Tulsa daily world. [volume] (Tulsa, Indian Territory [Okla.]) 1905-1919, 1906-04-16
A STRANGER
OBSERVATIONS
]. v. BERRY WRITES HIS IDEAS
OF INDIAN TERRITORY.
TULSA TO The FRONT
Promulgates Views Not Often EXPIRES
sed and Sees from Standpoint
Not Often Occupied.

The following article is written spe
cially for the World by }. Y. Berry.
newspaper man of world wide expert
ence. now visiting in TusIa, and VIII,
for over twenty years was statistica
expert for the Associated Press. Mr.
Berry is a great traveller, was witt
the [. s. forces before Santiago anC
sent the famous dispatch from the As
sociated Press dispatch boat "Dan
dy.' He has been in Porto Rico anC
but recently returned from Panama
His experience. and observations il
Indian Territory are valuable, and
the World hopes to produce more such
articles as the following before he
leaves the city:
In 1890 the population of the In
dian Territory was not considered i'm
portant enough to be included in the
lists of the United States census. In
1900 the census enumerators found
over $4,000 living in the very heart
Of the Republic, covering in area 3D.
600 square miles, with only such sub
divisions as marked the land which
separate the tribes of Indians.
BY using the ratio of increase by
decades, experts can estimate the pop
ula,ion Of any geographical division
uf the country with almost unerrlng
accuracy, but while that is true of old
divisions, many of which have had
their people counted since 1870, it will
net apply to this section. The only
possible estimate that can be made OF
the probable number living in this ter
ritory in 1910, is the one based upon
present conditions, and the number
which came here in the last decade.
When il is considered that the in
crease in the Republic population
during the present decade will be
something like 100000, consider
able more than half the number living
here at the time of the civil war, then
the pressure to take possession and
own this, one of the most valuable
and desirable portions of the country,
can be realized.
Three hundred and fifty thousand
nersons came into this Indian country
between the count of 1890 and 800;
this. too. in spite of government res
trictions and Indian opposition. If
twice that number arrive between the
next and last Z. S. counts, the popul-
alton four years from now will be
100000. If the restrictions are re-
moved from the Indian land, who
can doubt but three times will come,
and this portion of the new state VIII
have l.442.000 inhabitants, which.
based on the present apportlonment,
would entitle her to seven congress
men. with large decimal over.
| have been over large portion OF
the territory, and the thing that I'M
pressed me more than any other is the
way urban population has anticipated
the suburban. | have found towns
and even cities waiting for the devel-
opment of the country surrounding
them. There has never before IN the
history of the nation been section
where the town was built before the
farmer had plowed his field; on the
contrary, the hamlet grew into a VII
lage, and possibly into city, as the
needs of the community demanded.
The farmer makes a living by culti-
yatiny the soil, which by planting with
seed. he is enabled to raise a large
portion of his food and buy as many
implements and as many comforts as
bis surplus products will warrant. The
citizen who lives in town exists on
the margin between cost and selling
price, of trade transactions or man.
ufactures. But where there are no
farmers. no manufacturers, no min
erals, which might be dug up and sold,
there is no excuse for town exist
ing. There are many such towns IN
the territory today, built for specu-
lative purposes, by spectators who
hope to unload them on somebody.
Tulsa is one of the fortunate cities
of the Indian country. II Is rail-
road center, which will make it a dis
tributing point for a large area OF