Daily Arizona silver belt., 1908-11-01
HASKELL WRITES STIFF
 LETTER TO ROOSEVELT
Oklahoma Gouenor Charges the President With Deflauding O,ages Out of
 $I5,OOO,OOO tor Standard

false and which perceive to be wholly insolent, is such that am forced to re- gard it as a device to attract from the president for the purpose of a personal controversy degree of notice which yourself would not receive personally Respect for the state of Oklahoma, up on which you have inflicted the injury of signing such letter over your title as governor, leads me to acknowledge its receipt. The substance of the com municstion precludes any further off cial notice of it. Very respectfully,
 (signed) ELIHU ROOT.
 1T regret that my duty forces me, MT. President, to decline to have. this gross injustice to two thousand citizens of our state disposed of by side-step ping or evasion.
 "Your secretary of state says I am ;nsolent.' Mir. President, if honest ad. herence to my duties is insolence, then let it be insolence, but that absurd statement from your secretary of state will not be accepted as a substitute for fifteen or twenty million dollars due to the osage Indians.
 "Mr. President, your secretary of state says: My demand is a device to attract from the president for the purpose of personal controversy a degree of notice which 1 could prob ably not receive personally.
 "Mr. Pres dent, it is immatcrial to me what construction your secretary of state desires to put upon my demand, in his attempt to shield you. I do not seek prominence, but I do seek justice for the Osages, and shall not permit the Standard Oil company to benefit to the extent of fifteen or twenty million dol lars honestly due to the Osages simply because it is a friend of yours.
 ''Indeed MT. President, this expres- sion from the secretary of state is ludicrous in view of the fact that you some two weeks ago descended from the dignity that your predecessors have established for. the high office of pres ident and sought 10 carry me down with you to the level of petty precinct politics.
 "This effort to fluctuate from the highest respect in the land to the low. est practices has never been equaled in the extent of it's fluctuations of his wat. cred stock on the market. It is possible that your astute secretary of state might have advised you at that time to your own advantage, as his twenty six years experience at his law office in Wall street, where he has guided the greatest corporations of the land with his advice, would doubtless then have saved you from the humiliation that your reckless and unreliable political associate, Mr. Hearst, led you into.
 "But aside with political discussions. The question of whether tho Osage In dians shall have tke ordinary value of the oil upon their land, as adjacent land owners acting upon their own be- half are able to obtain, or whether we shall permit you to make the Standard Oil company q present of the greater part of these oil values is a business proposition.
 ''I represent the personal rights and interests of the Osages because they are citizens of Oklahoma. You are simply the chief guardian of these particular lands. Justice to the Osages requires the cancellation of the lease which you have made without their knowledge or consent, and with respect to your high offices and tho most generous construc. tion 1 could put upon your act would be that that lease was made through ignorance of conditions or undue haste at the solicitation of the agencies above referred to.
 "Let it be considered as settled final ly you will either cancel that lease your self or the authorities of the state of Oklahoma will present the matter to congress as soon as it assemblies, and see if that body will be deaf to righ- teous demand for justice. Sincerely yours,
 (S:gned) c. N. HASKELL,
 Governor. "
 Navajo blankets sold cheap at Palace Pharmacy.