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OKLAHOMA. 



OKLAHOMA, a Territory of the United States, 

 organized in 1890. Population, according to the 

 Auditor's census, Feb. 1, 1894, 212,635 ; according to 

 the Governor's i-eport, June 30, 1890, 275,587. 



Government. The following were the Territo- 

 rial officers for the year : Governor, William C. 

 Renfrew, Democrat ; Secretary, Thomas J. Lowe, 

 Democrat ; Treasurer. Martin L. Turner ; Attorney- 

 General, C. A. Galbraith, Democrat ; Auditor and 

 Superintendent of Education, E. D. Cameron, who 

 resigned in December and was succeeded by A. 0. 

 Nichols; Adjutant General, J. C. Jamison; Chief 

 Justice of the Supreme Court. Francis Dale ; Asso- 

 ciate Justices, A. G. C. Bierer, John L. McAtee, J. 

 11. Burford, succeeded in June by J. C. Tarsney 

 and II. W. Scott, succeeded in October by J. K. 

 Keaton. All are Democrats except Burford. whose 

 term expired in March. Charges were made against 

 Justice Scott, and an investigation by Special-Agent 

 Shcibley was followed by his resignation. 



Finances. The valuation of property in the 

 Territory for taxation, which was $39,275,189 in 

 1895, was in 1896 only $23,361,281.76, including 

 $2,552,450.21 of railroad and telegraph property. 

 The explanation of this fall in valuation is as fol- 

 lows : The Board of Equalization in 1895 raised the 

 valuation returns from the counties to bring them 

 nearer the actual cash value, as required by law. 

 The railroad and telegraph valuations remained as 

 before and the Territorial tax levy was retained at 

 the legal limit, but the tax levies in counties were 

 correspondingly lowered. Complaints were made 

 and suits were brought by taxpayers to. restrain 

 the collection. The decision was against them. It 

 was contended that there was no power given the 

 board by the statute by which it could raise the as- 

 sessment on all the property in the counties. It was 

 argued that this was not equalization. By the opin- 

 ion the action of the Board of Equalization was sus- 

 tained in every particular, the court holding that it 

 had ample power to raise or lower the assessment of 

 any or all counties. The township and school-dis- 

 trict taxes were increased by the higher valuation, 

 the levies having been made before the final equali- 

 zation. In 1896 the board, in view of the complaints 

 made in 1895, let the valuations stand as they came 

 from the counties, and these are claimed to be only 

 about one fourth of the actual values. 



The railroad valuations were raised on an average 

 about 33 per cent, in 1896. Suit was brought by 

 the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe to compel a re- 

 assessment. Evidence was adduced to show how 

 far the assessments of other property fell below its 

 actual value; that in many instances throughout 

 the various counties of the Territory the assessors 

 themselves had returned two sets of valuations cov- 

 ering the same property, one of which was for the 

 census and the other the assessment of the property ; 

 and that the average valuation placed upon im- 

 provements upon undeeded lands in the census re- 

 turns of the assessors exceeded a thousand dollars 

 per quarter section, and that the same property was 

 assessed at an average of $40 per quarter section. 



Likewise, in real-estate valuations, comparisons 

 from numerous localities in the Territory where the 

 assessors had returned two sets of values showed 

 that the assessment was only about 30 per cent, of 

 the value of the same property as given in the cen- 

 sus returns. 



The court held that the Territorial Board of Rail- 

 way Assessors could not arbitrarily fix any value to 

 the property they saw fit, but must assess the prop- 

 erty according to the evidence before them, and 

 found that the board had assessed the property of 

 the railroads of the Territory beyond its true value ; 

 and the case was remanded to the Territorial Board 

 of Railway Assessors with the direction to reassess 



the property and to hear evidence and to correct the 

 errors of the previous assessment. 



A compromise was agreed to by the companies and 

 the assessors, by which the valuations were reduced. 



The rate for the general Territorial tax is 3 mills 

 on the dollar; in addition $ mill is levied for the 

 Normal School and \ mill for the Territorial Uni- 

 versity. 



The receipts and expenditures from the Territo- 

 rial general fund for the year were very nearly 

 equal. There were general-fund warrants outstand- 

 ing June 30, 1896, to the amount of $1(53.240. The 

 only other charge upon the Territory is $48,000 in 

 thirty-year 6-per-cent. bonds, outstanding, the pro- 

 ceeds of which are to be used in erecting the Terri- 

 torial college buildings. 



Charities. The insane of the Territory are pro- 

 vided for under contract with the Oklahoma Sani- 

 tarium Company, at Norman, the Territory paying 

 $25 a month and cost of transportation. The 

 amount paid to the company during the year was 

 $30.253.24. Seventy-seven patients were received 

 from the Jacksonville asylum and 108 from the vari- 

 ous counties, a total of 185 during the year 116 

 men and 69 women. Of this number 37 were dis- 

 charged. 3 escaped, and 19 died. 



Convicts. There is no penitentiary in Oklahoma, 

 and the 128 convicts are confined in the Kansas 

 Penitentiary, at Lansing, at a cost of 25 cents a day 

 for each. 



Education. The Territory has 88,093 school 

 children. The Normal School, at Edmond, which 

 lias about 100 students, is in a flourishing condition, 

 as is also the Territorial University, at Norman, 

 which enrolls nearly 200. The Agricultural and 

 Meehanical College, at Stillwater, has 11 teachers 

 and more than 100 students. 



The corner stone of a building for the Congrega- 

 tional College at Kingfisher was laid in May. The 

 college was opened in September, 1895, in temporary 

 quarters, and has about 70 students. 



An account of the Pawnee reservation school re- 

 ports that it is doing good work, and is more will- 

 ingly patronized by the Indians than formerly. It 

 has 126 pupils and 20 employees. 



Banks. By the report of the condition of na- 

 tional banks at the close of business, July 14, it is 

 shown that the five in Oklahoma had an average re- 

 serve of 26'53 per cent., against 27'30 per cent, on 

 May 7 : loans and discounts increased from $6,430,- 

 314 to $6,732,435 ; stocks and securities decreased 

 from $1,184.226 to $1.144.113; gold coin increased 

 from $433,326 to $436,077; total specie increased 

 from $742.324 to $772,019; lawful money reserve 

 increased from $1,023,728 to $1,024,399; individual 

 deposits decreased from $6,307,459 to $5,839,084. 



An important decision was given in the probate 

 court of Kay County in March. It was to the effect 

 that the directors of a bank in this Territory are 

 liable for the payment of the bank's debts. 



Railroads. No new railroads were built in 1896. 

 A charter was taken out in October for the Gulf 

 Railroad Company. The road is to pass through 11 

 counties of the Territory, and also through the Choc- 

 taw and Chickasaw nations and Cherokee, Creek, and 

 Graham Counties, Texas. It will run to Dennison, 

 Texas. 



In November a contract was signed for building 

 the St. Louis, Oklahoma and Southern Railway, to 

 run from Claremore, Indian Territory, to Shawnee, 

 in Oklahoma. 



The four lines in operation in the Territory have 

 been prosperous ; the increase of south-bound freight 

 has been very marked. 



Products. The most profitable farming prod- 

 ucts of the Territory are cotton, castor beans, Kaffir 

 corn, and broom corn ; but Indian corn, oats, bar- 



