Martinsburg statesman. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1869-1906, 1906-08-03
VINO and VIVA, is Eikin.7

swer TO this query regarding the man,
W 10, by his power over, inter state
commerce legislation has more to dc
with the material welfare ofeyery indi
vidual, who makes and spends dol
lar, THANH or she is aware of. 1t il
highly important therefore, that 8
careful study of his record should be
laid before the citizens of Wet Vir-
ginia.
David Graham Philips, in the Aug
.ust number of the Cosmopolitan mag
azine, has furnished the data for an iE'
telligent solution Of the inquiry which
heads this article. According to Mr.
Philips, Stephen B. Elkins, after hay'
| ing graduated at the university o.
Missouri, and being admitted to the
| bar, went, in 1863, TO the territory 81
New Mexico, where he interested him
self in politics and succeeded in secur-
ing the federal appointment Of district
a t ,rney.
He was quick to grasp the opportu-
mites, which his office and political
influence presented and went into the
business of "public land grabbing" or
more properly speaking, stealing, and
was "a CONSPICUOUS member of what
was known in those days as the Gland
ring" His dealings were mainly in
Spanish land urants, which were
bought at a small price, and chiefly by
his management the surveays of those
grants were made to cover iun-
dreds of thousands of acres more than
they should. He was a central figure
in the famous Maxwell land steal.
Secretary Cox decided, in 1863, that
the grant in that case only contained
96, 900 acres, but by the skillful manip-
ulations of Elkins it was surveyed and
patented as 1,714,76S acres. Congress,
through the action of the committee,
which the lam grabbers successfully
manipulated, was beguiled into a con-
firmation of the grant, and the Su-
preme Court, recog nized this astound-
ing robbery as legal. BY such melh-
DDS more than 100000 acres of the
public domain in New Mexico became
the spoil of the Gland grabbers," the
the ring leader of whom was Steph'
3. Elkins, who WAS confederate of
the famous or rather infamou2 Stephen
w. Dorsey. These transactions are
part of the political history of the re-
publican party, and are proven by do
cumlentary evidence.
Elkins and his confederates, were
not, however, universally successful
in their land pirating schemes. An
effort to "gr abb group of rich copper
mines, by having grant, which lay
in one direction surveyed, as if it was
in the opposite direction, was foiled,
also an attempt 10 force claim against
the Brazilian government for 500 900,
0C0 which Thomas f. Bayard, the
then Secretary of State, characteriz-
ed as ''an outrage upon any nation,
with which the United States has a
desire to have friendly relations.
After having MIXED the COW dry, in
New Mexico, Mr.. Elkins turned his
eyes to West Virginia., and in 1873,
was seized with burning lust to ''de
velop" the Interests of this state"
which he has been doing with great
success, by destroying other interests
and building up his own.
His methods in the Fulmer case,
which has lately occupied public at
tention, in the courts, is but typical OF
his own dealings in numerous other
eases. The Fulmers ownedcoal mines
which Elkins wanted. He owned the
railroad upon witch they depended to
get their coal to market. .They could
get nc cars to transport their products,
and finally the truck which ran into
their mines was torn up, in order to
forestall court order, compelling him
to furnish transportation in accord
ance with the law against unlawfuldis
examinations, which bears his name.
The result was that he succeeded in ac-
curing the property at great sacri-
flee.
His career has been utterly inscrup-
ulous, marked by succession of
lawl less acts. and Unsuitable greed. He
has accumulated, by such means, 8
fortune of more than S30, 900, 900, and,
by debauching the voters of the state OF
West Virginia, obtain ed a seat in the
United States Senate, and is seeking
reelection. In that body his kindred
spirits, repres nting the merger" in
tests of the country, have placed him
in position, as chairman of the in
terstate commerce commission, to
pass upon questions of commerce that
affect the labor of the American peo-
pie.
What has Elkins done in the Sen
ate.
| His whole course has been in favor OF