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Show COMMISSIONER OF INDIAN APF~ZBG. 23 salutary effect and indicate a dispositidn to treat all men who violate the liquor laws as equal criminals in the eye of the law. Reports indicate that the payment was generally a marked suc-cess; that many of the Indians deposited their shares in the bank and checked against them for the purchase of the necessaries of life ' and other beneficial purposes. Illustrative of the activity of this thoroughgoing canvass, the fol-lowing excerpt from a report will show certain conditions which were remedied: In my lonner mpun covering ll~inaituatiooI make mentiou of rhe Isct that the din-wict coun wae in scseioa in hlcOunaiu County and that ar the time of my leaving there on that occasion 22 persous had been convicted and sentenced to the deniten& for various crimes. On arriving at Idabel on this oecaaion I learned that the district court had adjourned, that during it8 seeaion of five weeks 34 convictions had been had and 34 persona taken to the penitentiary and as said in my former report this ssema to be the healthieet indication I have found in McCurtsin County and can only mean that the citizenship has begun to waken up to the condition in that country and are intending to see that the same ia bettered. Another payment has been authorized and there is every reason to believe that the active campaign which has been m%de for good gov-ernment and for the elimination of the disastrous effects of liquor on such occasions will be as successfully carried out as previously. Stringent and active measures are also thrown around similar pay-ments in lesser amount elsewhere throughout the Indian country. In view of conflicting decisions by the courts as to the meaning of section 2140 of the Revised Statutes, which provides not only for the seizure and forfeiture of liquor but for the boats, teams, wagons, and sleds used in conveying same, Congress cleared up the situation by enacting that: Automobiles or any other vehicles or conveyances used in intmdncing or attempting to introduceintoxicanta into the Indian country or where the introduction isprohibitad by treaty or Federal statutes, whether used by the owner thereof or other person shall be subject to the seizure, libel, and forfeiture provided in section 2140 of the Revised Statutes of the United States. The enactment of this specific legislation will be an effective bar to the collusion of parties who would endeavor by claiming a mortgage or other lien on the automobiles thus confiscated to defeat the pur-poses of the Government. The question whether it is an offense to transport liquor from a point outside to another point beyond a reservation and whether the liquor while in transit across the reservation was subject to seizure and destmrtion under section 2140, has been and is now before the courts. This has created an unfortunate condition and may cause consider-able trouble to reservation officers. However the Reed amendment |