The Ogden standard. [volume] (Ogden City, Utah) 1902-1910, 1909-01-13
bONAP AR 7 {
ANSWfR RS
T|LLMA|V
Senator's Attitude Reviewed
by Attorney General, Open
Letter TO Public.

Wash;ngto9. Jan. i2-Attcney Gen
eral i5onaparte tonight issued state
ment replying to that part of the
speech of Senator Gilman, delivered
yesterday. in which he declared that
the resolution in regard TO the Ore
gon land grants. introduced by him
in the senate on January 81, 1905,
had been prepared by the attorney
general and that his interest in the
matter had been first aroused by a
desire TO purchase some Of the TIM
her land" Mr. Bonaparte also re-
piled to Senator Tillman's remarks in
the senate last February that he had
not bought any land in the west or
undertaken TO buy any,
The attorney general says:
There are two passages in the re-
marks of Senator Tillman published
In today's Congressional Record.
which demand notice from me. He
says: 1T might be well TO inquire
whether or not the attorney general
has been ordered not to obey tho law
of congress passed last Aprll-which
will call the Tillman- Bonaparte law
ordering suit 10 be instituted for the
recovery of the lands. My culpability
is of such cnormity and magnitude In
contemplating the purchase of 1,440
acres of the land at $3.50 an acre in
the eyes of this stickler for official
rectitude In others that It may be
found that he is determined TO block
piy so-cnlled nefarious transactions.
The man who announces TO con-
gress that he, Theodore Roosevelt.
assumed the right to permit the steel
trust to abolish It's greatest rival, con-
trary to law, would doubtless not
hesitate to help his dear friend Har.
rlman in holding 100000 acres of the
public domain simply because Ben
Tillman contemplated and wanted to
buy LAO acres
"On September f. 1908, suit was
brought by the United States in the
circuit court of the district court oi
Oregon, for the Oregon & California
Railroad company, the Southern Pa
oihc. the Union Pacific company, in
diyidually and as trustees, Stephen 7
Gage. individually and as trustee. and
large number OF individual defend
ants.
The purpose of this suit, in sub
stance, Is to declare and enforce &
forfeiture of the public lands claimed
by the railroads under Mr. Hartmann
control by virtue of the original gran,
TO the Oregon & California railroad
1t has been brought in accordanc,
90 IL
luton to which Senator Tillman re
fers
Senator Tillman says, in anothe
part of his speech: In my converse
tfcn with the attorney general in re
gard to the resolution which intro
dnced and which he himself prepared
after we had talked over the Who'll,
question. ] distinctly remember tell
ing him that my interest in the matte
had been first aroused by my desir,
to purchase some of the timber Ian,
and that my coming to him was du
TO the fact that l discovered uDol
investigation that could not bu
through any agency whatsoever, tha
| could not buy it even by lawsuit
BECAUSE was advised by very abl
lawyers in the west. among Their
General George Turner. that In a
tacking the holders OF those Ian
grants no one would have any stanC
ing in court except the grantor, III
government itself
Senator Tillman called upon m
at the department of justice rc'
Gays before the Introduction by hir
OF the resolution he presented TO IN
senate on January 81, 1903. Our II
terview occurred, therefore, littl