The Evening statesman. [volume] (Walla Walla, Wash.) 1903-1910, 1907-02-19
Witnesses n Ross Land Inquiry
Get all Mixed Up
DEFENDANT clEyERlr SHIFTS BLAME
ACCUSED LAND COMMISSIONER
SAYS CALVERT AND OTHERS
MADE MISTAKES.


Land Commissioner Charles w.
Ross was the first witness today be-
fore the joint legislature committee APP
pointed to probe into the affairs Of his
office. Ross made a good witness for
himself and threw upon the admins
tration of former Land Commissioner
Calvert and the whole land commits
sion of which Secretary of State Mich
OILS and School Superintendent Bryan
are members with the land commits
! sioner, the responsibility of the trans
fer of much of the public land. The
formal approval Of orders for the sale
of state lands must be made by this
| board, but the state land commissioner
has not yet told the committee that he
| names the cruisers and has the only
access to inside information as to. prop
erty values. What the land commits
| siOner passes upon is the Office rec
ord and that is whatever Ross wants
it to be.
Ross charged that Calvert sent
cruisers onto the field lands with in
| structiOnS as to the valuation they
should put upon timber lands. and he
urged this in justification of his own
actions.
| The sale of the Mason county timber
land was partially investigated this
morning The section was originally
appraised at $23,254.5O by Land Com
missioner Calvert, but afterward ap-
praised under Ross at $15,1O6.5O, and
was sold to Mark Reed for $4,000. The
committee wanted to know why the
reduction was made when timber lands
were sharply advancing. Ross claimed
that his predecessor had instructed
Cruisers Billings and Israel to place
a high value on the Mason county tim
Der lands when John Rankin. Of Olym-
pia first applied for it's purchase. Ross
charged that Calvert wanted to keep
the land away from Rankin.
Pinned Down.
! Tonight Billings stated that he placed
the value higher than he would have
done under ordinary circumstances ow-
| ing to instructions he had received
| from Calvert. When pinned down to
| figures, however, on cross examination,
the witness was utterly lost and gave
| five or six different estimates of the
| amount he had overestimated the
value of the timber
Former Land Commissioner Calvert
followed Billings. He testified that he
gave special instructions owing to cir
ton in the Mason county case, but en-
phatically denied that he had any in
tentiOn of securing an inflated valua-
! ton. He said if Billings had told him
that the estimate had been put pur-
posely high he would have dismissed
Billings at once.
| The Billings Israel report was filed
| July 1, 1904, and on December 9, 1905,
| was filed the report of Cruiser George
| Deering, whom Ross sent out when
Mark Reed wanted to buy the timber
| lands. There is a difference Of more
than $4,000 in the valuation on the prop
| erty by the result of the two cruis-
ings. Deering was on the stand to-
night and stoutly maintained the cor
rectness of his figures. He is from
down the Sound and is sponsored by
! Perry Niles.
| 1t developed during the examination
of Ross that in behring's cruise there
was no estimate made on the quantity
of first class fir, first class cedar, and
white pine. Ross explained this away
by saying that those woods were not
considered to be worth anything. The
land commissioner later became en-
gagged in the valuation of hemlock and
could not give accurate information.
Representative Basset brought out
the assertion that Is per cent of the
state land sales fall through because
of too high valuation. Ross added to
this that he did not feel right unless
between 25 or 80 per cent of his valua
lions were protested by applicants.