Lawton Constitution-Democrat (Newspaper) - April 2, 1908, Lawton, Oklahoma A Larger Circulation Than Any Other THE WEATHER FORECAST For Southwest and Wednesday fair and colder LAWTON OFFICIAL FOE AND THE CITY OF X DO YOU GET IOUE If you dp not get your paper by p m phone 76 and Jt will sent to you YEAR NO 47 WEEKLY EDITION LAWTON OKLA THURSDAY APRIL 2 1908 of all that h ave ever printed In Democrat Post Enterprise Slate and Constitution A FIRE FIEND RUINS SIMPSON HOME TO-DAY Entire Interior oi Residence Out nt an Early Hour This Morning ENDORSE WARD SCHOOL BONDS Chamber of Commerce Pusses tlon Fifth AVard School House The residence of M S Simpson was almost entirely consumed by fire at an early hour this morning The fire originated from some unknown cause In the attic at the north side ot the house Mr Simpson was awakened by smell of smoke but thought it came from and closed Windows Later they discovered that the house was on fire and the alarm given The fire department ar- rived at and found the entire per portion of the house ablaze Everything in the of the house either burned or ruined by water The value of the furniture that is practically ruined was probably to and the damage to the house more There nre many things lost In the home from the fire fiend that can never mementos that can hardly bo valued in dollars and cents Mrs Simpson said today We have no home and ars just boarding around today It take some time to rebuild and refurnish our home In the meantime have to get along like we did in the early days before any of us had a real place to call home The Chamber Commerce at an adjourned session held last evening transacted important business per to the Baptist university had other matters of interest undo consideration Tha following resolu tlon was unanimously Whereas the Chamber of Com merce being at all times in favor public improvements and of every en that may be benefit to the city of Lawton and promote its moral educational and material ad- vancement therefore be It Resolved That we favor the issue of bonds for the building of a schoo house in the fifth ward and urge the voters to cast their ballots for that proposition at the approaching city election ALTUS GETS A NEW RAILROAD First Dirt Thrown Altus With Thirty Miles ITEMS A nice rain but not enough Mr R E Boyd and family have departed for Colorado where will reside in the future Theadore Kettels was up Sunday Irom the big pasture Something is attracting him in this vicinity C L Wilson lost a valuable horse dropped dead in the field supposedly Irom heart failure A party of young people from around Hulen gave Rev Jordan and wife a surprise Friday night All re- port a good time ilr Scroggins of Balrd postoffice has been dow la grippe for the past two weeks but is up and around again Sunday school was organized day at Pleasant Valley school house A Hutcherson was elected tendent Sunday school will be union meet every Sunday afternoon at 3 o'clock W M Miller was at Lawton day on business John Gill will depart in a few days for his claim in New Mexico T B Middleton and Ardell berger both say they are glad that this is leap year as they will both soon be of marriageable age Girls take notice Ed Nelson is now a full-fledged farmer and will soon be like the rest of us wearing one galius The Ladies Aid society met with Mrs Dr Gardner Thursday They re- port a pleasant time MORE ANON Company Quits Four Stales Rome Ga April 1 Owing to the stole laws requiring a large surplus the State Mutual Life Insurance com- pany of this place today retires from Tennessee Virginia West Virginia and North Carolina Altus April 1 The first dirt on the Altus Memphis and Roswell railroad was broken today at 1 o'clock I T Thomas having the contract for the first two miles It is uow an assured fact that the road will be built and work along 30 miles of the line that part lying between Altus knd Hollis will be un- der actual construction within 30 days This virtually means that trains will be running into Hollis before January 1909 Persons in a certain section of Jack- sou county have been using available means to discourage the citizens in the Duke community on this proposition but without effect Duke has all the time been alive to the scheme of those who were endeavoring to throw cold water on the plan realized that there was a sinister motive behind it all They also knew that Altus had always made good on every enterprise they attempted to land and they now realize that their confidence was not misplaced Favorable reports have been ed from the promoters and officers of the road building southwest from El Reno which will touch Hobart and on Southwest to a point on the Orient Altus has every reason to believe that she will get this road It will bly touch Warren northwest of Altus and will be a boon to the people living in that community It is presumed that Altus will be the terminus for two or three years School 4 W Public Guthrie Okla April 1 With the set aside for an industrial park where disposition of most of the matters of emergency legislation required by the constitution and made necessary to meet the change in conditions incident to statehood is now be- ginning take up two of the vital questions which have been held In abeyance so far but have all along been recognized as presenting the greatest difficulties of any which the present legislature will have to solve These questions fire the location of public buildings and the disposition of the school lands While the public building tion Is particularly vexatious because the children of the poor are to en full sway with whatever ments may be decided upon tion Is made of 160 acres in each county for a poor farm These parki with the Rock Island park in Grant county the Sulphur Springs vation in Murray county the vation at Fort Supply and ed state and counties are to be forever reserved from sale es In connection with these parks may be granted to corporations not to ex- ceed 21 years designed however Only for local service If the park lands are found to be subject to valid lease of the rivalry between the different I they are to be appraised towns which tire candidates for state It Is recognized that the school land question is easily the most before the legislature now hat prohibition has been disposed of looks Like Tremendous Sale The present indications are that the Board of Appraisers The lands which are sold are to be appraised by a board of three ested farmers who must be dents of the county In which they arc would secure the insertion In the en- act of the sort of a provision school lands that they wanted Tney have preferred provision for the sale of the land but the enabling act passed the entire matter up to the legislature whole very tory TO It Is conceded that legislation may be enacted In the question by the pre- sent legislature will be reviewed by the people unler the provisions of tile referendum Only Case on Record Oklahoma was the territory that leased its lands became a state In other territories it was just Jike the public domain not taken homesteads It was common erty At the time of the of there were of course many more homesteaders CARPENTERS OUT FOR SHORT HOURS Want Eight Hour Day and Half day at a Standstill Oklahoma City April 1 The union carpenters in this city are out on a strike and building is at a standstill The carpenters union last overwhelmingly to force the de- mand for an increase in the scale of and for an eight-hour a day schedule half holiday on day The contractors have signified no In- tentions of retreating from their stand agreed upon Sunday night which means conditions will not meet the THIRTEEN BY EXPLOSION POWDER Touched Bit of Explosive With Match and Terrible Wrought to operate They are to appraise the that there were homesteads land at its actual cash value will provide for the sive of improvements which are to be diate sale of the school lands j appraised separately at a fair Haskell Is committed to that tion Combined the estimates are to and the administration leaders constitute the value of the n both houses are favorable to it The house is the first to get its school and program in definite shape and he Fisher favorably reported this veek by the committee on state and chool lands will form the basis for its vork Representative C Fisher the author of the is also man of the committee which has re- He is a school land represents the upon it essee and his Ian desired by the lessees He was a of the school lands committee that body submitting a minority re- ort he made successful fight against he majority report which would have the sale of the school lands or twenty-one years Sold to Bidder The Fisher provides elaborate to govern the state land commissioners who are to have charge of the proposed sale All of the lands including the common school indemnity college and public building lands are to be sold to the highest bidder Non-residents ani corporations are barred from purchas ing any of the lands The land with th adjutant general and the commanding officers of the state militia are to se lect a site for a military park tract of land in each county to be no more than a quarter section is to H the land Is sold for more than the appraisement value the difference is to be equally divided between the state and the lessee Public sales are to be conducted by the land commissioners hot later than January 1 1910 Sealed bids are to be deposited and all must be made lic annually The lessee is allowed to take the land which he occupies at its appraised value where no Is mad The purchase is to be on 21 year time at 4 per cent Interest with a firs mortgage to the state After one yea the may pay on the princ pal lessee Has Six Months If the lessee is not the purchase may keep that part of the Ian CHEAP BINDING TWINE CONTRACT Love iu Bottle Sunbury April 1 A romantic love affair which began with the ing of a note in a- bottle by Mary A Erb of this city will minate with an Easter weak marriage Roland McVeigh of Md found the note and an acquaintance and subsequent arrangement followed PRESIDENT JOHN MITCHELL RETIRES FROM LABOR FIELD Intl April 1 After a candidate for governor of Illinois his decade spent in active work as the home being in Spring Valley 111 It executive head of the United Mine has also been stated that Mitchell Workers of America during which would be asked by President he has attained a reputation as the nation's foremost labor leader report on labor conditions in John Mitchell today stepped down and out and was succeeded by Thomas L velt to go to Panama and make the canal zone The retired labor leader will be one of the delegates to the The greatest event of career as a labor leader of Ohio During the time that conference on the conservation of the he has been president of the miners natural resources of the country union that organization has grown ed by President Roosevelt from a small and insignificant body John P White Iowa is the new vice president He has been dent of the Iowa miners W D Ryan cif Illinois long con- with the state organization of miners Is the new secretary-treasurer Ryan Is a Mitchell man as is While Lewis the new president is con- a brainy man He studied law and came up from the mines like Mr Mitchell He has sorno elaborate plan for making the organization bigger and stronger and his ambition is to gain the confidence of the public in the way Mitchell has held it Lewis has been spoken of as i fierce radical and some surprise has been expressed that a radical could be elected to such an Important position by men who had the services for years of so conservative a leader as John Mitchell As a matter of fact Thomaa Lewis Is not a radical In the usually accepted sense of the word He perhaps quicker to decide than the much-loved Mitchell whom he has on numerous occasions opposed and his manner of handling the on Pago 4 to of the strongest labor unions in the world with n total membership of Mitchell's retirement was wholly voluntary and was due to ill health If he had wished he could probably have retained his position throughout his life-time so popular is he with the members of the union Mitchell's the In tho anthracite district In 1903 the most memorable the try It Inaugurated by President Mitchell the demanda be- ing an eight-hour day higher wages and union mines It lasted from April until ber when President Roosevelt pointed his famous arbitration com- mission and a settlement was effected to last three years At the expiration of the three years the contract was renewed and now expires next year The settlement was considered able to the miners rumors are In circulation as to Mitchell's future He has been mentioned as a possible democratic Board of Agriculture Makes Contract to Get Kansas State Binding Twine for Fanners Guthrie April 1 The state board of agriculture has taken up the question of binding twine with W W Haskell warden of the Kansas State penitentiary whose binding twine plant has saved the great wheat state to the north from the oppression and financial ravages of the twine trust Under the territorial government this department has been enabled during the past two years to save many dreds of dollars to tlie small grain growers of the state but until this year the Kansas twine plant has never been enabled to fully meet the outside demand This year the board is able to quote a rate of seven and a half cents on pure Sisal twine in lots oC 5000 pounds and upwards and eight cents on orders of less than that ber oC pounds The grain growers can take this matter up direct with tbe Kansas plant and the Oklahoma state board will take pleasure in furnishing der blanks and envelopes to all cants from among the grain growers Samples will also be furnished as long as the supply lasts It Is not only on the twine chased from the Kansas plant that this action of the state board will er- ect a great saving to the farmers but all twine dealers win be ed to meet these figures by reason of his competition Farmers should take advantage of his arrangement and place their ders early so that they will not fall victims of a corner that might cur later In the season after the ily Kansas institution becomes Scientists in Session Ann April 1 Annual meetings of tlie Michigan Academy ot Science and the Schoolmasters club convened today at tho University oi Michigan and will remain In session until Saturday The logical will hold its con- vention here the middle of the month he where his crops are located and b allowed to remain until they matur or six at the farthest If th lessee is the purchaser of a tract o which he had he must pay the for each quarter section If the land contains minerals or 1 within one-half mile of proven oil an gas deposits It shall be from sale The Standard Oil compan barred from participating In th bidding False statements are a The which will probably be re ported In the senate is also endorsee by the lessees It ia drawn by S Johnston chairman of the schoo land committee of the senate Th demand of the lessees for immediate sale has many friends in the senate while are some members who go to the opposite extreme and claim tha the lands should not be sold at all Still another idea unique In its nature is that embodied in a introduced by Senator Roy E Stafford oC City which is that the lands shall be sold but that the purchase price based on the appraised value shall never be paid but shall a perpetual 1 ien and bear the three per cent interest By this plan it is expected to malce the lands taxable without really letting them go out of the hands of the state Point o Other States The opponents the sale of the ands have pointed to the experience of other states which have sold theh school lands and have nothing now to show for it An effort was made to provide for that matter in the however by the provision which requires that the school fund shall be tept intact nnd if diminished in any way that the state must make good the deficiency The friends of the sale object on general principles to state landlord sm and insist that state needs he taxes it would get the lands n many case would amount to almost as much as the present als The issue of taxing these lands s an especially live one In localities where the school lands constitute most entire school districts as is the ase In Lincoln county and some other of the state Lessees Arc a Factor The school land lessees have a act and powerful organization In and have been working ard the present moment ever since seemed probable ing as they do nearly votes they have become a powerful factor In the politics of and have not hesitated to exercise that power Their organization is political but non partisan and tho lessees as a usual thing vote for the man whom they be- lieve to interests re- oC condition helps to explain strength Inutile present supported his campaigns for delegate gresis because they believed that he nor Steele promised some of those who lost out that if they would settle on the school lands and make ent Improvements they would finally own them as their homes and It is that promise that the present ture seems likel yto fulfill The leasing of the lands in the first place was really an accident Judge John C Foster was a member of tho council in the first territorial ture and it was while he was figuring on a memorial to congress for a fic grant of to assist in izing schools in Oklahoma as there was practically no taxable property in tbe territory at the he hit on the idea money for the LOST A pocket book Ing and notes and papers Finder please the same to of- fice ot M Bellamy and keep as reward S J Carpenter He embo the school Kinds I'd that idea in his memorial COUNTY WINS ALL WHISKEY CASES Every Case Up to Date in Con- viction or Bond Forfeiture Okla April ng from an explosion of a powder on the M K ii T track a mile and east here at afternoon Sam Kountz and WI lam Bailey of a construction and a little child fatally ten negroes Injured by flying timbers one car was blown literally into splinters two other cars were burned the railroad track was torn for two miles around affected by the Shock were the and the other ed arc being cared for at the tlon camp Is fearfully burned and body is almost a pulp Ing from the beating of timbers and other hard substances that were tered in tbe explosion Bailey Is less seriously Injured but received both burns and bruises that probably will result fatally The baby will die of blows received from flying timbers Kountz was In the car loading a part of the consignment Into a wagon wag In- the wagon The load having been completed Kountz ed up a handful of powder arid fully touched it off with a match ticles of the blaze were blown Into some hay that was packed between kegs of powder and caused the 1 tlon of the entire remaining portion of the consignment The car was torn pieces and Kountz was both to and it impressed thu bers of so favorably that it was passed unanimously by that body Very shortly afterward it wis passed by the house and approved by the governor and before the end of the session congress had given the new territory all that it asked along that line Oklahoma was the only territory to be given the right to lease its school lands At first the territory realized com- little from the leasing the lands but In the eighteen years of government it means millions of dollars to the schools of Oklahoma and in the last few years the receipts from that source have aggregated close to half a million annually OKLAHOMA STATE OPENS UP The cases on the docket in the ty court for violation oi the tory law are being turned Into con- as they are given to the jury Last evening E S Johnson the ter saloon keeper that never heard of the prohibition law until the sheriff bruised in the shakeup Bailey appeared and closed up his place of was struck by timbers and business was found guilty and given I for twelve feet His clothing a sentence of thirty days in jail and burning entirely from his a fine of The case has been pealed to the supreme court Will Adleman was found guilty this morning and given a thirty day jail sentence and fined for unlawfully disposing of intoxicating liquor W H Stack was found guilty by the jury this morning but no tence yet made The All Hale case against Chris Markeson resulted in a verdict of ty the jury believing that All Hale Is within the scope of the prohibition law New Bank Opens With Splendid Line of Jre Pleased The Oklahoma State bank opened lor business this morning In the opera house block with Cashier McLennan and Assistant John Donald In charge They have their certificate of ce 01 deposits by the state on ion and have started oft with a nice ine of deposits Cashier McLennan lays We are well pleased with our for the opening day tors were not exactly lined up at 9 clock this morning but we have a nice line of deposits and iire much pleased with the patronage our rst day has brought us The new bank has one of the best in the city rnd strong lal backing outside of the fact that he state is behind their deposits and theln payment The State bank promises to be one I the largest financial Institutions of All Hale is a special brew put up by the Val Blatz Brewing company and claimed by them to be and thai Its sale is i prohibited by the Oklahoma law Many experts were placed on the stand by both state and defense some testifying that All Hale was beer and other that it was not The verdict ot the jury of course what they thought about It County Attorney Fain and Assistant Jno M Young are making a vigorous prosecution and it is evident that they have seen there was plenty of evidence at hand before complaint was filed There are 49 of these cases on the docket and up to this time everyone has resulted In the forfeiture of bond or conviction The docket of Judge Wolverton in the county court will be entirely en up by these cases until the last of next week Ten negroes who were near were injured some were burned and other suffered both classes of juries The team of mules was killed and the wagon blown to pieces and the powder that had been loaded in the wagon having Remnants of the wrecked car begin burning traci and the car and two were de- The camp tents were down and portions of them Pieces of the wrecked car were ered up 100 yards from the scene of the explosion The car of powder had been ped to Shawnee and transferred to construction camp to be unloaded for use in blasting About two-thirds oC the consignment remained in the car when the explosion occurred In Shawnee the shock resembled that produced by an earthquake and many people were thrown into a state of Intense excitement believing an quake had come Annex to State Capitol Newark N J April 1 An annex to the state capitol at Trenton was opened in Newark today when ernor Fort established offices In this city to be in charge oC his son The governor will make occasional visits to Newark where he may be seen on state business by those who find it Inconvenient to go to Trenton Postal in Effect Washington April 1 The famous rder of the postoffice department re- ulring that the second class or pound ate shall not apply to newspapers or mailed to subscribers who re In arrears becomes effective FIRST NATIONAL CONVENTION POPULISTS CONVENE THURSDAY St Louis April 1 St Louis will have the honor of entertaining the first national political convention of the campaign the national sion of the people's party opening here tomorrow Scores of prominent populists arrived today and the hotel lobbies are filled with talking and gesticulating delegates Unlike most political conventions lawyers are In a minority among the delegates the larger portion of whom are farmers and men engaged in small business The convention will be called to order tomorrow in- the Olympic Theatre Official headquarters have been ay The order at the at the St James Hotel It is heap weekly and monthly mall order expected that more than a thousand but it has a storm of from publishers country and newspapers In all o the country Subscriptions o daily papers under this rule must e paid within three months to es within four months and to es within a year Camera Shooters Meet New York April 1 Delegations om nearly all the cities and towns of le state are In attendance at the invention of the delegates will be in the city when the convention opens A lively discussion of the probable candidates for the presidency Is In progress among the delegates today among those Watson and La Follette delegation -is Instructed for Bryan other state gations an Thomas Watson of Georgia has hundreds of and his chances oC again being selected to head the populist ticket are apparently very on good authority that La Follette would refuse the honor The populist platform is forecasted in the convention call which makes the following announcement Hope be placed In the ises of either of the two old parties Both have entangling alliances with the enemies of the government and cannot make substantial progress for generation Thus an free from becomes necessary if the and privilege is to the banks and stock If the rule of the people Is to be restored In our time The people's opposes any system permitting any class of citizens to paralyze the Industries and bankrupt the Industrious millions To this end tbe convention has been called Photographers association j good Is much talk of the here today One of the most photographic displays ever in this country Is on exhibition W Bellamy returned E trom Follette of tho understanding that he would tional convention of the Independence league It such action he taken as It is stated Hock Island Gold Notes New York April 1 Arrangements have been made with a firm of New York bankers for the extension for one year of the Chicago Rock Island and Pacific secured gold maturing today at 6 per cent per an- Victor Confirmed April senate today confirmed the nomination of Grant Victor to be eastern of homa whose nomination there some
