St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1895-03-09
.ack as are the late state auditor and

Vorite tidee."
There is no doubt that Mr.. Dunn's
plan of disposing of state timber is,
as he claims for it, the simplest one.
No one except himself, the purchaser
and the estimator will know any
thing whatever of the transaction
by which the title to the timber
passes from the state to the indi-
vidual. The estimator says there is
certain amount of timber on a
given section, the purchaser pays a
certain lump sum for that timber,
and there is the end of it. The pur-
chaser is not likely to buy it if it
contains less than the estimator says,
for purchasers of pine have a fash
ion of making their own estimates,
and the estimator, being pervaded
with the odor of sanctity which
hangs like a Monday morning clothes
line around the Republican auditors
office, would not make false state
ment, although there would be moth
ing more substantial than the odor
Of sanctity to prevent him from do
ing so.
Under the present system the au-
ditor, surveyor general, scaler, pur-
chaser and estimator would all have
to be fixed" before fraud could
be committed, for the timber must
be sold and paid for by the thousand,
and a series of mutual checks is pro-
vided for in the fact of the numerous
parties to whom reports must be
made. Under the plan advocated by
! Mr.. Dunn the auditor would have alb
solute, unquestioned and final au-
thority to sell the timber outright,
with no redress in case the estimates
were erroneous. 1t is not at all
unusual under the present system
for the state to receive pay for ten
times as much timber as the esti-
mate called for, and the only assur-
ance we have that the new esti-
majors would be more reliable than
the old ones lies in the fact that Mr.
Dunn selected the new ones, and in
aSmuch as his chief estimator was
the main guy of the committee whose
work Bulletin No. 2 denounces as
imperfect and unreliable, there might
be a suspicion that even Mr.. Dunn
has overeStimated his estimator.
There is every reason why Mr.
Dunn should desire to cancel the con-
tracts now in force, and if the claim
set up in the Shevlin-Carpenter case,
that the state auditor was in no way
responsible for the contracts into
which he entered, is made good,
there will be no difficulty in cancel
ing such contracts.
1t is but meet and right that Mr..
Dunn should have a whack at the
public lands; else why was he elect
ed? 1t would be the extreme of dis
courtesy to him to elect him to an
office which has been from time
immemorial the vantage ground for
private speculation, and then, just
as the fruit is within his grasp, to
snatch it from him. True the reader
of the pine land committees report,
If there is such a reader, will be sur
prised to learn that there are 300, 000,-
600 feet of pine left to the state, and
still more surprised to learn, through
Bulletin No. 2, that the contracts for
cutting this vast body of timber
were let under the very noses of the
committee, with IynX-eyed Dedon
camping, ever camping, on the trail
OF his present job, and the watchful
Staples lowering, like the incarnata
spirit of reform, over the supposed
ly denuded state lands and the al
legged mismanaged office of the land
commissioner. 1t is remarkable that
Mr.. Dunn should have chosen for
the extremely responsible position
OF estimator, upon whose Judgment
the. state would depend for every
dollar it received under Mr.. Dunn's
proposed scheme, the guileless indi-
vidual upon whom such a game
could be worked. According to Bull
let1n No. 2, while the matchIess
Dedon was skirmishing around over
the marshes of Northern Minnesota
locating the odd foot in a hundred
million, the then state auditor was
ladllng out contracts for three times
the amount involved in the original
matter under investigation. 1t will
be a rude schock to the public mind
to learn that this genius of the de-
parted Gaboriau has been buncoed
in such cruel manner, and it will
shake the public confidence in the
discretion of Mr.. Dunn himself to
learn that he would accept as final
Judgment the estimate of such a sim
ple-minded person in matter in
volving so many millions of dollars.
For fear of a general uprising.
however, let it be stated that Bulle-
tin No. is nothing more than the
unsubstantial fabric of a dream
an official dream, but nevertheless
only a dream. 1t, like the pine land
committees report, is only an array
of glittering, tabulated generalities,
the purpose of which is to get the
public mind focused on a series of
bogus abuses long enough for the
state auditor to arrange his plans for
a new departure which will enable
him to emulate the example of his
Republican predecessors in the same
Office, and reap from it the reward
which logically falls to the lot of the
faithful and successful Republican
candidate.
IN THE CANNONzS MOUTH.
Men have sought and found the
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