Daily Arizona silver belt., 1907-03-17
Lo, THE POOR INDIAN
But He Made the White Man Sit Up and Take Notice in the Okla
 homa Convention

Some fairly reliable reports have fin ally reached Washington from oklaho. ma s constitutional convention, and they chiefly illustrate new quality in the character of "Lo, the Poor In dianf' More interesting even than the expected color line legislation, temper anee legislation, and the effort to re. strict corporations is the fashion in which l.. P I. has put it all over the white brother in the game of politics.
 To Indian Territory was allotted ffty-tive delegates to this constitutional convention, to Oklahoma fifty-fve dele gates, and to the Osagc Nation two delegates. The whites of Oklahoma were settlers who had been educated from their youth up in primaries and nominating conventions, and territorial elections had kept them in training. while Lo had none of these advantages. 1t therefore was natural that the Okla homa delegates should have begun to 'aucus weeks before the convention, planning the distribution of the offices, committees, and the good things gen orally that are passed around in con. stitutional conventions. as we'll as leg islatures. They gathered in Oklahoma City and glibly discussed the task of
 organizing the untutored red man for his good and their profit
 The untutored red man was shock tvhen ha orr;vad for ho ha1 koap oIu ,ated at Harvard. Princeton. Cornell, Michigan or Chicago, and he wore tai. lor.made clothes and smart linen and the latest thing in searfs that had cached St. Louis, For the 'Indians v If the territory are rich beyond aver age ayarice. because a paternal govern ment has protected them in their prop srty until if has reached boom values. The farmers. as the Oklahoma dele gates called them, were heads of banks. directors of railroads, promoters of gas and electric companies and owners of farm mortgages. The untutored Indian had put forward his best man.
 Oklahoma, on the other hand, select ing delegates according to the best tra- ditions of American politics, had picked thin whiskers for honesty, windy little lawyers for oratory, and few bartend- ers here and there to lead in such man ipulation as might be necessary.
 The two neutral delegates from the Osage Nation looked over the two crowds and threw their deciding votes with their fellow-Indians Some of the Oklahoma delegates liked the company in which they found themselves so lit- tie, or were so upset at being overlook ed in the planned distribution of the pie that they sided with the enemy.
 The white brother had planned to give Indian Territory few ianitor ships. That is precisely what he got The untutored red man hogged the whole business-presiding officer, clerk, sergeant-at-arms, and the chairmanships of all important committees.
 But the end was not yet. The con stitutional convention was to cut up the new state into counties. The Okla homa delegates had made some plans about that. But they sat aghast and watched Lo carve up Indian Territory to give him the greater number of counties and consequently a majority of the legislature, and then turn about and rearrange the counties of Oklahoma for his own purposes.
 The white man who represented Bea- yer county in Oklahoma roared and kicked most loudly over these things. Four towns in the county were contest ing for the honor of being the county seat. The politically ignorant Indian established Beaver eounty's seat on a farm in the middle of the county and named it Buffalo, because, as one In dian gravely said, the only public i'm provemcnt visible in this new metropo- lis was buffalo wallow.--Washington dispatch to New York Times.