The San Francisco call., 1904-04-19
HYDE-DIMOND LETTERS IN LAND FRAUDS
CASE ARE PUT IN EVIDENCE AT HEARING
Commissioner Reverses Himself and
Admits Missives Sent to and by
Accused Agent.

letters from Washington urged hyde
to lose no time in Strengthening out
the tangle in which his selections at
the General Land Office then were
/ This, Dimond had written, must De
done by furnishing absolute evidence
in the form of affidavits showing that
all the Hyde base lands were free from
fraud. Repeated communications IN
this strain brought several letters from
Hyde. The Hyde letters were read.
Here are some passages:
Hyde to Dimond. January Is, 1eoS)
1t is a physical impossibility for me 70
/ comply with your suggestions. l do not know
the most of the purchasers in California or
Oregon | took the papers in all cases Just
as they came to me When the reservations
were proclaimed it was a scramble between
dozens of different curbstone real estate dealers
| 10 get in applications to the State to purchase
| the vacant school sections 1t was generaliy
known that 1 would buy any such lands and
these agents brought their titles and paid
| thought to inquire who owned the land .
1t was absolutely unjust for the department
ment of blackmailer and am sure | do not
know of any way that / could comply with
your suggestion.
| L know good many of the people who took
, up school lands but many have disappeared.
For instance. J. Bonacci, a bootblack in the
barber shop Where would / look for him?
! What Judge or Congressman could | get to
certify that he knew Bonacci and knew that
he took the land in good faith? He is none
| the less real individual Then again. take
al the ladies and gentlemen Of color. friends
! OF my janitor. Besides. l had three or four
people running through these reserves picking
| up titles
1t is easy for a man in Washington TO say,
! Prove to me who ii was of whom you bought
| this property and what kind OF man he was.
Ordinarily this would be possible. The title
TO city property is held by people who
/ local residents. but when there is a scramble
for the purchase of State lands the movement
is engineered by brokers. They do not select
the best class of citizens but they go into the
/ highways and byways and the purchases are
made by those who here to-day and there
tomorrow. The sales none the less legal,
but II makes them impossible to trace. -
Tell me where the matter is now and how
long II Will stay there and what the next
move will be Try and find some way out of
IL other than the you suggested, and by
all means keep the thing quiet until Commits
sloner Hermann gets out of office, and keep il
quiet anyhow. | wish you would
explain to Mr.. Brown the whole basis of
Schneider's statements While here he was
sometimes the notary with deeds where
the parties did not appear in person, but IT
were known TO the notary and while 1t m :
be irregular, II is very customary to say that
the person appeared. Then. as to his signing
papers. there are always some papers which do
not require original signature such notices
for posting.
DIMOND WARNS HYDE.
Then came two important letters
from Dimond, the first written to his
client on January %, and the second
to Hereford G. Hazard. the Tucson at
torneys. To Hyde Dimond had written
from Washington, saying among other
things:
/ am convinced that the situation here is
so very serious that / have to move with the
greatest caution in order to keep the nature
Of my Investigations to myself The order OF
CTI -fG tad 1off fna
attorneys before the department are excited
about IT. all the land office force wrought up
have Inquired what II means. The comms-
sloner declines to discuss 1t at all. The order
is Gay by day. becoming generally known
The suspension order will remain until
OF three things Sufficient affirmative
proof. offered to force. at least justify. the
special agents that frauds were committed, in
which when the mine is completed II will
be exploded without warning and given to the
public; or that the special agents fail in their
Investigations. In which case the order VIII
be revoked quietly II the facts stated in
to you that nothing could do would call
the Government off or prevent prosecution.
facing sober conditions and facts and must
face them You are sitting a mine that
may be set off at any moment
Frankly you were making money too fast
and got careless. thereby laying yourself Liable
70 such a calamity has happened and now
IL is a question of not what you would like to
do. but what you can do. The matter Is past
the stage of mere cancellation although that
would follow II nothing were done by any OF
the selectors. but ii is evident that all these
people who have paid you thousands of dol
lars for their lieu land and the perfecting OF
ther ION & are not gong od 10 e oe go
much who hurt II they saved themselves.
! am positively informed that what the Sec
retary is after is not the cancellation OF the
selections only but proof sufficient upon which
to base Federal prosecution on the ground
of fraud upon the Government in knowingly
n frau dul artI Ohf Al
title with intent to defraud. The whole thing
has now been taken out of the land office
and Is with the Secretary
In February, 1909 the witness had re-
turned to San Francisco, he said, but
obtained so little satisfaction from
Hyde that on April he wrote Here
ford e. Hazard letter from which the
following is extracted:
have. for satisfactory reasons. severed all
connections with Mr. Hyde's legal or any
other business. / feel that l am acting within
the bounds of personal obligations in saying
for your Information that the plan advised by
Britton & Gray and myself is not being fol-
lowed. While large number of af1davits
obtained the particular persons elizabeth
Dimond and Jennie Blair) were never found.
and no attempt has been made to find them.
1t is not proposed to forward any of the
athdavits on hand to the various parties In
interest that they may be hled with a
petition for the elimination from the sus-
pension order of the particular selection in
the commissioner in effort to clear the
skirts OF Mr.. Hyde.
At this point court adjourned for the
day. During the afternoon Benson's
counsel had put on the record a formal
objection to the admission Of the Ben
son-Dimond correspondence. but doubt
less, according to the Commissioner
ruling on the Hyde letters, 1T will be
read in evidence to-day.
Lincoln Club Will Hold Fight.