The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1908-10-13
Will Commence Action Against
w. r.. Hearst at Once.
Arrives i'm Kansas City to Con-
suit His Lawyers.
WRITES TO ROOSEVELT
Reviews Leases of Oil Land in
Usage Nation.
Charges Standard Was Favored
by the President.

Kansas City, Mo-. Oct. 13-Governor |
Charles N. Haskell of Oklahoma ar
rived here this morning from Guthrie, |
to consult his attorneys with reference
to suit that he says he intends to
bring against William Randolph Hearst
charging the New York editor with Ii
bel.
The governor stated soon after he
had registered at a hotel that he had
already placed the matter in the hands
of his attorneys and that the petition
would be filed by them whenever they
saw fit. The suit. he said, probably
would be brought in the circuit court.
but just when he was unable to say.
The case grows out of the publicity
of the Standard Oil story which was
the immediate result of Governor Has
kell resigning as treasurer of the DEM
ocratic national committee.
The story in question alleged that a
man named Haskell, in connection
with two others, had made overtures
to Frank S. Monnett, then attorney
general of Ohio, to stop a suit pending
against a Standard Oil company, the
trio agreeing, it was alleged, to furnish
$4,000 in case proceedings were
dropped. Mr.. Hearst asserted that
this Haskell was Governor Charles N.
I1dSk0u, DuI In6 executive Oh Okla
homa declared that he had no connec-
ton with the matter and said some
other Haskell must have been meant.
Governor Haskell declined this
morning to make public the names of
his attorneys who are to bring the suit
against Mr.. Hearst, or to make any
definite statement regarding the in
tended suit. He might, he said, be
able later in the day to announce
definitely just what the next step in
the matter would be.
Another Letter to Roosevelt.
Governor Haskell of Oklahoma gave
to the Associated Press a signed state
ment addressed to President Roose-
velt contributing another chapter in
the controversy arising over the leas-
ing of $4,000 acres of Usage Indian
oil lands.
81 SHALL" says the governor in the
course of his statement, "insist upon
the cancellation of thiss lease, in the
or that congress take action to declare
this improvident and unjust lease void,
and secure for the Usage nation the
just and reasonable compensation that
other owners are receiving"
The letter in full follows:
ITO Hon. Theodore Roosevelt, Presi-
dent, Washington, D. c.
Sir: 1 have just received a letter
interior department, dated October 9,
stating that my letter to you, asking
for an explanation as to the oil lease
on the Usage lands, had been referred
to his department.
HE attaches an explanation, which
| is not at all satisfactory. 1t contains
practically nothing in conflict with my
complaint. 1 agree that in 1896 the
Democratic administration made a
lease to E. B. Foster on the entire
Usage nation for ten years at 10 per
| cent royalty. At that time the nearest
| known oil production was about 700
miles from the Usage nation, so that
the Foster lease in 1895 was a rank
wildcat proposition and, of course, the
usual pioneer royalty of 10 per cent
was allowed. But during the ten years
the field was developed, and found to
be unusually rich. and ten years at
this low royalty was an ample reward
to those who developed it.
by 1905 Foster had transferred his
lease to the Indian Territory Illumi-
mating Oil company. a well-known SUBJ
stitute of the Standard Oil company.
Development showed that oil GOV
cred 6SOOOo acres, being the east part
of the Usage nation, also extending
north into Kansas. east into Indian
territory and south into Oklahoma, and
the whole area is known the richest
oil country in existence at this date
The remainder Of the Usage nation was
barren.
Congress gave you the power to fix
the consideration that the Usage people
should receive as their part of the oil
value after the expiration of the To-
year least. 1t was Well known to you
at that time what the sub-lessees were
paying for small tracts in the Usage
nation and adjoining lands in the
Cherokee nation, as the Cherokee leases
passed through the interior department
and their approval and the royalties
and bonuses received by the land own
ers were a matter of record and ap-
proval in the interior department rec
ords. 1t is scarcely possible that with
these records before you you failed to
notice that ten dollars per acre cash
bonuses and one-sixth royalty was
much below the average compensation
to the land owner. Indeed. in many
| instances cash bonuses of from SO to
even one hundred dollars per acre were
received by the land owners.
Cites Some Cases.
"A few cases found in the interior de-
| partment records are as follows:
| THE Lannon family, seven hundred
acres Cherokee nation, Immediately
| joining the Usage nation. interior de-
partment lease, made in 1903. cash bo-
nus $4,000 royalty one-eighth. We
| have eight or ten similar leases where
the general public information shows
/ cash bonuses substantially as large as
| the above and royalties running at one
sixth. but your subordinate officers in
charge of the Indian office at Musko-
! gee on orders from the interior depart
ment, this morning refused to permit
| examination of the records to confirm
! same accurately, but they are subject
to your investigation and you will find,
no doubt, that the Lannon lease was
| only an average lease.
| And numerous other leases adjoin-
| ing the Usage nation give you the op-
portunity to know that a bare one
! eighth royalty without any cash bo-
muses. to the Osages was a gross out
4 rage on that nation.
| Congress no sooner gave you the
| authority to fix the amount of COM
l pensation than the Osages fled q