Politics & Government - Unit 3, Lesson 2; Oklahoma Passage Telecourse #112 Politics & Government - Unit 3, Lesson 2

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. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Oh, yeah, that's a whole different story right there. Yeah, yeah, we had Jeronimo, had that old Apache warrior, brought up from Fort Seal, under guard, 65,000 people showed up in one day to see him. No. Oh, yeah, yeah. I just couldn't believe me. Well, now the story got around somehow. I don't know how I'd got around. But the story got out that we was going to have Jeronimo scout somebody for a finale.

And we was going to kill a whole herd of buffalo. Oh, I tell you what, I've never seen so many people in one place at one time. Well, Joe, why did the people come? Did they come just to see the great warrior to watch the buffalo die? Oh, I don't know that. Maybe it was the spectacle of the thing. You know, I think maybe it was even something more than that. People have the need to feel like they're a part of the great events of a time, even though maybe that time has gone by. Hmm. I live through some of those times. The last thing I want to do is live them again. You fellas need another opinion in here? Well, Nat here thinks that our Wild West shows are not in a public interest. Now, Bill and I never said that. No, but it's in your mind.

That's sure we made money off of Jeronimo, but I'll tell you, we gave thousands and thousands of people an experience that they'll be telling their grandchildren about. You know, sometimes I wonder if the Lord is going to make the proper distinction between the fellow that means well and the fellow that does well. Of course, now, you know, I don't think he's going to blackball us because we can't remember which is which. How about that, Hannah? Let's hear from the young generation. What do you got to say, huh? Is that supposed to be a football uniform? Well, that's Jim Thor. Even I need that. He was the greatest athlete in the world. He was born here in Oklahoma. That's right, Tis. He was born and raised near Preg. Bo, his grandfather was a great Indian chief, and oh, how Jim Thorpe could run. He won two gold medals in the 1912 Olympics. And then he went into professional football and professional baseball. It wasn't anything that he couldn't do.

As a matter of fact, he was voted the greatest athlete of the first 50 years of this century. Who's this? Oh, that's my brother, George. He's handsome. Isn't he? And oh, did he love the oil business? As a matter of fact, he went to work in the oil business when he was still very young. George worked as a roughneck, and he watched, and he learned. Followed the booms across Oklahoma until he found himself as a driller in the Osage pool. East Osage City, then Wild Horse, and Hickory Creek. The oil business began in Oklahoma about the time my father and Clem Rogers were thinking about a constitution for the new state. Oil was struck just south of Tulsa. They called it the Glenning Pool, a fabulous reservoir.

New gushers spotted into the air every day. It wasn't the first oil in Oklahoma by any means. There had been rich finds in Indian territory. The first well was found back in 1859 by the brother of Cherokee Chief John Ross. The Glenpool was the biggest the state had ever seen. I remember once when George came home, filled with tales of marvelous adventure. I just don't have words for the power of that moment. Sound of it. It's like thunder. Like a tornado at the center of the earth. Then boom! Crude blasts into the sky, hundreds of barrels, and a flash were soaked in oil, and from

horizon to horizon, all you can see is oil, darax, millionaires. Millionaires? Hundreds of them, Hannah. Sometimes there's poor as an old church mouse, and then just like that, there were 50 million. And they just let the oil run out over the land? Well, for a while, Papa. It's kind of like a black fountain. I hate to see the land ruined. If we don't have the land, we don't have anything. Oil is more valuable than land. How many millionaire farmers do you know? There's this guy from Pennsylvania, named Tom Slick. He was a wild cat. He drilled a few dry holes first, and then he came upon some land, it just kind of smelled of oil.

Nailed? Well, some people have a nose for it, and he was one. Well, oh, Slick leased some land from a creek indie in east of Cushing for 45 cents an acre. So nothing would grow on that land. But underneath it was oil-bearing sand. It became known as the Drumrise Pool. Well, old Tom, drilled into that sand, oil jumped out 40 feet above the Derrick. Don't you see? The land was worthless, but so much money was made from the oil that Slick will still be counted in his next life. Land is never worthless, son. Too many people died for it. This place was housed, this land has a worth you can't measure, not the dollars. I wish it stay and work the soil, son. There's a reward enough in that. I was born for this new world, it's in my blood. Every rig I work, I put part of my own wages into the hole.

And when the well comes in, I get a share. They haven't been many dry holes in the Osage. Does that mean you're rich? About to become rich. If it knows about the hotel lobby in Tulsa, you should see it, Hannah. The hotel Tulsa. Why, it's got one room just goes up and down, an elevator they call it. The lobby's filled with some of the richest men in the world, all making a million dollar deals. Well, I got me some information about a couple of land leases in the Osage Hills, me and a fellow named Phillips. I think it's about time I took my chance. Well, you're old enough to make your own decisions, boy. But I wish it stay. Papa John risked everything he had when he came out here on the run of 89. We wouldn't have this place if he hadn't.

I think it's my turn to start sewing some seats. Take a chance. Good luck, son. You'll see. I'll make you proud. Did he get rich? He got very rich. Key and others. They built the oil industry and oil built Oklahoma. He didn't fail us.

Everybody keep real still. Is anybody else in there? Just what you see, mister? What do you fellas want here? Just passing through? How far? All the way to Washington, D.C., if we have to. Green corn rebellion? See, boys don't want to fight in the war, huh? That's right.

They seem to be spoiling for a fight here, carrying guns on another man's land. Look at ain't our war. We decided we wasn't going to go fight somebody else's war form. We got wives and kids. We'll go over to France and fight people we got nothing against. Yeah. Can't blame you there. Plenty of folks have had their fill of the war. War makes the rich get richer, the bankers and landlords profit off our sweat. It's the capitalists and imperialists who use the poor for cannon fodder. That's why the socialist party is so strong in Oklahoma. Well, it appears to me that the socialist didn't carry the state last time around. Well, the ballot won't get the job done. The bullet will. So you're going to rise up by the thousands, huh? Workers and farmers and you're going to march to Washington to overthrow Wilson to end

the war and live on the land the whole way, living on green corn. You got to do what we believe. I'm going to tell you the truth. There's people around here that'll kill you for what you believe. They'd use the horse whip, then the noose. I'm sure wish you felt as if found someone else's barn to overthrow the government. Well, invite your boys, Rebellion, just about over. Please. Help us, Mr. I'll see what I can do. Even in Thomas?

Even in that he worked in late. Yeah, yeah, putting some hay up in the barn. It's about got to done now. You felt as, uh, something calling? You know we ain't. I'm leading this here posse. It tells something Rebellion's been around here. You know, I never would get you seeing a posse right around one of them automobiles. It's a serious business man. Linchin' generally is. But you boys can put your rifles away. You know, an orchestra's hidden in my barn. Now, the only desparados I've seen all week are right right here in this automobile. You know, Thomas, I got to come in and get some more seed. We're in clean smooth out this morning. You do that man. You be sure and let me know if you see an emreble hanging around you. Sure will. See you then. That's good boy. You boys got careful. The Green Corn Rebellion, which touched the lives of the Bentons, serves as an appropriate symbol of the early statehood period.

Although only a minor outburst, it does illustrate the polarization, the sharp contrast of the time. Democrats against Republicans, both against the Socialists, whites against blacks, the farmer labor league against businessmen. It was a period of rapid growth and unabashed youthful expression when differences were anything but subtle and frontier regard for action was still strong. The players performing on this stage of political drama were certainly up to the task. The Socialists had fire eaters such as Pat Negal, harranging the corporations for oppressing the working man. There was the blind Senator Thomas Gore, whose oratory left his opponent spellbound. There were black activists, such as Roscoe Dungee, who never hesitated to speak out against racism and injustice through the pages of his newspaper, The Black Dispatch. Yes, it was an era of stark contrasts, even among the men who were elected governor. Urban Hurst, longtime journalist,

remembers the governor's he knew. So that I'm one of the few individuals who has known every governor since statehood. Haskell was an unusual individual. He was born in Ohio, and the first reference to him is in Oklahoma Piper's, is in 1911 he visited Muscogee. He decided to cast his lot with this new country down here. In 1905 he was one of the leading movers in organizing the Sequoia Convention to write a constitution for the proposed state of Sequoia, which would be an Indian state. I think Haskell knew there was not going to be an Indian state, but he didn't know how asked to convince the Indian leaders. And so he served as a vice president in the Sequoia Convention, but later was elected to and served in the Oklahoma Constitution Convention, in which Bill Murray was also a member of President of the Convention. Haskell was inaugurated November the 16th, 1907,

but one of the things I learned from him that morning I met him was that he was sworn in about three hours before the form of ceremony on the steps of the Carnegie Library. With his family he was waiting word in room 47 at the Royal Hotel that President Roosevelt had signed the statehood proclamation. When Western Union flashed the news at 916, Haskell was sworn in privately as governor and sent his adds to the General to Muscogee, I mean to Bartlettville, to hold a pipeline that was being constructed to pipe Oklahoma gas into Kansas. The Haskell is one of the two individuals responsible for moving the capital and talking about CPITL from Guthrieco, Oklahoma City. The other being Frank Greer, they enter of the very partisan Republican paper, the Oklahoma State Capitol. Greer was always taking jobs at Haskell

and when Haskell saw an opportunity after Oklahoma City leaders had initiated a petition to locate the capital. When he saw an opportunity to move the capital, he called a special election for June 11, 1910. And when the vote showed Oklahoma City winning, he just hurried down from talks about a special train and issued a proclamation declaring Oklahoma City the capital. Governor Haskell was succeeded by Lee Cruz, a native of Kentucky, who was a lawyer, but had come to Ardmore an early day and became a banker. Cruz was governor, when Graham was spoken for the capital. And we're talking about the Capitol Billings, CPITL Billing, on July the 20th, 1914. Construction continued under his successor, Governor Bob Williams.

Williams was a native of Alabama, and a bachelor. His stalwarts, behind his back, often referred to him, as Old Grumpy. Old Grumpy lived at the Arkansas Hotel and he'd had his way, so they say, he would have built the Capitol on the north side of Main Street. But as it was, he presided over the construction of the Capitol during the War period. In the fall of 1918, when the third election was in progress, the Spanish influenza epidemic was taking heavy tolls of citizens at home. Governor Williams issued a proclamation banning all public meetings and so the 1918 governor campaign was carried on in practical silence. The winner was J.B.A. Robertson. Robertson was the first inaugurated in the new Capitol.

They had a ball, an inaugural ball the night of his inaugural, to mark the occasion, when the lights went out, and the ball was in darkness. An enterprising deskman on the paper took a cut and turned it upside down so it would print black. And that was a picture of the Capitol after the lights went out. Following Robertson, of course, came Jack Rotten, who was mayor of Oklahoma City. After the War, of course, there's a big turmoil and Rotten was the choice of the former labor reconstruction for Governor. He went to such successives in his request for appropriations for that he was in hot water as far as the legislature was concerned early. And then, at a time when the governor had sold a clemency power,

he would favor his friends by signing pardons and pearls and say, here, take this and see if you can pedal it. That led to a demand for his impeachment. The legislature attempted to convene itself and put a rule out of order. But then in October 1923, Walton called a special session to submit a bill to unmasked the Ku Klux Klan. That was his doom. As soon as the legislature met, the legislature started investigation, house voted impeachment charges, and he was convicted to remove from office. There were over 20 charges, but the first one on which the vote was taken, was that he put his silver on the half-department paper of it. And that vote removed him from office. That brought to the governor's chair, Martin Edwin Trap, a native of Kansas. Trap was a very popular administrator. He brought order out of chaos

and, like, but he signed his papers acting governor, because he intended to run for governor in 1926. The Oklahoma Constitution at that time said the governor should not immediately succeed himself. And after the filing period closed, an Ardmore Lawyer filed suit in the original action in the Supreme Court, and the court struck Trap's name from the ballot. That left among others, Henry S. Johnson, who had been a member of the Constitutional Convention and an early-day legislature. Henry Johnson was elected governor, but he too was soon in trouble. He had a secretary, mainly Hans, who was very out of credit in ruling the governor's office, and no time he was in trouble with legislators. After it, but he did get through the regular session, and then the legislature went home,

but then the four horsemen, four members of the house, Bob Graham of Oklahoma County, Tom Johnson, Pouchner, from Pittsburgh County, and H. Tom Kite from Rogers County, they started a movement to convene the legislature on its own. That led to the so-called ULAM rebellion. Harold Mueller was covering capital for the times, and Mike Mononey, later to the U.S. Center, was covering for the news, and while opposition reporters were close friends, and one day they cornered the governor, and they were talking to him about Mrs. Hammond's conduct, and the governor said, if he referred to her as a ULAM, and he wouldn't sacrifice the ULAM. So that came to be known as a ULAM rebellion, and the legislature think that to convene, convene at the Huck and Sotel, and vote impeachment charges. The Supreme Court held the action was improper,

so Henry Johnson got through two years. The legislature only met every other year. He got through two years. By the 1929, when the regular session met, the investigation started, and he was impeached, and removed from him. The technical charge was in confidence. One day, I was talking to an editor friend of mine down at Ada, and we've talked about it, and he said, Erwin, you know, I don't think O'Henry went any more in confidence when they impeached him, than they were when they elected him. That brought Bill Holloway, who was Lieutenant Governor, brought Bill Holloway to the governor's chair. I want to jump forward to Bob Kerr. Oklahoma was the state 35 years before elected his first native son, Robert S. Kerr, born in 1886, was elected in 1942, and became Oklahoma's first native son, Governor.

Since that time, every governor has been a native son of Oklahoma except one, and that was Duy Bartlett, who was born in Ohio. Providing the stage for these colorful politicians were the issues and trends of the early statehood period. There were economic issues, pitting socialist against Republicans. There were social issues with secret organizations, such as the Ku Klux Klan, resorting to vigilante law and their quest to maintain the status quo. And there were more subtle undercurrents, such as rural versus urban and modernism versus fundamentalism that were just as divisive. Historian Danny Goble provides an overview of this early political era. The very first bill passed by the Democratic State Legislature provided for segregation in public trains and other public facilities. And the lesson being learned, blacks acted on that lesson in 1988, they went to the polls. And they voted for the first time in two elections. And they voted as they always had,

they voted Republican. And when they did, the Republicans won a smashing victory. They elected three or five congressmen in 1988. They denied the Democratic presidential candidate, William Jennings Bryan, a majority of Oklahoma's votes. He got a plurality, but not a majority. Republicans had risen from the grave and they did it on the back of black voters in 1988. The consequence was that in 1910, anticipating the same thing would happen with likely even worse results. The State Democratic Party, which was the state, still running state affairs, artfully and systematically disenfranchised the black population. They did it through a grandfather clause that in effect required, for the first time, literacy in order to vote in Oklahoma. But in effect, required it only of would-be black voters. Whites were exempted by so-called grandfather clause. Well, the effect was that with the blacks disenfranchised, the Democrats established their majority. But they established their majority,

by and large, through artificial mechanism. And it would prove to be a somewhat temporary majority. Despite Oklahoma's well-deserved reputation for sometimes extreme conservatism in this generation, somewhat surprising fact is that Oklahoma in the early years of the 20th century had not only an active socialist movement, but one of the strongest socialist movements of any state in the Union. Simple statement of facts. In 1910, Oklahoma had more registered socialist in this state. The New York State had it in 1910, although New York had seven times Oklahoma's population. At the eve of World War I, socialist were getting a fifth of the vote statewide in Oklahoma. In that part of the state, the southern third that lies below the Canadian river, they were getting closer to a third or even 40% of the vote on the eve of World War I. Socialists, six of them were elected to the state legislature before the First World War, and there were hundreds of socialist local political officers. Again, at the time of the First World War.

So, socialist party was a remarkable political success in Oklahoma. What accounts for it more than anything else was that socialists were able to make an appeal and put together a coalition to those who had been in a sense economically disenfranchised in Oklahoma. That includes partly industrial labor is most especially coal miners who found themselves overworked in an industry which was legendary for a working life that was, as Hobbes might say, nasty, brutish, and oftentimes short as well. But even more than their industrial base, especially among the coal miners of South Eastern Oklahoma, the socialists put together the farming population, tenant farmers. In Eastern Oklahoma, he typically had counties in which 67 to even 90 percent of the farmers did not own their own land. They were tenant farmers

who granted from landlords, and socialists put together a very effective appeal with those in Eastern Oklahoma. In Western Oklahoma, farm tenancy was hardly that common, but what was very common in Western Oklahoma was mortgage burden indebtedness. You had a situation in Western Oklahoma where the average farm was as burdened by mortgage in 1910 as was true in Kansas. But the difference was, Kansas had been settled for over 60 years. Western Oklahoma had been settled for ten, fifteen years. In Eastern Oklahoma, you've got a situation of tenancy, as bad as you've gotten Mississippi, Alabama, or Georgia. But they've had a hundred years to get there. Eastern Oklahoma has gotten there in ten or fifteen years. And socialists appealed very dramatically to those who, in either way, were as I put it earlier, economically disenfranchised. The result was that they made these appeals. The result was the tenant farmers, mortgage burden farmers in the West, coal miners in the southeast.

Industrial workers in Oklahoma City were voting strong socialists at the time of the First World War. But it was the First World War that did them in. In effect, with the First World War allowed to happen was for the socialist main opposition, which was Democratic Party, to wrap itself in the flag of patriotism, and tarry its opposition with brush of disloyalty. This was especially true after the ill-fated green cornering value, in which, in southeastern Oklahoma, tenant farmers and sharecroppers, attempted this chaotic mission of overthrowing the government in the United States and forcibly ending the First World War and subjecting Woodrow Wilson to a citizen's arrest. Well, it ended up as a disaster, not just for those who participated in it, but those who were rather falsely identified with it, which was a socialist party. The state's ruling party and the state administration saw the chance,

and they took the most of the chance. They identified the rebellion with the socialist, they identified socialist with disloyalty, and they crushed the socialist party. They did it partly by propaganda, they did it partly by the use of wood amounted to organized, state authorized vigilantes, state and county councils of the fence. They did it with Diracconi and legislation that had the effect that at the end of the First World War, the war to make the world safe for democracy. Every socialist newspaper in Oklahoma had been silenced. At the end of the First World War, to make the world safe for democracy. Every candidate, the party had ever run for statewide office was sitting in a jail somewhere. Basically, for being, as they said, disloyal, but in fact, for being socialist. It was the end of the socialist party. Colorful characters, such as Jack Walton Henry Johnston and Al Falfeville, combined with explosive issues such as socialism and segregation. To give the early statehood period

a dramatic personality that appeals to historians and to the public alike. But it was a period of achievement as well with progressive legislation, such as the nation's first bank guarantee law and expansion of the state's higher education system. There were less dramatic, but more effective political leaders, such as Martin Trepp, who created the Modern Highway Commission, organized the first state bureau of investigation and successfully unmasked the plan. Yes, there were dark overtones to much of the period, but there were real accomplishments as well. Much has changed since those early days, especially in the role of state government. Generally, there has been a trend toward centralization, with state agencies taking more and more responsibilities in areas such as highway construction, schools, law enforcement, and human services. Tracing this changing profile of state government is Dr. Bill Corbett. Since the time of statehood in 1907, another number of very important trends have affected the development and changes in Oklahoma,

and of those trends, three very important developments have taken place to make Oklahoma a much different place today than it was in 1907. One of those trends has to do with the movement of people from rural areas to the cities. The rural urban migration it has taken place in Oklahoma. That migration began in the 1930s as a result of depression, but it did not reach significant proportions until after World War II as a result of two developments. One of those developments was the changing Oklahoma economy. As a result of the efforts of Governor Kerr and others who followed him, a vigorous attempt to recruit industry to Oklahoma, resulted in new jobs, and most of those jobs and businesses located in cities and towns of the state, and that brought people in to the urban areas. A second development with changes in agriculture itself, agriculture became more mechanized. The farms got larger, an agribusiness emerged rather than just being a farmer. Although the number of farms in Oklahoma declined in the years following World War II, the acreage productivity remained very high.

What happens is people left the farm, those who could no longer compete, or those who no longer could make a living as small farmers left the farm and found jobs elsewhere in the towns and cities of the state. One very important development since state has been this trend from rural to urban, this migration from the rural areas and small towns to the larger cities of the state. And that's evidenced by the changing other states' population. By 1950, there were an equal number of people living in urban areas, as rural areas, by 1975, fully one-half of the state's population lived in the Tulsa and Oklahoma City metropolitan areas. A second very important development since statehood has been the increasing role of the federal government in state affairs, and this has been a national development, not only in Oklahoma, but in all of the states. But there have been so unique elements of this federal involvement in the development and history of Oklahoma. One of those has been money for programs. The federal government has provided extensive amounts of money for highways, whether it was the interstate system, the U.S. highway system.

The federal government has also provided money for programs in human services, such as programs for the disadvantaged, for the underprivileged, all of these things that have expanded the role of the state in providing social services to the department of human services and other state agencies that are similar to it. So this is one element of the role of the federal government, money for programs. A second role of the federal government in Oklahoma has to do with jobs. The most obvious is these are the military bases. There are several in the state that employ a lot of people, but there are also civilian activities, there are civilian activities of the federal government that employ a lot of people as well. An example of that is the Federal Aviation Administration Center in Oklahoma City, as well as the El Reno Reformatory at El Reno. These, both of these, employ several hundred people. And so the federal government has provided a payroll through military bases, through civilian facilities, and also there is a unique element of federal involvement in Oklahoma in terms of employment. And that is the Bureau of Indian Affairs. The Bureau of Indian Affairs has rather a large commitment to Oklahoma.

Oklahoma has the second highest Native American population of any state in the union. Not only is the Bureau of Indian Affairs have an important presence in Oklahoma, but through the Bureau of Indian Affairs, large amounts of federal dollars are funneled to the various Indian tribe, which in turn provides employment. So the federal government has provided a lot of jobs for Oklahoma's, and this in turn has increased the influence of the federal government in state affairs. And the third element of involvement of the federal government in state affairs has to do with direct intrusion, or as some might say, just plain direct involvement in the functioning of the state. There are two examples that come to mind. One has to do with the reapportionment of the state legislature. In 1960, the census showed that more people lived in urban areas than rural areas, but most state legislatures still came from rural areas. The state legislature refused to apportion itself to reflect the new population, and as a result of 1963,

the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Oklahoma arbitrarily reapportioned. The state legislature, increasing the representation from urban areas and reducing the representation in rural areas. A second development in terms of the effect of direct intervention by the federal government has been with the state prisons. In the 1970s, as a result of a lawsuit brought against the state prison system, federal courts assumed supervision of the state prison system, which in turn required the state to spend more money in modernizing and upgrading the various institutions for incarcerating criminals. So the federal government has been very important in the history, the recent history of the state, and particularly significant in bringing about changes in terms of jobs, in terms of money for programs, and also to some extent intervening in the affairs of the state. The combination of the rural urban movement and the role of the federal government in the affairs of the state has brought about a third very important change that has affected the history and development of Oklahoma,

and that has been a centralization and modernization of state government itself. As I mentioned earlier, money from the federal government has provided for programs, and when these programs emerged, the state had to respond by either changing or improving its system of administration. The highway department is a prime example in the early 1920s. The federal government made available funds for highway construction and improvements, but it also required that that money be spent through a central state agency, which forced the state of Oklahoma to change its highway department to become an agency that legally had the authority to build, maintain, and plan public roads. The same thing can be said for the Department of Human Services. Their programs have been expanded as a result of monies made available, and as a result, the state has had to respond by expanding the role of the Department of Human Services. Also, not only in new programs, but also the state has responded in the way, has responded to modernization and centralization, in the way that it actually does business. In 1959, the legislature enacted laws that created

a central purchasing agency whereby one agency bought goods and services for all state agencies. And in turn, through central purchasing, this has saved Oklahoma taxpayers millions of dollars, since 1959. Another development in 1959 was the implementing of a state merit system, the idea being to hire the best qualified people to serve the people of the state. And I think that's the least the taxpayers can expect from state governments to hire qualified people, remove the influences of political patronage, and bring professional people into government to serve the citizens of the state. So these are two developments. One is programs and expanding the role of state agencies. The second is the development of the way changes in the way that the state actually does business. And a third modernization and centralization has been the types of programs developed by the state that have really improved the quality of life in Oklahoma. One of the best examples has been the expansion of the junior and community college system

in the state that began after 1960. A number of junior colleges were reorganized, were open, their curriculums were expanded. And as a result of that, Oklahoma's have one of the best accessibility, or have one of the easiest means of accessibility to higher education through the junior college system. Also through organizations such as the Oklahoma Historical Society, programs have been established to preserve our state heritage, and also to educate people as to the heritage of Oklahoma. And also the Oklahoma Education Television Authority, which started on a shoestring budget in the late 1940s, early 1950s, now provides cultural, educational, and information programs to the most direct forms of access to the citizens of Oklahoma, their television in their homes. So as a result of three very important trends and statehood, Oklahoma has changed dramatically. One of those trends being the rural urban migration, a second trend being the role of the federal government and providing money for programs and providing jobs, and also in directly intervening in the affairs of the state.

And these two together have brought about a modernization and centralization of the state services themselves, whether it is in providing better highways, better human services, social services, whether it is in providing educational opportunities, or in such things as cultural and educational developments, which has in turn increased the standard of living to an extent has enhanced the style of life in Oklahoma and in turn created a state that has changed markedly since the first year of the statehood in 1907. Since 1917, the people of Oklahoma have faced many challenges, some have been immediate, such as coping with natural disasters or mobilizing for war. Some have been longer lasting, such as maintaining law and order, building highways, teaching students, and providing minimal services to the needy. In all cases, government and the politicians elected to make its decisions have been there when needed.

It's important that all voting citizens understand the issues that can be affected by politics and government. That is the foundation of our freedom. But before intelligent decisions can be made, before you affect the future with your vote, you must understand the history of those issues, and how the past is affecting the present. The stakes are too high to do otherwise. Until next time, I'm your host, Dean Lewis, with Oklahoma Passage. . .

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Major funding of Oklahoma Passage was made possible by the Samuel Roberts Nobel Foundation. Phillips Petroleum Foundation. Grace B. Kerr Fund, the McCaslin Foundation, and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. Additional funding provided by the MacMahon Foundation and the OETA Foundation. These organizations invite you to join them in celebrating Oklahoma's past and future. .