Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1905-03-10

San Francisco, and they devised method
of securing control of government land
that showed the touch OF genius. lhey
offered to make money for any person VINO
had the small sum of % cents to invest:
They simply desired to use the name OF
the person brought into the Scheme, anu
by means of the name to obtain possession
Of state school lands. ;.,,
1t is well known by those 1amiildf win
the land laws that the United States gov.
eminent dedicated every other sectlon VI
land in the public domain in the west 10 ths
state for school purposes. The state co"la
Use ii directly for the Establishment Oh
schools or 1t could sell the land and devote
the proceeds to schools. The land IN ques-
ton is known as school land, ana Is 10 De
found wherever there is pubhc lana; IN
the case of the state OF CaltoThIa Inc leS = a.,
Iature provided for the sale of this land at
a nominal price to bona fide settlers VINO
would take up claims and estabnsh MONIES
and farms This provision was MADE as an
inducement to people to come TO Gam ,9 iiii'
and settle and was a great success. How
ever there were some of the school lands
that were absolutely worthless for any pui-
nose and it was to these lands that hyde
and Benson turned their attention.
Their Scheme.
Their scheme was to secure possession OF
large tracts of this land and through prlp-
cry of the United States forest supervisor
have the land withdrawn from entry ana
reserved by the general government as
forest reserve.
Then thew would obtain scrip under the
land law which permitted them TO take up
unoccupied land in other sectlons OF Tue
nublic domain of like amount to that de-
scrihed in the scrip without charge. In
this way land of a much greater Value
could be obtained without cost ana coulu
be sold or the script could be SOLO OF Tue
scrtn could be farmed out to persons VINO
desired to take I'D land and permit them 10
secure property worth $2o. say, an acre
for almost nothing, simply by paying lee
to the land attorneys who owned the scrip
It was not the intention of either the
Tinted States government or the state gov
eminent that more than enough lana 1or d
farm or ranch should be obtained ny any
one person, and the fraud came Where
the. men under indictment secured thou-
sands Of acres of land by using the names
of persons hired for the purpose: All tnat
was required of the persons Whom Hyde
and Benson interested in their scheme
was that they should sign applications
for the land. They signed and at the same
time signed a REIMBURSEMENT Thereon 70
HYDE and Benson, so that when the lano
patent was issued it was the property or
Hyde and Benson. When the NUMBER 81 y,
susceptible people to be found had been
exhausted. bootblacks, bartenders, truck
drivers and the like were enlisted as set
tiers. and filed applications, and when all
of these had been exhausted IL Is chargea'
ents and scrip issued in the names of ficti-
tious persons
Schneider's Confession.
The right-hand man of Hyde and Benson
in their dealings was one Joost H. Schnei-
der, a clerk in their office. Schneider has
confessed TO have charge of that part OF
the transactions which related to the forg-
ing of names to applications for school,
lands When the business grew so extern
sive and Schneider saw what money MS
employers were making he grew avaricfous
himself and made demand on Hyde and
Benson for a large sum of money, threat
ening to expose the thing If he did NOT
get it, They declined to give up all he
asked, arguing that he was well paid FOR
his part in the transaction. but. after
discussion, did give him 5000. With TINS
money Schneider went to Arizona. He set
tied in Tucson and after a short residence
there began to brood over his troubles. He
still thought he had been used shabby by
Hyde and Benson, and from Tucson wrote
TO them renewing his demands for money.
They refused, and Schneider then turned