, 1906-10-22

CAMPAIGN
PURELY SELFISH POSITION OF
LANDER LAWYER IN HIS
FIGHT ON GOVERNOR AND
STATE ENGINEER.
No Love for People Of State, but Effort
to prevent Reclamation Of Large
Portion of Shoshone Reservation
Would Prevent S%pringine UP Of
Town to Rival His own In Distri-
button of Products of Farms.

1eNiSit u
when the true history of the Stone
campaign comes to be written, as
written it will be, in letters so large
and language SO plain that he who
runs may read, and reading, under.
stand, it will be shown that the mo
tives of Stone, and Keister, and Bart
lett, and Corthell are purely selfish,
conceived in a spirit of selfishness and
carried forward in a spirit of revenge.
1t will be shown that these men have
not the welfare of the people of the
state, the Shoshone and Arapahoe In
dams, or even the future settlers OF
the Shoshone reservation, the ceded
portion of that reservation, at heart.
1t will be shown that back of the tight
is a desire, not to encourage the settle
ment of the coded portion-not the irri-
CATION OF the settlement of the reser-
walton, and Keister and Bartlett and
Corthell will be shown to be aiding
and abetting, on the stump and in
their papers, his schemes"
These are the words of a gentleman
thoroughly conversant with the ms and
outs of the Stone campaign. He not
only knows the animus of the cam
pain, which has for its real object a
purely selfish end, but he knows the
history Of the fight to secure the ced-
ing of the reservation for more than
a decade of years. In fact, he has
been deeply concerned in that matter.
The First Commission.
About fourteen years ago a commits
sion was appointed by the federal gov
eminent to negotiate a treaty with the
Shoshone and Arapahoe Indians for a
cession of their reservation in Fremont
county. 1t was first sought to secure
the cession of the whole of that tract,
the Indians being cared for by the dis.
tribution of lands in ~severalty. There
are q few thousands of them only and
many thousands of acres of splendid
land in the reservation, and such a
plan would have amply provided for
the Indians and left an immense tract
of fertile land to be thrown open to the
settlement of white residents. The In
dams would have been amply cared
for, as were and are the Indians of the
Indian territory. The lands granted to
them in ~severalty would have included
the best in the ceded territory and left
the other to be reclaimed and brought
to a high state of development by the
superior intelligence and superior skill
of the white man.
MondelI Takes UP Fight.
The commission worked upon a
treaty for years and it failed. The
Indians would not consent to the plan.
When Frank w. Mondell entered CON
gress he took the matter up and at the
first session little more than getting
the bill in shape was accomplished.
The next election witnessed the defeat
of Mr.. Mondell and of course during
that period nothing could be accom-
plished, as the congress made no effort
OF any sort for the development of the
west. When Mondell returned to con-
gress in 1898 he again took the matter
up. 1t has been his pet for several
years, and at the last session of the
present congress a treaty was negoti-
ated and ratified and the lands coded
were e apart for settlement.
Sincere Motives of officials.
The history of the plan to irrigate
the irrigable lands of the ceded por-
lions is known to every voter in the
state. 1t was fully set forth in Con
gresham Mondell's address in this city
Friday evening, October 10, in the OPP
ening of the republican campaign in
the southern part of the state. Cover
nor Brooks and State Engineer john
ston, working always in the interest
of the people of the state, with not a
selfish motive in the matter, had the
land surveyed, the proposed irr1ga-
ton works planned, and have drafted
a contract with a moneyed for
the carrying out of the irrigation pro-
jects, the cost to be returned to b
company by the settlers as they pur-
chase and otherwise acquire h land
to be reclaimed.
Land Must Have Water.
The treaty proposed by the first
commission, named some fourteen
years ago, provided for the cession of
a large tract OF land lying south of the
Big Wind river. On this tract resided
all the Indians concerned in the pro
posed treaty. They live in a narrow
strip along both sides of the river and
the land is considered as fertile as
there is in the west. The indians
would not listen to auy such proposal,
and the commission abandoned It's
plans. The treaty finally negotiated
embraced in the cession a large amount
Of land lying north and east Oh the
Big Wind river, where few Indians
lived, and where, without water little
hope Of settlement was held out En-
gineer Johnston found that by ouiid-
ing a number of dams and conserving