The Corvallis times. (Corvallis, Or.) 1888-1909, 1903-04-04
TIE OREGON APPOINTMENT
FIGHT GOES ON AND SIMON
/; ss MAKES DISCLOSURES.
He Says Roosevelt did not SIP
port Blaine When the Plumed
Knight ran for the Presi-
dency-Iis Assault
on Mitchell.


Journal today discusses the row
over the Oregon City land Office
appointment, and during the
course of his remarks declares that
Theodore Roosevelt bo.ted the re-
publican ticket in 1884, when Blaiu
was candidate for the presidency
In part. Mr.. Simon's statement is
as follows:
<'I see that the President has again
changed front in respect to his reasons
for ignoring his promise to me to ap-
point Steel register of the land office at
Oregon City,
AT first it was charged that made no
effort to have Steel, or any one, appoin-
ted, although l had had the promise of
the President to make this appointment.
Next it was stated that after the Presi-
dent had agreed to appoint both Bibee
and Steel, I insisted that Steel's name
SHOULD be sent to the Senate at the same
time that Bibee's name was sent in, and
wsaes the President refused to do this
became angry aud wrote the President
Gziat would consider it an insult to ap-
poiut Steel after Bibee had been appoin-
ted, and that I did not want the appoint
zzaent if it had to come that way.
frsa what I read, that the President
Es0w assigns entirely different reasons
for She violation of his pledge. There
are eaow two reasons given by the Presi-
de9t for repudiating his promise in re-
spect to the Oregon City land Office ap-
pcIntszent and for ignoring me. The
Erst is Ehat the President discovered that
tine staSereats made by me in opposition
to appointments sought by my colleague,
Senator Mitchell, and subsequently made
by the President, we're not borne out nv
the facts: and secondly, the charge is
made that I identified myself with the
Democrats in an effort to overthrow the
Republican party in the last Oregon ell
ectioa, and this is followed by the as
sertioH tMat the President has the utmost
contempt for man who will for per-
Sona2 advantage and out of personal
spite betray his own party.
uTae main objection that urged again
sS MIR. Bibiee's appointment was that it
was intended as compensation to a men,
der of the Legislature who had unite1
wita Democrats and Pcpulists to defeat
Che Republican candidate for United Sta
ties Senator in the. Legislature of 1901,
and had assisted in bringing about the
election of Senator Mitchell, and also
that Bibee represented an element in the
Republican party with which 1 had no
af6aEation, and that this wing of the Re-
publican party had received ninth con-
sfdeartion at the hands of the Admins
trAtaon and that the sound-money e1e- |
meat of TIE party with which I was al |
lied had received practically no consid- |
eration- This last point I made gener-
ally against ali the appointments made
6y the President upon the recommended
ton of Senator Mitchell.
The other appointment which 1 es-
pecIally objected to was that of Mr. Mel
drum, whose appointment Senator
Mitchell sarged with great pertinacity. /
need do NO more than call attention to
to the feet that the Secretary of the In.
terror has since conceived it proper to
bring about Mr.. Meldrum's retirement
from the service
After had left Washington upon [
the Impending adjournment of Congress
In june 1902. and just prior to the adj
joUrnment. the President, upon the reco-
mendatiou of Senator Mitchell. made a s
large batch of Oregon appointments j
without consultations with or notice to 6
me In fact, had just previously been ),
to the White House to see the President !
and urge him to make the Steel appoint !
nent, but could not get him to act on c
that, and assumed as much from his s
as from what he said, that he =
did mot iutcnd to make any appoint
ments in Oregon. However, I had hardly {
home when the appointments s
were made which embraced among | !
ott1es t.Jack Mathews for United States :
VAS to the other point made by the
presiGeRt that when I identified myself
with democrats in the effort to overthrow 8
IL, :, ~ao,b1;o,y, tu iv,t tbis Of T f1r. i,
ther discredited myself with the admin /
and that the president has
the utmost contempt for man who will
betray his own party, etc., want to say
that this charge as against my political 1
is without any foundation.
sT took no part in the campaign in Or
egon. for one very good reason, if no 9TH
er, that was not in Oregon during the
or during the election, but, on
the contrary, was in Washington attend
ing to my congressional duties. | had {
gone to Oregon to participate in the prim-
AIRY election held in March, 1902, but be-
fore the state convention met, and before
any state nominations could be made, I
had returned to Washington and remain
ed there continuously until after the cleo
ton in Oregon, and therefore am not
subject to the charge of having identified
myself with the democrats in the effort
TO overthrow the republican party in this
state in that election.
But how does it come that the presi-
dent is SO much exercised in respect to
my attitude in a matter of this kind
when he seems to be so well satisfied, if
not delighted, with the conduct of Sena-
tor Mitchell, to whom he has as yet
scarcely ever said nay in matters of ap-
pointmenti
why, even the president knows that
Senator Mitchell's election to the senate
was brought about by corrupt bargain
to turu the state of Oregon "a rock-ribbed
republican state) over to the democrats,
which was to have been brought about
by the passage of a charter bill for the
CITY of Portland by which the police and