I informed the editor that this statement was incorrect; that as far as I knew there had never been any effort by anyone to get personal possession of the property. What I had done was wholly as agent of the Carnegie Museum.

I can say that, at the present time, it is my belief that no one with any influence or backing is designing in an underhanded way to deprive us of the fruits of our labor or discoveries.

It is true that for the last five years or more such expressions as: "These things ought not to all be shipped out of the state", "We ought to have some of these things in our state museum", etc., have been commonly heard by us. In fact in the early days of our work here one told me that he believed that, after the next session of the legislature one would not be allowed to ship such things out of the state. Of course, this was the expression of a sentiment, not of intelligence, for how could the state prohibit taking things from the public lands?

But there has been, and probably is now an effort by fair legitimate means to get some of the material for the state.