The Birmingham age-herald., 1909-01-13
Attorney General Bonaparte
 Makes Statement
OREGON LAND DEAL FIGURES
Bonaparte Says He Furnished In- formation to Tillman About the Lands-Senator Never
 Spoke of Buying.

Washington, January 12.-Attorney General Bona parte tonight issued statement replying to that part of the speech of Senator Tillman deliv- cred yesterday in which the senator declared that the resolution in regard to the Oregon land grants, introduced by him in the Senate on January 3l, 1908, had been prepared by the At torney General and that his interest in the matter had been first aroused by desire to purchase some of the timber land"
 MT Bonaparte also replies to Sen ator Tillman's remarks made in the Senate last February that he had not Fought any land anywhere in the west or undertaken to buy any"
 The full text of the Attorney Gen erals statement is as follows;
 January 12, 1909.
 There are two passages in the re- marks of Senator Tillman published in today's Congressional Record, which demand notice from me. He says
 "It might be well to inquire wheth- CT or not the Attorney General has been ordered not to obey the law of Congress passed last April-which will call the Tillman- Bonaparte law directing suit to be instituted for the recovery of these lands. My culpabil- ity is of such enormity and magnitude iii contemplating the purchase of l44O acres of land at $2.50 an acre in the eyes of this stickler for official recti- tude in others that 1t may be found that he Is determined to block my so- called nefarious transactions
 TiIIman's Words.
 ".The man who announces to Con- gress that he, Theodore Roosevelt, as- sumed the right to permit the steel trust to absorb its greatest rival con trary to law, would doubtless not hes itate to help his dear friend Harri man, in holding 100000 acres of the public domain simply because Ben Till man has contemplated and wanted to buy 1440 acres
 "On September IA, 1908, suit was brought by the United States of Amer ica in the circuit court of the United States for the district of oregon against the Oregon and California Railroad company, the Southern Pacific com pany the Union Trust company, indi- vidually and as trustee; Stephen T. Gage, individually and as trustee, and a large number of individual defend- ants. The purpose of this suit is, in substance, to declare and enfore for feiture of the public lands claimed by the railroads under MT. Harriman's control by virtue of the original grant to the Oregon and California railroad. It has been brought in accordance with +l, of inint resolution to which Senator Tillmon refers was instituted as soon as practicable after the passage of the said resolution and the fact of its institution has been pub lished and could have been verified by any one, through inquiring at this department, for more than four months.
 Interest In Matter.
 Senator Tiliman says in another part of his speech, Tn my conversation with the Attorney General in regard to the resolution which I introduced and which he himself prepared after we had talked over the whole land situation, I distinctly remember telling him that my interest in the matter had been first aroused by my desire to purchase some of the tim Der lands, and that my coming to him was due to the fact that I discovered upon investigation that I could not buy it
  could not buy 1t even by lawsuit, be- cause 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 no one would have any standing in court except the grantor, the government itself
 Visit From Tillman.
 Senator Tillman called upon me at the department of justice a few days be- fore the introduction by him of the reso- lution, which 1 see by the record, he presented to the Senate on January 31, 19OS Our interview occurred, therefore, a little less than three weeks before his letter of February 15 to Messrs. Reeder & Watkins, in which he requested them to hold in reserve for him eight of the best quarter sections; and probably a little more than three weeks before his statement in the Senate that he had not bought any land anywhere in the west, or undertaken to buy any He told me he wished information as to the status of the land embraced in these Oregon grants because he had heard so much complaint about the conduct of the corpora tions claiming them during his recent journey through the states of the Pacific slope He criticised with great severity, the policy of granting the public domain to such corporations, and mentioned that on some occasion, in discussing proposed land grant of this character he had said to certain of his colleagues:
 Yields to Demand.
 You may as well give them what they want now; you have given them pretty much everything else. He said, according to my recollection, that the lands had become of great value, and many persons wished to purchase them. and added that he would have been glad to do so himself if he could; but he never told me a word of any connection on his part, with an arrangement to acquire some part of these lands, nor that he intended, expected or even desired. at that time to make any
 
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