The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1905-02-20

Commissioner Garfield who VIII {
not resist the demands of the Standard
company in the Usage country.
Late Washington dispatches allege
that the holdings of the Indian Terri
tory Illuminating Oil company will be
cut in two, and instead of getting an
extension of it's lease for another ten
years on all the reservation it Will be
allowed only about 600, 900 acres. Such
a statement is grossly misleading. A
lease of 100000 acres would cover prac-
tically every foot of land in the Usage
country which experts would regard as
valuable for oil and gas. The eastern
half of the Usage reservation aggre-
gates about 100000 acres; it is there
that oil and gas have been found, and
1t is in this area that the Standard
| Oil company has intrenched itself and
made its improvements. To say that
| the Standard Oil lease in the Usage
! country has been reduced to 100000
acres is to say that the Standard Oil
company has won all that it has been
fighting for.
| If individual producers ever hope to
gain a foothold in the Usage oil field,
from which Bartlesville is drawing
much of its supply, this is the time
they must make their fight. Their OPP
portunity lies in Washington, where the
bill for the allotment of the Usage
| lands is pending. If the lease holdings
of the Standard Oil company are con-
hrmed, this gigantic creature of con-
f1scation and monopoly probably never
will be shaken loose from its hold on
what may be the most valuable oil
field in the southwest. To defeat the
extension of this blanket lease might
make it possible to combine the Usage
with the Kansas field and give to con-
sumers a source of supply not controu-
ed by the Standard Oil company. The
Z Vs-< e41-f
ton that it has made great investments
in developing the Usage field. This is
denied by men who assert they know
actual conditions, and who insist that
Secretary Hitchcock is being deceived
by Misrepresentation. Furthermore,
the Standard Oil company will endeavOr
to perpetuate its 10 per cent royalty
now paid to the Osages. Hundreds of
men with ample capital would be will
ing to pay a one-Sixth royalty, which
the Standard receives from sub-lessees
in the Usage country, in addition to
bonus Of from 81 to $40 an acre for the
lease.
And Texas, Too.
Dallas, Tex. Feb. 20.-The oil is
sue is becoming active in the Texas
legislature. The independent COM
panies have been clamoring for 1egis-
lation to protect them against extor-
ton and business cOnspiracies. They
claim to be victims of big representa-
tives of the Standard Oil company,
which it is claimed controls the pipe
lines in Texas.
ommittee what is known as the
Drecker pipe line bill. It proposed to
regulate the pipe line rates and traffic
in the interest of all oil producers in
Texas. The Standard Oil representa-
tives are opposing the passage of the
bill, according to Senator Drecker and
others. A conference was held at
Austin last night and another in Dali
las Sunday, at which the situation was
considered
At the conference it was agreed that
If the Drecker bill, or some measure
approximating its provisions, is not
passed. then the friends of the Dreck-
er bill will use their efforts to pass a
bill providing for the building of a
the provisions of the bill to be similar
to those of the new law of Kansas
just signed by Governor Hoch.
Hoke Smith Denies.
Washington, Feb. 2O.-In an au-
thorized staten ent, former Secretary of
the Interior Hoke Smith, replying to
a statement issued by Secretary Hitch |
Smith in approving oil and gas |
lease made with the Usage Indians in |
1896, severely arraigns Secretary |
Hitchcock as making "a baseless /
Mr.. Smith arrived in Washington |
today to examine the records Be /
fore IeaVlnS georgia ne IeiSgrapnSQ /
a friend in this city to make a search /
of the records and the result of that |
search was placed before him today j
upon his arrival. Mr.. Smith said that !
he had not found it necessary to go /
to the Indian office or interior depart /
ment in person.
Secretary Hitchcock's statement"
said Mr. Smith, ''is misleading and de-
''When the lease was approved no
oil had been found in Texas, and not a
great deal in Kansas. There was
scant hope to encourage the expense +
or boring wells in the Usage country.
"A lease was applied for by E. B. /
Foster to prospect and bore for oil
and gas The property belonged to
the tribe. The Usage national council |
passed an act directing the lease.
The lease required payment of
ample royalties to the Indians in case
oil gas was found 1t was recon-
mended by Colonel Freeman of the
United States army, acting Indian
agent for the Usage tribe.
1T finally went to the secretary's
Indian commissioner that it be APP
proved. The letter recommending
approval is initiated by Mr.. LARA bee.
the present assistant commissioner of !
Indian affairs. thereby carrying his
approval.
1.-THE records show the approval in
the Office of the secretary of the in
terror was made by Assistant Secre-
tary Reynolds, as acting secretary
who has been recently elected to con-
gress from Pennsylvania.
With this record in his office, Sec
was approved by the then secretary of
the interior, Mr. Hoke Smith, and he
uses this further language, the orig-t