BIG OKLAHOMA 



Extracts from a Speech of Hon. Bird S. McGuire, of Oklahoma, in the 



House of Representatives 



IN order that this House may have some 

 understanding of our population, I 

 desire to submit the vote of Okla- 

 homa in connection with some other 

 states at the last presidential election. I 

 am advised that the Republican poll of 

 the voting" population of Oklahoma, as 

 well as the Democratic poll, at the last 

 election showed that there were about 

 137.000 voters in Oklahoma, and at that 

 election, outside of county officers, there 

 was no one for whom a vote could be cast 

 other than a delegate. There was not the 

 incentive to draw the people to the polls 

 that there was in the states, where the 

 presidential campaign was on ; and at that 

 election Oklahoma cast 110,000 votes, 

 and the following states cast a less num- 

 ber : * 



Alabama 108.845 



Delaware 42,873 



Florida 39,302 



Idaho 72,578 



Louisiana 53,908 



Maine 96,027 



Mississippi 58,383 



Montana 64,444 



Nevada 36,154 



New Hampshire 90,089 



North Dakota 70,175 



Oregon 90,184 



Rhode Island 68,856 



South Carolina 56,912 



South Dakota 101,995 



Utah 101,624 



Vermont 51,885 



Wyoming 30,655 



It will be observed that eighteen 

 states cast a less number of votes than 

 Oklahoma alone. Adding the vote of the 

 Indian Territory to the vote of Oklahoma 

 at that election would have easily reached 

 the figure of 250,000 legal voters. The 

 additional states of the Union which cast 

 a less number of votes than 250,000 are : 



I 



* New Mexico cast 43,011 votes for territorial 

 delegate in 1904, and Arizona 19,667 votes. 



Arkansas 116,411 



Connecticut 191,116 



Georgia 138,198 



North Carolina : 207,867 



Virginia 130,540 



Washington 128,713 



Nebraska 224,708 



There are a few others, which I do 

 not recall at this time ; but there were 

 thirty-two states which cast less than 

 250,000 votes and less than would have 

 been the combined vote of Oklahoma 

 and the Indian Territory at that time, 

 and very much less than would be their 

 combined vote of today. 



immense business of territory 



Oklahoma exported in the last year 

 13,920 carloads of wheat, 8,023 carloads 

 of flour, 2,368 carloads of feed-stuff, 

 4,587 carloads of grain, 3,204 carloads of 

 cattle, and 422,092 bales of cotton. 



Conceding that the exports of the In- 

 dian Territory were as heavy as those of 

 Oklahoma, to move them would require 

 a train reaching from Washington to 

 New York, New York to Chicago, Chi- 

 cago to St Louis, and from St Louis to 

 Washington. 



Oklahoma has 345 newspapers, of which 

 there are 30 dailies, 287 weeklies, 5 semi- 

 monthlies, 19 monthlies, and four quar- 

 terlies. The Indian Territory has 142 

 newspapers, of which there are 19 dailies, 



117 weeklies, and two semi-monthlies, the 

 total number of newspapers published in 

 the two territories being 487. 



There are in Oklahoma 257 territorial 

 banks and 95 national banks ; in the In- 

 dian Territory, 144 individual banks and 



118 national banks — more than has the 

 great state of Missouri, and more, in fact, 

 than have nine-tenths of the states of the 

 Union. 



Out of 86,908 families in 1900, 60,086 

 owned their own homes, 50,483 of these 



