Los Angeles herald., 1910-08-05

10 per cent OASIS.
In 1909 President Roosevelt had reg
istered his disapproval of the contracts.
In the same year Mr.. McMurray oD-
tanned contracts individually with TO-
900 Indians, there being at that time
no law against the execution OF con-
tracts with individual Indians. 1t was
this condition that aroused him to in
troduce a resolution in congress de-
claring that all Indian contracts must
be approved by congress before they
become valid.
TELLS OF CONTRACT
"McMurray then came to my office"
said the senator. II told him 1 had
no objection to just attorneys fees,
but thought 10 per cent on land val
ued by the government at Sl6O, 900
certainly was too high. Also I said
10 per cent on $50, 100000 was too high,
as 1 was informed a New York syndi-
cate was ready to pay the latter
amount for the lands. I said 1 saw no
reason why the Indians should pay
attorneys fees in this instance at all,
since the government by treaty already
had agreed to dispose of the lands and
give the Indians the full profit
wrote letters to the president and TO
various other officials describing what
l called an attempt to plunder and rob
these Indians.
"a great many interests were at
work in promoting contracts. The
first knew that former Senator Long
was acting in behalf of Mr.. McMurray
was one day when I walked into the
office of Secretary Ballinger. l began
to protest against the contracts and
was told not to talk so loud, as Mr..
Long was present and he was inter-
ested in them.
"On last May my bill holding up
the Indian contracts was reported out
Gov rob N1xy 1lo he
ing submitted by Senator Hughes of
Colorado. The very next day McMur-
ray came to me and asked me to have
Mr.. Hughes not to press the measure.
1 told him I would press it. 1 have
been pressing it ever since"
INDIANS ATTORNEY
E. p. Hill, an attorney for the Choc-
taw tribe of Indians then questioned
the senator as to what he knew of
President Taft's attitude toward the
McMurray contracts
II think some people interested in
the contracts went to see the presi-
dent on April 28,' said the witness,
1.-The president stated that former Sen
ator Long already had submitted the
matter to him and that Mr. Long 5
clients (meaning the McMurray inter
ests) might have their day in court.
I think the president said everybody
it would take a good deal Of argument
to convince him that the amount of
fees asked for in the contracts ($3,000,-
OOO) was just. In fact, think the pres
ident made it plain he was opposed
to the contracts"
Senator Gore testified he and Hamon
had been friends and had been inter
ested together in business transactions
at LaWtOn, Okla, in which money loans
were involved. Mr.. Hamon is an at
torney of LaWton, which is Senator
Cores home town. Hamon is 81 years
old and married.
Aside from Republican chairman
ships, he has been city attorney of
Lawton and has practiced law in
Kansas, Oklahoma and Texas.
References to invitations to frog
Leg banquets and to assertions by
Hamon that Senator Gore was going
back on his friends" were made in the
testimony of D. f. Gore, private sec |
retary and brother of Senator Gore.
D. F. Gore said that he was in his
brothers. private Office at noon on
May 6, when Hamon appeared.
sECRETARYs TESTIMONY
1T stepped into an adjoining office
and left the senator and Hamon alone |
except that once in a while l went in |
and out When they quit talking, in |
about thirty or forty minutes, HamOn |
came out into my room. Well he |
said, Dick, the senator is getting |
awfully hard on his friends. l want |
to make a lot of money Dick, and l |
don't care how 1 make it.
IT didn't know then what they had |
been talking about, but when Hamon |
left the senator said he had been talk |
ing about the McMurray contracts and
HamOn had offered him $4,000.
1.-THE senator said HamOn offered to
That's all that |
was said to me about the matter at
that time. Later McMurray came to
me and said he was sure that Senator
Gore did not understand those con-
tracts and wished he knew Of some
way Of making him understand. He
invited me to the hotel to talk it over,
so I could tell the senator. He also
wanted to know If I would attend
frog leg banquet which he was ar
ranging. I declined all Of these in
VitatiOns."
STENOGRAPHER'S EVIDENCE
]. Leroy Thompson, stenOgrapher to
Senator Gore, testified he also was in
and out of the senator's room when
Hamon was present. He, too, was in
vited to the frog leg banquet, he
said, but declined.
Congressman Campbell: How long
were the senator and Hamon in con-
ference together?'
Thompson: about 80 or 40 min
yates. When Hamon came out | over
heard him say he wanted TO make a
lot of money and he did not care how
he made it,"
Did you hear anything that was
said at the cOnferGnCe"'
NO, | did not. Usually when Hamon
called 1 heard everything that was
said. There never before had been
any effort to conceal it. But this time
it was different"
In what way was it different? Did
Hamon act differently?'
Eyes, he appeared not to want to
say anything when ] was in the room,
which was quite opposite from his
usual manner"
That the Choctaw Indians who had
protested against giving 10 per cent
attorney fees 10 McMuray had been
asked to rescind their action formed
the substance of testimony by w A.
Durant, a ChoctaW and a member Of
the Oklahoma state legislature.
AGAINST CONTRACTS
Durant said that at a Choctaw coun-
ell meeting a resolution had been
passed against the MCMurray con-
tracts. Later he said a number of
per sons had gone out into the Choctaw
nation urging the Indians to sign a