Bonners Ferry herald. [volume] (Bonners Ferry, Idaho) 1904-current, 1907-04-27
IDAHO LAND CASES
SPECIAL ATTORNEY GENERAL
GIVES INTERVIEW.
Sensational Reports Going the Rounds
of the Press Are Wrong Ruick Not
In Washington to Defend Senator
Borah, He says-No Connection Be-
tween Two Great Questions.


Judge NJ. C. Burch, special assist
ant United States attorney general.
on his return from Boise, Idaho, in an
interview with a press representative
denied that there is any connection be-
tween the land fraud investigation in
Idaho and the prosecution of the West
ern Federation of Miners on the charge
Of completely in the assassination Of
Ex-Governor Steunenberg of Idaho.
Sensational reports going the
rounds of the press concerning the
Idaho conditions should be very large
ly discounted" said Judge Burch. "The
timber lands investigation in that state
are not new. For nearly four years
these inquiries have been going on in
northern Idaho and l was instrument
tai in sending both a special attor-
ney and a special examiner of the de-
partment of justice there at the start.
It requires time to pry off the lid
which ordinarily covers such transac-
tons and such was the case there, but
nearly year ago some of the guilty
In southern Idaho the alleged frauds
were much more recent and the Of
ficers of the department of justice
and of the interior have neither urged
forward nor retarded their operations
by reason of the pending offenses al
legged against the officials of the min
ers' federation. The visit of District
Attorney Ruick to Washington is an
ordinary occurrence.
1.-THE attorney general is always in
control Of any case, either civil or
criminal and would not think of over
ruling the action of a grand jury
review of it's action between indict-
ment and the trial of the parties in
dicted, nor to forestall a proper in
quiry into the probable guilt or inno-
cence of parties accused and not yet
indicted. The courts are so entirely
above and beyond the reach of the
influence of the department of JUS
tice or any executive department Of
the government that it is extremely
belittling to federal grand jurles, as
to their dignity or power, to intimate,
as has been done, that there is any
necessity to go to Washington and ex-
plain what they have or have not done
in obedience to call or request of any
executive officer from the president
down.
"Only congress has the right to in
quire into their conduct and then only
by reason of the formal charge pre-
ferred and by impeachment proceed
ings. l know personally that no such
call has been made on Judge Beatty.
In Defense of Borah.
ut is equally unfair to draw any
conclusions, on the other hand, against
Senator Borah. 1t was commonly
understood he was in the Steunenberg
murder case as special attorney for
the prosecution before he was elected
to the senate. 1t is, | think, con-
oeded he has acted in a general way in
his capacity as attorney for the Bar
Der Lumber company, which company
is alleged, in connection with others,
to have been engaged in illegally OBJ
tanning lumber lands near Boise. But
that does not presume, nor is it in
itself the slightest evidence, that he
had any part in procuring lands or
conspiring to do so. 1t has been, to
my knowledge, and l have every rea-
son to believe it will be, the policy
of the department of justice in Idaho
to hew straight to the line to keep
its administration here absolutely free
from ENHANCEMENT either with the
prosecution or defense of Meyer, Hay
wood and Pettibone and TO thwart any
possible interference in any manner
by political Influence on one side, or
disposition to aid the accused men on
the other, and if the subject is even
considered by the attorney general or
other executive officials, l am salts
fed 1t will be strictly along the line
of how best to punish the offenders
OF the federal laws and recover lands
wrongfully obtained from the govern
ment, and not in any wise, while doing
so. to engage in the trial of the alleged
Offenders against the state of Idaho"