The Montgomery advertiser., 1909-01-13
 Remaparse Explainz.

1S8W&HmEf9 G&EsMhA8
 Washington, Ian. 12--Attorney- General Bonaparte tonight issued a statement, replying to that part of the speech of Senator Tiilman, delivered yesterday, in which the Senator de- ciared that the resolution in regard to the oregon Land grants introduced by him on Jan. sl, 1907, had been pre- pared by the Attorney General, and that This interest in the matter had been first aroused by desire to pur- chase some of the timber Iand."
 MT. Bonaparte also replies to Sena- tor Tiilman's remarks made in the Sem bought any land anywhere in the West 'or undertaken to buy any. The full text of the Attorney Generals >state- mert Is as follows:
 January IF, 1908.
 There are two passages in the re- marks of Senator Tiliman, published in today's Congregational Record, which demand notice from me. He says:
 "'It mlght be yell to inquire wheth- CT or net the Attorney General has been ordered not to obey the law of Congress passed last Aprii-which I will call the Tillman- Bonaparte law recovery of these lands. My culpabili- ity is of such enormfty and magni- tude in contemplating the purchase Of 1,440 acFea of Iapd at e2.5e an acre. in the eyes of tlFds attckier for Official feutituda in others. that it may bu tonild that he is dsteeAnined Co block my so-cailed 'nefafious transaetions.'
 ""The man who announces. to Con- gress that he Theodore Roosevelt. as- stunned the right to permit the Steel Trust to absorb its greatest rival con- ro .xr- ks. YS dxf.h .~& t.<. .( tate to help his dear friend. Hartman. in holding 100000 acres of public domain. simply because Ben TIllman has contemplated and wanted to buy LAO acres.'
 ''On Sept. 14. 1908. suit was brought by the United States of America in the Circuit Court of the United States for the District of oregon against the Ore gon and California Railroad Company, the Southern Pacific Company. the Union Trust Company, individually. and as trustee; Stephen T. Gage. indl- vidually and as trustee. and a large number of individual defendants. The purpose of this suit is. in substance, to declare and enforce forfeiture of the public lands claimed by the rail- roads under Mir. Harriman's control by the virtue of the original grant to the Oregon and California Railroad It has been brought In accordance with the directions of the joint resolution to which Senator Tillman refers; wal instituted as soon as practicable after the passage of the said resolution. and the fact of its institution has been pub liBhed and could have been verified by any >one, through inquiry at this de- pertinent, for more than four months.
 "Senator Tillman says in another part of his speech, Tn my converse tion with the Attorney General in re- gard to the resolution which I intro- duced. and which he himself prepared after we had talked over the whole land situation, distinctly remember telling him that my interest In the mat ter had been first aroused by my de- sire to purchase some of the timber lands. and that my coming to him was due to the fact that discovered upon investigation. that could not buy 1t through any agency whatsoever; that could not buy 1t even by law suit, because I was advised by very able lawyers in the West, among them George Turner of Washington, that in attacking the holders of these land grants. nc one would have any stand. ing in court except the grant0r, the Government itself.'
 Called On BOnaparte.
 Senator Tillman called on me at tn, Department of Justice a few days be, fore the introduction of the resolu, tion. which see he presented to the Senate on January 31. 1908. Our inter. view occurred, therefore, a little less than three weeks before his letter o February 15 to Messrs. Reeder and Watkins, in which he requested them to hold in reserve for him. eight oi the best quarter sections. and prob. .N.V before his statement in the Senate thai he had not bought any land anywhere in the West. or undertaken to buy any He told me he wished information ai to the status of the land embraced IT these Oregon grants because he had heard so much complaint about tn, conduct of the corporations claiming them during . his recent journeI through the states of the Pacific slope He criticized. with great severity. th' policy of granting the public domair to such corporations. anu mentioned that on some occasion, in discussing proposed land grant of this character he had said to certain of his col leagues: You may as we'll give then what they want now; you have givel them pretty much everything else, He said, according to my recollection that the lands had become of greR value and many persons wished t purchase them and added that h' would have been glad to do so himsel If he could; but he never told me word of any connection, on his part with an arrangement to acquire som part of these lands; nor that he in tended, expected. or even desired a the tine to make any such purchase As stated by him. his reason for mak ing these inquiries was that he migh