The Salt Lake tribune. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1890-current, 1913-07-27
10. THE POOR INpIANl

Senator Gore of Oklahoma has intro
duced a bill to transfer from the o. s.
Treasury to banks IN Oklahoma the
Indian trust funds held for the 120, 900
Indians of the former Indian Terri
tory, now embraced as part of the
State Of Oklahoma. These Indians
are the wealthiest individuals in the
world. Their trust funds in the u. S.
Treasury and already in Oklahoma
banks, amount TO $2S,500000, There
is due the Indians also on deferred land
payments $6,00o,o00 more. A sale is
pending Of segregated coal deposits
on the Indian lands that will add $10,-
100000 to the funds thus held. That
will amount to $41, 100000.
The purpose OF the bill is to make
these funds available for farm loans.
The proposition is that the United
States will continue to pay the interest
on this money, precisely as it does now,
while holding it in the treasury or sub
lect to its order in tho banks, The
Indians, therefore, 1t is argued, will
lose nothing, and the white men OF
Oklahoma will get the benefit Of the
use of this money. on longtime loans
and at low rates Of interest.
1t is brilliant financial scheme for
the white men of Oklahoma but it
does not seem to be very much to the
advantage Of the Indians nor Of the
people Of the United States at large.
Hero is case where conservation
might fairly come in. If the Govern
ment Of the United States is to lend
trust money in this way, it should lend
without discrimination to any farmer
in the United States, and not direct
its benevolence IN this direction to the
farmers OF Oklahoma alone.
1t is held by the conservationists
that the whole people OF the United
States have an interest in the forests
of the various Western States, and that
the people who settle these States
ought to be forbidden the use Of public
utilities in grazing, timber, water
power, coal lands, and the like. which
have invariably been accorded to pio-
neers and settlers of the regions this
side Of the Allegheny mountains, dur
ing the settlement Of all that area.
But if it is a good principle to stop the
use by settlers of the public utilities
around them, surely this proposition TO
lend trust money held by the Govern
ment to banks and farmers in Okla
homa alone, is thoroughly bad. The
lending should not be confined to the
banks Of Oklahoma or to the farmers
in Oklahoma, but should he extended
in general to the banks and the people
of the United States as a whole
A nucleus Of $44,5oO,O00 would be no
great amount 10 spread all over the
United States; but still, it is by no
means a contemplate sum; and at any
rate, the farmers Of the United States
as a whole could get more general
benefit out Of it than they could get
out of the reservation of bit of for
estry land, some grazing land, some
water power, aud small tract of coal
land here and there throughout this
Western country,
Let US nave general rule about this
matter. II the people OF Utah, for in
stance, are not allowed TO craze their
herds free on the public domain, or to
use the timber, water power, or coal
lands within the boundaries of the
State, then let the farmers and banks
of Oklahoma be shut out from any ex-
elusive use OF these Indian trust funds.
Let us all have a share, since the in
terests of all are alike, and these In.
dian, trust funds have much more I'M
mediate availability for general use
than the grazing lands, the timber
lands, and the water powers in Utah.