Pine Bluff daily graphic., 1904-12-08
GOVERNMENT FRAUDS.
There Are Scandals In Nearly
Every Department.
NUM- THE WORD, BY PARTY ORDERS

Party" Would Be Badly Damaged
ii the Whole Truth Were knows.
The stables Need CIeaninE-TurA
the HnscnIs Out.
The present administration has been
very unfortunate with tile large num-
Der of scandals that have been cX-
posed in the executive departments
and the extent to which the @rattcrs
had succeeded III looting the govern
ment Golfers before any effort WAS
made to stop or punish them. The At-
tempt made by the administration to
prevent the exposure of these scandals,
fearing that a thorough Investigation
would injure the Republican party ani
throw Il cloud over the political tor
tunes OF President Roosevelt, was
failure. Scandals, like murder. will
out Postmaster General Payne de-
cl3red there was nothing wrong III the
p0stotfice department and designated
the Tulloch charges us hot air, but
the evidence of the extent of the loot
ing became 50 apparent that partial
investigation followed. The number OF
officials involved has not yet been Civ
ell to the public, and tile BristoW re-
port on the charges against congress
men" has been used to minimize the
department wrougdoings.
In addition to the poStoftice scandals
there are others In other departments
that involve even much greater
amount of looting The interior de-
partment Is honeycomDed with land
frauds The Indian bureau and the
! Dawes commission are both under SuS-
picion Of grave misdoings that are at
/ tempted to be huShed up, and only an
/ impartial investigation will discover
how great the grating has been. The
officials appointed by President Roose-
welt for lnGan Territory appear to
have !,;t'n the worst political grafters
/ ae could have discovered to advance
the ci, ,iiZ:tion Of the wards Of the ma
ton
For instance. the crimes OF the init
ed States marshal for the Indian Terri
tory, icn.aliiu H. Colbert. became so
! hu-itiolls that he WAS arrested
charged with using his power for po-
I jitittI pun it'StH i-'-itiiio " itN''Nt7 Oas
OF iail that they might vote was one OF
his pleasing pHs'im"S; imptisoning III
dianS for not voting according to his
wishes WAS another. What the exact sit
uatioa in the interior department is it Is
difficult to say,.for there is an evident
effort TO suppress all TN" evidence Of
the operations of the land ring in the
Indian Territory, and the names OF
those implicatcd or who have been
asked to resign or hav" been dismissed,
are understandable. Mum IS the word 1T
the interior Department.
The western land frauds havn been
of enormous extent, Yet but f94f per
sons have been indicted. There is.
however, evidence that nulneHeHs 9th
ers, including Republican members Uf
congress, are being shielded for palit
ical purposes. 1t viii be remembered
that I;inger Hermann. the commission
cr of the general land office, WAS forced
to resign, but has since been elected to
congress- oregon has been TIE STERN
center of the Hand frauds The New
York World Oct u, sai,i
Letters written by Representative
John Newton Williamson of the See
Onu Orr4On district have been publiSh-
ed on tie Pacific coast showing that he
bought lands from the state - each
state being entitled to two sections of
each township in the public domain
within It's borders. Three days after
title for these lanGs had passed to him
and his partner he wrote letters to the
land department here advocating the
Inclusion of large tracts of land in Il
forest reserve. Half the land he had
acquired was included in the tlact he
recommended for inclusion in the for
est reserve. Whenever a forest re-
serve Includes lands that have been
bought from the government, etheT
state or national, the owner is permit.
ted to select an equal number of acres
from any part of the public domain
that has not been entered under any Of
the laws. The theory is that the lands
are of about equal value, but they are
not and in that lies the opportunity for
fraud
Those charges which involve con
gresSnen and others have not been III
veStgated, or II they have Secretary
Hitchcock has maintained u censorship
that the newspapers have been unable
/ to overcome.
The fencing of the public domain ii
Nebraska and other states by tile great
cattle baronS which Colonel Mosby
was sent to investigate. has been
dropped at the urgent request, it IS
stated, Of the Republican delegation il
congress from that state, who fear its
effect on the coming elections. Many
settlers are anxious to 90 on these
public lands and acquire homeateads,
but are unable to do so from fear OF
the armed partiSans of the cattle bar
ems.
Then there is the "seed scandal in
the agricultural department ana the
charge that the statistics Of crop re-
ports have been uscd for the ben"7it Of
SDeculaiOrS at the expense Of the fIrl4-