AS HAS ALREADY BEEN INDICATED, the constitution of the new
state, which went into operation on November 16, 1907, was
in the hands of its friends. The government was overwhelm-
ingly Democratic. Every state official belonged to that party,
as did every member of the lower house of Congress, except for
Bird S. McGuire, the former delegate to Congress from Okla-
homa Territory. Moreover, the Republicans had elected only
five of the 44 state senators, and 16 of the 109 members of the
lower house.

The completeness of its victory gave to the party in power
great opportunities and correspondingly heavy responsibilities.
Numerous grave problems demanded solution. The former
Twin Territories, so unlike in almost every respect, must be
welded together into a united whole, since the symbolical mar-
riage which joined them was only a colorful and dramatic
gesture. Yet the people of Oklahoma Territory, except in
local affairs, had had comparatively little experience in self-
government, and the whites of the Indian Territory had had
almost none. The latter area was in great need of more and
better roads and bridges and of an adequate system of public
schools. Also, it had virtually no institutions of higher learn-
ing except for a few private or church schools. Most of its
lands were still owned by Indians and not subject to taxation,

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