The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1901-06-26
FROM THE NATIONS CAPITAL,
From Our O,on Correspondent.

There is little doubt that another
peryersion of justice is to be added to
the long list of those that have been
perpetrated in the course of our deal
:ngs with the Indian tribes. The last
Congress surreptitiously passed, as a
rider on bill ratifying treaty with
| one tribe of Indians, clause ratifying
another with the Anaches, Comanoh1os
and KiOwas, by which these tribes
agreed to accept lands in severalty on
their reservation in Oklahoma and to
allow the rest to be thrown open to
settlement. Later, after Congress had
adjourned, it developed that this treaty
had never been accepted by the Indians
under the terms Of the existing treaty
made iii 1868, and clone Wolf and
other Indians brought suit in the Dis
trict here to have the new law set
aside. Now, however, Justice Bradley
has denied the prayer, holding in effect
what mas often been held before
that no treaty made by the United
States is binding if Congress chooses
to negative it by q later act of legisla-
ton. The Constitution says that
treaties and acts of Congress shall be
the supreme law of the land-one
equally with the other. Hence Justice
Bradley held that if the act were vio-
lative of the treaty of 1858 the remedy
rested with Congress-, not with the ju-
dietary. He said that the right Of the
Indians to the reservation was pos
sessory one only; that the wrong threat
ened by the execution of the act is q
wrong to the tribe as tribe, and that
the suit cannot be maintained by mem
bers of the tribe as individuals. Now
that the case is decided it is believed
that the President, in about 10 days,
will issue his proclamation opening to
settlement the Kiowa, Comanche,
Apache and Wichita lands.
Not content with attacking Russia
with causeless imposition of coun-
tervailing duty on sugar-in direct
opposition, it is said, to an official
opinion handed down by the Attorney
General Of the United States, Secretary
Gage has recently gone further and
forced retaliation by imposing duties
on Russian petroleum coming by way
of Great Britain Naturally Russia
has taken fresh umbrage at what seems
to be premeditated assault on her
trade and has taken, and will take,
further steps to get even. 1t is a most
significant fact that the laws under
which Secretary Gage assumes to act
including that under which he has just
barred italian sugar-have been in
force for over three years, and have
never been enforced against either
Russia or Italy. Their sudden enforce
ment provOkes inquiry into the cause
thereof and it appears that Russian
sugar has just begun to menace the
profits of the Sugar trust, and chat the
Standard Oil Company and the Russian
oil people. who had an agreement to
divide the world between them, have
just fallen ont and are now fighting
each other tooth and nail. Possibly
Secretary Gage knew nothing of these
facts and then again possibly he did.
Scandals in connection with the work
of Fred w. Peck, at the Paris Expoei-
tion. will, it seems, never cease. The
latest arises out of the attempt Of A. S.
Capehart. who drew a salary of $4OO a
month from the Government for edit
ing the report on the Exposition, to
extort about four times its value by
peddling copies of it. Mr.. Capehart
has sent out a circular about these in
which he says: Gin ordering this report
to be printed Congress did not provide
copies for general public distribution.
Under the law which permits citizen
to purchase not to exceed $50 copies of
any public document from the Public
Printer by ordering in advance of
printing and paying cost Of production
plus 10 per cent, have secured this
number of full sets of the Paris Expo
sitiop report. These copies am hav-
ing bound in silk cloth, gilt lettered,
appropriate for library purposes.
Owing 70 the limited number OF i'm
pressions of this six-volume, highly
illustrated publication, the cost of pro-
duction has been considerably above
the average" He then offers the set
of six volumes at $40 set, although 1t
is stated at the Government Printing
Office here that the cost of printing is
only $500 o set. This seems to be an
unusually bungling attempt to sell AZ
an extortionate prie- q very stupid
report.
Senator Jones, of Arkansas. has
given out an interview in which he
outlines what he believes will be the
issues of the next Congress and their
bearing on the next election. He
thinks that. the chief issue will be the
Philippine question, which he says the
Supreme Court has by no means set
tied. "The Supreme Court" he says,
'.simply declared that Congress will
have to deal with the Ph;linn;nas ae