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About The Sunday Oregonian. (Portland, Ore.) 1881-current | View Entire Issue (Oct. 25, 1914)
10 - . - THE SUNDAY OREGONIAN, PORTLAND, OCTOBER 25, 1914. R. A. BOOTH AND GOVERNOR WEST MEET IN JOINT DEBATE "Word for word and without inter-1 lineatlons the complete stenographic report of the debate between Robert A. Booth and Governor Oswald West on the question of the former's fitness to be United States Senator is here with given. The stenographers who reported the meeting were chosen by representa-i tives of the two sides of the debate. The parenthetical references to ap Dlause. interruptions, questions and the like are as transcribed by the stenog raphers. Nothing has been eliminated from the proceedings except the intro ductory remarks of Chairman Sabin and the report of the confusion in spired by the impatience of the audi ence over the delay in the commence ment of the debate. Booth Replies With Details. The debate was the outcome of a aeries of events which began with a demand published by an Albany news paper that Mr. Booth explain where he got his wealth. Mr. Booth accepted that challenge and in a lengthy address in Albany told the entire history of his life from the early struggles of youth until his retirement from active business with a competence. He gave minute details as to the origin and ac quirement of the Booth-Kelly timber holdings. He showed that prior to Its acquire ment the great bulk of the Booth Kelly timber land had been accu mulated for the operation of its mill ing properties from Individuals or com panies In whom the Government's title had previously been confirmed; that less than one-tenth of 1 per cent of the company's holdings, or less than one acre In each 1000, had ever been questioned as to title and that con cerning the one-tenth of 1 per cent the questions at Issue were still in litiga tion. ' Thereafter the Democratic press cen tered Its attacks on Mr. Booth on the basis of the litigated one acre In 1000. Evidence adduced by the Government was quoted from the records In an ef fort to prove fraudulent transactions, but the evidence of the defense was Ignored. The opinion of the Court of Appeals was quoted time and again, but not the opinion of the court that heard the testimony, which was In better position to determine the cred ibility of witnesses and held differ ently. Governor West, In political speeches, also turned upon Mr. Booth, but con fined his charges to Insinuations and generalities. He professed to be possessed of certain information, and declared that unless The Oregonian ceaBed its criticism of him (West) he would disclose all he knew about Mr. Booth. The Oregonian challenged him to produce his evidence. West Vnable to Check Follower. Thereafter Mr. West delivered a speech In Portland, again confining his remarks largely to generalities and to transactions for which he offered his own unsupported word. . This address brought forth from Mr. Booth a chal lenge to appear with him on the same platform, that he might have oppor tunity to reply. After a period of ne gotiations the challenge was accepted and the men met at the Baker Thea ter building, at Eleventh and Morrison, Friday evening before an audience that packed the auditorium. The audience was composed, it Is evi dent from the stenographic report, of confirmed partisans of the two men. It was at times uproarious. On occa sions men, in the audience shouted in sults and Impudent remarks at each speaker. Mr. Booth, It appears from the report, was able to restrain his followers. At the beginning of the Governor's address the speaker was so seriously Interrupted by ribald com ment that Mr. Booth advanced to the front of the stage and pleaded for fair treatment. Thereafter the interrup tions were Infrequent and confined to few. During the first half hour, which was given to Mr. Booth, the audience was In the main respectful and quiet. except for well-ordered applause. Dur lng the last half hour, following Gov ernor West's address and devoted by Mr. Booth to an answer to Mr. West's charges of the evening, there was scant courtesy offered the speaker by the West partisans. When Governor West's one hour had expired he had stated that there were other matters that he would have liked to present had he had the opportunity. Thereupon Mr. Booth had arisen and had corteously proposed that Governor West be given an extension of time. This was with the proviso that Mr. Booth be allowed an eaual extension of time and a similar opportunity to pre sent his side. Fair Flay Refused Mr. Booth. Governor West had referred this proposition to the audience and It had been greeted with cheers and cries of assent. Tet from the beginning of Mr. Booth's rejoinder he was continually Interrupted by uproar. The Governor himself, although he endeavored to do so, could not induce his followers to give Mr. Booth respectful hearing or permit others to listen to what he bad to say. Appeals from Governor West and from Chairman Sabln and frequent pro tests from Mr.. Booth, as detailed In the stenographic report, failed to arouse a spirit of American , fair play. Governor West had had his Innings, and a noisy element in the audience .was determined that Mr. Booth should not be given an opportunity to answer. In the first half hour, which was alloted to Mr. Booth, the speaker took up the question of Governor West's veracity, on the presumption that in some of the matters at issue there would be but the word of one man against the word of the other. He en deavored to show that the Governor -had frequently falsified, and that his statements were not to be believed un less supported by the evidence of others. He charged that Mr. West had been a Burns detective during the land fraud investigations. He read from Mr. West's reports to Burns to show that Mr. west had engaged in the practice of Jury packing. He took up numerous statements theretofore made by the Governor and demonstrated their falsity. Same Old Charges Hurled. The Governor's charges uttered In hi" address, which consumed something over an hour, were largely confined to v a discussion of the same old one-tenth of one per cent, pr the one acre in a thousand now In litigation, charges which had been published and repub llshed by the Democratic press. The much-vaunted .new charges and ex elusive Information as to the unfitness of Mr. Booth were not forthcoming. Mr. West read, as is disclosed by the stenographic report, copious extracts from a lawyer's brief. Those familiar with court procedure of course know that a brief is a written argument, not sworn testimony, although it may at times contain extracts from the testi mony in the trial. Whether there were persons In the audience who accepted the extracts from these arguments as evidence, or whether, they were ap plauded and acclaimed through mere partisanship cannot be known. Mr. West also read from testimony in the suft involving the few timber claims at issue and from the opinion of the trial eourt, and the opinion of the Circut Court of Appeals. This tes timony had been given by a daughter of a relative of Mr. Booth's who had filed on a timber claim, and dealt with things she said she had heard her mother say. The Governor also read extracts from the testimony of one RECORDS CONTRADICT GOV- ERAOR. Governor West had charged that Mr. Booth was interested in the sales of certain lands by a lottery scheme to factory girls and other poor persons in the East to whom misrepresentations had been made as to the charac ter of the land.-- Mr. Booth invited attention to public records which showed that the lands in question had been sold to Minneapolis men. who conveyed them to an Arizona corporation, which transferred them to a Kansas City concern, which placed them on the market and that neither Mr. Booth nor his company had ever had any interest in them after the orig inal sale. Jordan, a former mill employe who had also taken a claim. In both Instances the testimony dealt with the charge that the Booth-Kelly Company had in duced the entrymen to take up the claims, had advanced the necessary money and had paid each $100; that the entrymeri, in short, were mere dum mies. Booth Replies With Evidence. In rejoinder, Mr. Booth calked atten tion to the fact that at the same trial testimony was given by seven wit nesses contradicting the one woman witness quoted by Governor West, and that the man Jordan had mentioned R. A. Booth but once in his testimony, and on that occasion he swore that R. A. Booth had had nothing to do with the deal or transaction. As Indicated in the stenographic re port, Mr. Booth's reply was delivered under great difficulties purposely erected by West partisans in an effort to prevent him from answering the charges. Nevertheless it appears that he got his reply Into the stenographic record in full, even If he did not get to all in the audience. The complete report of the debate follows: Mr. Booth's Opening Mr. Booth said: Ladies and gentlemen, I am not here for applause. All that I ask for, expect or am entitled to is a fair hearing from open-minded voters, and I beg every friend to cease from applause that we may hurry this thing along. and ask the chairman that, in case there is"ny disturbance, it shall not be deducted from the time of either speaker. I take it that everyone in this presence understands that I am not here simply in my own defense as a private citizen or to attempt even to defend a good name, if I have such, but I am here because I am the nominee of the Republican party for the United States Senate, seeking to represent the people of Oregon in the United States Senate because 70,000 people in this state gave me their votes at the pri mary more votes than was cast for any other candidate in any party for any office. What I owe to them and to all people who are inclined to give me their support, I desire to now pay to the utmost farthing that my state may be fairly represented in the Na tional halls of Congress by the ma jority party of "the state, and that I will do, unless I am proven unworthy by the Governor of this state or some of his supporters. If I am unworthy. if there is anyone better qualified. then it is to my interest as well as yours that they represent you, and I shall have no quarrel with you If you vote for them. But what I want to impress upon you is this: If the charges that have been made against me are true, then possibly you will decide to vote against me. I under stand, however, full well that this is merely a sideshow to a Senatorial cam paign to divert the attention of the people from the real issues, and that possibly it is unwise to heed it; but, as I said before, I want you to know what part I have had in developing the industries of this state and how the accumulation of what I and my associates have came about. But I want to call to your attention some thing of the type of the man who has accused me. If he has done it in good faith, well and good. Whether or not he has, it is up to the people of Ore gon to decide. Let me review a little bit of some of the hounding that he and other men like him have given some of the best citizens that ever blessed this Btate. Just a word about it. You know that the question of my Integrity and the accumulation of the timber lands of the company came about through the prosecution of this Government, represented by Francis J. Heney and Mr. Burns. With these men. whom every citizen in this state now knows, and that are known from the east to the west of this country, Mr. West was associated. The evidence take from the brief that was furnished in the Jones' case to the President when he asked for a pardon. "When It was decided to stuff the Jury-box in the land-fraud cases and names were submitted every man was investigated before his name went into the box, and the man had to be known as a convictor before his name went in. "August 2, 1905, Mr. West received a telegram to go to the Federal build Ing in Portland, and immediately thereafter to" become a Burns detec tive investigating .men. learning their views on conviction and traveling in several counties. Mr. West has acted as a Burns detective for two weeks, at which time, August 17th, Burns tel egraphed to Washington: 'Jury com missioner cleaned out the old box from which trial Jurors are selected, and put 600 new names, every one of which was investigated before they were placed in the box.' " Wtat a Detective for Barns. Mr. West's reports are on file at Washington, together with his vouch ers for his expenses in traveling. They are the documentary proof that he was engaged in stacking the jury box.' Here is West's report on D. E. Swank, of Marion County, and is fair sample: "A pretty good old man straight Populist and Socialist; has been a rank reformer in his time, but now believes that through graft and monopoly everything has gone to hell and it is too late to save the country. (Laughter.) He is one who would be in for convicting anybody, especially if he were a Republican politician." And his name went in the box. (Applause.) Another sample report from Mr. West on Walter Lowe: "He is a sup-' porter of Ed Croisan; he is a strong anti-Mitchell man. In talking" that occurred on November 9. and, remem ber, this box was not filled until the 17th "about Hermann he said, 'I hope they send him to hell; I am glad they got Mitchell. ' " This man's name went also In the box. Mr. West made reports on men. calling them good, and reports of Mr. Burns on the same men said: "These merv would convict Christ." Were these the kind of men Mr. West considered good and would be Impartial on a Jury? The evidence is clear that Mr. West was a Burns detective, acting through political motives; the same Burns who traced me from ocean to ocean, who shadowed me in my home, who traced me around this city; he is the same man who has traced other men, among them Samuel Gompers, until he was in dicted, tried and acquitted, as I; yet, this is the type of man who has ac cused me that was a party In that prosecution. (Applause). West Returns Money. ' Mr. West collected, according to the records, $365.20 mileage ' and witness fees from the Government, January, 1910, claiming mileage from Washing ton to Portland and return, when he was served with papers in Portland. When he was called a grafter by the Federal officers for making an affi davit to collect this money he later re turned $350.20 Into the State Treasury. For the same trip to Washington he collected, according to the records, $253 from the State of Oregon for his ex penses. Campaign literature furnished to West when he was Governor was folded by the convicts in the penitentiary in stead of given to free labor, as other men had to do. And this man, of high moral purposes, and supposed to be fair minded, representing, or misrepresent ing, this state, for some cause vetoed the morals court bill, recommended by the Portland Vice Commission. Why was it? I leave It to you to answer. But it is this man, with this type of character, with these things staring him in the face, and the records where anybody can see them, that is making, the charges against me and other men in this state. What were the charges? According to the stenographic reports in the Port land Journal he charged that we com menced business with a little plant and a tew trees; that the fortune was based upon the purchase of 17,000 acres of railroad land, gotten by corrupt practice, in league with corrupt offi cials, who were taken Into our com pany, and discharged by their superior officers; that a railroad was built into the timber under our control, and that we had secret rates. We never could have built up a trade on that sort of a thing. He said that others could not buy or operate on this line. Evidence Not Offered. By political manipulation, he says that we acquired land in the Klamath Indian reservation; that I robbed widows, working . girls and servant girls by selling lands through lottery schemes; that I am a tax dodger, and prevented the passage of bills that would have Increased the tax on tim ber; that I robbed my relatives, whom he refers to as weak-minded mountain people (laughter); and further, he re fers to charges and the trial of my brother, and-, says that I was indicted. So I was, by the process and by the methods of that type of man. But he does not say, like a man, that I was the only man who pleaded for a trial. Seventeen times my lawyers went asking a trial. For four years It was held over my head, because they would not come up with the evidence, and give me a chance. He does not say that I am the only one that did not put In a dilatory plea; he does not say that we did not put a witness on the stand; he does not say that the Jury id "not guilty" on the first ballot. (Applause and cheers). Please let's not have applause! What we want is the cold facts. Now, men, this is the sort of thing I have been up against. If I had been guilty, if there had been a line of evi dence against me, with Governor West and men like him bounding me, I would not be here to tell the story to night, and you know it. (Applause). Fncta Are Pointed Ont. Now, what are the facts? (A cry of Hurrah for. West.) (Laughter). v Mr. Booth: Just a word. If I prove untrue a single charge that he has made, then according to all fair evi dence he is discredited in all. If I prove two of ahem false, then the evi dence against him multiplies, and so on through the case. Where did we commence with this little patch of timber? The record is here, and I want ..o say that the proof of every sentence that I shall utter s here in documents that I will not have time to show you. Just this thing, however: That little patch of timber was purchased by peo pie other than ourselves. We got it by the assignment of contracts. We have worked it 10 years and there is seven years yet there to cut. That was the beginning of our operations. It is the sworn testimony of myself in the three- ten rate case before the Interstate Com merce Commission and in the records given here in this city in the -innocent purchasers bill, and if Mr. West did not know it, it is his own fault; it is a public record and I believe he did know it. But he charges, secondly, that the fortunes of the Booth-Kelly Lumber Company were founded on the purchase of a tract of timber of about 17,000 acres. (The speaker here produced a map. to wnica be referred). Land Contracts Produced The yellow here represents that tim ber. The green was timber that we did not own. This is the railroad to which he refers; that, he says, was built under connivance with the rail road officials. This is Eugene (lndi eating) and here Is where our mill is situated. Here are the other mills. He says we owned all the timber; that others could not operate, and there has been nothing else doing there in that country. Listen, men. This is- all timber belt, except the little valley where the rail road runs. Did we connive with the Oregon officials who were afterwards discharged? Here la the fact: The lands were bought of the vice-president of the Oregon & California Railroad; and also of the Southern Pacific Company, in conjunction with C. P. Huntington, its president. The contracts are here if you want to read them. . We bought it, he says, never paying a dollar of the principal and only the interest after the timber was cut. Out of that and from that we have paid to the laboring men of Oregon $10,000,000, operated for 10 years, and there is 10 years yet to cut. ; We never had any interest in that road, except we gave the right of way for it and the ties. We never had a secret rate, and as a Railroad Com missioner he knew that, or could have known it. We never had the contract delivered to us until simultaneously with it we had to agree to operate and to ship 2500 carloads of timber over that road the first year. Does -anybody else there operate?1! Let's see. He says not. But there are nine mills on that railroad other than ours. In every sentence that he uttered, whether as to connivance with Oregon officials, whether as to construction of the road or secret rates, or the pay ment of that, he falsified and could have known it if he desired; and had he been a man he would Have known It. And furthermore, since the facts are as I state, I offer now to pay his way. or any man who desires to go in this audience, to see whether this timber is all cut. and what the facts are. Every dollar of it was paid within a little over five years by the mortgag ing of the premises and every state ment that he uttered in reference to it is absolutely false. (Applause). He says that I was In connivance perhaps that Is not the direct state ment; I leave Jt to you to judge that I was in connivance politically with the men. Senator Mitchell. Sen ator Fulton and others, that enabled us to buy these lands: and that I was in the Legislature at the time. These lands were purchased some years, near ly two years after we had commenced operations, and then they were pur chased two years before I was in the DETECTIVE OSWALD WEST. Mr. Booth charges that Gover nor West was a Burns detective preliminary to the land fraud trials prosecuted by Francis J. Heney and was engaged In Jury packing. This is a characteristic West report on a prospective juror: "A pretty good old man, straight. Populist and Socialist; has been- a rank reformer In his time but now believes that through graft and monopoly everything has gone to hell and it is too late to save the country. He is one who -would be In for convicting anybody, especially If he were a Republican politician." It was with names of such in vestigated persons that the Jury box was filled in the Jones case. Legislature, two years before Senator Mitchell was elected and four years be fore Senator Fulton was elected. Did he state a truth? I leave It to you. And if he did not state It In these cases. Is it credible to believe that he stated It In any? He says something about school lands. There were no school lands va cant then when we purchased this. We got the school sections in that terri tory on that map from Governor Bliss, of Michigan. Charge Goes Back to Boyhood. He says that we were active in scrip ping. Let me tell .you this: That the lands that I have shown you were near the raiiroad; they were the frontage, and the even sections there had been taken. Why don't he tell you what he might have known, that more than four-fifyis of all the lands that either company that I represented or was ever associated with, ever had, the title to four-fifths of them had passed from th Governor when I was a boy of 6 or 8 yearE old. He coutd have as well said that I was in league with the Al mighty to make Adam, that he might have gone down to this generation that might get these lands. (Applause and cheers.) He said that I had my brother ap pointed to the land office that these tilings might be done. They were ac quired before my brother was in the land office, and if he is a man unfit for this position why did Governor West appoint him, at his own solicita tion, as a member of the State Agri cultural Society? He said furthermore about these lands that we had gotten in connivance with the Government, that the officials or with politicians in the Klamath In dian Reservation, that we had robbed the children. Listen to me. The title to those lands, extending from Eugene to Idaho, passed from the Government, In 1864, under a Democratic President, by the request of a Democrat, ex-Mayor Pond, of San Francisco, and the presi dent of a large banking concern, and the titles to those lands were adjudi cated by the -Supreme Court of the United States. Could there have been any connivance? Citizens Appraise Lnnds. But listen to this: When we bought them 111,383 acres lying within the Klamath Indian Reservation was in litigation. We made a contingent price. The company who owned them- was to carry this through the Supreme Court; where it was then lodged. They did. The company won, and then- it was that the United States Government had lands allotted lo Indians; 21,000 acres of them that belonged, not to the Government, but to this road company that had acquired title in 1S64. What did I do then? I went to the Govern ment to ask them what they desired us to do, and they said by act of Con gress (I have it here before me on this table, and we ask you all to see it) that the Secretary of the Interior be authorized and. instructed to classify these lands and ascertain at what price in cash we would sell them or upon what basis we would exchange them for other lands. They were examined and classified, and here is what occurred: A representative of the Government and a representative of our company' went over the land. We classified them into 16 different classes. We went then to the representative men in Klamath County, asking them to appraise them, and they were appraised by eight dif ferent men, including merchants and bankers and the Assessor, and then we made this proposition to the Govern ment Proposition In Shown. . I will only read part of It, but I will leave it here for you all: "The lands of this company therein whereto its title is settled by the afore said decision of the Supreme Court comprises about 11,000 acres of odd numbered sections. To determine I fair and proper price therefor as of present time the company recently caused the land to be examined, tract by tract," and so on, and made a re port, which follows here. It shows a total acreage of 111,383; an average valuation by the eight people of Kla math County of $8.11. But we said to the Government (I wish I might read this all. but the time is slipping by rapidly.) Instead of asking them $8.11 we said we were willing to take $7.50, or this and I ask you to hear it: "Or we will exchange them for an equal area of equal value, and if we cannot determine this by our representatives we willjio It by any sort of a board se lected in any manner that is fair. They sought to exchange lands with us rather than to pay the cash, and that we did. We offered to exchange these lands for others within the reserva tion and for a lesser sum. Commissioner Praises work. These appraisements, men and wo men, did not Include the two-story white houses, many of them, that were on those premises, and owned by the Indians; they included none of the Ira provements; we excluded them alto gether, and then we said to the Gov ernment, "We will take 87,000 acres." And what occurred? When this agree ment was made I went to the Interior Department. Mr. Hitchcock was the Secretary and I was under indictment. Is there anybody here that thinks he gave me the best of the trade, or that I could Impose upon him? Listen to what happened. When the trade was agreed to, at his siirg-Rtinn thn hill th n t HithfiTixH thin was to be written in his presence, ap proved by him before it was ever, in troduced. It was Introduced," referred to the Interior Department, by them to Mr. Leupp, Commissioner of Indian Af fairs, by him recommended, - recom mended by Mr. Hitchcock, Secretary of the Interior, and passed, and then it ivas after it was all done that I have from them this letter. This is from the Commissioner of Indian Affairs. Mr. Leupp: 1 am gratified, also, as I always am vhen the tracks can be cleared of accumulated obstacles to the progress of another Indian tribe; and I think that the way this matter was settled will help the Klamaths to get their minds into a better frame with regard to their local industries. I am sure that it couid not have been so satis factorily arranged if your company had not shown a broad spirit In deal ing with the situation and meeting the Department halfway in the measures for adjustment." (Applause.) Records Contradict Aeruer, That is how we sold the land. Is there a word of truth in what he said? Absolutely none. These were matters of public record that any man might have known and that' I believe he did know. But with the same spirit that prompted him not to promote justice but to thwart it. he made that state ment, when the public records contra dict him. He said the remainder of it, 500,000 acres, or 400,000, or whatever It was, we sold to widows, and so on, by a lottery scheme. Listen here. We sold that land I have all of these documents here and I can pre sent them to you entirely we sold all of those lands to Harry Hunter, of Minneapolis, and one man. or two, who were associated with him. The con tract was written in this city by Ar thur L. Veazle, our attorney. Every payment that was made was covered by a receipt In his office, and I au thorize him now, and would have had him here had he been in town, and release any confidential relations that he may give to you the facts Just as they are. The contract was carried out precise ly, except where we granted a little extension, and I have here the record from our bookkeeper of every payment that was made. Mr. Hunter In his com pany took other men in partners, in a partnership, so he tells me. The rec ord shows that that company trans ferred them to a corporation formed In Arizona by the name of the Oregon Military Grant Road Company, and they to a Kansas City concern, the Ore gon Valley Land Company. They put them, on the market and sold them. We never had a cent interest beyond that contract. Mr. West could have known it if he had searched the rec ords, either at Portland or at Lake view and the counties through which they extended. If he- did not, he is at fault, and if the. facts I state In this, and in relation to other things, are true, Jie owes it to the people -of Ore gon to apologize, and if he is a man he will apologize to me. (Applause and cheers). Heavy Taxes Paid. He says that I am a tax-dodger. Here ate what the facts are. First, as to the legislative proceeding. There was a bill Introduced by a gentleman from Multnomah making a special act to as sess timber land. They say . that I killed it. My vote, with others, did, and I have no apology to offer for it, because I stand here as a fair-minded man to say that the timber is bearing its just proportion. Here is what has transpired: Since our company was organized we have paid over $304,00Q into the treasury of Lane County as taxes. And listen here. Since all of our lands were acquired and without the acquisition of another acre our taxes have increased under the present law seven-fold. Here Is the statement (exhibiting paper). I offer it to you all. And as to the lands on the other side of the mountains, we paid when we' got them $5000 taxes; now we pay $15,000, with only about a seventh of the land left. Am I a tax dodger? That Is the record. Our books were open to our assessor and there has never been cny complaint. Listen, then, Just to. this last state ment, but I must close, for my time is up, though I am not half through with the first charges that he made. I will attend to them a little later as rapidly : I can. Now. as to political manipulation. I never received a favor of the Commis sioner of the General Land Office or any Senator or any Congressman, and hear me when I tell you that I have never asked it, never wrote a letter that affected any title to a single acre of our land. Why did not Mr. West tell you that of all the lands, more than million acres that we have handled. more than 99 per cent of it, more than 95 per cent of it. had the title Initiated before our company was organized? I speak from the records. NAnd further more, men, never oias there been yet actual disposition and final disposition of an acre that we own, not an acre, and there never has been attacked more than five claims, less than one- tenth of 1 per cent of the lands that we have handled. So you see that we go up in the Royal Banking Powder's class, our Governor notwithstanding. (Applause.) Chairman Sabine: I have the honor to introduce the Governor of the State of Oregon, Mr. Oswald West, who has one hour. Governor West was greeted with ap plause and cheer.i. Governor West's Reply- Governor West said: My friends, this is a most important meeting, because serious charges have been made against Mr. Booth by me. If the charges that I make cannot be proven, then he has been done a great wrong. If the statements I make- to night can be proven, then the people of this state have been done a great wrong through Mr. Booth's presuming to be elected to the United States Sen atorship. Now, I am not going to take the time of the evening to answer soma of the charges that have been mad by Mr. Booth. I .am not running for the Senate. (There were cries from the audience of Answer them, mixed with hisses.) Governor West: Tomorrow evening I will be glad to tak e up any charges that - Mr. Booth has to make against me. (Cries of "Louder." "Do It now," and cheers.) Uproar Drowns Speaker's Words. Governor West: Now. friends I have one hour, which I am going to take in setting forth the charges against Mr. Booth. Mr. Booth has mentioned my naming his brother as a member of the State Board of Agriculture, which is true. His brother was named by Gov ernor Frank Benson, a man whom I highly honored; we were personal friends, and I was pleased to leave him In that position. Mr. Booth might have gone further and told you that when his brother Henry and himself were on trial I reached my hand out to them, the same as I have done to men in the penitentiary who have transgressed the law (applause and hisses) because I didn't want to see them convicted, and I went down (The speaker's voice was drowned by the uproar in the audience.) Governor West: He might have told you that I was on the witness stand (The speaker's voice was drowned by continuous uproar in the audience.) Mr. Booth: I would like to say a few words. Mr. Chairman. Chairman Sabin: You may. -Mr. Booth: I would like to ask every friend that I have in this audience to give the Governor a respectful bearing (cheering), and furthermore, if the time allotted him Is not sufficient I most cheerfully will grant a request that the chairman extend it Governor West: All I ask is an hour. Thank you. I would have told you that I went on the witness stand and I went out of my way to say good things about Mr. Booth and his brother. Governor Relates Incident. That reminds me of a little incident. There was a man In the prison who bad a good record while there; he had earned hjs credits, and when he asked me for a pardon It was given to him, a pardon that set forth his record and carried out to the people of the state the fact that he was a man that was trying to do good and asking the help of those with whom he might come in contact; and after a time word came back from an adjoining state that this man was being given a position as a guard on the walls of a prison in an other state: and I saw a picture of that man walking that wall with, his rifle, an emblem of authority, as It were, watching the men In the prison, and I thought I saw a prisoner ap proach him and say to him, "Brother, you are one of us; you are not of the eople on the outside; you are one 'of us; you have worn our stripes; you have eaten our food and you have walked to your cell to the time of the NOT TAX DODGER. Governor West had charged Mr. Booth with being a tax dodger. Mr. Booth exhibited documents disclosing that taxes on the orig inal holdings of his company had Increased seven-fold; that the company had paid over $304,000 in taxes into the Treasury of Lane County; that its taxes on its Eastern Oregon lands are now three times what they were in the entire tract when acquired, while only one-seventh of them Is now owned by the company. lockstep; you have answered to the count. Now come, brother, give us the gun that we may break these unnat ural bounds and once more pray upon' the public" And my mind went to another pic ture, and I thought of the help that I had given Mr. Booth in his hour of trouble, and I thought of the goods things that I had said of him from time to time. I wished him the best in the world. But when the time that Mr. Booth, notwithstanding his transgres sions in the past, presumed to aspire to the office of United States Senator. then it was no longer a personal mat ter with me, no longer a matter of duty between me as an Individual and Mr. Booth and his brother, but it was a public duty: and I saw a picture of Mr. Booth armed with his commission, his emblem of authority, at his post of duty in Washington; on one hand was the people, on the other the interests, and among them the Kribbses and the Blodgets and the Jones and the other big timber operators, and I could see them coming to the Senator and say ing, "Brother, you are not of the people, you are one of us." (Applause). "You have walked with us through the mag nificent forests of Oregon. We have bought railroad lands together at a low price: we have taken advantage of the fact that we held the key to the situa tion, and we have made the humblt homesteaders give us claims that were worth $4000 and $5000 apiece for $50.0. We have taken unfortunate brothers and paid them a paltry sum to assist us in robbing the people of the state of Oregon of their birthright. Come, give us the power that you have and we will tear away these unnatural fet ters that are protecting the natural resources of this great Nation and we will once more roam in green pastures. We. the self-annomted. are the ones to care for these great resources, not the common herd. West Reads Indictment. r That Is the picture I saw. And I will tell you, my friends, it is my duty not only as a public official but as an in dividual to fight a man whose record of the past shows that there may be a spark of the old fire still flickering In his bosom which may be fanned to flame Ty the entreaties of his friends who would meet him In Washington in. the late hours of the night. (Applause, mixed with cheers of "Booth.") ow, ladles and gentlemen, I am here to make some charges against Mr. Booth, who is a candidate for the United States Senatorshlp. In the court of public opinion of the state of Oregon this is an indictment: Oswald West, plaintiff, versus R. A. Booth, defendant. R. A. Booth is accused in this indictment of having looted the public domain, proven unfaithful as a public official, and of being a pious fraud, as follows, to-wit" (Laughter): "That the said R. A. Booth has re sorted, to fraud, violated the laws of the land and betrayed his trust as public official in order to add to his timber holdings and his 'wealth; that be has ignored the laws of the state of Oregon and used his power of place to pray upon his less fortunate broth ers. has sought through monopoly to control natural resources, which are the birthright of all, and thus enabled the House of Booth to levy tribute upon generations to come; that he has borne false witness and caused others to commit perjury in order that he might retain ' such of his holdings as were gotten unlawfully; that he has for years been deceiving the brethren of his church In that he has led them to believe he was a Christian In spirit and truth when in tact he has merely used his religion as a cloak to cover his predatory activities. (Applause and cheers, with hisses.) "Dated at Portland. Multnomah County, Oregon, this 23d day of Octob er, 1914, and signed Oswald West." "Prove Them," Cries Voice. The witnesses are the records of the Federal Court and the records of the state of Oregon. A voice: Now prove them. Governor West: That is what I a here for. (Applause.) Now, my friends. Mr. Booth in his Albany speech said :"The title to al most the whole of our lands was se cured by the railroad company and settlers years before our company was even organized. The small fraction remaining was honestly acquired by purchase from owners who at their own instance initiated thelr title and per fected their rights. We never exploited the public domain by locating people thereon. Listen! "Ave never exploited the public domain by locating people thereon, as has frequently been charged against timber concerns." Don't forget that statement. "I wish specifically to state that we have never by any meth od wrongfully acquired title to an acre of land. No one knows this better than representatives of the Government who Investigated It. Now, my friends, I am going to read from a brief supplied by the Govern ment when the case in which Mi Booth's company was Interested went up to the United States Circuit Court of Appeals. Tne dcislon in that case was rendered by Judges Morrow. Ross and Gilbert. This, brief was prepared by united states Attorneys long at ter the time of Heney and Burns, by a man wno is a member of his own party, whose appointment was secured by many of Mr. Booth's friends and who never dreamed when he wrote the brief that Mr. Booth would be a Sen atorlal candidate. Now, I want you to remember this when we start in, that between Janu ary, 1902, and January, 19C3, J. H. Booth, Senator Booth's brother, was secretary of the company and Re ceiver of the United States Land Office at Roseburg. Or. Now Mr. Booth had some poor rela tions. One was named Alice LaRaut: one was named Stephone LaRaut. an other Lucy LaRaut and another Ethel LaRaut. (Laughter). These four rela tives took claims on what is known as Brumbaugh Creek, which I understand Is a branch of a river which runs Into one fork of the Willamette River, in the territory In which Booth has been op erating. The United States Attorney in his brief says. "Alice LaRaut, Ste phone LaRaut and Ethel LaRaut. took their clams under a prior agreement with Booth that they were to be paid $100 each for doing so, over and above the costs and expenses of the claims. Edward Jourdan entered his claim un der a similar agreement with John F. Kelly. In accordance with said prior agree ment all details of perfecting title were attended to by the defendant company and preliminary expenses were paid by it. the .applicants giving no attention whatever thereto. - Kelly's Part Questioned. "The company paid for publication and charged same to Its stumpage ac count. It made no charge therefor against the individuals. "All patents delivered to Frank A. Alley, November 9, 1904. at request of John F. Kelly." Remember that. Here are a number of people who have gone to the Land Office to file on timber land. Mr. Booth says not for him but for themselves. Now, remember when the patents were issued by the Federal Government that John F. Kelly goes into the Land Of fice. What business then did he bavn to go into the Land Office and say to the register and receiver, "Turn those patents over to the attorney for the Booth-Kelly Lumber Co"? And whac right did Mr. J. H. Booth, who was re ceiver of the Land Office, and Mr. Bridges, who was register of the Land Office, to comply with the request of Mr. Kelly? . "The company paid purchase price of land to Government and all fees and expenses upon final proof. In July, ' 1902. following the final proofs in May previous, each of the applicants exe cuted and delivered deeds for the land to the company or to R. A- Booth and each received from the company $100. "The Edward Jourdan deed was dat ed July 22, 1902, but was not recorded , until September 6, 1907." Remember that, during that time there were land fraud investigations. Deeds Later Destroyed. "The four deeds were not recorded but were retained until the latter part of 1904 or early In 1905, when the land fraud investigations and prosecutions in Oregon were in progress, when they were returned to the makers and des troyed. The LaRauts made other deeds in 1907. Lucy and Ethel were each paid $25 upon execution of the latter deeds. Three years after exe cuting their second deeds, when they were aoout to go to Canada, and agents of the Government were mak ing inquiry about their entries, and shortly before this suit was commenced, Stephen and Alice LaRaut were each paid $50 by the company. "The applicants and patentees never saw the land entered by them except when Brumbaugh took them to the land before the entries were made. They never made any effort to dis pose of them, never inquired the value thereof or the amount of timber there on or took any Interest whatever there in: never inquired as to the expense of the entries or whether taxes were being paid thereon, notwithstanding they were always in poor circumstan ces. Company Pays Coat, He Says. The - books of the company show that it assumed control and owner ship of these lands immediately after proofs, and charged itself with all expenses relating to these lands, begin-- ning with its cruise thereon up to the present, including .taxes. The stumpage account contained somewhere close to 150,000 acres. The total of . $301.03 above, made up of small Items of expense upon said claims, designated 'Brumbaugh Land Claims', was nowhere charged to the individuals but was carried into the stumpage account under the general item 'cruising' ." Now the cruising of the company on those claims shows that they averaged, the five claims I have mentioned, about 6.750.000 feet to the quarter section; the cruisings of the Government show that they averaged 8.530.000 feet. Now taking the two together they would average 7,500,000 feet. Figuring the stumpage at only fifty cents on the ground, these claims were worth $3,- 7a0.00 apiece: yet the poor relations were obliged to turn them over to the Booth-Kelly Lumber Company for $100 apiece. (Applause). Comment of Brief Quoted. Now it is said in the brief that, "It is believed a proper construction of the facts as shown by the circumstances and the acts of the parties, renders the pretended explanations of the de fendant and entrymen absolutely ab surd and untenable, and unerringly points to the truth of the allegations in complainant's bill of complaint, and fully justifies and demands a cancella tion of all the patents Involved In the suit." Now, before the claims In controver sy were filed upon the Booth-Kelly Lumber Company had the lands cruised, together with other lands in the vicin ity, and was then and had been for a year prior thereto engaged in purchas ing timber lands in that vicinity. "Title was immediately taken to the Dunbar. Roche, Brumbaugh and Jor dan claims. Dunbar and Roche were employes in the Booth-Kelly Lumber Company. They filed on lands in the same locality and were paid $100 apiece at the same time. But later on, when the Government Investigations were on and the Booth-Kelly Lumber Company needed the testimony of Mr. Dunbar and Mr. Roche to square ac counts with the Government, they were given about $800 more apiece. That was a number of years afterwards. ' Conversation Is Reported. "That Alice and Stephen LaRaut en tered the land in behalf of tha defend ant company through an arrangement with R. A Booth is shown by the fact that the matter was the subject of family conversation, as related by the witness, Mrs. Applestone. she was a daughter of one of the LaRauts, Mrs. LaRaut "which occurred about the time the entries were made or Imme diately prior thereto. These conversa tions gave the amount to be received by the entrymen as $100 each, for the services in making the entry on behalf of the company. The books of the com pany show that these parties did, sub-, sequently, actually receive the sum of $100 within a fewweeks after they had made proof, and thereupon deeds conveying the absolute title to the com pany mere made. Now in reference to this Jordan claim of which I speak, the United States Attorney said in ar guing the case, "To submit argument to show that the Jordan entry was fraudulent would be like arguing that It is day when the sun is shining." "The land embraced in the several entries would not in such case be car ried into the general invoice account of land owned by the company, but would be kept separately in the ac count of each Individual." Loan Is Questioned. - If Mr. Booth had done as he says he had done, loaned these people $100, when these land frauds came on as stated In this Government attorney's brief, without a consciousness of wrong aolhg, thpse deeds would not have been oestroyed in December, 1904. or In Jan uary, 1905, when the land fraud prose- I t