The watchman and southron. [volume] (Sumter, S.C.) 1881-1930, 1909-01-13
New Series-VOl. XVIII. Ya 2a A

uuceu and which passed the senate
hartman, the presidents dear friend
stlll holds in defiance Of law unva ri
VI z'ooo,OoO acres Of the best lands Of
oregon and California and refuses TO
sell them at any price. I never ex-
pected, and could not under the terms
OF the law as / construed it, get more
than seven quarter sections for myself
and family, one for my private secre-
tary, and one for Mr.. Lee. making
nine In all. This, in the aggregate.
would mean that I would obtain
through my activity here, as the pres.
idents charge is, nine quarter Sec
items, or fourteen hundred and forty
acres, at cost Of $4,000. Will the
president undertake to say that have
lost my right to buy land because 7
am a senator? Can the president
deny that my activity secured the
passage of the resolution instructing
the Encouragement to bring suit for
the recovery Of this land for the use
Of actual settlers? II Hartman and
others like him are made to disgorge
py reason of these suits, shall the fact
that I was endevaroing to buy a little
pittance Of the land be used as the
basis of charge of being a liar and
a corrupt senator-to be disgraced?
To sum up, this is a brief resume
OF the entire transactions: While in
Spokane, Wash, in October, 1907,
first heard that there were timber
lands in Oregon which were being
bought through Reeder & Watkins, of
Marshfield. On October s 1 wrote to
Reeder & Watkins, asking for In
formation, telling them Of my desire
to purchase some of the land II pos
sible. Desiring to find out If the con.
ditions OF the grant to the State of
oregon made it possible for "pur-
chasers" and not actual settlers to
buy at $3.50 per acre, 1 wired the
librarian of the senate for a copy Of
the act. Finding that that part of
the statement received from a gentle
man In Spokane was correct. I notified
Reeder & Watkins on October 20 that
Mr. Lee. whom I had seen at Moscow.
Idaho, In the meantime and .alked
with on the subject, would 60 10
Marshfield and investigate in person.
authorized Lee to draw on me IL he
FOUND that the lands were what they
Were represented to be. Lees au-
tnority as my agent never went beyond
an examination Of the land and. IL
the application was filed. to see that
l would get good timbered lands In
stead of rocks and marshes. He wired
me not to be in a hurry, as there
were obstacles in the way. In tho
meantime I had talked with lawyers
who were familiar with the military
road land grants, and they informed
me that under a decision of the circuit
court private parties were not permit
ted to sue for these lands. Still
doubling whether / could purchase
the lands with any hope of successful
litigation. I wrote to Senator George
Turner, of Washington, to get his
opinion and incidentally to make in
quiry about lands on the Columbia
HiVer, In that State. He gave the
same opinion that I had already re-
ceived from the other lawyers.
| Realizing after 1 got to Washington.
D. c., in December that it was a very
doubtful proposition, 1 let the matter
drop until Mr.. Lee showed me a let
ter from Reeder & Watkins, which
has been stolen from my desk in my
committee room along with other
papers In this case, probably by some
OF the secret service sleuths, and when
they indicated their desire that
should exert my influence in the sem
ate, wrote the letter Of February Is,
of which the president obtained a
Photographic copy. In the meantime
and before that letter was written,
from my Investigations and after a
conference with the attorney-general,
/ introduced the two resolutions of
January 81, one calling on the attor-
ney-general for information, and the
other (the joint resolution), which
became a law, instructing him to in
stitute suits. My official activity then
is shown to have taken form in the
senate before 1 knew anything about
Reeder & Watkins attitude or expect
ations and l was in no way influenced
| by them.
I was still anxious to obtain some
OF the land If it could be done legally,
and wrote Reeder 6 Watkins to that