Volume 9 , Issue 19

1905 - Playing At State Making In Muskogee

[The following article appeared in The Oklahoman, Aug. 23, 1905, Front page, The Headlines read: "Playing At State Making In Muskogee - Kangaroo Convention Is Solemnly Entertaining An Amused Public - Will Make A Contitution - A Mud Pie Factory May be Started Up As A Side Enterprise - Chief Porter Fixes a Committee the Way He Wants It and Expects a Grandstand Finish - Pipe Dreams Furnished at Reduced Rates."]

Special to The Oklahoman, Muskogee, I.T., Aug. 22 (1905) -- "The men who will make the play constitution for Indian Territory have been named. They constitute a committee of fifty-one men. They will draft the constitution and submit it to the delegates to vote upon section by section. A finance committee of 26 members has been appointed and this committee will finance the convention and the subsequent election. A campaign committee of 26 has been appointed and will conduct the campaign when it comes to votging on the constitution. The constitutional committee follows: District No. 1, Miama, delegation not in; District No. 2, Vinita, J. S. Davenport; District No. 3, Nowata, R. I. Owens; District No. 4, Claremore, Jno. Bullett; District No. 5, W. T. Tilley; District No. 6, Tahlequah, W. W. Hastings; District No. 7, Wagoner, Theodore (?), whose politics are not known. A candidate of delegates shows that out of 111 who have been interviewed, there are 60 Indians, 49 whites and two colord.

If one were asked to pick out the predominating spirits in this convention tonight, it could be done by naming four men. They are C. N. Haskell and Morton Rutherford, of Muskogee, W. W. Hastings of Tahlequah, and W. H. Murray of Tishomingo. These four men are already considered leaders. They are men who have heretofore taken little part in politics but have given out the ultimatum that business methods must apply to politics and are proceeding to demonstrate what Mark Hanna proved -- that business methods make politics win.

The prohibitionists scored a victory today when hey elected Captain A. B. McKennon, of South McAlester, an honorary delegate to the convention. He is the recognized leader of the prohibition movement. He is an ex-member of the Dawes commission and present attorney for the Seminole nation.

The work of writing the constitution will be largely done in committee, and the greater work of passing the convention by a popular vote of the people is even now under consideration. A committee will be appointed to draw the constitution. This committee will be sub-divided to handle the work. A committee of 26, one from each recording district will be selected to finance the movement, and a committee of five, one from each nation, will draft resolutions."
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