St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1894-09-03

land commissioner, and he knew that if
Mr.. B!ermann chose to make certain
concessions to the railroad magnates,
who had already sought to goDble up
whole townships of valuable lands,
which probably belonged to the state,
his Ounn's) investigation wouldn't last
as long as did the traditional old Brown
in the shades below.
He also knew that If the lumbermen
of Mile Laos county had been permit
ted to carry out their plan the result
would have been as follows: They
would have paid the Is per cent re-
quired by law on the price of the land
and the value OF the standing timber,
in round numbers $4,000, the payment
on which would have been 81, 500. They
would then have paid per cent inter
est for one year, which would have been
about $3.50 more. making total pay
ment of $3.50. This would have given
them possession of the premises,
and they would have then pro-
ceeded to cut the timber off, just
as had been done in hundred other
cases of which Dunn knows all the par
ticulars, and i'll two years the timber
would have all been cut, the land
would have been permitted to go back
10 the state, just as had Deen done in
the other cases, and the state would
have been out just the difference be-
tween 81 $50 and the actual value of the
timber. which was about ten times that
amount. n3
He also knew, and he knows now,
that there were and are filed away in
the office of the governor the lists of
lands selected by these railroad sharks
and rejected by the auditor awaiting
the time when the land department
should fall into the hands of persons
more complaisant than Adolph Bier
mann-one with whom the corporations
could reason" the case.
And yet, knowing these facts, Mr..
Dunn was willing and anxious to pan
der to sensationalism and party preju-
dice. even though it cost an honest man
his reputation.
There is no doubt that there was
room for Improvement in the system of
caring for the states landed interests.
but the parties who had been preying
upon those interests were fortified be-
hind the accumulated Republican legis-
latlon OF twenty years; presidents were
established by Republican auditors,
supported by the opinions Of Republican
attorneys general and Endorsed by
Republican governors. and the pur-
chases of state timber had so long been
used to buying under these rules and
conditions that it was impractical,
almost it may be said, impossible, to do
business with them upon any other
basis. The best that Mr.. Biermann could
do was to watch as closely as possible
the men whom he had most reason to
suspect, and it was probably for this
reason that he made so few sales in
Mile Laos county. the lands of
which had been fairly stripped
of hundreds Of thousands of
dollars worth of pine under the admin
istrations of previous Republican land
commissioners, during which time the
state received only very small per-
centage of the actual value of the tim
Der cut. Two Republican United States
senators and Republican ex-governor
have been the benefciaries Of this mu-
nlficent system, and now that there is
practically nothing left to be stolen, it
is sought to improve the system. Had
this been done before the tributaries of
Snake and Rum rivers were left bar.
rem waste. the state would have been
million dollars the gamer, and the Re-
publican campaign fund of the last
dozen campaigns correspondingiy
smaller.