners or of men
having connection with mining interests.
But one will look in vain for the condi-
tion of poverty and squalor that is gen.
orally the condition in mining towns of
the North and East. Hero the reverse
is the rule ."'' "a"
The miner here Is we'll paid workman,
and he can afford to live we'll and does so.
The net earnings of men in the mines
range from $95 to $125 a month, and many
make even more. This is almost double
what the miners of the North and East
can earn, but here the miner is power.
In order to induce experienced men to
come to this country it was necessary for
the mining companies to make induce
ments In higher wages, and as labor has
always been scarce, and the companies
have never been able to get as many
hands as they can employ, wages have
always remained high.
Attractions for Employees.
Because Of this scarcity of labor the
companies were also obliged to make
more than the usual preparations to at
tract employees and offer conditions more
favorable than elsewhere. Towns are
laid off with wide streets, and the houses
are surrounded with we'll fenced yards
and gardens. The miners come from al
most every state in the Union, and there
are also a large number from foreign
countries, notably from Great Britain.
The rate Of wages paid is settled annually y
Tor the current year, and this maintains
an amicable feeling between the employ
ers and the workmen, and prevents lock-
outs and strikes.
Within the next ten or twenty years
the greatest Industrial DEVELOPMENT in
the history of this country is destined to
take place in Indian territory. Hereto
fore the development of the country has
been gfeatfyeretarded because of the fact
that all land was held by the Indians as
j people and could not be sold. By the
scheme of allotment, which is now being
carried out, and which will be completed
early in 1906 the lands will be divided
among the Indians, and large amount
left over for sale. In spite Of these ad-
verse conditions manufacturing indus
tries have fourished. The last federal
i statistics show that there are about 800
; manufacturing establishments in the ter
ritory, as compared with twenty ten years
ago. The value of the'annual product OF
these establishments was placed at
$4,000,O0O annually from an investment oil
less than $3,00O,000
Industries Sure to Come.
Mills and factories are the economical
adjuncts to a coal field. Where a seam
o. coal is found, there a factory of i'm.
portanCe proportiOnate to the output O.
the mine is erected, and when the magni
tude of the coal fields is considered tho
future position of the territory in the
manufacturing world cannot be overesti
mated. Especially Is this true when tn
great resources of the country, aside
from the fundamental energy which ths
| coal beds insure, are considered. Will
over one million acres of commercial tim
Der, not one foot of which can be cut unit
the affairs of the Indians are wound up
an annual output from live stock farm
worth $15,000,0O0, a cotton crop wortl
$8,000,000, six million bushels of oats an
four million bushels of wheat, there Cal
be little doubt but that within a few year
ten thousand spindles, saws, and cylin
ders will be humming harmonious tun
OF prosperity in the cotton mills, gins
saw, and grist mills and factories O
~ -
tory.
Socially, Indian territory is surprise
The mind of the average American bark
back at the mere mention Of the India
land to the days Of his early literature
the tales of the Leather Stocking countr
where blankets and moccasins were muc
in evidence and the implements of wa
much in demand; where, the noble re
mans conversation, replete with boast
full "heaps," filled the very atmospher
with a spirit OF foreboding and every lea
rustic was taken as sinister omen.
It Is hard to overcome such early i'm
pressions. 1t is hard to realize that tn
blanket Indian has gone with the buffal
and that the civilization of the white ma
has extended to embrace not only the re
mans land, but even the red man himsel
Transformat ton of the Re dina N.
Nevertheless such is the condition. A
the old traditions have been discarde
and nothing of his former state of sa'
agery remains, unless 1t be, perhaps, h
woeful lack Of civilized energy. At bo
tom, wealth and the resultant educ;
tional advantages may be said to be tt
cause of this transformation. Mo
money per capita has been devoted to II
education of the Indian than to any 9th
race of people on earth, and the result
a law abiding gentleman Of wealth,