Cushing Independent. (Cushing, Okla.), Vol. 6, No. 20, Ed. 1 Thursday, April 25, 1907 Page: 2 of 10
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ISggi
CONVENTION SIGNS
ORGANIC DOCUMENT
county election officers
NAMED IN NEW COUNTIE8—•
COMMI88IONER AND TOWN-
SHIP SUBDIVISIONS
GUTHRIE: On the anniversary of
the battle of Lexington and also of
the opening of the Cheyenne and
Arapaho country to settlement, the
constitution proposed for the state of
Oklahoma was signed Friday after-
noon by the delegates who were in
attendance.
President Murray affixed his signa-
ture to the document at 2:46 p. m.
and was followed by Peter Hanraty,
first vice president, and A. H. Ellis
of Orlando, second vice president.
After Secretary John M. Young had
attested their signatures, the consti-
tution was signed by the other dele-
gates In the numerical order of their
districts, T. O. Jame* ef Guymon be-
ing the first on the list.
President Murray signed his name
with the pen presented by Custodian
W. P. Campbell of the Oklahoma His-
torical society, made from an eagle
quill, with a holder of alfalfa stems,
wrapped with Oklahoma grown silk,
and his title wtlh a pen presented by
William J. Bryan of Nebraska. Most
of the delegates signed with the pens
which they had used during the con-
two principal political parties, to be
named by the state chairmen, a board
of election commissioners to receir
and pas j on certificates of nomination
for Btate and district ofllcers, mem-
bers of the legislature, and five rep-
resentatives to congress, to print and
distribute the ballots for such officers
an<) to print and distribute the bal-
lots on the question of the ratlficat-
tlon or rejection of the constitution
and the ratification or rejection of the
provision for state wide prohibition.
Theie officers are the board of elc-
tion commissioners under the laws of
Oklahoma territory, and their duties
are extended to the proposed state
In Osage county and the new coun-
ties In Indian Territory, and the new
counties in Oklahoma that do not re-
tain the old county name, provision
Is made for the appointment of a
county clerk to perform the duties of
Oklahoma laws such county clerk and
a member of each of the two prin-
cipal political parties, nominated by
the chairman, constitute the county
board of election commissioners, to
perform the duties in the new coun-
ties of election commissioners under
the Oklahoma laws. The county
board of election commissioners print
and distribute the ballots for county
and township officers and the elec- j
tlon supplies.
Provision Is also made in such 1
counties for the appointment of a
board of county commissioners to es-
tablish voting places and election pre- i
clncts and appoint inspectors of elec-
MANDATORY PRIMARY
vention sessions, and carefully pie- j tlon in each precinct "under the ter-
ritorial laws, and with the county
clerk to act in each pf such counties
as a canvassing board to count and
certify to the state canvassing board
the results of the election, and to is-
sue certificates of election to county
and township officers.
The state canvassing board as pro-
vided by the election laws of the Ter-
ritory of Oklahoma is continued In
force for the purpose of canvassing
the returns on state and district of-
ficers, members of the legislature and
representatives In congress. The man-
ner of canvassing the returns of the I
election on the ratification or rejec-
tion of the constitution and the adop-
tion or rejection of the provision
for state-wide prohibition is prescribed
in the enabling act.
The report is very long and divides
Osage county and the new counties In
the Indian Territory Into municipal
townships, and such counties and the
served them as souvenirs.
The republican delegates had pre-
viously caucused and decided not to
sign the constitution. In all seventy-
five delegates signed the constitution,
none of them republicans. The sign-
ing was completed at 4:16 when Ter-
ritorial Secretary Charles H. Fllson at-
tested the signature, and affixed the
great seal of the Territory of Okla-
homa.
The early part of the afternoon had
been spent In checking up the correc-
tions which had been made on the
parchment copy since the reassem
bling of the convention, and after that
work had been completed the docu-
ment was placed cn its final passage
as corrected and Interlined, receiving
eighty-five votes, with none against
and twenty-seven delegates absent or
not voting.
The convention reunion committee
composed of Delegates Leeper. Her-
Conatitutional Convention Passes •
Busy 8econd Day
GUTHRIE: That the final signa-
ture of the county boundaries report
may not be signed by the convention
delegates waa evidenced Wednesday
afternoon by President Murray's
statement to the delegacies that It
wouldn't be necessary for them to sign
that report, and that it therefore
didn't make any particular difference
to them when the engrossing work
of that report was finished.
The matter came up In a discussion
of how long the present session wai
likely to last. Murray announced
that the transcribing of the main body
of the constitution was practically
completed and that was the part
which would have to bo signed by
the delegates; that the county boun-
daries might not be finished for some
time but that the convention could
Just as well authorize the president
and secretary to sign that and not
| bother to wait for its completion.
The Williams amendment in re-
gard to suits in the supreme court
! for the distribution of assets and 11a-
; blllties in the divided counties was
adopted with an additional provision
! suggested by the committee of five
j to which it was referred, for the ap-
. pointment of a special master in
■ chancery to take testimony in any
j such case.
j The question of qualifications for
| county superintendents was discussed
Wednesday morning but without ac-
tion, was settled by the adoption of
an additional section offered by Ak-
ers of Woodward, providing that the
qualifications required by the Okla-
homa law should not apply In the se-
lection of county superintendents in
the Indian Territory counties and the
Osage reservation at the first elec
tlon.
Murray asked that the delegates
take up collections when they got
home to pay the extra engrossing
clerk and stenographers required in
preparing the final draft on the con-
stitution and the official stenograph-
ers for their extra work. A commit-
tee composed of Carr, Cobb and Hill
was named to figure up this expense
and apportion the amount which each
delegate would have to raise. Cobb, i
who is a Methodist preacher, was put j
on the committee because he endorsed
the collection idea and said he had
had experience along that line. Paul
Bllby of Alva was named as an ad-
ditional page.
The convention had a very brief
session Wednesday morning, practl-
Convention
By Ed J. Costello.
Echoes
rin* Wvatt •. new counties in Oklahoma into com- cally the only things accomplished be-
per decided tn hnM Yho « ? Gard missioners* districts, and appoints in Ing the third reading and final pas-
ra rann nn countjea a commissioner for each sage of the election provisions for the
district, constituting the board of constitution and the disciplining of
county commissioners above men- Moman Pruiett by taking away from
hnM fl *■ 1 3 uiDiiiwuj, KUU apyuiuis IU
of the delegates at Sulphur pro^My '8UCh C°UnUea a commlss,oner tor each
in August, 1908. although the date was
not definitely fixed. Elk City
the only other candidate,
mittee effected
was
The com-
permanent organi-
zation with Cy Leeper of Sulphur as
chairman and Neil Gardner of Stigler
as secretary.
gi?enTt! R!h: C?mpIe,e rec°ff "lon is
jf to the election laws of Okla-
i!Z*n and ",H(lKe ^"ford's recent de-
#?«!. °^, S"bject ln the new elec-
! rd nanp« reported to the con-
stitutional convention Thursday by
(the committee of eleven appointed for
that purpose on Monday. The new
rnnimn<;? ttlt"°8t ,0n* aS the
constitution, covering 360 type written
pages. Its great length is made nec-
essary by the inclusion of detailed de-
scription^ of the commissioner dis-
tricts and municipal townships in all
the new counties.
As outlined In brief form by Henry
E. Asp, the republican member of the
committee, who has been an active
part In its preparation, the new ordi-
nance repeals the ordinance hereto-
fore adopted by the convention and
adopts the provisions of the Oklaho-
ma election laws, making the gover-
nor and one member of each of the
tioned.
Provision Is made for the governor
to issue the proclamation for the
election. In the event of his failure
or refusal to act, the president of the
convention Is required to Issue the-
proclamation. In the event of his
failure or refusal to act, the secretary
of the convention is required to issue
the proclamation. Provision is made
for the filling of vacancies in the of-
fice of county clerk under the laws
in force in the Territory of Oklahoma,
and also for the filling of vacancies in
the office of county commissioners
named in the ordinance, by appoint-
ment from the governor.
In the old counties in Oklahoma
Territory the county commissioners
and county clerks and local election
officers are required to perform the
duties at such elections. In the coun-
ties that retain the old names, the
boundaries of which have been re-
duced, the coutity clerk and boards
of county commissioners are made the
clerk and commissioners fotr that
county, limiting their jurisdiction to
the county as described in the con-
stitution.
him the honor of having a county-
named for him.
The election provisions were the
ones which had ip some way been
lost ln the shuffle at the time of the
first adjournment. The attention of.
the convention was called to the omis-
sion Tuesday and instructions were
given at that time to have the pro-
visions engrossed and put on third
reading at once.
Provision Is made In them for a
Btate election board for the election
of United States senators by the peo
pie whenever the United States con-
titution is so amended as to allow
GUTHRIE: Following the expos-
ure of the change of the boundary line
between Roger Mills and Beckham
county by the committee on compila-
tion, style and arrangement, the ques-
tion Is being asked here, "How many
other changes were made?" Though
the convention had adopted the.arti-
cles permanently locating the county
lines months ago, and had given the
committee on compilation and ar-
rangement and the editing committee
power only to correct errors in word
lng and not to change any of the lines,
a strip of territoy three miles wide
was taken from Beckham county and
added to Roger Mills county.
The revising committees announced
through the press that they were
changing only the wording in the
constitution and that none of the bcdy
of the constitution would be tampered
with. Secrecy was maintained about
the change in the county lines, the
correspondents receiving their tip from
the Cheyenne Star which contained
the following last week:
"We have It upon good authority
that the editing committee of the con-
stitutional convention have made a
change in the boundary lines of Roger
Mills county and said line goes three
miles south of the original line hereto-
fore given. This will place the south
line one and one-half miles south of
Berlin and gives the county considera-
ble more territory and taxable valua^
tlon."
Following this clue, no end of jug-
gling of the Roger Mills county bound-
ary after It had been finally passed
by the convention was found. Alarm-
ed at the insurgent movement, the
county boundary report was rushed
through the constitutional convention
by President Murray and C. N. Haskell
in violation of the convention rules.
On the night of December 21, the re-
port was adopted in committee of the
whole. It had not been engrossed for
President Murray's signature when It
was adopted on third reading by the
convention December 23. In the print-
ed copy adopted at that time the south
: boundary of Roger Mills county is de-
1 scribed as the township line between
township 11 and 12 north running west
through the county from the Custer
county line to the Texas state line.
As the report had been rushed
through the committee of which Milas
Lasater of Pauls Valley is chairman
was given power to put the matter in
more readable shape during the holi
day adjournment, but were prohibited
from changing any of the lines as
adopted by the convention. Over the
signature of Mllas Lasa/ter as chair-
man of the committee on compilation,
arrangement and style, two months
later, February 27, the county bound-
ary portion of the constitution was au-
thoritatively printed in pamphlet form
and distributed among the members of
the convention. In the pamphlet the
line is changed so that the description
of the south line reads "Along said
township line (between 12 and 13
north) to its intersection with the
range line between ranges 22 and 23
west; thence south along said range
line to its intersection with the town-
tire publication of February |7tb
showed.
By moving the line south Elk City
Is given no chance to take the county
seat away from Sayre, which was des
ignated by the convention as the coun-
ty seat of Beckham county. Moving
the line also gives Roger Mills county
more taxable area, and places Chey-
enne within six miles of the geographi-
cal center so that a sixty per cent
vote will be required to take the coun-
ty seat away from it.
In the closing days of the conven-
tion1 Cheyenne had a representative
here and there was talk that the coun-
ty line matter would be reopened. The
change favorable to Cheyenne was
made without any action of the con-
vention and the Cheyenne paper gave
the matter away ln tfie Item published
last week and quoted above.
President Murray says the engross-
ed copy of the county line report waa
signed a ±'long time ago," but refuses
to give the date even approximately.
As the reports of the compilation com-
mittee show the change was made
after February 27, it is evident that
if President Murray signed the report
before that time the engrossed copy
as signed was changed. The report
contains about fifty pages and Presi-
dent Murray did not sign each page.
This would make it possible for the
pages of the engrossed copy, with the
exception of the last, to be changed.
When the change was called to the
attention of Chairman Carney of the
editing committee he threw all the
blame on Milas Lasater, saying that
Lasater had charge of that part of the
editing work. The page changed ln
the engrossed copy bears Lasater"s
O. K.
Lasater admitted making the change
but claimed that he had a signed state-
ment from Delegates Herring of Elk
City, Hogg of Grand and Harrison of
Sayre, who represent the territory af-
fected, that the line as adopted Uy the
convention was not what they intended
the convention should adopt and that
the change would be satisfactory to
them.
This admission has raised the point
as to whether three delegates may by
agreement change county lines as
fixed by the convention, and whether
more changes than this were made.
*1 I
OKLAHOMA CITY: "Are your
county boundary lines on straight?"
"Have you any reason to believe that
there has been crooked manipulation
of your boundary lines by the consti-
tutional convention?"
These and other questions of a sim-
ilar nature are rife throughout the
state a result of the startling dis-
closures at Guthrie concerning the
boundary line between Roger Mills
and Beckham counties. That there
has been crooked work of a dark na-
ture, and that "Cocklebur Bill" Mur-
ray has expert knowledge to this ef-
fect developed as the result of the
discovery that this particular line
had been tampered wuh without the
consent of the whole convention.
In the light of these extremely sen-
sational disclosures it is exceedingly
probable that there will be "something
E
indict lane for theft
Grand Jury Returns True Bill Against
Indian Agent's Clerk
MUSKOGEE: The federal grand
Jury has preferred an Indictment
•gainst Lyman k. -Lane, formerly
cashier of the Indian agency, charging
him with embezzling $7,800 of gov-
ernment funds.
Lane was cashier at the agency for
'six years. The shortage oovers a pe-
riod of several years, part of it reach-
ing back to Indian Agent Shoenfelt's
Administration. The noney has never
been accounted for and even the gov-
ernment experts do not know what
become of all of It. Some of it was
iadvanced to otnployes who never paid
(It tytyk. Lane has their receipts. There
Is little evidence that Lane ever got
much, it any of the cash. He was sus-
pended from the place three months
ago, whin the shortage first was dis-
covered. He was arrested nnd placed
under a |2,500 bond pending action
•t the grand Jury.
PRIMARY DATE CHANGED
June • Is Date When Democrats Hold
Their Primaries
OKLAHOMA CITY: Convinced that
it la Impossible for a legal primary to
be called for May 23, under the Ok-
lahoma primary law, because of the
Inability to give the required 30 days'
notice, the democratic state exeoutlve
committee Friday decided to postpone
the date of the state primaries until
June I.
The unanimous sontlment of the
members of the committee was that
the primary should be held on May
B3, if there waa any way in which such
a primary election could be legally
held under the recent decision of
Judge Burford. knocking out the su-
preme election bodrd as created by an
ordinance of the constitutional con-
vention.
The decision of Judge Burford de-
clares that under the enabling act
the election must In all matters con-
form as near as possible to the eleo-
tloa laws of the territory of Oklahoma'
and for a mandatory primary for
all parties and for all officers, In-
cluding United States senator. Ten
delegates voted in the negative on
final passage, including Asp, Cloud,
Covey, Harris, Hudson, Jenkins. Mc-
Clure and Sater, republicans; Korne-
kay and Tenor, democrats. Ledbetter
voted for the proposition, but ex-
plained that he did not believe in
mandatory primaries, and thought an
optional system would be more satis-
factory. Kornegay explained his rote
in the negative on the same basis.
In order to quiet some apprehen-
sion that section 25 of the schedule,
regarding the payment of debts of
municipalities, might be held to rail
date certain illegal indebtedness,
Hayes of Chickasha, presented an ad-
ditional section for the schedule, stip-
ulating that nothing in the constitu-
tion legalises an invalid indebtedness
of any county, city, school dlstrlot or
other municipality. It caused consid-
erable discussion on the part of Wil-
liams, Rose and others, but <was final-
ly amended so as to meet their ob-
jections. After Its adoption on the
first reading, the i;ules were sus-
pended so as to adrance it at once
to third reading and final passage, and
It was ordered Inserted as an addi-
tional section of the schedule.
Another change made waa one s«*
gested by Ledbetter of Ardmore in
regard to the qualifications of coun-
ty Judge. As already adopted, it was
provided that the county judge must
be a lawyer licensed to practice "ia
the courts of record of the state,"
which would mean all of them, in-
cluding the supremo court*. At Led-
better's suggestion it waa changed to
*«ad "any «eurt of rpoord.
ship line between townships 11 and j dolng" when the delegates, get toT
. °Ce ,W6St along sa,dtown! gether again next week. No one
knows just how far this crooked work
has gone, and it is hinted that many
of the delegates from the section®
where new counties have been cre-
ated will wake up to find changes in
the lines, of which they had no
knowledge.
Because certain newspaper men
employed by prominent publications
to keep the public posted on the con-
vention and Its work were sufficiently
bright to discover traces of the Roger
Mills county crookedness, "Cockle-
but Bill Murray is tearing his hair
in rage. When several reporters went
to see him about the matter, on behalf
of the public, he opened up on them
wit ha volley of oaths, and refused
to talk any further.
ship line to its intersection with the
state line between Texas and Oklaho
ma." By this change the two town-
ships in southwestern corner of Roger
Mills county were given to Beckham
county.
Before the convention adjourned an
editing committee which elected J. J.
Carney ct El Reno as its chairman,
was appointed to assist Mr. Lasater's
committee. Last week they again
published the county lino part of the
constitution in a report from the com-
pilation committee labeled "2 A." This
is the final report the one President
Murray says he signed. He asserts
that it will stand. In It the line of
Roger Mills county Is moved three
miles south from what the authorita-
OKLAHOMA CITY: Former Gov-
ernor Ferguson, republican candidate
for congress in the Second district, U>
i day emphatically denied that there
was any special significance in the
I conference called by Governor Frantz
at Guthrie the other day, further than
a general discussion of probable party
I politics in the forthcoming campaign,
j Several newspapers, during the past
| few days, contained stories which
j would Indicate that Mr. Ferguson has
I entered an alliance which would tend
to further the interests of Governor
Frantz, who Is candidate for governor.
"The meeting at Guthrie," said Mr.
Ferguson, "was for the purpose of
discussing party matters, and espe-
cially the probable attitude of the par-
ty toward the constitution. Governor
Frantz said nothing concerning his
own caudidaey at aU and there was no
discussion whatever relative to the
candidacy of any aspirant for party
honors. I am not allied with any one
and have no fight to make for or
against anyone. I am not seated, as
has been stated ln the press, In any
"band wagon," nor will I try to put
obstacles ln the way of any 'baud
wagon.'
GUTHRIE:. The final days of tht
constitutional convention are to com.
prise star chamber sessions df the
plans of "Cocklebur Bill" Murray, Its
president, are carried out. The pres-
ident has become exceedingly angry
with the newspaper men because they
have been watching the antics of
Murray and his aggregation too close-
ly during the many days of their per-
formance. He has stated that he
proposes to have the newspaper men
ruled off the floor, which is taken t<
mean that the usual arenues of pub-
liclty—the newspapers—will be shut
off.
it is argued that Murray has found
that it isn't wise to take the publio
Into one'« confidence, especially in
matters of such wide importance as
the county boundaries, and that there-
fore he has decided upon the course
indicated.
According to Secretary McNab^s
figures, the valutalon 0f Oklahoma
products i« a« follows: Cotton first,
corn second and wkoat third.
*•<
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Holland, Al. H. Cushing Independent. (Cushing, Okla.), Vol. 6, No. 20, Ed. 1 Thursday, April 25, 1907, newspaper, April 25, 1907; (https://gateway.okhistory.org/ark:/67531/metadc274193/m1/2/: accessed April 19, 2024), The Gateway to Oklahoma History, https://gateway.okhistory.org; crediting Oklahoma Historical Society.