INVESTIGATION OF INDIAN BUREAU. COMMITTEE ON EXPENDITURES IN THE The committee met at 10.30 o'clock a. m., Hon. James M. Graham (chairman) presiding. Present: Representatives George, Hensley, Mondell, Hanna, and Burke. The CHAIRMAN. The committee will please come to order. Gentlemen of the committee, I believe each one of you had a copy of a certain paper containing charges directed against the Commissioner of the Indian Bureau. The commissioner also had a copy of that paper. I suppose it is unnecessary, under those circumstances, to read it. Mr. MONDELL. Is it your idea to have that put in the record, Mr. Chairman? The CHAIRMAN. It ought to go in the record at this stage. The clerk will place in the files of the committee the paper filed with it. by Mr. Herbert J. Browne. Does any gentleman desire the reading of it? The Chair thinks it unnecessary to read it at this time. In the absence of an objection, the reading of it will be dispensed with. Mr. MONDELL. No; I do not think there is any necessity for reading it. Mr. BURKE. Will that apear in the hearings? The CHAIRMAN. It will be a part of to-day's record. To the CHAIRMAN COMMITTEE ON INVESTIGATION EXPENDITURES INTERIOR DEPARTMENT, House of Representatives, Washington, D. C. SIR: I request an investigation by your honorable committee into the conduct of R. G. Valentine, Commissioner of Indian Affairs, in certain matters prejudicial to public interests and the interests of the Indians. I charge Commissioner Valentine with instigating secretly attacks on an official of his own bureau, such instigation being against the interests of good service and tending to destroy discipline and efficient conduct of important affairs. I charge Commissioner Valentine with responsibility for willfully creating conditions which led to the suspension and removal from the Indian Service on baseless charges of Joseph R. Farr, general superintendent of logging. I charge Commissioner Valentine with responsibility for inviting bids for the sale of standing timber on the Jicarilla and Fort Apache Indian Reserva tions without issuing therewith proper preliminary and detailed estimates of quantities, the bids being called under regulations of such character as to make the prospective logging operations uncertain and open to fraud of the grossest character. I charge Commissioner Valentine with retaining in the service and promoting to a higher position an official against whom charges of drunkenness and other misconduct have been made and fully proven. I charge Commissioner Valentine with being a party to a gross violation of the law against the introduction of intoxicating liquor on an Indian reservation. These various charges I support by official documents, letters, copies of letters, affidavits, and references to record and documents, and furnish names of witnesses to be summoned in support of the charges. In support of the charge that Mr. Valentine instigated secret attacks on an official of his own bureau, calculated to destroy the efficient conduct of important affairs of the Indian Service, I submit the following documents, marked Exhibit A: Copy, note to Gonser (chief clerk Indian Bureau) November 23, (1908), signed R. G. V. Copy, letter from Supt. S. W. Campbell, La Pointe Indian Agency, to R. G. Valentine, December 1, 1908, containing reference to and extract from Valentine's letter of October 23, 1908. Copy, Supt. Campbell's letter to Valentine, December 5, 1908. Copy, letter of Assistant Forester Overton W. Price to Commissioner of Indian Affairs, instigated by Valentine and based on and following in detail the material of the Campbell letters. Copies, extracts from from letters of Valentine to James A. Carroll, in charge of investigation of Menominee situation, dated October 7, 14, 17, 1909. In proof of the charge that Mr. Valentine willfully created a condition which led to the suspension and removal from the service on baseless charges, of Joseph R. Farr, general superintendent of logging, I submit a voluminous record, beginning with the letter of Secretary Fisher to Mr. Farr, dated April 20, 1911, containing the essential correspondence, and Mr. Farr's defense, marked "Exhibits B, C, D, E." Under Exhibit D particular attention is called to the significant letter of Assistant Commissioner Abbott to Commissioner Valentine, exonerating and sustaining Mr. Farr, under date of April 17, 1911, on the very matter on which Farr was suspended and later discharged. Also, under Exhibit D, a letter of warm commendation of Farr from former Indian Commissioner W. A. Jones to Secretary Fisher. Attention is especially directed to material in Exhibit E. Mr. Farr heard rumors of the existence of the Carroll letters shown in Exhibit A, and wrote Mr. Valentine under date of October 25, 1909, asking the fullest investigation of his actions, for the good of the service. Mr. Farr was immediately telegraphed to come to Washington, where he was assured that his standing with the office was entirely satisfactory, and that there were no charges against him. This official attitude contradicted by Commissioner Valentine's "personal" letters, is borne out by the commissioner's letter to Farr of June 9, 1910, and the fact that Farr was continued in his position, his pay increased, and his responsibiliies added to. Mr. Farr's increase of compensation took the form of increased allowances for expenses, traveling and, per diem, under date of October 16, 1910, and April 1, 1911. The correspondence included in Exhibit B, and Mr. Farr's detailed answers to the charges of Commissioner Valentine prove that Mr. Farr acted with discretion and to the best interests of the service; that Commissioner Valentine issued orders to Farr not compatible with the interests of the service, nor possible of being fully carried out in the time specified, and that they so conflicted in separate parts with each other and with Mr. Farr's duties as general superintendent of logging, that he would inevitably be impaled on one or more horns of the several dilemmas of failing to carry out instructions, disobeying orders, or neglecting important general duties. The character of the instructions to Mr. Farr, the coincidence of the sudden uncovering for the first time of an open attack on Mr. Farr with the incoming of a new Secretary of the Interior and the demand for Mr. Farr's resignation, to be accepted "if transmitted by wire," without a hearing, need careful investigation. In proof of the charges that Commissioner Valentine is responsible for inviting bids for the sale of standing timber on the Jicarilla and Fort Apache Indian Reservations without issuing therewith proper preliminary and detailed estimates of quantities, the invitation for bids being under such regulations as to make prospective logging operations uncertain and open to fraud of the grossest character, I submit certain documents marked Exhibit F and G. Exhibit F includes the form for bids and specifications for the timber on Jicarilla, and the form for bids and specifications for the timber on the Sitgreaves Apache and Fort Apache Reservations, the latter being coupled. 1 further submit the Regulations and Instructions for Officers in Charge of Forests on Indian Reservations, issued June 29, 1911.' I claim that an expert examination of the aforesaid specifications in conjunction with the aforesaid regulations and instructions, coupled with the general conditions of the advertisements and the facts leading up thereto will prove that the whole proposition was so handled as to tend to deter legitimate timber interests from competing, and on the other hand offering temptations for a successful bidder to perpetrate fraud in cutting and scaling, by manipulating inspectors and scalers, and by utilizing the numerous devices which have in years past robbed the Government and the Indians of millions of dollars' worth of timber. The estimates of timber quantities on these reservations were set forth in the proposals for bids in lump quantities and not by forties, and prospective bidders thereby lacked the first essential for intelligent bidding. Since considerable railroad building is necessary there should also have been furnished contour maps and such other information as to conditions which was available to the Indian Office to encourage and stimulate competition. Nor was information made available to show the possibility of future operations in the same territory. Again, while the Jicarilla bids were to close at 12 noon, February 1, 1912, at the Indian Office, they were not, as should be the case, to be opened immediately, but at 2 o'clock p. m. of that day, which again opened the door for trickery and manipulation by a device stale with age and reeking with iniquity. In proof of what is now a standard of proper timber cruising and a proper system of publishing, coupled with sound and practicable regulations, safeguarding public interests, I offer under "Exhibit G" the rules and regulations for the sale of timber on the ceded Chippewa pine lands of Minnesota September 15, 1910, and the still better rules and regulations for the sale of further areas of timber on the ceded Chippewa pine lands of October 21, 1911. Investigation will show that the inclusion or exclusion of a single regulation may change the entire fabric of an operation in lumber. In proof of the charge that Commissioner Valentine has retained in the service and promoted to a higher position an official against whom charges of drunkenness and misconduct have been made and fully proven, I submit the name of James Y. Hamilton, superintendent of Standing Rock Agency, N. Dak., as the official in question, and certain letters and affidavits under Exhibit H. The letters and affidavits afford the names of further witnesses to the acts charged against Hamilton, and disclose the fact that the charges have been in the possession of Commissioner Valentine since July, 1911. Further evidence of Hamilton's drunkenness and immorality since his appointment as superintendent at Standing Rock, and as late as November, 1911. will be brought to the attention of the committee. The extent to which Commissioner Valentine has forced men of character and ability out of the service and preferred serviceable tools like Hamilton can only be disclosed by a searching investigation. The tool once used becomes in a sense the master, for he knows his employer's secret and ignominious course. In support of the charge that Commissioner Valentine was a party to a gross violation of law-the law against the introduction of or possession of liquor in or on an Indian reservation-I charge that, to the best of my knowledge and belief, Commissioner Valentine was, during the latter part of November. 1909, one of a party of oil men who entered the Osage Reservation in Oklahoma, and camped on the minor allotment of Green Yeargain, an Osage squawman, said party bringing in with them quantities of beer, whisky, and champagne; that Commissioner Valentine was a guest of this party for several days; that when he left the party, he took with him to the Osage agency two bottles of whisky, which whisky he left at the Agency in an old handbag. The principal members of the party were large shareholders and officials of the Indian Territory Illuminating Oil Co., successors to the Foster leases on 680,000 geres of Osage Indian oil lands, which company is an applicant for a renewal of said leases, and therefore occupies a position toward the Commissioner of Indian Affairs, demanding on his part the utmost care and circumspection. Members of the party were ex-State Senator Franchot, of New York. James S. Glenn, of Tulsa, implicated in the bribery of the Osage Council to the extent of $10.000, Clint Moore, of Osage Junction, Okla., Benjamin Mossman, of Tulsa, attorney for oil interests, formerly chief clerk at the Union Agency, and some 12 other men, to me unknown by name or otherwise. Apart from the members of the party are the following names of witnesses to the facts of Commissioner Valentine's presence in the party and the open possession of liquor: D. H. Kelsey, union agent for the Five Civilized Tribes; Hugh Pitzer, superintendent at Osage Agency; Wylie Haines, chief of police of the Osage Agency; Louis Batiste, an Osage half-breed, who was guide to the party, and Green Yeargain, the Osage on whose minor allotment the party camped. I have the honor to recommend a searching investigation of the Indian Office, and especially the conduct of the Commissioner of Indian Affairs by your honorable committee, and particularly urge that the Secretary of the Interior be requested to withhold his approval of any awards of contracts for the sale of timber on the Fort Apache Indian Reservation under bids closed January 25, 1912, and for the sale of timber on the Jicarilla Indian Reservation under bids closed February 1, 1912. I say to the committee, that my action in the premises is taken from a sense of public duty, and that I am ready and willing to aid your committee to the full extent of my ability and time in the further uncovering of the facts. HERBERT J. BROWNE. WASHINGTON, D. C., March 28, 1912. The CHAIRMAN. Gentlemen of the committee, Mr. Easby-Smith is present this morning, and I have laid before him the informal result of the committee's conference the other day; and Mr. EasbySmith, I believe, is willing to serve the committee without expecting pay from the committee. What is your pleasure with reference to that matter? Mr. GEORGE. I move, Mr. Chairman, that Mr. Easby-Smith be engaged as the attorney for the committee for this investigation. The CHAIRMAN. "Engaged" is, under the circumstances, perhaps a stronger word than would fit the occasion. Mr. GEORGE. Well, "invited" to act as the attorney. Mr. CALLOWAY. I second the motion. The CHAIRMAN. It has been moved and seconded that Mr. EasbySmith be invited to act for the committee in conducting this investigation. Mr. MONDELL. Mr. Chairman, I move to amend that by a motion. that the chair proceed with the investigation, securing such assistance in interrogating witnesses as may be necessary. Mr. BURKE. What does that contemplate? Mr. MONDELL. That contemplates carrying on or conducting the hearing by the chairman. Of course, it would not bar him from allowing other people to ask questions if he saw fit. My idea is that we should not recognize the right of some one outside of the committee to conduct the investigation. The CHAIRMAN. The chair would have put the motion of Mr. George so that it would, of course, include that-that he would do it, subject to the control and direction of the committee. Mr. Mondell moves as a substitute, really, that the investigation be conducted by the chairman, and that he be authorized to invite such assistance as he may see fit for the purpose of examining witnesses, and otherwise. Mr. GEORGE. Before the matter is put to a vote I should like to ask the chairman whether he discovers in the substitute anything that is material that is not covered by the original motion. If it would be a material help, I do not know why Mr. Mondell's substitute should not be accepted; and I really do not see where there is going to be any assistance in any other way than this. |