“ The legislature may also at any time propose a convention for amending or revising the constitution, but no such convention can be called without first obtaining the approval of the electorate. An elector must be able to read or write (unless he or an ancestor was a voter in 1866 or then lived in some foreign nation) and must be 21 years old, and a resident of the state for one year, in the county six months, and in the election precinct 30 days, and women have the privilege of voting at school meetings. ”

“ A lieutenant-governor, secretary of state, treasurer, auditor, examiner, and inspector, commissioner of labour, commissioner of insurance, chief mine inspector, commissioner of charities and corrections, and president of the board of agriculture are elected each for a term of four years, and the secretary of state, auditor and treasurer are, like the governor, ineligible for the next succeeding term. ”

“ Each district school must be open at least three months each year, and children between the ages of eight and sixteen are required to attend either a public or a private school, unless excused because of physical or mental infirmity. There are separate schools for whites and negroes. In addition to instruction in the ordinary branches, the teaching in the district schools of the elementary principles of agriculture, horticulture, animal husbandry, stock-feeding, forestry, building country roads and domestic science is required. ”

“ Indian corn, wheat, cotton, oats and hay are the principal crops, but the variety of farm and garden produce is great, and includes Kafir corn, broom corn, barley, rye, buckwheat, flax, tobacco, beans, castor beans, peanuts, pecans, sorghum cane, sugar cane, and nearly all the fruits and vegetables common to the temperate zone; stock-raising, too, is a very important industry. Of the total acreage of all crops in 1900, 4,431,819 acres, or 68.64%, were of cereals ”

“ Labour laws, passed by the first legislature (1908) , were amended and made more radical by the legislature of 1909: a child labour law forbids the employment of children under 14 in factories, workshops, theatres, bowling-alleys, pool-halls, steam-laundries or other dangerous places (to be defined by the commissioner of labour) , and no child under 16 is to be employed in such places unless able to read and write simple English sentences or without having attended school during the previous year; no child under 16 is to be employed in any of several (enumerated) dangerous occupations ”

“ No other branch of agriculture in Oklahoma has advanced so rapidly as the production of cotton; the culture of this fibre was introduced in 1890, and the acreage increased from 682,743 acres in 1899 to 2,037,000 acres in 1909, and the yield increased from 227,741 bales to 617,000 bales (in 1907 it was 862,383 bales) . There was only a very small crop of broom corn in 1889, but in 1899 the crop was 3,565,510 ℔. The state has risen to high rank in the production of sorghum cane and castor beans also ”

“ Agriculture and Stock-raising.—For some time before the first opening to settlement by white men in 1899, the territory now embraced in Oklahoma was largely occupied by great herds of cattle driven in from Texas, and since then, although the opening was piecemeal, the agricultural development has been remarkably rapid. By 1900, 22,988,339 acres, or 52.1%, of the total land surface was included in farms, and 8,574,187 acres, or 37.7%, of the farm land was improved. ”

“ The farm land was divided among 108,000 farms containing an average of 212.85 acres; 26,121 of them contained less than 50 acres, but the most usual size was 160 acres; and 48,983, or 45.35%, contained from 100 to 174 acres. A considerable portion of the larger farms (there were 2390 containing 500 acres or more) were owned by Indians but leased to white men. Much land as late as 1900 was held in common by Indian tribes, but has since been allotted to the members of those tribes and most of it is leased to whites. ”

“ A large portion are one-half or more white blood and the Creeks and some others have more or less negro blood. In 1906 there were 257,100 communicants of various churches in Oklahoma and Indian Territory, the Methodist Episcopalians being the most numerous, and next to them the Baptists. The population in places having 4000 inhabitants or more increased from 29,978 in 1900 to 140,579 in 1907, or 368.9%, while the population outside of such places increased from 760,413 to 1,273,598, or only 67.5%. ”

“ A state board of arbitration, composed of two farmers, two employers and two employés is authorized to investigate the causes of any strike affecting the public interests, and publish what it finds to be the facts in the case, together with recommendations for settlement. ”

“ There is a University Preparatory School (1901) at Tonkawa in Kay county, and there are state schools of agriculture at Tishomingo and at Warner. The common schools are in large part maintained out of the proceeds of the school lands (about 1,200,000 acres) , which are sections 16 and 36 in each township of that portion of the state which formerly constituted Oklahoma Territory, and a Congressional appropriation of $5,000,000 in lieu of these sections in what was formerly Indian Territory. ”

“ By the treaties with the five southern tribes they were to be permitted to make their own laws so long as they preserved their tribal relations, but since the Civil War many whites had mingled with these Indians, gained control for their own selfish ends of such government as there was, and made the country a refuge for fugitives from justice. ”

“ Amendments may be submitted through a majority of the members elected to both houses of the legislature or through a petition signed by 15% of the electorate, and a proposed amendment becomes a part of the constitution if the majority of the votes Cast at a popular election are in favour of it. ”

“ Miscellaneous Laws.—The property rights of husband and wife are practically equal, and either may buy, sell or mortgage real estate, other than the homestead, without the consent of the other. Among the grounds for a divorce are adultery, extreme cruelty, habitual drunkenness, gross neglect of duty and imprisonment for felony. ”

“ The others are the remnants of a number of tribes collected here from various parts of the country; Choctaws, Chickasaws, Cherokees, Creeks, Seminoles, Osages, Kaws, Poncas, Otoes, Cheyennes, Iowas, Kickapoos, Sauk and Foxes, Sioux, Miamis, Shawnees, Pawnees, Ottawas and several others. Until 1906 the Osages lived on a reservation touching Kansas on the N. and the Arkansas river on the W. (since then almost all allotted) ; but to the greater portion of the Indians the government has made individual allotments. Only about one-fourth of the so-called Indians are full bloods. ”

“ The law-making bodies are a Senate and a House of Representatives. One-half the senators and all the representatives are elected every two years, senators by districts and representatives by counties. ”

“ Population.—The population of the territory now embraced within the state increased from 258,657 in 1890, when the first census was taken, to 790,391 In 1900, or 205.6%, to 1,414,177 in 1907, and to 1,657,155 in 1910. ”

“ The manufactured forest products of Indian Territory increased in value from $189,373 in 1900 to $588,078 in 1905, or 205.78%.
Minerals.—The coal-fields extend from Kansas on the N. to Arkansas on the E., and have an area of about 20,000 sq. m. The principal mining centres are McAlester, Wilburton, Hartshorn, Coalgate and Phillips. In quality the coal varies from a low grade to a high grade bituminous, and some of the latter is good for coking. ”

“ A law of 1908 requires that an agricultural school of secondary grade be established in each of the five supreme court judicial districts, and that an experimental farm be operated in connexion with each ”