Albuquerque morning journal., 1920-10-15
BE SPECIFIC"

The daily cry at us the kept press IS for us
10 be specific"
They say, You charge all is not well in the land
office; please be specific" But they have charge
of the land office. haven't They know what
information the public needs to enlighten it and
where in their vast number Of files that informa-
ton is located. We do not know.
To have cerR nonchalanty arm at
the flies aud say. There they are. help yourself,
rs pure bunk" An outside man could find moth
ing he sought in five years.
Nelson Field, commissioner admits he cannot
heep .up with what Is Going in his own office.
But they want us TO be specific" Why the effort
to put the harden on US? They should do the PROV
ing that they have been worthy servants.
We charge that the land office adopted the
policy of selling oil leases AZ private sale in huge
blocks to SPECTATORS who resold parts of them att
imincn8e ptofits to people who were real oil men.
We assert that the sale in this way of 75OOo00|
: aGIes only uetted the state $4,000. We assert
that The balance of the $s25000 they talk about was
for rentals and extensions and not for the initial
BONUSES and that the Lard office and the kept press
are d~libefa ey misleading the public in the matter
We assaft that unless public property is sold to
the highest bidder in tracts of reasonable size that
rhe ,sate 5fni.s to get anything approXmating what
is reasonable price and the door is opened for all
ttannet OF frauds. We assert that employees of the
lapd office have had interest in some of these
traets sold at private sale.
we assert that these Lands belong to the school
chIdren of New Mexico and that all sales should
net the highest obtainable price and that no one
can Rnow what is the highest obtainahle price with
out an advertisement of the sale. Who needs to
prove this? Anybody knows that favoritism and
under-pricng result from private deals made in al
corner No enlightened state will stand for any
such system. Il is bound to result in fraud. Yet
they want to "be specific
Here is another instance They ask us to "be
against he
company. We asserted that its average net earn
inss were above sl0,000,0O0 for three years last
past Dir. Hursum promptly denied this Why did
he dare to DO 1t ?? Because there slipped into
tho act Of 1915 governing the taxation Of mines the
little Joker among others that the State Tax Com
mission should give ont information concerning
any data filed with it under the law.
iEyeEybod' else'S taxes In the state open
public rspor subject inspection. special law /
was made by these gentlemen make their data
as filed a secret archvc Then they yelled at to
'be specific" Then bad faith is perfectly trans
parent. They thought We could not be specifics
Where, we Got the information doesn't matter. The
important thing is that got it, They did not
intend US to have it, /
We "caled Mr. Bursums hand and are pre-
pared to. make good We reassert that right
II these gentlemen are "on the square" with
the public why this secretive stuff? Why they
the only ones protected from publicity their tax
matters? Yet we told that special interests
not dominate the state and do not write their own
laws And, after corking up all the cracks so that
they feet ss1re We cannot peek in, they ask to
he specific g@
.,sEatch for the words t"be specific" They are
the battle cry of the entrenched interests. Re |
specific will be dlnged in your from untilt
election day. q, ..l r'
Reasoning by analogy il bunch of outlaws had I
possession of the town, were ooting stores and ,
frightening the citizens, these gentlemen would ask
yoHto abe specific" to who did act and what he
did before they world consent 10 calling the town
marshal and having him restore order. I