Omaha daily bee., 1914-03-22


others as they were to me. The first
bill said all that was necessary in
about a dozen lines, the second bill
was a much more imposing affair. In
the first bill the Association was in
corporated for charitable ana cducd-
tiOndl purposes, and It was to be sup
ported by voluntary contributions. In
the second bill the Association was
incorporated for Industrial and other
purposes with a capital of 100000,
contributed by the incorporators and
such other persons as they may ask
to share with them" and the Asso-
citation was given power from time to
time "to increase the capital in such
amounts as the directors for the time
being may deem necessary to carry on
the work for which the said Associa-
tion is organized" These changes
made it possible for the Association
to do practically anything and to have
unlimited capital. The bill was 50
craftily drawn and the language used
was purposely made so obscure that
a casual reading would fail to reveal
exactly what the powers of the Asso-
citation were, but lawyer could un-
derstand, and for a moment | was
staggered. There was practically
nothing that that beautiful uplifting
Association might not do. Congress
was proposing to give it charter to
engage in any kind of business, to
build railroads, to engage in mining,
to organize banks, to sell all the
stocks and bonds it wanted, to buy,
sell or deal in real estate and mort
cages. If there was anything over
| looked | hadn't been able to find it.
'Shillworthy," | said to myself,
| you're the smoothest proposition in
the way of lobbyist this town has
| ever seen, and | take off my hat to
! you." But what puzzled rae was why
he asked me to become the counsel of
the Association and then put me on
the shelf OF course he had reason.
| THERE never was more audacious
thing done in Congress than Bart
mans performance in passing the
| bill. Late one afternoon, when not
more than a dozen senators We're
| present, he called it up. In casual
sort of way he said everyone knew OF
| the great work the Association in
tended to do, and, of course, bill OF
| that character could be objected to
| by no one, and he asked that the bill
be passed. 1t was. And the next
morning Shillworthy came to see me.
He said | had been generous enough
to offer to serve the Association as
counsel without remuneration, but as
there would be a good deal OF work
| to be done, the executive committee
had decided | was properly entitled
to compensation, and my salary had
been fixed at $4,000 a year.
Shillworthy, | have said, was an
extraordinarily clever man, but this
is where he blundered, which shows
that even the man with the longest
head occasionally trips up. And with
out waiting to hear me say how CRATE
full | was, which, of course was what
he expected, he went on to say that
he would like to have me go to the
Indian Territory, where the Associa-
tion intended to begin operations, and
arrange for the leases of certain lands
on which they proposed to build fac
tories.
| thought the time had come to
make Shillworthy play his hand with
the cards on the table.
Don't you think I'd better wait
until the bill has passed the House
and is signed by the President?'
He waved the suggestion aside. The
House, of course, would pass the bill
q, mana fprpnality and had moi