The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1904-09-19
: 1881 Hewitt avenue.
CHARGES GOVERNOR
WITH SHARP PRACTICE

My Intention was to make public Mr..
Johnson's report after had examined
into 1t, and at the same time give my
Evidently Gov Van SAINT knew full well
that could refute and prove conclusively
from the records that MIR. Johnson's re-
port was totally deyoid Of truth, and be
ton. - - .pA : =. '1s
The Democratic newspapers. under
diatribe the benefit of their circulation.
The reader should bear in mind that in
his last report, as far as timber matters
are concerned Mr.. Johnson deals with
permits issued under previous admins
trations. long before assumed the duties
of state auditor, with the evident intent
of confusing dates and deceiving the
Let it be thoroughly understood that
when assumed the duties of the office of
state auditor there were no timber rec
being in a chaotic state. More than that,
the appropriation for caring for state
lands had been exhausted, and was
obliged to wait several weeks for the
passage of a deficiency appropriation to
enable me to put cruisers in the field.
As soon as funds We're available 1 en-
them to work, and later employed several
additional cruisers temporarily. AS far
as possible the timber covered by every
legal permit outstanding was looked over,
interests of the state. Several scores of
permits were arbitrarily Cancelled by me-.
OF course, there were some permits that
We're legal on their face, and the bonds
required by law were on file and it was
not within my power to cancel such per-
mits. 1t must also be remembered that
the timber belt of Minnesota at that time
extended over an area of 100000 square
miles, an empire in itself. 1t would have
been a physical impossibility for score
of cruisers, much less three, to cover the
Territory in Question inside n twolya
months
Our cruisers worked night and day, and
Sundays, and d Ware untiring in their ef.
investigated covered land in twenty sec
lions in township 81, range IA. and had
been issued to man named Murray in
1892 to run for a period of five years.
The permit showed that the timber was
estimated at 100000 feet and the
price was. s1.75 per thousand. The per-
NIT and bond were in conformity with
the existing law, but came to the con-
clusion that there might be more than
100000 feet, as the estimates were
ers were sent to the town in question, and
after making rough estimate, which oc-
cupied three weeks time, they reported
that there We're over 10000. 600 feet
standing on the territory covered by the
permit.
I Immediately notified Mr.. Murray to
come to the office, as l desired to talk
question. informed him that his permit
was legal on its face, but that it had
already run for two years. and that the
state would have no redress if the tim
Der in question should be destroyed by
fire or windfall, and gave him my ulti-
| matum to deposit $4,000 with the state
treasurer and give IAN additional bond of
200 within ten days. or would cancel
the permit and let, him. litigate if he so
desired. The result of the matter was
to make long story short, the state re-
ceived pay for 81, 100000 feet of logs,
more than five times the amount of the
estimate. 49,
The land in question belonged to the
university, and Hon. John S. Pillsbury
personally thanked me for the admirable
Manner he said in which had guarded
the interests of the state and the univer-
sity. I cite the instance simply to show
that there was no neglect of duty on my
part as far as the permits issued by my
! predecessors were concerned.