The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1904-05-13
Dunn's Record as State Auditor Is
Placed Under Lime Light.
Trespassers Are Alleged to Have Been
Numerous Under His Regime.
Representative Buchanan Was a Fav.
orite of the Princeton Man.
Report of Public Examiner Johnson
Makes Sensational Charges.
From Saturdays Daily.


Many thousand dollars were lost to
the state of Minnesota from 1895 to 1902
by the failure of State Auditor r. c.
Dunn to observe the law governing tres
pass on state lands.
This is the gist of the long awaited re-
port made to Governor Van SAINT by s..
T. johnson, public examiner. The re-
port. which was filed in several install
ments, was made public today by At
torney General Donahower, at Governor
Van SAINTS request. The report throws
some transactions of the state auditor
into the lime light.
The reports are all on the same subject
timber trespass settlements. They
show from the records that many tres
pass cases were settled by Mr.. Dunn for
the bare value of the timber, when the
law requires penalty for every case,
and the least settlement the auditor can
make under the law is for double value.
Governor Van SAINT sent the reports
to the attorney general with letter in
dicating his belief that suits should be
brought to recover what the state has
lost.
The governor thus passes on to the
attorney generals department for ac-
ton the results of months of investi-
cation in the records of the state au-
ditor's office, by the employees of Pub
lie Examiner Johnson. 1t all grows out
of the investigation conducted by the
house committee on public accounts and
expenditures, which had John Barry, the
expert accountant, 90 over the records
as well as he could in the limited time
allowed. They recommended further
investigation of several subjects, includ-
ing that of timber trespass. This was
carried ON under Public Examiner john
son by Harry Berry, but he did not go
far into the matter, and most of the
work has been done since Jan. l by P.
NJ Kerst, deputy public examiner, and
other employees of the department. Only
a small part of the record has been
Transcribed.
The records show that R. G. Dunn
while state auditor, made it rule to
settle trespass cases for about the value
of the timber as returned by his cruis-
ers. These values are always low, and
the prices received at state sales run sc
and 100 per cent higher than the esti-
mates. The number of cases shows that
trespassing was prevalent, and the rec
ord shows that the same firms commit
ted wholesale trespasses year after year
settling at values much less than the
state received at stumpage sales.
The law makes willful trespass a
felony in order to force the penal set
Elements of treble the actual value of
timber illegally cut. This recourse to
criminal prosecution was often threaten
ed by Auditor Dunn in cases which he
would afterward settle for the cruisers
estimate, or very little over. The threat
of criminal action was not carried out.
The most fragrant case referred to is
that of Congressman Buchanan, who sue
seeded in settling for 2,S2S09S feet of
timber, valued by the cruisers at So a
thousand, and therefore worth SO in a
trespass settlement, for $4,000 The rec
ords show this settlement made by the
state timber board, which has nothing
to do with the case according to law. The
matter of trespass settlements is all in
the hands of the state auditor as land
commissioner. The governor and state
treasurer, who were the other members
of the timber board, do not have any
recollection of such action by the board
The public examiners report gives the
records of the Buchanan trespasses in de-
tail They all occurred in the winter of
1S9S-99, and We're scaled an November,
1899, by state cruisers.
The trespass on b5-6S-2O was scaled by
James P. Mitchell and S. f. Fuller
ton, who made report on it, but their
report is not on file Both were sworn
as witnesses by the public examiner, and
their testimony is in the governors
hands, Mitchell testified that the tres
pass was plainly willful. The entire