Jasper County Democrat, Volume 9, Number 23, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 8 September 1906 — GRAFT IN COAL LANDS [ARTICLE]

GRAFT IN COAL LANDS

An Attempt to Divert the Batan Field to “Somebody.” DEMOOBATS DEFEAT THE STEAL Great Value of the Deposit to' the Government In Time of- War—The Way the Indian Coal Landa Have Been Leased to the Railroads la an Outrageous Scandal. Under the imperial system which has resulted from the late Spanish-Ameri-can war, the functions of the war department haVe been vastly expanded, and the secretary of war is practically viceroy of the colonies. The most important scandals In the war department relate to its policy in the Philippines and the Panama canal zone. At the last session of congress, upon the suggestion of Secretary Taft, a bill was passed providing for the purchase of certain Spanish claims on the Island of Batan in the Philippine archipelago, upon the pretext of securing for the government of the United States complete control of that island and its Immense coal deposits. Wo paid $50,000 for those claims, which Were indefensible according' to the department of justice, and we got undisputed title to the coal deposits. According to Chairman Cooper of the house committee on insular affairs, “We paid the money in order that somebody might get . the coat” (See

June 1006, page 8095.) But two weeks after congress had passed this bill another bill, prepared at the war department, was introduced, which provided for leasing these coal lands for fifty years to some- 4 body without any compensation in the nature of royalty to the government The bill and the debate on it will be found in the Congressional Record at pages 8094 to 8098. In the debate It was shown that these lands were worth at least $100,000,000. These lands were to be practically given away to somebody, some private corporation—the American coal trust If the secretary of war had been the agent of the coal trust in the management of this affair he could not have done more in the interest of that monopoly than he did by urging the passage of that bill. Fortunately the secretary’s bill was defeated in consequence of a strong opposition by Champ Clark of Missouri. “Not long ago,’’ said Mr. Clark, “we voted an appropriation of $50,000 to secure the shadowy rights of somebody to a passageway to these very identical lands in order that we might have a certainty of having coal over there. Now the committee comes in and proposes to lease the land for fifty years to anybody who bids the highest. That’s the theory, but of course everybody knows who it is that is going to get the lease for fifty years. It is true that they put into this contract the clause that they must keep on hand coal enough for our uses and the uses of the Philippine government, but suppose they do not keep it on hand, and suppose that we suddenly get Into a foreign war and find ourselves in the Philippine Islands without any coal? We would be in a most unfortunate and disastrous condition. Inasmuch as we have these coal lands and have paid for them I am in favor of the United States government fixing up a mine of Its own over there, so that nobody can get a ton of coal out of that island except ourselves for our own purposes.” The Taft proposition was so scandalous that even a Republican congress, refused to become a party to it. It was an attempt to rob the government by placing it at the mercy of the coal trust as to all coal needed for the navy in eastern waters. It was in line with the polley of the administration respecting the coal lands of the governmentment and those of the Indians in this country, as that policy was explained by Senator La Follette in his speech on the Five Civilized Tribes, delivered in the senate March 26, 190®, when it was shown that the coal lands belonging to the Indians were worth at least $175,000,000, comprising 437,734 acres, of which 104,000 acres had already been leased to railroads and the remainder of which would have been brought under railroad control by the passage of the bill relating to the allotment of Indian lands as it tfrsn stood, the interior department having made the leases already in existence and approved the bill which would result in the lease of the remainder to private corporations.