get legislation enacted at the earliest practicable date; otherwise, the Government will lose all of its royalties and the claimants will lose everything.

Mr. DYAR. What is the total acreage, or can you tell me, covered by the 45 Denson claims?

Mr. MACEY. Oh, I do not know. I looked them up in one township and it would be approximately 1,200 acres.

Mr. BURTNESS. Approximately how many?

Mr. MACEY. Twelve hundred. You see, there were 45 claimants and possibly 100— I do not know-locators. Most of the land is in the township to the west, the larger part of it.

Mr. BURTNESS. If each locator had about 20 acres it would be 20 acres times the number of locators; is that the idea?

Mr. MACEY. That would be the general idea. However, there is a claim marked here, I see, that has 5 acres, a single individual with one claim; another has 15 and another 18. There are very few full claims in these at all, because he located them by protracting the Government surveys across the river bed, and it is not a full quota for that reason.

The CHAIRMAN. Now, the only gentlemen we have remaining is the gentleman from Oklahoma and Senator Gore, who can not be here to-day. I told him we would try to accommodate him; he was called to New York.

STATEMENT OF HON. JAMES V. MCCLINTIC, A REPRESENTATIVE IN CONGRESS FROM THE STATE OF OKLAHOMA.

Mr. MCCLINTIC. Mr. Chairman, I wish to make just a short statement relative to this subject, before Judge Merritt speaks in behalf of the State of Oklahoma.

Mr. BURTNESS. You are not going to put the saw in Arkansas, are you? [Laughter.] Mr. MCCLINTIC. No; we are good friends of the Arkansas people.

Mr. LARSEN. I think he is rather inclined to saw the saw out of Arkansas-aren't you? [Laughter.]

Mr. MCCLINTIC. Mr. Chairman and gentlemen of the committee, this discussion has covered quite a wide latitude.

The CHAIRMAN. And longitude.

Mr. MCCLINTIC. And longitude-correct; and there are a good many contenders for the property in question.

The decision of the Supreme Court placed all of the oil wells in the bed of the Red River in the congressional district which I represent. I am interested in this controversy and I want to see justice done to every person who is entitled to receive the

same.

Some time ago, Congressman Carter, the ranking member of the Oklahoma delegation, introduced a joint resolution for the purpose of getting this tract of land in question turned over to the State of Oklahoma. Later, he sent a telegram to the land department of the State of Oklahoma, notifying them that this matter was coming up for a hearing, and Judge Merritt was sent here to present the views of the State of Oklahoma. I am hoping that we can present a compromise plan, or that we can act as kind of an intervenor in this discussion, so as to adjudicate this question in a way that will be fair to all and, at the same time, kill a number of birds with one stone. Mr. VAILE. Which of these birds are you referring to? [Laughter.]

Mr. MCCLINTIC. I will get to the subject in a few minutes. Some of you may not remember, but I formerly was a member of the Public Lands Committee. It has been my pleasure and my privilege to serve with the distinguished chairman, Mr. Raker, Mr. Smith, Mr. Hayden, and several others.

About six years ago the State of Oklahoma, through its delegation, came to this committee and presented a bill asking that Congress give authority to the United States Government to carry out the provisions of a grant known as the grant of 1862,

as amended in 1866, which provided that each new State coming into the Union, provided that it accept the terms of that grant, should be entitled to receive 30,000 acres of public land for each Representative in Congress. At that time, we had five Representatives and two Senators. Accordingly, we would have been entitled to receive 210,000 acres of public land. This committee authorized a hearing to be held on the subject; the matter was gone into thoroughly, and the subcommittee reported back to this committee that Oklahoma had not received the land due by reason of that act and a unanimous report was made by this committee to Congress in favor of the bill providing the relief asked for. The Secretary of the Interior, Mr. Lane, recommended that inasmuch as Oklahoma had no public lands, that the State should be reimbursed with money. The bill was put on the calendar but was never considered by Congress. We did not have any available public land, or a sufficient amount to satisfy our claim, therefore we rested on our oars, waiting and hoping that some day a situation would arise whereby we could satisfy our claim and then the United States Congress would be in a position to grant the desired relief.

Mr. DYAR. What was the date of that original act you speak of, which provides they should give in proportion to the number of representatives?

Mr. MCCLINTIC. The act of July 2, 1862, as amended by the act of July 23, 1866. Mr. BURTNESS. That act did not set over specific sections?

Mr. MCCLINTIC. No. Now, about the time we got our bill on the calendar, or soon thereafter, the war came on. We did not prosecute it any further; but a few months ago the Supreme Court of the United States handed down a decision in which they said, in substance, that the tract of public land, in the bed of Red River, lying within the borders of the State of Oklahoma, amounting to approximately 140,000 acres, was undisposed of land belonging to the United States.

Mr. BURTNESS. A very pleasant and agreeable gentleman has appeared before us who claims it lies within the borders of Arkansas.

Mr. MCCLINTIC. I hope you gentlemen who heard him will get the act and read the

same.

The CHAIRMAN. We were thinking of committing ourselves to him, but were not decided. [Laughter.]

Mr. MCCLINTIC. I know he is a fine gentleman, but he represents Arkansas, and I am following the Supreme Court, and there is the difference. Anyhow, this land is now available. The Secretary of the Interior, on passing upon the question, in substance, said the grant would be ineffectual unless some act of Congress was passed, and so I have prepared a bill which would give to the State of Oklahoma all of that land within the bed of Red River, in lieu of the 210,000 acres of land that the United States Government is due us.

I think it was given in the testimony-I may not be correct about that; if not, it was given to me by some one interested in this controversy-that these oil wells were now being pumped and that they were producing something like 6 to 10 barrels a day. The testimony has been given that the State of Texas is fast draining all of this territory by drilling wells adjacent to the Red River and the chances are, should the State of Oklahoma be given this land, that it will take us three or four years to get a sufficient amount of royalties to pay us anything like the value of the land we would have received had the same been agricultural land in the beginning. But it is the only proposition we have before us; it is the only chance the State of Oklahoma has, ap parently, to get satisfaction according to the grant which I have referred to. Therefore, I have introduced a bill which would give to the State of Oklahoma this land and provide a preferential lease right to the pioneer developers upon the same terms as a lease would be given them by the Secretary of the Interior provided he should dispose of the land.

Mr. Chairman, this, in substance, is the solution that we hope can be adopted by the committee. When it comes to the question of good faith, we come in here with

clean hands. We have already had a precedent established for this legislation. Mr. Finney, acting for Secretary Lane, if I am correctly informed, wrote the opinion on the original bill. The same idea as was contained in that bill is contained in this legislation, except we go a few steps further and endeavor to protect the pioneer developers whom we think are entitled to priority, because they are the ones who made the discovery. If this legislation should be enacted into law, and it ought to be, then the Government pays to the State of Oklahoma the debt it has been due ever since we became a State.

Mr. DYAR. I have glanced at your bill hastily. Does it provide that the Government, in that case, should pay over to the State the moneys in the hands of the receiver?

Mr. MCCLINTIC. No. It is my judgment we could only take the land. Really, we would be entitled to it, and it ought to come to us, because this land should have been given to us 10 years ago: but I feel possibly we would have some trouble in trying to make the bill retroactive to the extent we could go back and recapture all the money that has been obtained because of the oil wells that were put down.

The Government, by retaining the amount of money that is now on hand, will gain in the long run. In other words, the Government should feel that it is very fortunate, indeed, to be able to settle by giving to Oklahoma this public land—I mean free title to it. We come here and say, "Give us this land in lieu of these 210,000 acres of land we are due and we will provide rules and regulations and make it mandatory on the part of the State land commission to give these pioneers the rights that they are entitled to receive upon the same terms that would come from the Secretary of the Interior."

Mr. DYAR. Mr. Chairman, I do not know that I have any say on this subject at all, but I would like to inquire this: How has this scheme of apportioning lands according to representation in Congress worked out as it has been applied? Have the other States gotten their proportion?

Mr. VAILE. Colorado, I believe, has gotten hers.

Mr. MCCLINTIC. Every State in the Union since 1862, with the single exception of the State of Oklahoma, I think, has been given the lands or something else in lieu thereof.

The CHAIRMAN. How is it that you claim that your hands, the hands of the State of Oklahoma, are cleaner than any other claimants'? You all had your greedy eyes fixed upon this Red River, and you were all claiming it.

Mr. MCCLINTIC. I do not claim, Mr. Chairman, that our hands are any cleaner, but possibly, in view of the construction of the Supreme Court, I think it is shown that we had a lit.le better title to come in and ask for the same from the United States Government than some others.

The CHAIRMAN. The State of Oklahoma claims that it is entitled to that area as a part of a navigable stream. The other claimants claim on some other theory.

Mr. MCCLINTIC. We base our claim on a law which has benefited every State that has come into the United States since 1862, and like my good friend Vaile says, Colorado came in here nine years after she had become a State and made her claim, and by an authorization of an act of Congress, Colorado got the land she was entitled to receive. Arkansas came in many years afterwards and got the lands she was entitled to, and the same thing is true with other States.

Now, I do not wish to take up very much more of your time. As I have stated, Judge Merritt, who represents the Oklahoma land department, is here, and he has made a study of this subject. It is my hope that this committee can follow the precedent that has already been established and has been followed since 1867, and agree to favorably recommend the bill I have presented to the committee for consideration.

The CHAIRMAN. Both bills give 37 per cent of the royalties. You want more than that?

Mr. MCCLINTIC. Oil; Oklahoma gets none.

The CHAIRMAN. She gets 37 per cent.
Mr. MCCLINTIC. Of the oil produced?

The CHAIRMAN. Of the royalty.

Mr. MCCLINTIC. Oh, of the royalty-oh, yes; of the royalty-but that is not quite as good as if we had all of it.

Mr. LARSEN. Are there any producing wells in the river bed?

Mr. MCCLINTIC. There may be some on the north side of the medial line, but so far as I know there is none on the north bank of Red River. What do you say with regard to that, Mr. Festerman; do they have producing wells on the north bank of Red River?

Mr. BURTNESS. North of the medial line; north of the river bed?

Mr. TESTERMAN. No.

Mr. DYAR. If I may make a statement, I think what I have to say would be of interest to the committee, and that is this: Oklahoma, because of another provision of Congress, it is thoroughly understood that the mineral laws do not apply to Oklahoma, and Oklahoma got the enumerated school sections which were mineral and did not that somewhat balance up as against this?

Mr. MCCLINTIC. No, sir. We were given some money because we did not have any taxable land in the Indian Territory, and only one-fourth of our land was taxable when the State was created.

Mr. DYAR. What I am making out is this, that you probably got the school sections, some of which were mineral lands. In other words, when school sections were found to be mineral lands, in other States, they selected other lands, if available, new series; but in Oklahoma you got the mineral lands and provision was made that you should not sell them for 10 years, but might lease them. Did you not get a lot of good oil lands in Oklahoma?

Mr. MCCLINTIC. No, sir. The hearings will give an answer to all or to any questions you might ask relating to that particular subject.

Mr. DYAR. I think in view of the very valuable oil lands, that that might raise a question.

Mr. MCCLINTIC. We have lost an awful lot of money by not having this land at the beginning, and we are hoping now that inasmuch as everyone who has passed upon this question, has decided that our claim is just and right, that we can put this bill through and satisfy the Government, the various claimants and the State of Oklahoma. The CHAIRMAN. You were given $5,000,000, were you not?

Mr. MCCLINTIC. Yes, we were given $5,000,000.

The CHAIRMAN. In lieu of section 13?

Mr. MCCLINTIC. In lieu of sections 16 and 36 in the Indian Territory, but that 1. no reference to the act of 1862 and the act of 1866.

Mr. DYAR. You got your 32's and 36's in the western part of Oklahoma?

Mr. MCCLINTIC. I believe in old Greer County.

Mr. DYAR. Sixteen and 36?

Mr. MCCLINTIC. Sixteen and 36.

Mr. BURTNESS. Then, how much was appropriated by the bill reported by the com mittee some six years ago?

Mr. MCCLINTIC. That was based upon $1.25 an acre. Now, we did not get the land. And, of course, that bill never at any time was considered by the House. It merly went up on the calendar, and was never passed on by any Commas, We decided that we would just wait until possibly something should turn up, which would us the proper opportunity so that we could come fo

this obligation; then the Supreme Court recognized that now is the time for us t

adjudication of this whole matter.

Mr. BURTNESS. With what

The CHAIRMAN (interposing). You got $5,000,000 in the enabling act?
Mr. MCCLINTIC. We got $5,000,000 in the enabling act.

The CHAIRMAN. And in addition, 1,050,000 acres of land?

Mr. MCCLINTIC. We got something like 1,200,000 acres of land, but that is less than any other State received, which was admitted into the Union under the same laws. In other words, we got a less allotment than any other State has gotten that has been admitted into the Union since 1862, and we are the only State that did not get something in lieu of this grant.

Mr. DYAR (interposing). Inasmuch as the Indians were there, I suppose

The CHAIRMAN. Did you ever make a comparison as to the value of the lands that you received when you were admitted into the Union and the value of the lands at the time of their admission the other States received?

Mr. MCCLINTIC. I do not think that any compilation has been made as to that. There were 24,979,200 acres in old Oklahoma and 19,840,000 in Indian Territory, making a total of 44,819,200 acres. Only about one-fourth was subject to taxation. The CHAIRMAN. What I am getting at is the actual value of the land granted you and the actual value granted to other States at the time you were admitted.

Mr. MCCLINTIC. No; all I can say on that is that I was a homesteader at the beginning, prior to the time that Oklahoma became a State, in the old Territory days, and our land was not very valuable. In other words, you could buy a claim for $150 to $200. However, I do not know of any compilation that has been made relative to the value of the land in the various States. The only thing that you could go back to is the amount of taxable land, or the percentage of taxable land based upon the total number of acres.

The CHAIRMAN. In my State, for instance, 20 years after the Territory became a State they were begging people to buy their land at $1.25 per acre.

Mr. MCCLINTIC. Well, we had 44,000,000 acres of land, and there were only 10,000,000 acres taxable; that is, ten million and some odd thousands.

This testimony was presented at the hearings, which were held six years ago. Now, Mr. Chairman, I will be very thankful to the committee if they will hear Judge Merritt, who represents the land department of the State of Oklahoma. I also desire to have printed in the record a copy of the bill I have introduced relating to this subject.

H. R. 13932, Sixty-seventh Congress, fourth session.]

A BILL Granting to the State of Oklahoma the south one-half of the Red River bed throughout its entire length within the State of Oklahoma, in lieu of the two hundred and ten thousand acres of land which the State of Oklahoma is entitled to receive under the act approved July 2, 1862, and amended by the act of July 23, 1866, and providing for a preferential lease to the pioneers who have made improvements prior to January 1, 1920.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That there is hereby granted to the State of Oklahoma the south one-half of the Red River bed throughout its entire length within the State of Oklahoma in lieu of two hundred and ten thousand acres of land due to said State under the provisions of the act of July 2, 1862, and entitled “An act donating public lands to the several States and Territories which may provide colleges for the benefit of agriculture and the mechanic arts" (Twelfth Statutes, page 502), as amended by the act of July 23, 1866 (Fourteenth Statutes, page 208): Provided, That where pioneers have made improvements prior to January 1, 1920, the State of Oklahoma shall determine the person or persons entitled to priority and grant to such person or persons a lease covering such lands upon which such pioneers have made improvements prior to January 1, 1920, under the same terms and conditions as leases are granted by the Secretary of the Interior: And provided further, That the Secretary of the Interior is hereby authorized and directed to take such legal steps as may be necessary and