The Daily Ardmoreite. [volume] (Ardmore, Okla.) 1893-current, 1910-10-18
POWERFUL ARGUMENT
BY THE INDIAN ORATOR
WILLIAM A. DURhNT TELLS
WHAT McNEAL MEANS By
MORE BUSINESS

. t4uI1tuL - Il Ndilii'' was O'iN ''
The hundreds of strong sentences III
the address of William A. Durant at
tho district court room last night
/ The audience was not a large one,
but it Was large considering that
Banum & Bailey's big show was in
town. Durant spoke for an hour or
more and his speech was replete
with wholesome sentences like the
one above Durant is a Choctaw In
dian, he has been closely connected
he has served his people in an Of
with his tribal government for years,
fetal capacity and he has been hon
ored by his countrymen every time
he has asked for an honor. He was
a factor in the writing of the state
constitution. he has been a factor
in writing laws that vitalized the
constitution. he has given his ener-
gy and support to every measure
that has been devised for the labor
ing and farming interests of the state,
he is one of the people and has
record in the Choctaw Legislature
AMI in the state Legislature that no
man can successfully attack. He has
been straight with the people. He has
their confidence In the primary cam
paign he was the most forceful speak
! er in the Murray following and he
has a vast number of close friends
/ in every section of the stats
The speaker at length dwelt upon
the campaign Of Misrepresentation in
dulged in by the republicans. He told
the old argument against democracy
was that 1t was a party that objected
TO everything, that it was not a
pushing progressive party that took
the initiative in legislation. But their
arguments are changed now. The
democrats took hold of this state,
they took it without improvements,
they built school houses and roads
and bridges and paid off the heavy
, court costs which they fell heir to
from the federal government and
now the republicans score the dem
ocrats for running an expensive gov
ernment Mr.. Durant took county af-
ter county under republican rule and
showed their taxes to be higher than
under democratic rule in other coun-
ties. Oklahoma state taxes were com
pared with other states and he said
these arguments by the republicans
We're purely political buncombe, thai
Oklahoma was not over-taXed consid-
ering that 1t is a new state, that
this side began with nothing and had
to set up for housekeeping during
the first state administration.
Mr.. Durant then took up the gov
ernment's method of dealing with the
Indians and he showed how the ne
gro had been favored and the Indian
had been neglected and said he did
not see how a Chickasaw or Choctay
.
Indian could be a republican. that
they ought to resent being worse
treated than the negro. The negro
was allowed to buy additional lands
and the government knew the negro
did not have the money nor the en-
ergy to get II and II opened up an
other great avenue for the work of
land CRATER in Oklahoma.
| The speaker took McNeal and
| showed him up to the public. He
showed how he had fought the bank
guaranty law under which no depos-
itor had ever lost a penny, he show
ed how he had tried to make the
state warrants sell below par, he
showed how the democrats had TAX
en- up the old territory Indebtedness,
| that was drawing six per cent in
terest and paid it off with money
that was borrowed at four per cent.
He told how the democrats had pro-
| tected the credit of the state and
/
way the country would have no agri-
cultural colleges. no common schools,
no roads and bridges no sanitation In
the cities and no protection TO the
health of the people. The republi-
cans have always boasted that theirs
was the party that does things and
they are fighting the democrats now
for doing what they claim to do in
their platform pledges. The people
are not fools as the republicans play
them for, they know II they educate
their children and have any improve
ments that some one must pay for
them and In the gathering of taxes
the corporations that the people
make fortunes for, have paid two
thirds more of the taxes than they
did under republican rule.
I