The Roswell daily record. [volume] (Roswell, N.M.) 1903-current, 1907-07-25
SAWED THEMSELVES OFF.
Albuquerque Journal (Rep.)

You have probably heard of the
man who sat on a limb and sawed it
off between himself and the tree. Well
he was the prototype of our New
Mexico ga1gsters. In their malignant
hostility to Hagerman for having
forced them to take their hands and
arms out of the public treasury, and,
to use an agricultural technicality,
their fleet out of the trough" they
were so mad-blind to all c~onsequen-
ces that they opened a Pandora's box
Of evils which they are now unable
to close, and since they begin to real
ize what they have done they are
about as much scared as they were
mad before.
And well they may be, for in their
all~absorbing desire to ruin a public
official for trying to do his duty to
the public and conduct the public bust
ness deceltly and honestly, they have
unsettled the foundations of a large
number of our most important public
enterprises, which were doing mor
to develop the of the terri
tory, and bring New Mexico to the
front, than had ever beef done be
fore, by any other agencies.
Do you ask why, and how? A very
brief statement of plain, nard facts
will answer both queries.
From time to time the lands grant
ed to this territory by congress have
been disposed of at prices much be-
low their e value, and generally
by officials who were members of or
in sympathy with the present Doodle
gang. The lie of the Journal will
show that this paper mas always pro-
tested vigorously against this policy,
and has denounced such sales as
crimes against the people of New
Mexico. But the same policy was con
tinued, nevertheless, up to a very
short time before the incoming of the
Hagerman administration, and in the
meantime all, or a very large part, OF
the more valuable of such lands mad
passed into the hands of innocent
purchasers.
When Mr.. Hagerman too charge
of the governors Office he found that
certain territorial lands had been sold
to the Pennsylvania Development Co.
by his predecessor in office. upon ex-
actly the same terms that practically
all other lands of that class had been
sold by other administrations to 9TH
err purchasers. The deeds had been
made out. the most of the purchase
money had been paid into the terri
note was taken for the remainder, but
the deeds were held by the territory
as security for the note.
When Mr.. Hagerman had been il
office for a few months, the r~epresen-
tative of the Pennsylvania company,
Colonel w. S. Hopewell. whom the
people of New Mexico know and re
spect, presented himself at the terri
torial capital with the cash with which
to take up the compaay's note and re-
lease the deeds, so that the lands
might be used in f~urtherance of the
important New Mexico enterprise in
which the company was engaged
the building OF a railroad into and
through one of the richest and most
promising sections of the territory,
and which was at that time totally de-
void of railway connection with the
outer world.
Mr.. Hagerman, as governor of the
territory, OF our accepted the mon
ey and gave the company its note and
its deeds. just as any other honorable
MAI under the circumstances would
have done-and IL he had refused to
do so no intelligent man in the terri
tory doubts hat the same gang which
made war upon him for doing so.
would hav waged more vigorous war
upo1 him for refusing 10 do so. and
could have shown by the record that
he had been guilty Of a fragrant vio-
lation and repudiatdon OF q valid con