The Billings gazette. [volume] (Billings, Mont.) 1896-1919, 1905-01-03
OREGON SENATOR AND REPRE-
SENTATIVE INDICTED.
ON CHARGE OF CONSPIRACY
Alleged That Herman Expedited Cases
at MitcheI's Rrequest-Senator
Received Fee.

Portland, Ore, Jan. i-United
States Senator John H. Mitchell, Rep
resentative Binger Hermann and |
George Sorenson, formerly deputy |
sheriff of Multnomah county, were
Jointly indicted yesterday by the fed
eral grand jury.
The indictment alleges that John H. |
Mitchell and Binger Hermann did, in
January, 1902, unlawfulIy and feloni |
ously conspire together and with each
other and with S. A. D. Puter, Horace
G. Mckinley N. w. Tarpley, Emma l..
Watson, Salmon B. Ormsby, Clark =.
Loomis and William Ii. Davis and
o hers to defraud the government or
the United States out OF portion OF
it's public lands, situated in township
II SOUTH range east, by means OF
forged and false atfidavits and ficti-
tious persons, and that in the further
ance of such conspiracy, S. A. D. Pu-
ter did, on March 8, 1902, pay to John
H. Mitchell the sum of $4,000 to secure
his influence with Binger Hermann.
then commissioner of the general land
office at Washington.
Fraud Is Charged.
1t alleges that, acting upon the sug-
gestion and the wish of Senator Mitch
ell and influenced by him, knowing
that the transactions were unlawful
and felonious, Binger Hermann used
his power as commissioner OF the gen
eral land office to expedite II claims
in township II south, range Z east,
and had them passed to patent when
he knew them to be illegal and not
according to the requirements of the
law The indictment also alleges that
on March %, 1904 George Sorenson
offered to John H. Hall, district attor-
ney for the United States in Oregon,
the sum of $4,000 with intent to intiu-
ence the said. John H. Hall in his otti-
cial capacity, when acting on the i'll
dictments returned against S. A. ID.
Puter, Horace G. Mckinley and others,
to defraud the government out OF land
in township II south, range east.
Sorenson is indicted for having Of
fered bribe of $4,000 to District At
torney Hall on March 28, last, when
the indictment against the conspira-
tors who were convicted in the recent
trial was pending in the federal court.
Puter's Part.
| The alleged connection of Senator
Mitchell and Representative Hermann
with the alleged conspiracy dates
back, it is said, to the time when
Mr. Mitchell received the letter from
"a prominent attorney in Oregon in
PRODUCING S. A. d. Puter as "a respon-
sible business man OF Oregon"
The government will, it is said, at
tempt to prove that Puter and Mitch
ell and Hermann were well acquaint-
| ed, that Puter was an ardent support
er of Mitchell in the senatorial cam
paign of 1898 and that all of them
have been personally acquainted for
| years.
| In 1902, the government alleges, Pu-
ter went to Washington on business
connected with the lands OF III, in
which he was at that time interested
The lands were held up in the general
land office and Puter thought that it
would be of benefit to himself and his
fellows to go to Washington and see
what could be done to expedite them
to patent.
Mitchell Approached.
Before he left Portland, the govern,
ment will attempt to prove, he went
to F. P. Mays and secured from him a
letter to Senator Mitchell, though in
fact, according to the government, he
was already we'll known to the sena.
tor. Arriving at Washington, the land
speculator went, so evidence will be
offered, to the Office of Senator Mitch.
ell and conferred with him in regard
to having the claims taken from the
suspended list and put through to pat
ent as soon as possible. He told the
senator, it is alleged, that he had al
ready sunk large amount of money