The Evening statesman. [volume] (Walla Walla, Wash.) 1903-1910, 1903-12-17

Now his views of the seriousness OF
the situation have appeared in an in
conspicuous place.
The voluminous book of estimates
of needed appropriations which the
secretary of the treasury sent to con-
gress on the first day of the session
calls for s25OOOO to protect the pub
lie lands from fraudulent entry, and
in very fine print on the same page is
a long note of several hundred words
The note is unsigned, but in reality its
author was Secretary Hitchcock
Among the reasons which he gives in
this note for the increased estimate
are the following:
Many Complaints Filed.
From every section of the country
come complaints of the disposition of
the public lands in violation of law and
in the deSpOilatiOn of the timber and
the maintenance of unlawful Enclosures
upon the land. These complaints cite
cases where it is found upon investi-
cation that spectators, cattle compa-
MES, corporations and individuals are
all engaged in an effort to plumber the
public domain.
Entries are being made without re-
sidenCe or improvement, timber lands
are being taken for speculation and
fictitious proofs are being made, es-
pecially before officers other than reg
listers and receivers, as to the COM
pliance of the claimants with the laws
The present appropriation furnished
scanty support to scarcely sixty agents
and it is only necessary to state it
in order to emphasize the impotency
of the present force to reach out over
the vast area of the public lands and
protect them from the wholesale frauds
that are now being attempted.
More Money Needed.
The development of the last six
have satisfied me that the
present appropriations are wholly in
adequate to secure anything like an
effective execution of the laws and to
clear the records of any considerable
portion of the large number of al
legged fraudulent entries now awaiting
action"
The views of the secretary were I'M
pressed upon the president several
weeks ago, for Mr.. Roosevelt recon-
mended that a large amount of money
be made available for prosecuting the
timber frauds. How great these frauds
are, in the opinion of Mr.. Hitchcock
is shown by this further quotation
from his mote" attached to the an
nual estimates:
Nearly 10000 entries are suspended
on the charge of fraud. About half of
this numbe" are in the different stages
Of adjustment. About 5000 entries
under the timber land law of June 8,
1873, have been suspended on a sat
showing that they have not
been made in compliance with law,
but in the interest of other persons
and corporations. There are about
$500 entries which have been COM
nuted under the homestead law with
out a sufficient showing Of residence
Or improvements. Nearly a thousand
soldiers additional applications and a
arge number of soldiers widows ap-
plications are also shown to have been
made in violation of the laws. To this
must be added the large number of
Eases involved in timber trespass and
unlawful inclosures.'
1t appears from the rmarkS of Mr..
through the incOnspicuOus
medium of the annual book of esti
ma tes, that he regards the land frauds
quite as seriously as the authors of the
most sensational stories that have
been published about them.