The Daily Ardmoreite. [volume] (Ardmore, Okla.) 1893-current, 1909-06-06

averaged a net yearly increase of
one hundred and siXty-four per cent
per year with an ever increasing
maximum and that property is i'm.
Creasing In value now In Ardmore
and Oklahoma cities generally more
rapidly and steadily than ever be-
fore
Our citizens will remember that
in a recent speech. delivered here
AT the court house not quite
month ago. State Grologist Chas. -
Gould, gave out the results Of his
researches concerning all of the fore
going, and by his maps and data
showed where lay the various min
eral bodies referred to-. astonishing
his audience with their extent and
richness, aud proving Ardmore TO
be- the most favored city of all the
southwest In all necessary resources
to building a great city
Having satisfied himself thoroughly
as to conditions. Fitzgerald in due
time dug up Tom Norman. which
he FitzgeraldD terms the greatest as.
set among men, and best and squarest
among lawyers that not only Ardmore
but Oklahoma has got, and then both
got busy and followed a succession of
conferences with 'he city fathers In
which efforts were made to get the
franchise to build and operate a street
railway. Then came into the field
other equally shrewd observers. but
perhaps not as daring and brilliant
fighters or inanipulatorS as Fitzgerald
The Ardmore Ice, Light a Power Com.
pany, the First National Bank, and
the Lemps Brewery interests of St
Louis. which virtually constituted the
ArdmOre Ice. Light a. Power Company.
and followed "A succession of brushes"
between the rival forces. in which
Fitzgerald succeeded In mastering to
his support the two local papers and
popular will of Ardmorc. but as he
says. the others had the inside track
for time and trimmed him some.
securing under the United States
laws as then in force in Indian Ter
ritOry an extensive franchise of such
hberality as no city has been known
elsewhere to dare grant to- any cor.
poration. For instance giving the
exclusive right to build street rail.
ways in the IS streets as they are
now or may be for the next fifty
years, giving like rights To build over
all the city's parks. streets and 9th.
er properties, and to appropriate as
much as the street railway might see
tit of the city's parks and lakes, for
amusement purposes, allowing the
street railway to run even steam cars
II II saw fit. over all its lines and ex-
empting the street railway company
from taxation for four years. Then
followed succession of attacks on
the council and franchise by the in
dignant people of Ardmore, for so Civ
ing away the citys rights. and which
1t was suspected were inspired by
fitzgerald. Then also Fitzgerald
was suspected of getting busy at the
financial end in St Louis when sud
denly came up the great financial and
industrial panic of 1907.
Fitzgerald was up IN Iowa angaG.
ed in coal land operations the day
the panic started in New York. He
went Immediately to Saint Louis. and
soon after to Oklahoma and got busy,
as he expresses IT, and within a
couple OF weeks the franchise he
led in denOuncing. with the half con
structed street railway in Ardmore
was in his possession Then he took
hu lHt HhlltT Oh tne luIlneT eN
tension of its lines with Hon. Lee
Cruce. W. A. Ledbetter, S. T. Bledsoe
and other large real estate owners
and the ablest lawyers of Oklahoma.
possessing the most desirable real es.
tate for city addition purposes around
Ardmore-and strong with data and
statistics showing the great value
that electric street railways develop
in property within their sphere. cold
bloodedly asked them for onehalf of
all their real estate which he pro
posed to build the electric lines
through for n straight mile across