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Show CONGRESSMAN MAYS "RIGHT AT HOME" ON COAL LAND MATTEKS. Collier's Weekly finds something rcmnrknble In Congressman Mays of Utah because, when Secretary Utile's bill for leasing coal and oil lands was before the house recently in committee commit-tee of the whole, Mays "actually talked for lifted! lif-ted! minutes on leasing coal and oil lands" while the other statesmen who addressed the house during that period talked about something wholly foreign to the subject, states Salt Lake's Herald-Republican. Without detracting in nny way from Mays' just fume, we should like to suggest that his fidelity to the subject before the house was less an achievement than Collier's, in Its Ignorance of the Utah congressman's vocation, supimses. Mays Is an authority on leasing coal lands because be-cause that Is his business. It interests him more thnn nny other subject becnuse that Is the way lie lives. A mnnufacturer of powder could be no more nbsorbed in a congressional discussion of possible powder purchases than. Is Mays, buyer nnd seller of coal lands, in a congressional discussion of coal land leases. An examination of Mays' political progress in Utah and in Washington might help Collier's to understand why he broke all records by talking on Hie subject before the house. Mays, who was onco a republican, was elected to congress as n progrcsslve-democrnt. When he reached Washington, Wash-ington, he registered as a democrat for it purpose pur-pose nobody understood until ho was apjiointed a member of tho house public lands committee, which )st is not without Its value to a dealer in coal lands. After that advantageous arrangement arrange-ment had been made, a later edition of the Congressional Con-gressional Directory listed him as a progressive-democrat. progressive-democrat. Collier's ought not to remove its attention from the Utah statesman, Ho was elected by an impossible combination that no longer exists. He has no party allegiance to coiltract his path, no party nor personal future to conserve. We suspect he will be heard from often when coal leases are before the house and that he will always al-ways talk on the subject. |