Helena weekly herald., 1889-02-14
Mr. Garter Returns Home and Talks Upon
the Subject of Admission.
he Thinks the Omnibus Bill May be
Amended and Passed This
Session.
he Repudiates the Alleged Interviews
Credited to Him by Democratic
Papers.

which he called upon the President elect
at indianapolis, and also spent some time
in Washington. Mr.'Carter was found at
his Office this morning and yielded the fol-
lowing expressions to the HERALD inter-
viewer:
Reporter-What is the sentiment in
Washington with reference to the admis-
sion of the Territory?
Mr.. Carter-The sentiment is in q gen.
eral way favorable to admission but the
omnibus bill as passed through the House
is now recognized by nearly every conserv.
ative man with whom / conversed as being
so defective in it's provisions that its passage
in its present form would be attended with
disastrous results and amendments are
therefore absolutely necessary.
Rep-What are the principal defects?
Mr.. C-The one defect which would most
materially affect each of the Territories
named in the bill is in the failure to pro-
vide for the establishment of
U. S. COURTS IN THE TERRITORIES
or any provision whereby cases now pend
ing on the U. S. side of the Territorial
courts might be transferred to some other
Jurisdiction. The omission in this behalf
would necessarily result in all actions now
pending on the U. S. side of Territorial
courts abating. The disastrous conse-
quences of this result could scarcely be
calculated.
Rep.-Would the provisions in bill
like the Omnibus Bill, where they have to
provide for the admission of four or more
Territories, work injustice to any one ter
tory?
Mr.. C.-Yes; the Republican theory is
now and always has been that each Terri
tory should be damitted on its own merits
and entirely independent of any other con-
sideration, and it is clearly made manifest
by the provisions of the Omnibus bill itself
that Justice cannot be done to q large num-
ber of Territories extending over broad
area of country, embodying dissimilar con-
ditions, without working iDj Justice to some
one of the Territories to which the general
provisions apply. In the Territory of Da-
kota, for instance, the school lands
are almost invariably valuable,
and the grant of the sections
16 and 36 in each township, signifies grant
of two sections of valuable, marketable
land in each township. This does not hold
good in Montana, where sections Is and 36
in a given township may be practically
valueless: hence our school fund would
suffer, unless special provisions were made
with reference to Montana to compensate
for the loss which would follow.
Rep.-Is there any other provision in the
omnibus bill which would do injustice to
Montana?
MI C.-Yes; the bill as it stands might
be better termed "a bill to provide for
THE INDEFINITE PosTPoNEMENT
of the admission of the territories" In the
first place it forces us to await the final
solution of the division difficulty in Dakota
to some extent. This fact does not appear
clearly on random reading of the bill, in
asmuch as it does appear that Montana
may be admitted by proclamation of the
President, on compliance with certain
specified conditions; but subsequent Sec
tion of the bill provides that none of the
territories shall be admitted until Congress
shall have approved of the proceedings
which may obtain in pursuance of the en-
abling act. Thus the Presidents proc
lamation would be of little value,
or would result in manifest
conflict between the President and Con-
gress, growing out of the ambiguous terms
of the bill ITSELF Serious objections are
urged to the admission OF New Mexico It
is alleged that there are only 10000 white
people in that Territory and over 100000
Mexicans, who have little knowledge of, or
sympathy with, the institutions of this
country. Notwithstanding these various
difficulties, the anxiety of the Republicans
in the Senate to secure the admission of
the Territories has impelled them to 90
into conference with a committee of the
House for the purpose of so amending
the bill as to make its provisions
effective and satisfactory; and l
think we have good reason to hope that
this conference will arrive at an agreement.
and in that event this Congress will admit
North and South Dakota, Montana and
Washington. As originally drawn, the
bill was evidently intended to force Dakota
into the Union as one State. This was
provided for BY requiring that a majority
of the votes in both North and South Da-
kota should be cast in favor of division.
Now, there :are about 100000 people in
South Dakota as against about 100000 in
North Dakota, and the only objection to
division line, and it is barely possible
Uudl q ollHut vi GAO SOoSOOO
voters in North Dakota would
vote against division; thus about one-sixth
of the people of Dakota Territory were
empowered by that bill to control the
future destiny of 100000 souls residing
there. That is so manifestly unjust and
un-American that am satisfied the Senate
will not agree to place the people OF Dakota
in such predicament.
MAILING A CANARD
Rep.-YOu are represented as having
stated in an interview in Washington that
the Republicans were anxious to defeat
the omnibus bill, to the end that the next
Republican Congress might reap the full
glory of admission and political capital at
tached to it?
Mr.. C.-Well, in reply to that wish to
say that did not communicate any ex-
preston of sentiment on any subject what
ever to any newspaper man in Washing
ton, with reference to admission or any
other question and the statement that l
expressed such views is absolutely false
l conversed with large number of our
Senators and Representatives in Congress
and in all cases favored admission under q
bill reasonable and fair in its terms, but I
did insist that the present Omnibus
Bill should be so amended as to provide
for the establishment of U. S. Dis
trict Court in this Territory, to which
United States business now pending here
could be transferred, and I do not under
stand that any rational man would seek
admission under bill that would entail
such hardship as the abating of large
number of important lawsuits and the con-
aannent irrenarahle ininrv IN nnmerons in