The Newark journal., 1911-11-24
RECORDS CLEAR OLDFIELD
Nothing Improper About Introduction of the Land Grant Bill For Senator Davis---Speaker
 Champ Clark Makes Statement

which he declared that MT. Old field had no interest in the bill whatever and he (Oldfeld) only introduced the bill upon his Davis ) request.
 Senator Davis statement before the committee follows:
 Those lands which at that time were not susceptible of being sur veyed were, of course, valueless except for the timber that was on them, and with this large body of water covering them, the timber was not accessible. The State ac- cepted these lands under ths terms of the land grant, and can say, as 1 have always understood from the political history of the State, having been governor of the State six years, and its attorney-general, and having had something to do with the political situation there, and it has always been thorough ly understood that the State, when it accepted these lands accepted not only the surveyed but the un- surveyed lands. That whole body of land was given to the State for the purpose of building a levee, what is known as the St. Francis Leyee of to-day. That of whole eastern Arkansas, comprising a part of eight counties, was abso- lutely, in large measure, value less without this levee and the Government, in order to aid in this project of building this won derful levee-because 1t is a won derful piece of engineering gave these lands to Arkansas. 1 have always contended-Senator Clark, who is a much better lawyer than 1 am, insisted l was wrong-that when this land grant of 1850 was passed, 1t passed title to the State of Arkansas to the unsurveyed lands as well as to the surveyed lands. 1 disagree with that mem- Der of the committee and contend that 1t IS not necessary to lay off by metes and bounds, by town ships, sections, ranges, etc; that is not what 1 understand the law to mean by surveying.
 "The land was on the right hand shoot of Little River. There was not enough water on that whole body of land to water your horse, but the finest timber a man ever laid his eyes on. The whole con- troversy has come up in this mat ter through lot of timber thieves down there. Chapman < Dewey, a large milling concern, and MT. Lee Wilson, and a dozen others 1 could mention, have sent in there and simply stolen timber until it has made them immensely rich. That is where 1 come in as attor- ney. The St. Francis levee board employed me to assist their regu- larly employed attorney, MT. Role son, to bring suits against these timber thieves for the value of this timber. We brought those suits in Poinsett and Mississippi counties and, perhaps, in one or two other counties. These gentle men came into court and said. "Yes, we got this timber. We got all the timber you claim we have gotten, but we claim that the St.. Francis levee board does not own these lands or this timber. You show us where the title of these lands lie, and we are ready to pay for the timber" And they are there today stealing this timber, and they are the only men who are raising any kick about this matter. 1 want to say to this committee frankly that nine-tenths of the bona fide residents of that district are in favor of this bill quieting the title to these lands.
 Now to get back to the original