Lawrence democrat. (Lawrenceburg, Tenn.) 1884-1925, 1906-01-19
FOILS THE LAND THIEVES.
SECRETARY HITCHCOCK'S RE
LENTLESS PURSUIT OF LAND
GRABBING THIEVES.
Was Earliest and Strongest Advocate
of Government Observation-Disclosures
tion Work of His Department Highly
Successful.

was Earliest ana StrOngeSt ADVOCATE
of Government lrrigation-lrriga-
tion Work of His Department Highly
Successful.
BY Richard 81. Byrd.
It is rumored that among probable
Cabinet changes Secretary Hitchcock
is to shortly retire from the Interior
Department of which he has been the
head since the second Mckinley adj
ministration. 1t will be recalled that
more or less definite statements as to
Mr.. Hitchcock's retirement and his
probable successors have been of very
frequent and regular occurrence, but
the reason therefore Is probably not
hard to find. Mr. Hitchcock has made
a very great Secretary Of the Interior.
He has torn to pieces vast fabric
constructed to steal, not acres, but
square miles of the public lands, 10
grab from the government great tracts
worth millions of dollars. The land
grabbers have been men in high po-
sitions; they have employed perjury,
bribery and forgery, to say nothing of
more forceful crimes to defraud their
country. Their ring was backed by
wealthy and influential men and in
cluded members of the legislatures,
United States Commissioners, special
land agents, notaries, etc. The trail
even led to the head of the General
Land Office, into the national House of
Representatives and into the United
States Senate. The loose land laws or
the country made their task possible II
not easy.
Crime in High Places.
Secretary Hitchcock, shortly after he
became a member of the Cabinet, had
his attention called to evident frauds
in the requirement of government
land. He set to work a quiet investi-
cation. 1t finally eliminated in the
indictment of great numbers of people
and in the recent conviction of a
United States Senator and Member
of Congress. Perhaps, though the cul-
mination is not yet. No man knows
where the trail may lead next or how
much evidence Mr.. Hitchcock has and
Is working up.
1t is stated to have been good deal
of a surprise to the wiseacres at
Washington, and in fact throughout
the country, to see the way in which
the Secretary of the Interior has made
good" in his land fraud prosecutions.
1t was never supposed last winter
that the government could ever secure
a conviction of any Congressman or
Senator in Oregon. 1t was announced
that the Secretary had been lily ad-
vised and had gotten himself into a
deep hole, the outcome of which would
be disastrous to himself.
Tried to Have Him Removed.
The Secretary remarked on several
occasions that the land frauds were
astounding in their magnitude but
that he proposed to stop them. He
was laughed at but just the same
some of the land grabbers began to
get little nervous and the newspaper
rumors began, to the effect that Sec
rotary Hitchcock would probably re-
sign-in the course of two or three
months, after he had finished with GER
tain investigations being made at
that time. But the investigations have
never been finished. Before one batch
of frauds has been disposed Of,
another sensation has been sprung in
some other state SO that there has
never been time when a change in
the Interior Department would not
have been hailed as victory for the
land grabbers.