The Daily Ardmoreite. [volume] (Ardmore, Okla.) 1893-current, 1922-06-18
OKLAHOMA HAS
large PERCENT
NATIVE B0RNS
Salutatorian of Rural Students
Class Praises Indians and
Says Face Turned to the
Fore at all Times

1.-THE People of Oklahoma was the
subject Of the address delivered laN
Sunday at Convention Hall by Miss
Frances Amerson, IL year old daugh'
ter q DR.. and Mrs. G. NJ. Amerson
of Milo, ana ealutatorian Of the class
OF several hundred rural students that
graduated.
Little Miss Amerson delivered her
address in pleasing manner, ana was
as follows;
The People Of Oklahoma.
Oklahoma's Americanism Is unpre-
fixed and unhyphenated. While nearly
Is per cent of the population OF the
United States is foreign born, VIZ per
cent of the people of Oklahoma are
natiye.born Americans. And what
blending of stock and strains and there
is in this population. AS Teuton ana
Celt. Goth and Frank, Viking and Dane
formed the foundation upon which was
builded the civilization of Western Eu.
rope, so here. in the southern mloiahu
Of the continent, the Cavalier, the Cove
nanter and Creole have met and mingled
with the Puritan, the Patron ana the
Hugenot. And who shall say that the
children of such ancestry would not,
indeed be the typical Americans or the
twentieth Gentry? Yet, with this COM
bination is being blended another eie-
ment which is almost'a negligible one
in most of the American common
wealth. namely that considerable 1rac'
ton Of Oklahoma S people who are OF
American Indian descent,
The comradeship which stained the
snowy foot. paths of Valley Forge with
blood and which stood shoulder to shoul-
der in the trenches of Yorktown Is re-
established in Oklahoma. The ties once
sundered by the shock of civil STRIFE
are here re.knit by the bonds OF broth
erhood Many of the older citizens or
the state were once numbered among
the followers of Grant and Lee and
other dauntless leaders Of the North
and South, but they are Ieighbors and
friends in Oklahoma. With the troubles
Of the past Oklahoma has naught TO
do. for her face Is set toward the future
and hers is land OF peace, aye, and
hers is q people who hold malice TO-
ward none and charity to ALL
History tells us that the 'estai vlr-
gins Of Rome kept alive upon an altar
the sacred fire which had come down
through all the years OF its history.
They watched it by day and by night,
10 the end that at no time by any un'
foreseen circumstance should all OF the
fires Of the city be extinguished at
once. and 1t was law that when from
the hearthstone of any citizen its fire
light died away and new supply was
needed to replenish it, the neverdying
flame kept alive by the vestals accord
ed him new supply.
And so / have sometimes thought OF
Our people in our new state where
we met untrammeled by precedent, ira
dition or ancient rules and laws. we
too had established an altar upon which
we kept alive never.lying flame OF
liberty, TO which every man could ap-
proach and here find established equal
and exact justice for all; and 1t seems
10 me that 1t stands there as a per.
petual, undying flame for the service
OF humanity, so that II in the future
in any state or nation there should
languish and die the fire upon their
affairs, that their citizens might come
TO our virgin state and from our vestal
fires light their torches anew.
And now. classmates. point you to
the flag, that our people have always
loved May its red and its white and
its blue bind our hearts to the cause
that they knew, that our days may
be long in freedom and song and our
hearts be loyal and true.