Letter from W. G. Eggleston to President Theodore Roosevelt

This is a letter regarding the Conrad Amendment to the Blackfeet Reservation Bill and the behavior of Senator Carter of Montana.

Extracted text

OCR Page 1 of 4
2 evident political alliance between Carter and the Clark Democratic ma- chine. Mr. Mantle has been goldbricked into the belief that Carter is for him;but Carter does not wish to divide Senatorial patronage, and he does wish to point to himself and say: "I am the only Republican who can be elected to the Senate from Montana." His political agents in different counties will nominate for the Legislature next Fall men who can be counted on to be defeated. Then Carter will go on the platform and shout for the ticket;and the probable result will be a rich nobody, a shameless corruptionist or a pliable Carter-corporation Democrat in Clark's place, to act as Carter's "fag," as Clark has been. I doubt if any man knows Montana politics better than I, and I have yet to see a political muck-heap in Montana that did not have Carter's thumb-mark on it somewhere. Carter has used his official positions and patronage to make this State his plaything. He has used position and patronage for his benefit and for the purposes of the Northern Pacific Company, for the big corporations, for the big lumber companies, including the lumber department of the Amalgam ted Copper Company. The political situation in Montane is most deplorable, and Carter añ d Clark are the two men most responsible for that situation. In 1900 Car- ter sold himself and his party to the Amalganated Copper Company. In 1902 Clark sold himself and his party to the same crowd, and Carter was secretly lined up with them. Carter is the most valuable land agent the Northern Pacific ever had, and it has been his rule to choose for land office positions men who would do the bidding of the Northern Pacific and obey his orders. His jobbery of the Mineral Land Commissi on has