The representative. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1893-1901, 1893-05-24

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surveyor general had returned about
four hundred and fifty thousand feet
of timber, or fifteen hundred and
fifty logs, as the amount cut upon
the section, while the witness going
over it carefully found by actual seal
ing that it had produced about
thirty-one hundred logs or eight hun
dred and seventy thousand two hun
dred and twenty feet of timber. The
school fund was Of course robbed of
the difference between the amount
returned by the scaler for the sur
veyOr general and the amount that
was actually taken from the land.
This would show upon this single
section, a loss to the school fund of
| about 81 900.
1t appears by the testimony of one
witness (see page 158 of testimony
that on section SO, town 1873, range
"a, there were six hundred thousand
feet of pine and four hundred thous-
and feet of oak. The witness testi-
fed that he would have been willing
to have given $4,000 for the section,
and he further testified that the
whole timber on this section has
been cut. The letter of the state
auditor, attached to the evidence
and marked exhibit B." shows that
from that section the state derived
only the sum of $176, which was for
oak sold at 81 per thousand upon an
estimate of fifty-fve thousand feet of
oak upon the whole section. 1t does
not appear that the state received
anything for the six hundred thous-
and feet of pine upon the section.
The evidence before your commit
tee shows that one million five hun
dred thousand feet of logs, probably
worth in the neighborhood of forty
five hundred dollars, were cut from
section Is, town 81 range rs, while
the books of the state auditor show
that the amount received by the
|
$1,000. The school fund has there
fore been defrauded out of over ST.
500. This occurred twelve or thirteen
years ago, while Mr.. Whitcomb was
state auditor. Appended to the tes-
timony will be found the letter of
the state auditor in reference to this
section, marked "Exhibit c."
The same witness testified that it
was general talk among lumbermen
that if they could get stumpage
forty or school section, they could
make good deal of money out of it
and their stumpage would not cost
them much. 1t also appears by the
evidence that certain lumberman,
whose name is in the possession of
the committee, cut thirty-nine thou
sand feet of timber from forty acres
of internal improvement land, for
which the state never received a dol
lar. Section SO, town AZ, range 26,
was bought by another lumber COM
pany at So per thousand upon a
fraudulent estimate that it contain
ed only two hundred and fifty thou
sand feet, while the testimony taken
before your committee of witness
who run the line along the edge of it
and carefully examined the adjoin-
ing sections goes to show that it con-
tanned nearly five million feet, worth
about $500 per thousand. 1t is tes-
titled by another witness that Sec
ton Is, town 1873, range 80 had been
entirely stripped of the timber and
three of the forty acre tracts there
in, containing pine, has been sold as
agricultural land. Another witness,
who had been upon this land at the
time and made an examination of it,
testifies that there were at least two
million feet of pine timber upon the
section, and that some had placed it
as high as two million five hundred
thousand feet; that in addition to
this he thought there was fully two
hundred thousand feet of oak tim
Der; that the section was upon the
edge of lake, SO that the logs could
easily be RATED to "a mill close at
hand and within forty rods of the
Northern Pacific Railroad. The
value of this timber, as sworn to by
this witness, was 1885, while the
state auditor shows by his letter ap-
pended to the testimony and marked
Exhibit d." dated April 5th, 1893,
and addressed to the chairman of
this committee, that the whole
amount derived by the state from
that section for timber for the
school fund amounted to $3O9.1
which has not yet been paid.
The publication of the report, of
which the forefoing is part, will be
continued from week to week until
the full text of the report has been
published. 1t is valuable document
and alliancemen should carefully
preserve the papers in which it ap-
pears for further reference.
EDITOR.
PINE LAND FRAUDS,
Any person having any knowledge
of any frauds upon the state, in pine