Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1901-07-19

SOLDIERS, VINO are GIven the Preference BY a
Beneficent Government, are Being Shorne Of
Their Rights BY These Thieves cKinIey' s
Brother.in. Law Appointed Bank Examiner and
Don't Know Coin from Cucumbsrs Yellow.
Cover Novel Makers Try to Intimidatc Post
master General-Clause Forbiddins Use Of
Foreign Material in Our War Ships. Places the
Government at the Mercy of the Steel Cor
i morants.
(From our regular correspondent)
WASHINGTON, July II, 1901.
1t seems to be difficult, if not i'm
possible, for this administration to
perform any official act that does not.
directly or indirectly, open the way
for gang OF thieves to profit at the
expense of honest men. The ink was
not dry on the proclamation for the
opening to settlement OF the Indian
reservations in Oklahoma before the
thieves had discovered way to profit
under the regulations provided for the
opening and started the machinery
for doing SO. The machinery was
ready before the proclamation, as it
has been known for some time that
honorably discharged soldiers, sailors,
and marines would be allowed to en-
ter homesteads through an agent,
while others could only do so in per-
son, and the general land laws gives
| ~
time they served in the army or navy
in counting the time necessary for
residence on q homestead claim in Or
der to acquire title, while all others
must reside thereon for five years.
That was all the land pirates, who are
plentiful in Washington, wanted to
know. They began hunting up the
records Of honorably discharged SOL
diers and sailors, with three or more
years service to their credit, and to
make deals with them TO have home
stead entries made in their names,
and as soon as the proclamation was
issued they began telegraphing the
names of these bogus homesteaders to
their agents in Oklahoma, who will
file the applications. Those applica-
tons which draw desirable land in the
lottery to be held next month, the pi.
rates will hold on to by purchasing
the claim of the soldier or sailor in
whose name it is registered. One Cit
izen of Oklahoma-Mr. Thomas T.
Black-who is now in Washington
and who knows all about the scheme
of the land pirates. said: "The APP
plications of honorably discharged
soldiers and sailors for land will be
many times greater than that of any
other class, but l would like to bet
that there will not be corporal's
guard of them who will become set.
tiers or even 60 to the Territory"
The only applications for patent
that will be delayed by the action OF
the Commissioner of Patents in sus-
pending hearings before himself and
the Assistant Commissioner during
July and August are those in which
appeals are taken from the 140 Exam
liners, whose work has not been and
will not be suspended, and c. A. Snow
& Co., the successful patent lawyers,
say they average scarcely more than
one in each hundred of the applica-
tons filed.
The popular impression is that the
Bank Examiners, whose business it is
to keep watch on the doings and con-
ditiOn of the national banks, are
chosen because of their expert knowl-
edge of banking methods. OF course,
they should be. But Capt. Andrew
Jackson Duncan, q gentleman with q
good old Democratic name and big
Republican pull, and who has been a
special Indian agent for four years,
has just demonstrated that the popu-
lar impression is wrong by getting
himself appointed Bank Examiner for
the Canton-Akron, Ohio, district, with
no special qualifications for the place
except that he is Mr.. McKinley's
brother-in-lsw, and desired the place.
Senator Billy" Mason ought to be
able to make some use of this ap-
pointment, as it was made by Comp.
troller Dawes, the administration can
didste for his seat in the Senate.
Strong efforts are being made by
the big interests behind the publica-
tions. fake and otherwise, that are
getting the benefit of the $50, 0O0, 900
= year the government loses by car
rying ut second-class rates publications
not entitled TO be in that class, to
brighten Postmaster General Smith
into not Issuing the announced order
defining more strictly the require
ments to be enacted OF publications
carried for one cent q pound. Mr..
Smith says the order will be issued,
and that it will accomplish its pur-
pose, but it will be just as we'll to wait
and see before giving him credit for
possessing the courage to resist the in
fiuences which desire to 60 on profit.
ing at the peoples loss. If it be the
real thing, the country will know it.
That branch OF the steel trust which
supplies the Navy Department with
machinery forgings is overplaying it's
greed, and the result may be the big
gest sort of Congressional row,
which may show up the responsibility
for the clause in the contracts for new
new ships that makes the government
helpless victim in the clutches of
these greedy concerns. The clause is
that which forbids the use of any for
eign material in the construction OF
new warships. Under that claim the
Midvale Steel Company and the Beth.
lehem Iron Company have put their
prices for machinery forgings at rid
iculously high price. To give an illus
tration of the manner in which the
government is gouged, it is only nee
essary to mention one article-crank
shaftiug-of which many thousand
pounds are used. This government
has to pay 1925 pound, while in
England the same grade OF crank
shafting sells for 4S cents q pound.
There is no doubt of where the insti-
CATION for that anti-foreign clause in
these contracts came from, and Con-
gress should see to it, not only that it
is struck out, but that individual re-
sponsibility for it should be placed.
Let the country have the name or