Salt Lake Telegram | 1934-12-28 | Page 4 | Merry-Go-Round

THE DA DAILY Y WASHINGTON Merry Merry- Merry Round Trade Trace Go- Go MarkBy Mark Mirk By DREW PEARSON and ROBERT ALLEN V WASHINGTON While WASHINGTON While Homer Cummings was busy taking bows before his crime conference conference conference confer confer- ence trouble was accumulating for him in other directions One of these was in the senate committee on Indian affairs It involves the Quapaw tribe in northeast Oklahoma which owns valuable lead lands exploited by the Eagle Picher Lead Lea co company com coin pany any on a royalty basis A group within this tribe is suing the company alleging short measure measure mea mea- sure in weighing ore and for nonpayment for amounts realized on sulphur The suit was sponsored by the Indian bureau bureau bu bu- bu reau under the Hoover administration and was pushed even more vigorously by the same bureau bureau bureau bu bu- bu- bu reau under Roosevelt Two Lobbyists In fact it was pushed so vigorously that the Eagle Picher Lead company retained two of Was Washington's ington's most accomplished ed lobbyists Phil I Campbell venerable ex congressman from Kansas and J J. Bruce Kremer Democratic national committeeman from Mon Mon- tana I Kremers Kremer's lobbying activities have since forced his resignation as national committeeman committee- committee man but have not interfered with his close personal friendship with Homer Cummings When Cummings first came to Washington he lived at Kremers Kremer's home took his advice regard regarding regarding ing the early organization of the justice depart depart- ment It It- was in his friend Homers Homer's department on December 11 1933 that Kremer staged a hearing hearing hearing hear hear- ing on behalf of the Eagle Eagle Picher Picher Lead company urging that suits against it be dropped Representatives Representatives Representatives Rep Rep- of the Indian bureau as guard- guard Representatives of the Indian bureau as guardians guard guard- ians of the Quapaw tribe were presen present and op opposed opposed op- op posed The They wanted the justice department to push the case Case Dismissed Several months passed and nothing hap hap- Then in May 1934 Homer Bonier Cummings' Cummings agents in Kansas Cit City where th the suit was filed moved that it be dismissed Shortly before this as if it knew favorable action was impending the Picher Eagle-Picher Lead company quietly removed its offices from Kansas City After that the Quapaw tribe could not sue in Kansas City Attorneys of the Indian bureau and the interior interior in in- tenor department were indignant They had received no advance notice of the intended dis dis- dis- dis missal So they prepared a long brief vigorously vigorously vigorously vigor vigor- upholding the Indians and claiming that their case was valid Kremer questioned by the writers regarding regarding regarding regard regard- ing his part in the case said that he had not made any use of his friendship with Homer Cummings that he had been retained only be because because because be- be cause of his knowledge of mining law and that the Indians had a poor legal case But members of both the senate Indian affairs affairs af at- af- af fairs committee and the Indian bureau remain unc unconvinced Their opinion is prompted not merely by the tie close friendship between Kremer and Cummings but cut by the f fact ct that Cummings appointed as assistant attorney general Henry V. V Blair former attorney for the Picher Eagle-Picher Lead company who took the oath of office just 17 dyas after Kremer laid his case before the justice department The case comes under Blair division He has taken no actual part in it Interesting Exhibits In the files of the Tennessee Valley authority is an exhibit highly prized by its executives The he exhibit consists of full page articles bitterly assailing the T V A while defending the service and rates charged by private power companies The articles are identical in wording although the country weeklies from which they were clipped are arc in widely separated sections of the Tennessee Valley T V A authorities know the puffs are paid propaganda emanating from a common source This is the reason why Publishers of the papers overlooked a certain little job of editing with the result that as printed the articles carried these words Editor note Insert the name of your city in this space Even the he magazines are now bearing down harder than ever on Washington news Time and Fortune have just selected Harold J J. T T. Horan one of the capitals capital's smartest news sleuths to keep them the up on new deal Copyright 1934 by the he United Feature Syndicate In Inc