The Daily Ardmoreite. [volume] (Ardmore, Okla.) 1893-current, 1914-06-01
THE ISLANDER OF A STATE.


The democracy of Oklahoma will
take its hat off to Attorney General
West for his courage in commencing
the democratic administration in this
state. We use the word courage ad-
visedly, because it does require cour-
age to do so. And because it requires
courage is evidence that the democra-
cy of oklahoma has made. serious
mistake Not that official democracy
has made so many mistakes, but be-
cause the people have listened to the
critics of the state and have taken
up the refrain of these criticisms and
they have made it popular to con-
denim democracy in Oklahoma.
There are many democrats in this
state who do not understand where
these criticisms come from. Soon af-
ter statehood, when Oklahoma began
TO enact progressive laws, when the
governor and the legislature were
building statutes in unison, with the
splendid constitution that had been
adopted the big interests became fear
ful of the results. They did not fear
so much for Oklahoma alone but 9th
er states began to copy after Okla
homa. The state of New York and
the central northern states began to
borrow from our constitution and
from our statutes and in order to
check this movement toward lcGs- /
lation for the masses, and against the
big interests, publicity campaign
was organized 1t was well organiz- .
ed movement The people were made .
TO appear that they were behind the .
publicity campaign by organizing it
among the commercial clubs of the .
state. The secretaries of these clubs /
were called to meet in Oklahoma City. /
The Federated clubs was organized.
OFFICERS were chosen, a board of di-
rectors was put to work. When the
board met, their sessions were behind .
closed doors. When the adjournment
was taken the secretary issued checks .
TO each director for his mileage and
his per diem. They did not know
where the money came from to pay
them and did not ask The greater
portion of these secretaries were hon
est in what they did They had been
led to believe that Oklahoma was
being ruined We know who organ
lzed this movement. We know the
name of the publicity man who was
hired to send out the stories that Sian.
derod Oklahoma, We know the salary
The Publicity man received, and we
know that The money to carry on
this movement was furnished by cor
poratious outside the state Of Okla.
homa.
The saddles. part Of the affair is
that the press of the country gave
the space that was used to make Ok.
lahoma and oklahoma democracy un.
popular. The republican press that
sought to undo democracy used Tie
copy, and the dissatisfied, grouchy
democratic press did the same thing
The result Of this publicity cam
pdign has been felt. Democracy has
had to suffer But progressive dem.
ocraCy was not defeated Good legis-
lation kept on coming, but the kickers
were so we'll organized and were so
well supported by the newspapers
that they have kept mp the fight in
cessantly. This movement has m5de
il popular for candidates for office 10
declare for a new deal and a better
deal in order to catch votes and when
the attorney general comes out for
democracy in Oklahoma he did the
unexpected thing He announced in
very clever manner what Oklaho-
ma has done and he takes that as
MS platform. Il matters not what