al location was made by the railway company prior to the acquisition
of the lands by the occupying settlers. Some preliminary surveys had
been made, but no map of location had been filed with the Secretary of
the Interior. If the rights of this company at this point of its road
as to right of way are derived from the general statute of the United
States upon that subject (U. S. Revised Statutes, Supplement, p. 87),
then section 4 distinctly saves the right of any settler who had located
prior to the filing of a profile of the road and the approval by the
Secretary of the Interior thereof. And if, on the other hand, the rights
of the company at the point indicated are derived from the act of
Congress of February 18, 1888, "to authorize the Choctaw Coal and
Railway Company to construct and operate a railway through the Indian
Territory, and for other purposes," section 6 of that act also plainly
protects the right of any occupying claimant. The latter statute, it
seems to me, was intended to grant a right of way only through Indian
lands, and if these lands were not such the general statute to which
I have referred would apply; but in either event the conclusion is the
same.

It appears from the report of the committee that its favorable action,
and, I must assume, the favorable action of Congress, proceeded upon the
theory that there was a real controversy, doubtful as to its issue, as
to the right of the railroad company to hold the line of its survey
through the city.

Stripped, then, of this claim the proposition is nakedly one to
authorize Oklahoma City to donate $40,000 to the Choctaw Coal and
Railway Company. The general statute of the United States prohibits
such grants, and this must stand until repealed as a continuing
expression of legislative opinion. If a departure from this rule is to
be allowed at all, certainly it should only be where the circumstances
are exceptional. Such circumstances, in my opinion, do not exist in
this case. Already I have received from other cities in the Territory
protests against special legislation of this sort, accompanied by the
suggestion that if this policy is admitted other cities shall also be
allowed to encourage the building of roads by donation.

Oklahoma City, according to the report of the Census Office, has a
population of about 4,100, and this donation would be equivalent to
nearly $10 per capita. Very little real estate, whether town-site or
country property, in t