The Daily Ardmoreite. [volume] (Ardmore, Okla.) 1893-current, 1913-01-27

What is the matter with Oklahoma ?
What is the matter with the people
managing the affairs Of Oklahoma?
What is the matter with the legislat-
ore and public officials of Oklahoma?
The state of Oklahoma is alright
so far as it lies in the power OF
God Almighty to make it So 1t is all
wrong so far as it lies in the power
of those who are manipulating the
affairs of statecraft to make it.
Whether justly or unjustly, the
word has gone forth to the people
of the other states of the United
States that this is a state of Doodle,
of graft and corruption. Go into any
other state, choose which one yoI
may from the Oldest state of Puri-
tanic settlement to the states which
are younger even than this state, and
mention the greatness of Oklahoma
and you will meet with the same
answer-"Oklahoma is alright, or
would be were the grafters run out"
Just as a wagon maker might say
that a wheel is alright, but it needs
fixing"
When the Great Creator of the
Universe made the sun, the moon
and the stars to bless the earth by
day and glorify it by night, He did
not find a more beautiful section
upon the face of that earth for these
luminaries to cast their radiance
upon than is Oklahoma. He placed
everything in the power of Omnipo-
tence in this section. He gave this
locality a soil than which there is
none more fertile. He created in
the store houses beneath the surface
of Oklahoma oils and gases and val
liable mineral deposits-thus bringing
in touch of the hand which would
reach out and take it, an almost lin
itless wealth. But unfortunately,
when the good God had done all this,
in the name of Nature, He failed to
eliminate from the class which nat
urally drifted to this new country
those who had permitted the idea to
filter through their heads and be-
come a part and parcel of their be-
ings, that everything created was
created for themselves only.
1t is this element Of the population
of Oklahoma which is putting the
Oklahoma of today in the same class
of the Kansas of yesterday-the men
who are not satisfied with all the
earth and the fullness thereof, but
who must needs reach forth the hand
of greed and snatch from the toiler
and the, wage Garner, from the tax
payer and the state builder, the pro-
ceeds of their honest endeavors.
The brother of Ali Baba who would
have robbed him after he had robbed
the forty thieves was a paragon of
virtue as compared to such men. The
soldiers of Rome who divided the
garments of the Christ and the three
thieves alike, were but following out
the traditions of the times in which
they lived, yet they brought upon
their own heads the contempt OF even
those who had encompassed the
death of one whom they acknowledge
ed to be of their own race, kindred
and blood. Let this question be dis
passionately and honestly answered.;
IF the soldiers of fortune of the
Roman army were looked upon as
the vilest o. mercenaries by even the
people who had rejected the Master
because they had converted to their
own use the garments of the mur
dered King and pillaged his personal
effects, how will the ones who have
been honored by trusting constit-
uency of this enlightened time, be
viewed by the people of the country
at large after they have pillaged those
who nut them in DOWer-the ones