Polk County observer. (Monmouth, Polk County, Or.) 1888-1927, 1905-08-18
HOFER'S VIEW OF IT
Capitol City Editor Does Not Endorse
Heney'S Methods in Land
Fraud Trials.

Col. II. Hofer the versatile editor Of
the Salem Journal, pays his respects
to Francis J. Heney in the following
vigorous editorials
"Mr Heney has said it and Port
land papers have doled it out to the
people and that settles it-popular
sentiment is with Heney, the U. S.
district attorney in the land fraud
trials.
Before leaving for San Francisco
to get a new start, Heney said he
would Immediately proceed to the third
trial of Congressman Williamson on
his return and that the people of Ore
gon were with him.
'The trials all the way through have
been by popular vote as it were-by
appeals to the masses of the news
paper readers, by the mob, and not by
fair and judicial proceedings.
'All the indicted men were declared
indicted long before the indictments
were found. All were declared guilty
and were convicted long before trial
juries were ever impaneled.
every issue Of the Portland papers
for the past six months has treated
every man accused of land frauds as
guilty, per Sc, alb initio, de facto, on
the high road to the penitentiary.
Judge De Haven the old ex-Con-
gresham from the First California
district, is brought up and filled with
these popular clamor" convictions,
and he grinds through three trials and
quits.
Gle showed all the way through
that he more and more felt the thin
ness Of the Governments contentious,
and on the last Williamson trial vir-
ually sided with the defense and in
structed in their favor.
"Heney lost his temper and spent
half his time trying Judge Bennett.
He leaves the state and promises the
newspapers that the people are with
him, thus revealing the whole "pop-
ular clamor" nature of his methods.
"It is presumed that Judge Hunt, of
Montana, will be holy terror to the
accused land-grabbers. He will merely
look at them and say, ''go to the pen
ye accursed of the earth" The for
mality Of argument will be done away
with.
'The work of destroying the Oregon
delegation will go forward at the
hands of Humbolt county democrat.
The land business Of Oregon will be
paraIyzed We are getting too pro-
gressive and prosperous.
''With three-fifths Of our state tied
up forever in forest reserves, with our
delegation destroyed, and with timber
lands and other public lands tied up
in Government prosecutions, Oregon
will drag for ten years.
'The fair will boom Portland, but
the rest of the state will languish.
The timber counties will feel the
chill of deadly creeping paralysis Of
their principal industry"
with a suspended, disrupted, de-
moralized delegation, Oregon appro-
priations will languish, Oregon
harbors will remain unopened, Oregon
rivers will remain unimproved, and
other states will shoot ahead.
"With a ''busted" delegation in
Congress and the Senate, the money
for The Dalles and Cello canal will
not be forthcoming, and the Columbia
will not be opened to the sea.
''But will we not have Heneyism ex
emplified in Oregon, with hundreds Of
Jurors drawing per diem and mileage,
with hundreds of claims in each coun-
ty suspended, pending investigation?
"Our state will be getting glorious
reputation, will be advertised to the
world as a nest of thieves, will be held
up to the world as den of political
iniquity, where graft grows on every
bush, and public officials should be
hung on every tree.
''The question remains, is Oregon
with Heney, and does this state en-
dorse its own political destruction and
industrial suspension?"