The Birmingham age-herald., 1907-11-03

agricultural community, and has provid- ed for itself a form of government so progressive that the conservatives of the older states have gasped for breath. Ok lahoma has been demanding statehood al- most from the moment the crack of the noon day guns started the race for homes across the line of the first Oklahoma op- ening on April 22, 1889. After 16 years her cry was heard, and Congress passed the enabling act and directed that delegates be chosen by the people to assemble in convention and form constitution.
 The Indian Territory had never before had an opportunity to vote, although Ok lahoma had been electing a delegate to Congress and members of the territorial legislature. But for the first time the party lines were drawn all over the new state, and the democrats elected 100 dee- gates to the constitutional convention, leaving the republicans with but 12-'the apostles" they were called by local poli- ticians. The enabling act required the in- corporation of some features in the con- stitution which were most unusual, for instance, that the sale of liquor should be prohibited in the Indian Territory DOT tion of the state for 21 years The con vention incorporated all the features re- quired by Congress, and then went forth and made many new departures. In con- sequence MT. Roosevelt said that his pri- vate opinion of the constitution wasn't fit to print; MT. Bryan said 1t is the greatest constitution ever written; and the people tof Oklahoma ratified it by d majority of 100000 although the demo- cratic ticket was elected by less than half of that majority. At the same time the people voted for statewide pronibi- ton, and the saloon is thing of the past in Oklahoma--gone with the buffaloes, the n0uhpU tho tba n, ,iar into the limbo of things that were and are not.
 Oklahoma's first state election and the primaries of the dominant democratic party have given the politicians some thing to talk about. The cry against "carpetbaggism" was the slogan which rallied the voters to the support of the constitution. Under the old way many of the Oklahoma officials and all of those in the Indian Territory were from other sections. At one time there were no less than 94 citizens of one congressional dis trict in Illinois on the federal pay roll in the Indian Territory. The people didn't like long range government. Probably half of the population of the new state is southern. Southern states are all dcm- ocratic in politics and all intensely op- posed to "carpetbaggism." But the man
 
 new state is c. N. Haskell from Ohio. He would be looked upon as a carpetbagger in some southern states. but not so in Oklahoma. But then it is true that few southern states have had experience with "carpetbaggers' of their own political faith.
 The two United States senators chosen in the democratic primaries are as differ ent as men can be different. Robert Lee Owen is an aristocrat of the aristocrats. In his veins flows the blood of the two most aristocratic peoples of America the virginians and the Cherokees. He is one-eighih Indian and a member of the tribe. but he was born and educated in Virginia He is lawyer of great abil- ity and has distinguished himself by earn ing a fee of $15O0O0 in single case. He is reserved and dignified, and is of that type of politician known as "conserva- tive thinker
 The other senator chosen is T. P. Gore, He is the first totally blind man ever elected to the Senate. He lost his sight when but a boy in Mississippi He declares that when he left his home. a penniless blind boy, he told his mother that he would never come back until he was a United States senator. His vault ing ambition will be realized as soon as the legislature of the new state convenes,