The Minneapolis journal. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn.) 1888-1939, 1904-09-15
TWAS EASY FOR e
PERMIT HOLDERS
Auditors Office Failed to Re-
quire Payment for Much
Timber Gut.
Methods of Doing Business Which
Gave the State No Show
Whatever.

Governor Van SAINT today gave out |
copies of sthe last reports MED by fup-
lie Examiner S. T. johnson on the eX-
animation Of the state auditor s ONCE.
The two documents were sent to h. Z.
Dunn, the former auditor and present
candidate for governor, as he requested.
He did not request their publication,
but the governor decided that the pub
lie was as much entitled to the facts
in the case as Mr.. Dunn. 49, .
One report deals entirely with TIM
Der permits; the other with certain
mineral leases issued during the. last
two. years of Mr.. Dunn's administra-
ton as auditor.
Gross official neglect in the manage
ment of the state school fund is charged
in connection with timber permits. One
voIuminous schedule recites the record
of 161 permits for cutting timber from
state school land. In every one OF these
cases the cruisers reports show guam
titles of timber cut and never paid tof'
and the greatest lOoseness and neglect.
The law makes the holder of a permit
responsible for every foot of timber,
whether he cuts it or not, but IN most
of these cases the permit holders were
released from all responsibility without
payment and new permits issued to cut
what was left on the land. Such great
discrepancies are shown in many OF the
cases that it is impossible to calculate
the loss to the state in dollars. Inc
only conclusion possible from read1ng
the exhibits is that vast tracts OF val
liable timber were allowed to be cut,
and the state received little or no money
for them.
The second schedule is table of fifty
nine permits, sample lot which
were in force when Mr.. Dunn became
auditor. Each permit covered sec
ton Of timber. These permits were
never followed up. Not cent OF money
was over collected from them or for
the timber in the tracts named. NO TIM
Der has ever been sold from these, Sec
tions since, and there is no record OF any
effort to find out how much was cut
from them, or who cut it. It is hardly
likely that the timber is still standing,
after ten years.
Both schedules have to do with state
land on which permits were issued by
Mr.. Dunn's predecessor, Auditor Bier
mann. However, these permits were IN
force whenaMr. Dunn became auditor,
under his pledges of reform, and 1t IS
held that it was his duty to see that
the state received money for the tim
Der. The law of 1895 gave nam new
and drastic powers. He could either
cancel these contracts or enforce them
None were Cancelled, and few seem tc
have been enforced. They were allowed
to run, much or all Of the timber dis
appeared and then, Mr.. Dunn issuec
other permits Tor WnaC was AoIe' win
out collecting from the former purr
chaser for the timber that disappeared
Mr.. Johnson s Introductory state
ment, summing up the law and his find
inps. is given below in full. About hal:
the exhibits in schedule l are repro
duced, enough to show the general char
actor of the record. Those omitted in
volve smaller amounts of timber, bu
show the same loose methods and tn
same losses to the state. The common
est record shows an old permit on whlc
nothing was paid. The state cruise
euttings," for which the permit holde
should have been compelled to pay. lr
stead a new permit is issued and tn
former buyer is released from all re
sponsibility for the timber that has di'
appeared. :,
there may still be legal recourse for tn
state, and that it Is worth while to al
certain whether all liability, "privat
and official,D has been wiped out b
the statute Of limitations.
The text of the report, which
labeled Section ". in the series an
was filed with the governor Aug. 4, IS
follows:
Text Of the Report.
In further response to the instructions of t
legislature in adopting the report of their co
mittee who referred the various subjects to II
department and recommended that the pub
examiner investigate thoroly into these
accounts l beg to submit herewith the la
ascertained to date.
The state Legislature, in 1893, created I
pine land investigating committee which al
investigation, declared that many of the eXi
ing permits to cut timber from state lands W.
irregularly issued and should be Cancelled, q
they recommended to the Legislature a VI
stringent law. This bill passed. and
June l. 1895, 1t became a law, being chap
1913 Of the General Laws of 1895, which, by
terms, Cancelled all existing timber estima
and prohibited the extension of any expir
permit to cut state timber for a longer per
than one year, and then only by the consent {
signature OF the governor, state treasurer
auditor all indorsed thereon. 1t also limi
the time any permit could be granted to
logging seasons. 1t has only been WITHIN
considerable cash from its pine and mine
lands and 1t the evident intent of
legislature to provide adequate legal mach1n
with which to care for this increasing respo
biltty The records show that many exp1
provisions of law have been set aside and lie
safeguards ignored; this has resulted in los
TO which your attention was called by dep
1nent reports under dates Of March 16, April
and May 30 last, to which your further con
Grafton is hereby invited.
On Jan l. 1895, some hundreds of open
counts with individuals and firms who had In
way and another bought or claimed to n
bought timber of the state. Many or II
contracts the legislature of 1895, by the a.
ton of the report of the "pine land 1nvesti
ing committee declared to have been 1ss
fraudulently, and the records do not show
existence of the conditions required by law
make their issuance legal. The estimates
which these so-called permits were issued
made the way, under the same condlt
and by the men were the estimate
clearly proven before the committee to be fra
lent and which the new law, recommended
the committee and passed by the legislator
1895, declared should not be used any furt
The records do not show that any of these fr
ulent permits Cancelled that any
gence was exercised to enforce the few
fetal conditions they contained, to protect
states interest in any way.
The law before 1895, now required
all purchasers of state timber should Civ
bond as guaranty that they would pay fol
timber standing the land and that
would cut it clean, without waste. The rec
show that the timber has not been cut clean
that there has been great waste In direct '
ton of contract, and do not show any attem
enforce thesterms of contract or bond, to
lect for damage caused the state by such
ton Of contract.
The records full of where
failures to cancel fraudulent and expired