The Minneapolis journal. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn.) 1888-1939, 1905-02-20
OREGON HARD.HIT
:. BY LAND GASES
ALL but One Of States Delegation
in Congress Indicted for
=. ~.,.s Fraud. 49,, g. :
BY w, w. J0rmane,

Washington, Feb. 20.-The state Of
Oregon is. in a bad way, with her en-
tire delegation in congress, save one,
under indictment upon the charge Of
swindling the United States govern
ment in Connection with wholesale land
frauds.
In addition to the two United States
senator's, Oregon has two representa-
tives in the lower house Of congress.
Senator, Mitchell is now under two in
dictments, and Representatives, Her
mann and Williamson are also charged
with frauds. Senator Fulton alone has
escaped the net cast by the public pros
ecutors. !. ~. -. ..-,.- = 49,.
Senator Mitchell is still in Washing
ton, but announces that he will leave
In a few days for Oregon. to prepare
for his. trial. He will be 20 years Of
age June 81. His term expires in two
years from March 4 and this is his
Fourth term as a. United States senator,
90 that he has served twenty-five years
In the senate. III. #" ~-''. - 49, 49,.
Senator Mitchell is chairman of the
committee on interoceanic canals, and
since his indictment has spent his en-
tire time, while at the capitol, in his
committee room, and has not been, in
the senate chamber since the day he
made his pathetic explanation of the
charges that have been made against
him. |-.r
Wel-informed persons say the antag-
onism Of Secretary Hitchcock and the
interior department will make Senator
Mitchell friends to such an extent that
it is hardly likely g. jury can be found
in Oregon that will convict him unless
the evidence should be overwhelmingly
convincing. The people of farther east
ern states do not realize the extent of
in the western states, where the gov
eminent has such extensive holdings in
agricultural, timber and mineral lands.
There may be the best Of reasons for
this alleged unpopularity Of Secretary
Hitchcock. He may be doing his duty
too religiously. There is a sentiment
in some communities in the far west
that it is not wrong to get land by
breaking the land laws of the govern
ment. It is the same with timber on
the government land. The land and all
on it belongs to the public, they say,
and so, to get possession of what is the
public 3 in land and timber, no matter
how, is no sim,
Many people in the south do not
think it wrong to manufacture
moonshine' whisky and cheat the in
.ternal revenue department out of $1.10
a gallon tax; but as Commissioner
Yerkes stoutly insists that the law be
rigidly enforced and the violators Of
it sent to the penitentiary, he has be-
come unpopular in some sections. The
feeling toward Secretary Hitchcock and
the enforcement Of the land laws by
the government is something akin to
this feeling against :. Commissioner
Yerkes and his inSnectors
It will be seen that if Senator Mitch
ell really has done some Technical
things for his constituents in tamper-
ing with the land laws, it will be diff
cult to convict him before a jury of
his peers in Oregon.
What Mitchell Says.
Senator Mitchell made the following
general statement today for T b e
F., ourn L.:
Il have always believed that it was the