The Grange advance., 1874-09-09


1st- Did you, when. retiring from the
Office of State Auditor and Commits
sioner Of the State Land Office, turn
over to your suoctssor, MIR. Whitcomb,
books or papers whiclA contained . complete
record or account of the timber so sut and
settled for, and Of the z vass o. hay so sold.
showing who paid for the same and the time
when paid, and on what government subdi-
vision the timber or grass sold or settled for
was cut.
I'd. If 50, please Indicate in what books
ur accounts be found; and
Sd. II we furnish you with an amanuen-
sis, will you accompany him to those Offices
and point out or enable him to find such
records or accounts or papers az contain the
information desired, to the end shat he may
be able to make an abstract or eopy of the
same? We did not ask you to ''oorrect or
add to them from your memory, )" but we be-
lieve it possible for you to sift out from the
files of the State land Office the information
we desired; this and nothing more. An
early reply to the foregoing will mach OBJ
se the 'SnHff axc66SAkSp xSsy AfkfSspcesst;ty, css;41yys,n
To this Mr.. McIlrath never designed
to reply in any manner. That he re-
ceivcd it We know, as it was delivered at
his residence by our sergeant at arms,
Mr.. Edwin Dunn.
NO ACCOUNTS KEPT.
An examination of the books, papers
and records of the Auditor Office which
were turned over to the present State
Auditor and the testimony of those now
in that Office developed the startling
fact, which was subsequently admitted
by Mr.. Mc1lrath in his testimony before
us, that no account whatever could be
found or was kept Of transactions
amounting to thousands of dollars, and
especially of any money received in
payment of timber cut upon school, uni
versity, railroad, swamp, indemnity or
internal improvement lands without
permits, or in many cases with permits.
An equally unsatisfactory state of affairs
vas found to exist with reference to the
proceeds Of the sale of grass upon the
school lands. The books show that
given sum on grass was received for
grass by Mr.. McIlrath for certain grass,
but by whom paid, when paid, and the
amount received from each sale or party,
there is nothing to show except in one
or two instances, where the reports of
parties making the sales of the grass
were found among the loose papers in
the Office.
Under these circumstances no other
course was left to y'ur committee but
to proceed and secure all the testimony
thatwaswithin their reach. Consequent
ly meetings Of the committee were held
in St. Paul, Minneapolis and Saltwater,
and all persons who could be found who
were known to have been parties to any
transaction with. the State Auditor were
subpoened and brought before the com.
mittee and examined. In the course of
the investigation the committee have
examined nearly 100 witnesses. The tes-
timony Of each of these witnesses is il,
full, and so Transcribed correctly we
know by our short hand reporter. Mr..
G.. n. Hillman, is hereto annexed and
made part Of this report.
ENCOURAGING TREsPAss.
1t cannot fail to strike your body
with surprise to learn that the lawless
practice Of parties cutting timber upon
the school, university and other State
lands without permit, has been tolerated
and evidently acquiesced in by the off,
Ger charged with the duty of protecting
the interests Of the State. As ap-
pears by the testimony, all such tres
passers, when discovered, have been al
lowed to settle upon terms as
favorable as those who had
purchased the right to cut timber in
the manner provided by law, and in no
instance does it appear that any person
has been prosecuted or punished for
trespassing upon and plunder,ng the
State lands Of the timber growing there.
on. Upon the contrary it would ap-
pear from the testimony of Messrs.
Cover, Fox, Mower, Marsh and others
that extraordinary inducements were
held out to parties to cut timber as
trespassers.
When Is in the case of Mr.: Martin
Mower and his associates, parties could
90 in and cut three and one-half mil
lion feet Of logs worth three dollars per
thousand, amounting in value to ten
thousand five hundred dollars, and set
tie for the same by paying the State
Auditor eleven hundred and sixty-two
dollars and twenty-five cents ($ll62.25)
and his *'examiner" (Mr. Butler Com.
stock) eleven hundred and fifty dollars
($1l50), as '''hush money!" being eight
thousand two hundred and eighty
eight dollars and seventy-fve cents
($8288.75) less than was due
the State, or settle for
twelve hundred dollars worth of logs by
paying five hundred dollars s'hash
money" and two hundred and seventy
three dollars to the State; it is not to
be wondered at that the system of
wholesale plunder which is proven to
have existed hasprevailed. How much