The record-union., 1896-03-19

WASHINGTON, March 1S.-The
feature of to-day's proceedings in the
Senate was a short debate upon joint
resolution directing the Secretary of
the Interior to execute the law for open
ing to settlement some 100000 acres
OF land in the eastern part of Utah,
which had been part OF the Uncom-
pahgre Indian Reservation. Severe
structure upon the Secretary of the In
terror for attempting to nullify the Act
OF Congress We're made by Senators
Cannon of Utah, Wolcott of Colorado
and Vest of Missouri. The latter in
weighed with much vehemence against
the Secretary, declaring that the time
had been when the head of a depart
ment would have to answer at the bar
OF the Senate for such an attempt to
trample upon the legislative branch of
the Government Vest caused much
amusement by his witty and caustic
criticism of President Cleveland's re-
cent speech before. the Home Mission
ary Society in New York
The joint resolution presented yester-
day by Cannon Rep) of Utah directing
the Secretary of the Interior to open to
entry the Uncompahgre Indian Reser-
walton, excepting the agricultural lands
allotted or selected for allotment to the
Cncompahgre Indians, was taken up
and Cannon asked for its present con-
sideration
The Secretary of the Interior, he de-
clared, had not complied with the law,
and this joint resolution was to require
him to do so. He said that the exist
ence of asphalt in the reservation was
as we'll known when the Act opening it
to settlement was passed as it was
known now. The Secretary of the In
terror, Cannon declared, had never in
tended to have the reservation opened
to public entry, and could not have
acted more in the interest of rich and
wealthy men and less in the interest of
the common people. The care of the In
terror Department was not how to do
but how not to do it.
Wolcott argued that the effect of the
passage of the joint resolution would be
not to give away the lands in question
but to let them go where they belonged
to the settlers.
Vest Oem) of Missouri made a pas
sionate speech on the subject. He be-
gan with the remark that there was
time when a Cabinet officer who delib-
erately failed to execute an Act of Con-
gress would be brought before the bar
CT the Senate because he had trampled
upon the legislative department of the
Government, and had violated his oath
OF office. He happened to know the
facts in regard to the matter
Some years ago company had been
ORGANIZED in ST I,0I1iC for h0
of opening up certain asphalt deposits
in the Uncompahgre reservation, in the
eastern part of Utah, and invested
large amount of money. Recent discov-
cries had been made in Utah of the
largest deposits of asphaltum in the
world. The ST. Louis company had not
gone into the reservation 1t had
bought land outside and wagoned the
product down to the Union Pacific Rail-
way, by which it was sent to the differ
ent cities. The company did not want
the lands, because the asphalt existed
in such enormous quantities that there
could be no monopoly in it.
There was, also, Vest said a New
York asphalt corporation which came
on the scene last summer, and which
made some adjustment with the st.
Louis company. The question was
whether Congress knew what it was do
ing when it passed the Act to open up
those lands. Congress did know it, and
knew very we'll that there were great
asphalt deposits there. He knew per-
sonally that in 1898 the Interior Depart
ment was told as to the extent of those
deposits. He had gone himself with the
President of the st. Louis company to
the Secretary's office with specimens
of the asphalt, and had heard the ex-
PLANTATION made to the Secretary in re-
gard to those deposits.
What sort of right, Vest demanded,
angrily, had the Secretary of the Inte-
rior to nullify that Act of Congress? ?.
That practice had grown up under it.
and demanded the attention of Con-
gress and at once. The action of the
Secretary of Agriculture on the seed
question was an instance of the same
kind, and now, he said, comes the Secre-
tary of the Interior and says that Con-
gress did not know anything about
these enormous deposits, and he takes
the responsibility of saying to the Pres
ident of the United States that the proc
lamation opening these lands to set
tlement shall not be issued. Here is a
positive statute nullified by the head of
department, with no excuse except
the paltry one that he assumed that
Congress had not the information which
IL has had for the last seven years.
There seems" Vest continued, Ito
be a disposition on the part of the Ad-
mfnistration to treat the Western peo-
pie as if they were in a condition of
pupilage, as if they do not know their
own rights or their own interests and
as if they must be informed ex cathedra
from the East in reference as to what
is best for them and what should be
done for them. Even the President of
the United States lately, on a mission
airy occasion Qaughter). spoke of the
West as land of immortality and
crime. He stood with the light-the
CHASTITY light-of the hellholes and rum
cellars of New York blazing upon him,
and cantingly said that home missions
must be used to civilize to Christian
ize the men who have left their homes
in the civilized East and gone out
among the mountains and valleys of the
wild and woolly West. cloud and long
laughter)
Our President stood with DIR. Tall
mage on one side and the Rev Shell
don Jackson on the other side and gave
US new version of that beloved old
missionary hymn,
=. From Montana's sinful mountains,
nj fa5r