The Evening statesman. [volume] (Walla Walla, Wash.) 1903-1910, 1905-02-21

OF lno eIIOrt Oh hdIlSdS W eSldUlloH q
refinery and recites a dispatch to the
Kansas City Journal credited to r. w.
J. Young, in charge of the Kansas
City Standard Oil business. Mr..
Young is alleged to have said:
1.-The closing of the plants and shut
ting down of the pipe lines will let
the legislature and people see what
adverse legislation would do to the
industries of the state and will prob
ably create sentiment abandoning the
plant of the state of entering the oil
field"
Railroads In Conspiracy.
SO. We charge that the railroads of
Kansas are in a conspiracy with the
Standard Oil company to prevent
legislation by our present legislature
to enable the oil producers of Kansas
to obtain honest and fair competition
in the oil business of Kansas.
ITO substantiate this charge we re-
fer you to the executive committee of
the Kansas Oil Producers association.
1t can produce the evidence"
1t is charged that The Kansas City
Daily Journal is owned by the Atchi-
son, Topeka & Santa Fe railroad.
THAT the Standard Oil company
mas undue influence with one Hitch
cock, secretary of the interior. This
can be established by an examination
of the orders and rulings of the said
secretary of the interior concerning
leases in the Indian Territory, which
tend to exclude independent operators
through the orders requiring a deposit
of $4,000 on every lease without regard
to acreage.
And the evidence that this charge
is true can be furnished by 1. N. TRY
of Muscogee and other residents of
Muscogee, Tulsa, Bartlesville and
other oil towns in the territory.
THAT the Standard Oil company is
attempting to destroy the independent
refinery at Humboldt, Kas., by put
ting refined oil down to less than
third of it's usual price. This can be
established by the examination of
Webster. the owner of said refinery.
Sitting Competition.
THAT in divers and various other
I'd
sitting competition and interfering
with interstate trade
Concluding, the memoralists charge
that the Standard Oil company's
crimes are against Kansas and all
other states, against individuals, COM
merce and trade-the government it
self-against humanity, that the cor
poration be dissolved and it's officials
punished as public enemies and male
factors.
Hon. Hoke Smith, secretary of the
interior under President Cleveland, in
Secretary of the Interior Hitchcock as
a common slanderer. The statement
| follows:
THE statement furnished to the
press by Secretary Hitchcock, in which
he criticizes the administration of the
interior department for approving an
oil and gas lease made by the Usage
Indians in 1896, is misleading and de-
ceptive.
when the lease was approved no
oil mad been found in Texas and not
great deal in Kansas. There was
scant hope to encourage the expense
of boring wells in the country. Even
if the oil could be discovered, the
problem of transportation was then
most serious.
"a lease was applied for to pros
pect and bore for oil and gas by E. B.
Foster. The property belonged to the
tribe. The Usage nation passed an
act directing the lease. The lease
was carefully guarded with provisions
and forfeitures unless the work of
prospecting and mining was prose-
cuted with diligence.
1.-The lease required the payment
of ample royalty to the Indians in
case of oil and gas being found. The
lease was ratified by Col. Freeman of
the United States army, acting Indian
agent for the Usage tribe.
Contents Of Records.
''The records show how carefully
| the lease was then considered. 1t
fnally went to the secretary's Office
with the recommendation of the In
| dian commissioner that it be ap-