THE IEEIGATION AGE. 



168a 



NAILED MAXWELL TO THE .CROSS. 



Forced to Admit Before the House Committee on Arid Lands 



That Big Corporations Give Him Over $60,000 Per Year 



No Repeal of Land Laws This Session of Congress. 



George H. Maxwell, the manager of the land-grab- 

 bing Octopus in its fight for the repeal of the land laws, 

 was a witness in the hearing before the House Com- 

 mittee on Irrigation of Arid Land April 1st. In this 

 hearing Maxwell was forced, in spite of all attempts to 

 evade the questions put to him by Chairman Frank W. 

 Mondell, the truth of every charge that THE IRRIGATION 

 AGE has made, namely: That the National Irrigation 

 Association (not the National Irrigation Congress) 

 has been supported and controlled by the great interests 

 that are working for the repeal of the land laws; that 

 Maxwell had received and is now receiving about $60,000 

 per annum; that he is the whole thing; that he gets 

 ail the money and spends it as he pleases ; that his pre- 

 tense of working for the benefit of the dear public and 

 the future settler is the rankest hypocrisy, and that he 

 has been and now is fighting solely for the benefit of 

 the land-grabbing Octopus and because he is paid for 

 every speech and every article that he has written and 

 published on this matter. 



Maxwell's testimony, which follows, is printed in 

 Congressional Record under date of April 1, 1904, and 

 copies of this record may be had by any person address- 

 ing the congressman from his district. 



MR. HITCHCOCK Have you access to the list of 

 railroad subscribers to this fund in support of your 

 movement. 



MR. MAXWELL Certainly. 



MR. HITCHCOCK Could you file it with the com- 

 mittee ? 



MR. MAXWELL I can tell you just what it is. 



MR. HITCHCOCK I want to perfect some informa- 

 tion I asked for. When you gave the name of the rail- 

 roads that had contributed to these various funds you 

 did not state the amounts they contributed. 



MR. MAXWELL Six thousand dollars for each of 

 the transcontinental lines and the Burlington and 

 $3,000 for the Eock Island. 



MR. HITCHCOCK That makes how much alto- 

 gether ? 



MR. MAXWELL Thirty-nine thousand dollars. 



MR. HITCHCOCK Now, for what purpose is that 

 money used? 



MR. MAXWELL It has been used for the expenses 

 of the National Irrigation Association, and there has 

 only been a part which has been available by that as- 

 sociation for the circulation of its literature and the 

 maintenance of our press bureau and the educational 

 campaign which we have been carrying on for the last 

 five years. 



MR. HITCHCOCK- That is an annual contribution ? 



MR. MAXWELL Yes, sir. 



HITCHCOCK Has been going 



on for five 



MR. 

 years ? 



MR. MAXWELL Yes, sir. 



MR. HITCHCOCK And still continuing? 



MR. MAXWELL Still continuing. 



MR. HITCHCOCK Six thousand dollars each for 

 the transcontinental lines, the six of them? 



MR. MAXWELL I include the Burlington. 



MR. FRENCH What one pays less than $6,000 ? 



MR. MAXWELL The Eock Island. 



MR. FRENCH That pays $3,000. 



ME. MAXWELL The funds of the association are 

 drawn also from many different directions. This is only 

 a part. 



MR. MARSHALL What part? 



MR. MAXWELL I think the fund exceeds $50,000 

 altogether. 



MR. MARSHALL Annually? 



MR. MAXWELL Yes, sir. 



THE CHAIRMAN Has your association, o did 

 your periodicals, ever advocate the law upon the calen- 

 dar which prohibits the scrip owner or these transcon- 

 tinental railroads (some two and one-half millions of 

 acres of these lands) which prohibits them from lo- 

 cating valuable timber? 



MR. MAXWELL We advocate that every acre of 

 valuable timber shall immediately be put in a forest 

 reserve, and if any one here has a copy of my -own 

 paper I would like to refer to that. I would like to 

 submit that to the committee when the opportunity oc- 

 curs. 



THE CHAIRMAN Is it not true, on the contrary, 

 that your association has taken occasion to ridicule 

 legislation prohibiting the location of valuable timber 

 land with the forest reserve lieu rights or scrip and the 

 people who have proposed it? 



MR. MAXWELL I have taken occasion to take this 

 position, which I am ready to take now or at any time, 

 that in trying to remedy forestry matters and leaving 

 the agricultural lands open to speculative entry you are 

 saving at the tap and losing at the bung. 



MR. MARSHALL -You started out by saying that 

 you were working in accordance with the recommenda- 

 tion of President Eoosevelt's message. Does not Presi- 

 dent Eoosevelt concur virtually in the report of this 

 commission ? 



MR. MAXWELL There seems to be a difference of 

 opinion in regard to that. 



MR. MARSHALL He says he sends it for favorable 

 consideration. 



MR. HITCHCOCK Referring to this $50,000 fund, 

 who controls the disposition of that? Do you? 



MR. MAXWELL We do. 



In addition to the above amounts, which Maxwell 

 admits having received from the railroads, he has fre- 

 quently boasted that two thousand members of his Na- 

 tional Irrigation Association have paid him from five 

 dollars upward each per annum, making a total fund of 

 about $20,000 annually from this source alone. Max- 

 well is therefore known to have received at least $70,- 

 000 per annum, and it is believed that he has received 

 $25,000 or $30,000 additional from the big land com- 

 binations and other sources, making a total fund of 

 about $100,000 a year, of which he has had absolute 

 control and disposition. 



Maxwell stated in Washington recently that he 

 was not particularly interested any longer in this fight 

 because during the years he had been employed by the 

 Octopus he had obtained inside information and special 

 privileges which were worth $200,000 to him person- 

 ally, and that the contributions which will come from 

 members of the National Irrigation Association will 

 never be entirely cut off. 



How long will the members of this association 

 continue to pay money to this man, who makes no pub- 

 lic statement of its disbursement and who has not. up 

 to the present time, "delivered the goods." This same 

 Maxwell is the chap who poses as the friend of the 

 laboring man a public benefactor ! Ye Gods ! 



