Omaha daily bee., 1907-09-29
Dead Governor Credited with Getting
Thirty Thousand Dollars.
BoRAH FILED THE BOGUS DEEDS
Such is Charge Made by Special
Assistant Attorney General.
RUSH OF OMAHA HELPS IN CASE
He and Burch ms Special Deputies Are
sent by Washington to Prosecute
Gigantic steals of Idaho
Land.

What the government expects to prove
as to the guilt OF United States Senator w.
T.. Borah, chief counsel in the prosecution
of W. ID. Hayward. in the land frauds of
Idaho. of which he and others are charged
and for which he now is on trial at Boise.
( Idaho, is set forth in an exhaustive ar
raignment delivered to the court and jury
by Special Assistant Attorney General NJ.
c. Burch of Washington, who, with Special
Assistant Attorney General s. r. Rush OF
Omaha, is conducting the case. Not alone
the part which Borah played, but also that
which former Governor Frank Steunenberg.
for whose murder Hayward was tried, is
charged with having taken, is presented in
this argument.
So important a man was Borah in this
gigantic system of robbing the government,
according to Attorney Burch. that to him
was entrusted the responsible duty of ac-
cepting and finally placing on record the
fraudulent deeds which sealed the transac-
tion and spelt the doom of the guilty par
tiles. 'Out of this transaction" says Burch.
1T will be shown that Frank Steunenberg
received $4,000 of the stock of the Barber
Lumber company
Statement of the Case.
Attorney Burch then proceeds:
This indictment charges that the eight
or ten persons named I'm the indictment as
confederates and as respondents were
guilty of attempting to defraud the United
States, in that they procured lands through
and by the use OF other persons acting as
entrymen- and did so for their own use
and benefit and practically by means of
false oaths Of the three entrymen named
also in the Indictment. In this county of
Boise in 1899 and 1900 the United States
was possessed of a fine body OF timber land.
virgin forest, more valuable for its tim
Der than for any other reason.
Representing Boise county in the state
senate of Idaho at that time was one John
Kinkaid. one of the parties indicted. who
cuts an important figure in this case. He
evidently knew the value and extent of
that land &
"f have forgotten TO mention to you that
the defendant. william E. Borah, has had
severance. that is n separate trial from
the other defendants granted him in this
case, which. however, does not excuse the
government from it's requirements of pre-
senting TO you the whole story.
Collecting the Land.
This John Kinkaid we find busylng him
self during the year 1890 in and about the
scheme of procuring and obtaining as much
OF this land from the Urited States as
possible, by false and fraudulent means.
He opened an office in the city of Boise
and drew unto himself several parties with
the view 10 assisting him in procuring
entrymen who would for pay make false
oaths that they entered the land for their
exclusive use and benefit and conveying inn
mediately after perfecting their entries to
somebody else. and thus by a roundabout
course\ obtaining the land.
Another of the party was Patrick s.
Downs, timber cruiser from Wisconsin.
who possessed expert knowledge of
standing timber and thus selected the most
valuable timber lands, on which he put
dummy entrymen. This combination needed
money. 1t found one william Sweet of
Boise who had the requisite article, in
duced him to invest it and back them in
these entries.
The Man Steunenberg.
There also was at that time in this
state an ex-governor Frank Steunenberg,
a man of wide influence and interpid
character. who had the will to execute
that which he desired. They succeeded in
interesting Steunenberg in the scheme
there being an intimacy between Kinkaid
and Steunenberg. Steunenberg succeeded
in inducing a number of persons to go
into the scheme with him as a business
venture. Sweet invested $4,000 In the en-
terprise but up to this time Kinkaid
Wells, Steunenberg and others had not put
up any money q do their part but for
the purpose OF adding more funds to the
unlawful work, Steunenberg and Sweet
procured $500 on a Joint note from one OF
the Boise banks, which they put into the
enterprise Sweet subsequently went to
New York. upon some OF his own ven
lures. while SteunIhberg was looking
around for somebody TO buy at a. profit
in order to release their money.
Occur d'AIene Affair.
Along in 1888 and 1893 there were some
troubles up in the Coeur 'Alene district
in this state. Governor steunenberg had
gone there. presumably upon the patriotic
mission Of stopping those troubles. as the
chief executive of the state. In the course
of that transaction he became acquainted
with a wealthy mine owner by the name
of A. B. Campbell OF Spokane. Governor
stuenenberg succeeded in getting Camp
bell interested In his scheme later, with
A. z. Palmer of Wisconsin and James T.
Barber and Sumner @. Moon. two more
of the respondents in this indictment. The
result was that Sweet sold out to these
parties for $s2soo the money being sent
TO steunenberg to Caldwell. idaho. and
was turned over TO Judge Richards. the
attorney for Sweet.
"At the time OF this sale steunenberg gave
Sweet to understand, in writing. that he
had entered into an arrangement with
Barber a Moon at Eau Claire, Wis.
whereby some $4,000 was TO be outlaid in
the procuring OF timber lands in Idaho.
including the payment for the first group
OF lands When final proof had been made
by the dummy entrymen the deeds were