The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-11-02
HASKELL FIRES
 HIS LAST ROUND Letter Is Addressed to Roose- welt on Indian Matters EXTENSION OF LAND GRANT Oklahoma Governor Puts Burden of Blame Upon Roosevelt for Letting Standard oil Company Lease
 Indian Lands.
EXTENSION OF LAND GRANT

of Oklahoma to President Roosevelt, in
 reference to the Indian oil land leases: Guthrie, Okla, October 21, 1908. | Hon. Theodore Roosevelt, President, | Washington, D. c.
 "Slr:-In September I called your at | tention to complaint at the renewal of the
 oil lease on 68O,O00 acres of Osage Indian | tribal lands. You ignored the matter. On October B. having further pressure | for investigation of the unjust character of that lease, and having ascertained from
 that the Osages, being our citizens, it was
 my duty beyond question to demand of
 you as the chief guardian of these par
 ticular lands an explanation as to what 1 good reason, if any, there might have l been for the renewal of the lease, at
 conditions fixed by you. l. on that date,
 made the formal demand of you in writ
 ing.
 October g, the Acting Secretary of ! the Interior, writing as he stated, on 1 account of your having referred my let
 ter to him, his explanation was that you l had nothing to do with the 1easa, cx-
 cept fixing the compensation that the
 landowners were to receive. I was not | satisfied with the answer because that
 was the very thing we objected to, name | ly, the grossly inadequate compensation ! to the landowners, which was the real 1 complaint.
 First Answer.
 "On October 12 I answered you, re-
 ferring to the interior departments ex-
 panation, and stating to you: '1. That you had refused to give the 1 Osages an opportunity to produce evil dence before you to show the amount of ] compensation justly due to them as the i landowners.
 I "2 That the oil field, of which their 1 lands were a part, was an established. | rich producing field, where royalties and
 bonuses to landowners were established 1 by long practices and precedents.
 "3 That among the lowest averages the | Osages were at that time entitled to at
 least s7,0O0, GOO cash bonus and one-sixth
 royalty.
 A. That the Indian Territory Illuminat- 1 ing oil company a subordinate of the l Standard oil company as the assignee l of the original Foster lease, was by sub- letting this same Osage property to oper-
 ating companies receiving much more as 1 a bonus than the Osages would receive
 as the owners of the land on a one-eighth i basis
 | "5 That against the original Judgment 1 of the department of the interior and
 upon the request of Messrs. Guffey, Barnsdale, Senator Depew and other we'll {, known agents of the Standard oil com | pany, you had granted an extension of
 the lease on this 6SO0OO acres of land at | the grossly inadequate compensation Of | one-eighth royalty and not cent of cash bonus. Request to Cancel Lease.
 ''Pursuing my duties to the Osage In- | dians. as citizens of our state, 1 re- | quested that you cancel that lease to | the end that the Osage Indians might | have an opportunity to receive by com l petitive bids or otherwise, an income from +ha oil o111aS of thnV | could readily obtain equal to the aver age obtained by the adjoining landowners to the north, east and the south of their lands.
 | q am today in receipt of the following | letter from your Secretary of State: Letter From Root. "'C. N. Haskell, Governor of Oklahoma: Sir-Your letter of October 12, 1908, to l the President of the United States and signed by you are governor of Oklahoma, has been referred to the department of
 state, which is charged with the conduct
 of correspondence between the President
 and the chief executive of the several states.
 ""rhe character of this communication, which I understand to be mainly false, and which I perceive to be wholly inso- lent is such that am forced to regard 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, upon which you have inflicted the injury of signing such a let ter over your title as governor, leads me to acknowledge its receipt. The substance of the communication precludes any fur ther official notice of 1t. Very respect fully, ELIHU ROOT No Side Stepping. "I regret that my duty forces me. MT. | President to decline to have this gross in-
 justice to 2OOO citizens of our state dis posed of by side-stepping or evasion.
 Your Secretary of State says: T am in- solent.' MT President, if honest adher- ence to my duties is nsolence. then let it be insolence, but that absurd statement from your Secretary of State will not be accepted as a substitute for s15,O000 GOO or $2O,O0O, 900 due to the Osage Indians.
 MT. President, your Secretary of State says: My demand Is a device to attract from the President for the purpose of a. personal controversy degree of notice which I could probably not receive per- sona1ly.'
 MT President, it is immaterial 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 ex- tent of s15,0O0, ,00O or $200O0, 900 honestly due to the Osages simply because 1t is a friend of yours.
 Ludicrous Expression.
 Indeed, MT. President, this expression | 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 had established for the high ! office of President and sought to carry [ me down with you to the level of petty | precinct politics.
 This effort to fuctuate from the high est respect in the land to the lowest prac- | tices has never been equaled in the ex- l tent of it's fluctuations of his watered i stock on the market. It is possible that | your astute Secretary of State might have advised you at that time to your own ad- vantage, as his 26 years experience at i 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 as- socIate, MT. Hearst, led you into
 Rights of Indians.
 "But aside with political discussions ew9 - n - - - -