The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1900-04-17
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E2eatoE has been integt ewe5 BY an Ok
lahoma Cit okIakops 4 resarteT in re-
gard to the special patSy ,es from
Washington 10 the ClfasgZie STATE Capital,
in which Judge Keatois VS. charged
with "secretIy putting n Dlag here and
there that would resul 1 aetf asntal to
Mr.. Flynn's chances Of .assing fhe free
homes MEASURE
Judge keaton said: '',a had NOT iparposed
replying to the charges, bat since they
have been given such vide pus5licitys will
do so, est my silence be taken as an adj
mission of their truth. The facls are
that 1 had a conference with quite a
number of Democratic members of the
lower house OF congress, among whom
were Sulzer of New York, Lanham of
Texas and Jet of Illinois, regarding the
merits of the pending free homes meas
ure and the prospects Of its passage, and
urged each and all of said members to
support the bill Loyalty, if an opportunity
was afforded, and assigned substantially
the following reasons why, in my judg-
ment, they should do so: First, because
the said measure was just and right
eous one and that the people on all I'M
decided lands of the United States should
be afforded the same benefits of the free
homestead law that the thousands OF
their predecessors had received who set
tied and improved such public land; sec
ond, that in the last national Democratic
platform is an unequivocal declaration in
favor of this policy; third, that the DEM
ocrats in congress, or a great fajority of
them, have already gone on record as In
favor of this measure, and 1t would be
very bad politics for them to oppose it
now simply because Oklahoma has a Re-
publican delegate in congress.
AS to the other charges contained in
the Washington special of the 10th in
slant, to-wit, that by my objection
thereto, have prevented or indefinitely
delayed the passage of the bill providing
for an increase of the salaries of the
judges in Oklahoma, New Mexico and
Arizona, I desire to say that there is
only a grain of truth in this, and that
the only action 1 took concerning the
matter was 20 talk with some two or
three TENDERS of the judiciary committee
OF the house where understood the pro-
posed bill was pending. and TO urge upon
them the necessity of giving us, in Ok
lahoma, at least, a separate supreme
court. consisting of three judges. in addi-
ton to the five trial judges which we al
ready have, Some of the members with
whom / conversed regarding the matter
suggested that this would cause quite an
increase in the appropriation for judicial
purposes, and l answered by saying that
the three additional judges could be paid
5000 q year each for their services with
the amount OF the proposed increase in
the judges salaries BY this argufent
and by showing in addition thereto the
enormous volume OF legal business which
was now filing the courts OF Oklahoma.
1 succeeded in securing the promise Of az
least three members Of said COMMITTEES.
that If the proposed increase of salary
bill was brought to a vote therein. they
would support my proposition, and. on
the request Of one Of thief. 1 prepared
and delivered to him a substitute Cor the
Oil already on file in said committee.
want 70 say further. in this connection.
that stated repeatedly TO all members
of this committee with whom conversei
that I had no objection whatever to the
proposed increase in the salaries of our
present judges. but simply argued TO
them that such increase would in no way
relieve these judges ef the enormous and
Increasing volume Of work in
our territory, and would in no way aid
the litigants and attorneys in having
their cases more easily disposed of