Arizona republican., 1903-10-23
Bills Against Lar svveyor
General and Chief Clerk
ELEVEN INDICTMENTS
Based Upon Charges Of Extortins
Fees, in Addition to Those Fixed
by Law, For Work Performed After
Office Hours.

The rumors which have been in cir
culation for a couple of weeks that
the United States grand jury woula
consider the affairs of the office of the
surveyor general during the late adj
mlnistration, ended yesterday in the
indictment of Former Surveyor Gener-
al Price and Former Chief Clerk w.
E. Murphey. The Indictments are
based upon the same charges on
which they were recently. removed
from Office. that of charging illegal
ices in the matter OF applications for
mining patents and land claims
There are eleven of the indictments
all covering cases of the same nature
Inere are three charges in each al
legged offense, the indictments having
been found under each of three stat
utes. conspiracy to defraud the United
States government, eXtortion under
the color OF Office and bribery or the
| acceptance of bribes.
The defendants appeared in court a
short time after the finding of the in
dictments. General Price accompan-
led by Walter Bennett and Mr. Muir
phey by Judge Baker The reading
of the complaints was waived by the
| attorney of each, but the title of each
complaint was read, setting forth the
various crimes charged.
The attorneys for the defendants
took until Saturday morning to plsaI
Bond was required in the sum of So
900 only in one CT the cases and the
defendants were released on their cyvn
! recosnizances as to the others. The
bond was furnished by W. r. Smith
and Eugene Brady O'Neill. The in
n Infy
may ask for 9. severance later.
Within the last day CIR two the i'm
preston had prevailed that only the
acts of Mr.. Murphy would be invest
gated, it being supposed that the ar
rangements for the extra fees had
| been made by him alone In most
, quarters the finding of the indictments
| created some surprise. but it was
known that the government was mov-
! @ss itsef in The ease Witnesses
had been brought here from various
! parts of the territory and they Were
| generally persons who had paid extra
fees. Such witnesses were Fmma
Miller, Albert Steinfield, w. A. Cline.
! J. T. Hawkins. C. f. Taylor, J. ].
/ Fisher. f.. NJ. Sanford, +. E. Jacobs.
| W. T. Smith. George r. Hill and f. ]
Bennitt
The following witnesses were
| clerks in the office of the surveyor
general during the administration of
| General Price: r. H. Satterwhite.
| Thomas Armstrong. G. NJ. Gillette.
George Christ. o. C. Thompson, A. A.
Iysight, ]. NJ. Barney. J. B. Adams
! and l.. B. Linnen.
The agitation against the office was
begun by Ex-senator R. F. Petit
! grew, who was trying to patent some
! claims near Yuma. When his agent
! desired the work done on the appli-
| cations he was told that the office was
behind and that in order to accomp-
| lish the work within the time desired
! it would be necessary to work the
| clerks overtime for which the appli-
cant would have to pay in addition to
| the regular fee. Mr.. Pettigrew report
| ed the matter to the department and
an inspector was sent here to inyesti-
gate with the result that both the
surveyor general and his chief clerk
! were removed.
1T is said that none of the persons
! who were summoned as witnesses by
! the government made complaint, but
| We're found by the inspector in the
course of his investigation of the af-
fair. The following, are five CT the
!
| eleven complaints: For charging f.
| H. Herford of Tucson on Jan. 25. 1908.
| $50 for copies of surveys and tracinss
| Of plats of the Del Vale and Babo
coma1i land grants; for charging AL
bert Steinfeld on July so, 1902. 5000 for
extra work on application for a mining
| patent; George r. Hill. June "a. 1903.
| $50 for work on a mining application:
| W. A. Cline. Oct. 1902. s75 for work
on mining application. In the fifth
| J. j. Hawkins on January q. 1903.
paid $50 for extra work on applica-
tions for mining patents. This COM
| plaint was slightly different from the
others in that it contained a letter
from the Office of he surveyor general
saying that Judge Hawkins would be
required to pay $50 in case the work
| was completed within the time he de-
| sired it. He was asked 10 reply stat
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