d without legislation or judicial action, and that in all
cases the rights and interests of the Indians should be carefully
considered.

The bill under consideration grants to the railroad company therein
named the right to construct its road over substantially the same route
described in a law already passed permitting the Kansas City, Fort Scott
and Gulf Railway Company to build its road through this reservation. No
necessity or good reason is apparent why these two roads should be built
upon the same line.

The bill makes no provision for gaining the consent of the Indians
occupying these lands. The Cherokee Nation of Indians have their local
laws and legislation, and are quite competent to pass upon this
question. They have heretofore shown their interest in such subjects, I
am informed, by protesting against some of the grants which have been
made for the construction of railroads through their lands.

The bill provides for the taking of lands held by individual occupants
and the manner of fixing the compensation therefor; but it is declared
that when any portion of the land taken by the company shall cease to be
used for the purposes for which it is taken the same shall revert to the
nation or tribe from which the same shall have been taken. There is no
provision that in any case land taken from individual occupants shall
revert to them.

In the fifth section of the bill it is provided that the railroad
company shall pay to the Secretary of the Interior, for the benefit of
the particular nation or tribe through whose lands its line may be
located, in addition to other compensation, the sum of $50.

It was, of course, intended to declare that this sum should be paid
for every mile of road built through Indian lands, but it is not so
expressed. I am by no means certain that the context will aid this
omission, which is quite palpable, when that part of the bill is
compared with others of the same character. In any event, this is a
provision which should be free from all doubt.

There is no time limited in the bill within which the proposed road
through the reservation shall be completed, and consequently no
forfeiture fixed for noncompletion. The nearest approach to it is found
in a clause providing that the company shall build at least 50 miles of
its road in the Indian Territory within three years from the passage of
the act, or the rights granted shall be forfeited as to that portion
not built. The length o