The Irish standard. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn. ;) 1886-1920, 1905-06-24

legitimate means. Doesn't that put
r'ther severe strain upon credulity?
IF you want to prosper in this life,
he said blandly, IF you
want to avoid the pinch of poverty
and get power and influence among
your fellow men-in short, If you want
to be like me-be Industrious. That
is the master word, children-in.
dustry."
The west has hardly known a more
Industrious thief than he. There was
hardly one In his audience who had at.
tanned to years of intelligence who did.
not know the main facts of the fel-
lows rascally career.
The west is blanketed on the sun.
set side Of the Missouri river with
these mems power and influence. NV
Drnver Sunday school friend is not
the only one who sits in the senate,
There is Clark of Montana, who has
achieved considerable unenviable no.
toriety In the past and whose timber.
land sequestrations, amounting to mil.
lions Of acres, are now being officially
investigated at Helena
There is Warren of Wyoming, who
is interested in the cattle business and
who in all probability will soon get a
part OF what Is coming to him for an.
propriating to his own use great
bodies of public range lands which
didn't belong to him. The case Of
Senator Mitchell of Oregon, recently
indicted by a grand jury, with a lot Of
his co-conspirators, for various land
frauds, is still fresh in the public
mind. Besides there are very many
of the smaller fry from the same
school of fish filling seats in the lower
house Of congress.
But as general proposition the biz.
gest and most notorious of these graft
ers are not in official positions, neither
are they seeking them. In the Ian.
guage Of one bold buccaneer of the
order, 1T is easier to own Judge than
to be one" The same rule seems to
apply to legislators, congressman, sen.
ators, governors, department officials
and all the rest of those who may,
might, could, would or should be Of
use in places Of authority.
The interior department, and par.
ticularly the general land office, has
been aware of the thefts almost since
their inception; knowledge has been
not merely constructive, but actual.
The official records and letter files are
reeking with information amply sufl.
| Client to Justify an upheaval at any
time these last twenty years.
Public land affairs are now in charge
of former Governor Richards of Wy
oming. Mr.. Richards is man of good
repute. There is nothing to be said
against ihm in the matter of his native
integrity. But he comes from Wyom.
ing; as governor, his official residence
was Cheyenne, in the heart OF the cattle
country, where some of the gravest Of
these crimes have long been carried
on. Cheyenne was headquarters for
many of the biggest of the thieves.
Mr.. Richards (meaning no discredit)
Is what is known as a"mixer," with
native faculty for getting next to the
people and keeping sensitive finger
upon the pulse of affairs. There was
no secrecy in Wyoming concerning
the frauds; every schoolboy above
the kindergarten grade knows some.
thing about them. Only by the veriest
hocus-pocus can it be urged that Mr..
Richards has come to the present day
devoid of knowledge of what has been
going on since the planting of wire
fences on the plains.
The department of justice is no
| more in ignorance than the interior
department. The district attorneys
! for the several states are fine, clean.
| witted body of men. It is their bust.
| ness to know things concerning pub
lie affairs in their districts, and they
do know. Why the inactivity Of. the !
department? Here and there may bsss
! found one of these responsible miniaass!
III