Los Angeles herald., 1910-08-07

interior approves the contract in its
present form, we will give you $4,000.
If he scales the contract, then the $685.,
900 probably will be cut down accord
ingly. I want to talk to you further
about the matter
81 didn't see McMurray for sew
eral days, but in the meantime I got
to thinking about the proposition, and
l-new Lney were going to bring pow
e.ful political influences to bear in
support of that contract. 1 thought
maybe If 1 didn't manifest too much
opposition to that contract 1 would be
in position ultimately to defeat it,
but if 1 become too antagonistic I
might have no opportunity to get my
forces together and that they might in
some way secure the approval of the
contracts.
INQUIRIES TESTIMONY
Several days after that I saw Nc
Murray in the capitol and 1 said: I
have decided to accept your PROPOSE
tion,' but didn't learn any more about
the contracts by that means. The mat
ter went on for some time and no
effort was made to get the contracts
approved. Then the matter went along
until the constitutional convention of
Oklahoma appointed a committee to
investigate whether it were possible to
purchase the coal lan~s from the In
dams.
"McMurray became active again; he
wanted to appear before this commit
tee as the representative of the Choc
taws. He endeavored to obtain writ
ten statement from Governor McCur-
tain to the effect that McMurray rep
resented the Choctaws, and they so
recognized him. McMurray came out
to my house to see me. He stated he
thought he was in a position to do the
nation a great deal OF good. Then
I said: 'Mr. McMurray, don't want
anything to do with your contracts
"Mr. McMurray In an interview de-
MED he made the offer. He said Lyon
had been financially interested with
him in the contracts"
THE $4,000 OFFER
Congressman McGuire's testimony re-
lated to whether he occupied part of a
suite at Washington hotel with Ha-
mon. He said he paid for the apart
ment and it was the custom for his
friends from Oklahoma to stop there.
Hamon, he said, had stopped there two
or three times.
"Have you ever received any finar-
cial assistance from any person hav-
ing a contract with the 1ndians!'
Chairman Burke asked.
"I never have" replied Mr.. Mcguire.
"There never was the suggestion of aid
to be given me by McMurray or any
one else"
us there any reason why Senator
Gore should feel unfriendly toward
you?"
''None that I know of. Yet he has
done his utmost to give me a black
eye. Moreover he has done a good deal
of fabricating. He showed this in his
attitude toward our efforts to secure
appropriations for federal buildings at
Guthrie Blackwell and Kingfisher. He
wrote letters saying he would do all he
could to help get the buildings, and
then he wrote letters saying he had
done all he could to get them; but to
dead certainty he did all he could to
have the appropriations knocked out"
"TIow many times did Hamon stop
at your apartment in Washington"
"Well 1 never locked the door at
those apartments. Anybody from Okla
homa could come and make himself at
home. Hamon came there because I
had known him for years, but Hamon
never discussed with me the McMurray
contracts"
j. Milton Turner of st. Louis, former
United States minister to Liberia, tes-
titled as to his efforts to improve con-
ditions among the negroes who live on
the Indian lands.
The committee Will continue It's in
vestigation at McAlester, Okla, on
Monday.
Senator Gore tonight issued the fol-
lowing statement relative to Vice
President Sherman:
at have never either in the senate
or before the investigating committee,
made any charge whatever against
Mr.. sherman. I never said he was
interested in the McMurray contracts,
directly or indirectly. The vice presi-
dents name was mentioned to me by
Hamon as the man higher up who was
Interested in the contracts. When
testified before the committee I was
under obligation to relate all that
Hamon had said and when it came to
mentioning what Hamon had said to
me about Mr.. Sherman 1 named the
vice president with extreme reluctance.
I had no alternative but to tell the
truth. I think I owe it to Mr.. Sher-