The Daily Ardmoreite. [volume] (Ardmore, Okla.) 1893-current, 1899-08-01
WASHINGTON LETTER.
TERRITORY BOARDS AND COM
MIsSIONERS BLUE PENClLED.
Complaints Galore Have Reached wash
lnRton DenouncinR Acts of OffIcIsls
and Incompetency Freely CHARGED.
An Investigation is to Follow.
Special to the Ardmoreite.

The officials of the Interior Depart
ment are preparing to sift the work
of the various boards and commits
sions in the Indian Territory with
the greatest care 1t is to be an
overhauling from start to finish for
prudential reasons. 1t is not for
the purpose of investigating the
honesty of the officials. but for the
purpose of determining their com
potency.
Complaints have been reaching
the Interior Department of late by
the hundred, denouncing the action
of the townsite commissioners, the
Dawes commission and the arbi-
trary actions of United States
inspectors and minor officials.
The tOwnsite commissioners in the
Choctaw and Chickasaw nations,
particularly the chairmen. are
accused of incompetency and ina
bility to properly solve the prob
lens presented to them.
This is especially so with rela
ton to Mr. Johnson, chairman of
the townsite board for the Chicka-
saw nation. Complaints have
been reaching the department from
the town in which the board has
commenced work complaining
against the arbitrary and auto
cratic measures adopted. Under
ordinary circumstances the depart
ment always sustains the actions
of its officials, unless they are
flagrantly in error, but recently it
has been compelled to reverse the
decisions of the townsite board in
the Chickasaw nation and admin
lister rebukes to the members, par
ticularly the chairman.
Some six weeks ago the townsite
commission visited the town of
Colbert and commenced work.
Maps and charts of the town were
prepared and one set forwarded to
the Secretary of the Interior with
a request for its immediate ap-
proval. The citizens of the town
rose in rebellion against the plan
agreed upon by the board, claim
ing that the streets of the town as
they at present exist, had been
ignored, the wishes of the people
thwarted and the most arbitrary
proceedings adopted. According
to the plats and charts prepared by
the board many valuable buildings,
erected at great expense, were
found to be located in the streets,
and if the charts had been approved
by the secretary the owners would
have been compelled to have moved
them, entailing great expense and
hardships. Along the road of the
NJ. K. & T. where it entered the
city the tOwnsite commissioners
prepared a map which would have
necessitated the removal of many
large stores, dwellings and other
establishments, the members of the
board insisting that the railroad
was entitled to 1000 feet of land
along the line of the road through
the city. When the protests cf the
citizens reached the secretarys office
an investigation was instituted. II
was found that instead of complying
with the law and sending three
maps of the city the townsite com
mission had only forwarded one.
1t was also found that the approval
of their map would result in the
greatest hardship to the citizens
) The secretary, therefore, promptly
returned the map to Chairman
johnson, with a letter 1t is also
stated that other maps prepared
3 are equally unsatisfactory to the
department. Chairman johnson If
: looked upon by many of the officials
: as arrogating too much to himself
evidently laboring under the mis-
apprehension that the department
will sustain his decisions,
***
The condition existing in th'