The daily tribune., 1906-01-12
FOILS THE LAND THIEVES.
SECRETARY HITCHCOCK'S EE-
LENTLESS PURSUIT OF LAND
GRABBING THIEVES,
Was Earliest and Stronges st Advocate
of Government Irrlgation-lrriga-
tlon Work of His Department Highly
Successful.
By Richard H. Byrd.

By Richard II. Byrd.
1t IL 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 ad-
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
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, to
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 forcefui 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 OF
the country made their task possible If
not easy.
Crime In High Places.
Secretary Hitchcock. shortly after he
became member of the Cabinet, had
his attention called to evident frauds
in the requirement Of government
land. He set to work n quiet investl-
CATION. 1t finally eliminated in the
indictment of great numbers of people
and in the recent conviction OF II
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 ana
Is working up.
1t Is stated. to have been good deal
Of surprise to the wiseacres ut
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
conviction of any Congressman or
Senator In Oregon. 1t was announced
that the Secretary Ind been lily ad-
vlsed and had gotten himself Into
deep hole. the outcome Of which would
be disastrous to himself.
Tried to Have Him Removed.
The Secretary remarked on several
occa sions 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 n little nervous and the newspaper
rumors began, to the effect that Sec
retary 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 change in
the Interior Department would not
have been hailed as victory for the
land grabbers.