direction of the Attorney-General, for the payment of all and any necessary expenses incurred incident to any suits brought at the request of the Secretary of the Interior to set aside conveyances or protecting the possession of Seminole allottees to their allotted lands in the Seminole Nation, Oklahoma.

This item is made necessary by the deplorable condition of titles to Seminole allotted lands.

Through the Department of Justice several thousand suits were instituted to set aside illegal conveyances of lands of allottees of the Five Civilized Tribes, where such allottees were imposed upon through fraud or misrepresentation, or for a grossly inadequate consideration; and in the test case in the United States circuit court for the eastern district of Oklahoma, entitled The United States of America, complainant, v. James P. Allen et al., defendants, and numbered 284, and similar cases, the Hon. Ralph E. Campbell, presiding judge, on August. 6, 1909, sustained a demurrer in the case and dismissed such suits, and in his opinion of August 6, 1909, therein held that such suits must be brought in the name of the allottee and not in the name of the United States, and an appeal from his decision is now pending in the United States court for the eighth circuit.

John Cordell, the district agent and local representative of the Secretary of the Interior, assigned to the district including the Seminole Nation, in his report of August 31, 1909, as to the effect of that decision, says:

Judge Campbell's decision. The so-called land grafters and one class of newspapers immediately following Judge Campbell's decision in the land suits spread the word broadcast over the country that Judge Campbell had decided against the United States, and that all deeds on Indian lands executed by all classes of Indians were good. This was evidently done for two purposes:

(1) To enable the grafters to dispose of their holdings to people not knowing the true state of affairs. This action on the part of the grafters has resulted in making the conditions worse, if such a thing were possible.

(2) To obtain more deeds from the Indians.

Some allottees in the Seminole Nation have been notified to vacate their own land and threatened with arrest if they do not do so.

The language of General Sherman, used to express his opinion of war, could well be used to describe the conditions now prevailing in Hughes and Seminole counties. In his report of December 31, 1909, District Agent Cordell said further:

The "land pirates" in Seminole County especially are just as industrious as ever and conditions there are deplorable. In many cases before a deceased Indian is buried deeds from his heirs attempting to convey his land are of record. Forgery in securing deeds to Indian lands is now the rule instead of the exception, but specific cases submitted to Seminole County grand jury at a recent session were ignored.

In his report of January 31, 1910, the district agent said further:

The situation in Seminole County as to Indian and freedman lands is deplorable, indescribable, and serious. The allottees are being dispossessed by so-called purchasers of the land daily, and, as one allottee put it, nothing but a revolution or the interference by United States soldiers will have any effect. The local township, county, and state officers are either in sympathy with the "land pirates" or helpless.

In his report of March 31, 1910, the district agent said further:

The land in Seminole County is still being conveyed and the titles badly clouded, notwithstanding the holdings of the department and the combined efforts of the entire force.

In his report of January 28, 1910, District Agent Cordell said further:

I want to say again that conditions in Seminole Nation are worse than can possibly be shown by written report. The allottees are being dispossessed daily, and as there is only one or two lawyers in Seminole County that will take the Indian's side and as the courts invariably hold against them, if it is possible for them to do so, the allottees and citizens seem to me to be in a helpless condition.

On my trips to Wewoka and through the Seminole Nation I am begged and besieged by helpless old women, both Indian and freedmen, for help to prevent other people from taking possession of their lands and throwing them out of their homes.

If possible I think the conditions in the Seminole Nation ought to be made a subject of special investigation with a view of placing the matter in its proper light before those high in authority.

The United States Indian superintendent at Union Agency, Muskogee, Okla., under date of April 22, 1910, advised the Commissioner of Indian Affairs "that all possible attention is being given matters in the Seminole Nation by District Agent John Cordell, of Holdenville, Okla., and Assistant District Agent Alexander Crain, of Wewoka, Okla. Both of these gentlemen are competent and courageous officers and are doing all within their power to alleviate those in the Seminole Nation," and recommends the appointment of a United States attorney, to be detailed to the Seminole Nation to prosecute actions brought on behalf of allottees against persons seeking to defraud and dispossess Seminole allottees of their allotted lands, in the local courts.

The Seminole agreement of December 16, 1897 (30 Stat. L., 567), provides that:

All contracts for sale, disposition, or incumbrance of any part of any allotment made prior to date of patent shall be void.

Pursuant to that provision the department held that allottees in the Seminole Nation have no such title to their land that they can make a valid conveyance thereof, inasmuch as no patents have been delivered to the allottees, the patents having been prepared and withheld from the approval of the Secretary of the Interior at the request of the Department of Justice, to await the determination of certain suits.

Notwithstanding the patents have been withheld and the department holds that Seminole allottees have no title to their allotted lands, many fraudulent conveyances have been procured and forged conveyances of such allotted lands have been made and title clouded by their recordation. By writs of ouster in unlawful detainer cases brought before justices of the peace allottees have been ousted from their lands, the title thereto not having been decided in such suits, and allottees have appealed for assistance to defend their title and protect them in the possession of their property.

It is evident that relief must be afforded Seminole allottees from further spoliation. The Seminole Nation has tribal funds on deposit to its credit in the sum of $2.142,025.52. I recommend that the item of $6,000 be expended from the Seminole tribal funds for the protection of the Seminole allottees in their title to their allotted lands, and that the item be inserted in the sundry civil appropriation bill as a necessary and urgent item.

Very respectfully,

The SECRETARY OF THE TREASURY.

R. A. BALLINGER, Secretary.

Estimates of appropriations required for the service of the fiscal year ending June 30, 1911, by the Department of the Interior, Office of Indian Affairs.

INTERIOR DEPARTMENT.

INDIAN AFFAIRS.

Suits affecting Seminole allotted lands

That the Secretary of the Interior be, and he is hereby, authorized to pay, out of any tribal funds in the Treasury of the United States, belonging to the Seminole tribe of Indians, the sum of $6,000 or so much thereof as may be necessary, to be expended under the direction of the Attorney-General, for the payment of all and any necessary expense incurred incident to any suits brought at the request of the Secretary of the Interior, including the salary of an attorney specially employed, to set aside illegal conveyances of title or protecting the possession of Seminole allottees to their allotted lands in the Seminole Nation (submitted)....

O

$6,000

61ST CONGRESS, HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES. ( DOCUMENT 2d Session. No. 945.

GEORGE WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY.

LETTER

FROM

THE ATTORNEY-GENERAL

TRANSMITTING

A REPORT OF AN INVESTIGATION OF THE FINANCIAL AND EDUCATIONAL AFFAIRS OF THE GEORGE WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY.

JUNE 2, 1910.-Referred to the Committee on the District of Columbia and ordered to be printed.

DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE,

OFFICE OF THE ATTORNEY-GENERAL,

Washington, D. C., June 2, 1910.

SIR: On April 25, 1910, the following resolution was adopted by the House of Representatives:

Whereas the bill H. R. 24316 designates the George Washington University as an institution to administer the appropriations of the Morrill acts as extended by said bill to the District of Columbia; and

Whereas statements have been made in the hearings on H. R. 12343 and in the public press regarding the use of the funds of the institution, the original Boutell bill, and in consideration of the provision made in section ten of the original charter of George Washington University, adopted February ninth, eighteen hundred and twenty-one, which, after providing that the trustees of the university shall keep accurate records of its proceedings and financial management, further provides that "the said book or journal shall at all times be open to the inspection or examination of the Attorney-General of the United States; and when required by either House of Congress it shall be the duty of said trustees to furnish information respecting their own conduct, the state of the institution, and of its finances, which shall or may be so required:" Therefore, be it

Resolved, That the House of Representatives hereby requests the Attorney-General of the United States to conduct a careful investigation of the financial and educational affairs of the said George Washington University, and to furnish the House with detailed report covering a period of at least the last ten years as to the receipts, investments, and expenditures of the university in each of its departments; said report to be especially explicit as to the departments of engineering, architecture, veterinary medicine, and pharmacy on the following points: First, amount the university has invested in buildings in each of these departments, or number of

rooms used for each department; second, detailed statement of items of equipment of each of these departments; third, actual class enrollment for the past three years in each subject taught in each of these departments; fourth, salaries paid the individual professors of each of these departments, and the charges made students for laboratory fees in these departments.

The only investigation which I have felt competent to conduct pursuant to this resolution was an examination into the financial affairs of the university, as it has been uniformly held by my predecessors that the Attorney-General can not undertake to investigate and report upon questions of fact, even for the head of one of the other departments of the Government (17 Op., 486; 19 Op., 465; 20 Op., 253-384; 23 Op., 231); and on several occasions my predecessors have declined to conduct investigations at the request of either House of Congress, on the ground that such investigations were beyond their power under the statutes (1 Op., 335; 6 Op., 680, 684; 14 Op., 17-178; 10 Op., 164).

However, in the act of February 9, 1821, incorporating the Columbian College in the District of Columbia (6 Stat., pp. 255-258), the name of which was subsequently changed, pursuant to the authority of Congress, to "The George Washington University," it is provided in the tenth section that it shall be the duty of the board of trustees to keep certain books of account, which shall

at all times be open to the inspection or examination of the Attorney-General of the United States; and, when required by either House of Congress, it shall be the duty of the said trustees to furnish any information respecting their own conduct, the state of the institution, and of its finances which shall or may be so required.

Interpreting this section to impose on me a duty of investigation into the books of account and finances of the university when so requested by the House of Representatives, I have caused an examination into those matters to be undertaken by the bureau of investigation of this department, and I transmit to you herewith a preliminary report, which I will supplement when completed by a more thorough and detailed report into those financial matters. This will, however, require considerable time to complete. Upon its receipt I transmitted to the board of trustees of the university a copy of the resolution of the House, above referred to, and requested them to furnish me for the House with the detailed reports called for in the resolution.

The preliminary report of the financial condition submitted herewith shows that the assets of the university, as of April 27, 1910, taking the real estate at its assessed valuation for the purposes of taxation and the books and equipment at the valuation fixed by the trustees. and without regard to the application of such assets to particular trust. funds, aggregate $801,996.41, while the total indebtedness of the university to third parties, as of the said date, amounts to $542.310.44.

There was no appropriation available to this department which would permit me to procure expert testimony as to the actual market value of the real estate, and I have therefore taken in said report the valuation at which said real estate is appraised for the purposes of taxation in the District of Columbia, as above stated.

The preliminary report also shows the condition of the respective endowment and trust funds and the total cash receipts and disbursements, from which it will appear that the expenses of the university since December 31, 1899, have exceeded its income by the sum of