The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1906-07-18
Unique Feature in Gases.


called on, and mass of evidence is now
on file in Washington.
Unique Feature in Gases.
The Utah cases involve features differ
ent from any other land fraud litigation
the government has attempted. This is
because of the utilization of the state
land grants. The national law provides
that coal land may be taken up in tracts
of not over 800 acres according to certain
prescribed methods, and fixes the price
at $40 an acre when the land is over fiji
teen miles from railroad and $50 an acre
when-it is nearer to a railroad.
When Utah was admitted to the union,
congress granted it certain land for state
institutions. This land was to be select
ed from time TO time by the state land
board, but it was expressly forbidden
that any ground containing mineral
should be taken in this way. In viola
ton of the law, 1t is charged, the state
land board selected known mineral land
and sold it TO agents of the Pleasant Val
ley Coal company and the Utah Fuel COM
pany. In this way the companies OBJ
tanned tracts containing thousands of
acres, and paid only $l.25 an acre instead
of the higher price.
State Can't Lose Money.
Although it is charged that the land
board obtained the money for the state
Illegally il is not believed the state it
Should the government win its suits, the
land in question will revert from the coal
companies TO the United States. The coal
companies. although they had paid the
money to the state, would not have the
land. The state would have the money.
and il is considered exceedingly doubtful
that an action on the part of the com
panies TO recover it, even If undertagen,
would be successful.
The operations to secure coal lands
through state selections under the guise
of agricultural OF grazing lands, ii is
charged, have been going on practically
ever since Utah was admitted to the I'M
ion The forthcoming actions. however,
will deal only with cases arising within
the last six years This is because of the
statute of limitations
The charge of collision by the state land
board is directed against all its members
but falls most heavily on the former sec
rotary, Byron Groo. Mr.. Groo did the
active work during his incumbency.
Robert Forester Involved.
Robert Forester bears the brunt for
the coal companies. The transactions
were nearly all in his name or in those
of his relatives.
1t is alleged that Mr. Forester. acting
for the coal companies, applied for Vari-
Gus sections of land in Carbon county. To
do this it was necessary to make affida-
Wit of the nOn-mineral character of the
land and TO declare il was valuable only
for agricultural and grazing purposes.
This application was filed with the sec
rotary of the state land board, Byron
Groo. 1t was then the duty of the board
to investigate the land to ascertain that
it contained no coal or other minerals
The charge is made that in many in
stances land which was marked on the
government surveys as coal land was
passed without investigation as agri-
cultural or grazing tracts Furthermore
ii is alleged that, instead of making per-
ioqt RI Mt cd
the statements of the prospective pur-
chasers. Still another allegation is that
the board or its secretary, agreed in
advance to get certain lands under state