Speech #500184090

I wish I had time to discuss this question more at length. but 1 want to say this: It has been charged in the public prints that railroad corporations and townsite companies and speculators want to open Oklahoma. I do not know one single human being that within my knowledge is interested in any railroad. in any townsite company. or any speculation in connection with thatTerritory. but I do know that the people of my State bordering on this Territory for years have been holding up their hands to the Congress of the United States and asking that upon just and equitable terms this portion of the national capital. of the resources of the country for advancement and civilization shall be utilized. and against us today. asking as we do only what is right and just and proper. and in the interest of religion. in the interest of government. in the interest of civilization. stand these cattle kings and their dupes with 6.200.000 acresofthe public domain closed against the advance of the spirit of progress that today is throbbingin every portion of our common country and proclaiming that they represent the Indians. when the only interest they represent is their own greed and avarice. Sir. we have proposed everything to these Indians in the way of legislation and they have refused it. and now I make no threat. but I say deliberately that it is just as impossible to close up that Territory to honest immigration and to the institutions of the United States as it would be for an infant to hold motionless in its hand the wheels of the car of Juggernaut itself. They can profit by the statement.