The Columbian. [volume] (Bloomsburg, Pa.) 1866-1910, 1901-07-18
WASHINGTON.
From our Regular Correspondent.

Washington, July IS, 1901.
1t seems to be d lfficult, 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 a 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 1t has
been known for some time that honor
ably discharged soldiers, sailors, and
marines would be allowed to enter
homesteads through an agent, while
Others could only do so in person, and
the general land laws gives ex-soldiers
and sailors credit for the time they
served IN the army or navy in counting
the time necessary for residence on a
homestead claim in order to acquire
title, while all others must reside
thereon for five years. That is all
the land pirates, who are plentiful in
Washington, wanted to know. They
began hunting up the records of hon
orably discharged soldiers and sailors,
with three or more years service to
their credit, and to make deals with
them to have homestead 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 Okla
homa, who will file the applications.
Those applications which draw desir-
able land in the lottery to be held
next month the pirates will hold on to
by purchasing the claim of the soldier
or sailor in whose name it is registered.
One citizen of Oklahoma - Mr..
Thomas +. Black-who is now IN
Washington and who knows all about
the scheme of the land pirates, said {:
'The applications of honorably dis.
charged soldiers and sailors for land
will be many times greater than that
of any other class, but | would like to
bet that there will not be a corporal's
guard of them who will become
settlers or even go to the territory"
The only applications for patent
that will be delayed by the action of
the commissioner of patents in sus-
pending hearing before himself and
the Assistant Commissioner during
July and August are those in which
appeals are taken from the I4o Exam
liners, whose work has not been and
will not be suspended, and G. A. Snow
& Co., the successful patent lawyers,
say they average scarcely more than
one in each hundred of the appli-
cations filed.
The popular impression is that the
Bank Examiners, whose business it is
to keep watch on the dolngs and con-
dltion of the national banks, are chosen
because of their expert knowledge of
banking methods. OF course, they
should be. But Capt. Andrew Jackson
Duncan, a gentleman with good old
Democratic name and big Repub-
lican pull, and who has been a special
Indian agent for four years, has just
demonstrated that the popular I'M
preston 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-ln-law, and desired the place.
Senator "Billy" Mason ought to be
able to make some use ofthis appoint
ment, as it was made by Comptroller
Dawes, the administration candidate
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, 900, 900
year the government loses by carry
ing at second class rates publications
not entitled to be in that class, to
frlghten Postmaster General Smith
into not issuing the announced order
defining more strictly the requlrements
to be exacted of publications carried
for one cent pound. Mr.. Smith
says the order will be issued, and that
it will accomplish its purpose, but it
will be Just as we'll to wait and see
before giving him credit for possessing
the courage to resist the influences