Dakota farmers' leader. (Canton, S.D.) 1890-19??, 1907-11-15
WAR ON WESTERN FRAUD.
Stenlers of Timber and oai Asnos
In Re vigorously Prosecuted.

s+>.lers of Timber and Coal Lenos
% Re vigorously Prosecuted.
After n series of important confer
ence held with the Attorney General
of the United States, NJ. G.. Burch, p e
cial assistant attorney general In the
field. has returned to h Far West,
commissioned to 20 ahead with govern
ment land fraud suits, both civil n
criminal, on a scale larger by far than
ANYTHING yet undertaken in this line
by the government,
The numerous indictments already re-
turned for timber and coal land frauds
nil through the West are to be prose-
cuted without exception, and new In
dictments will be added to the list. Inc
docket of practically every United
States district court in the Mountain
States is to be crowded with civil suits
by which the government Will seek 10
reyain it's title to the millions upon
millions Of acres of valuable timber
and coal land obtained by fraudulent
entry. g2F3
The Indictments already include
| many OF the most prominent ana
\ wealthy men in the West. Mr.. Burch
Is Instructed by the President and the
| Attorney General to inflict upon them
| the criminal penalty wherever possible.
| BY the civil suits it will be sought to
take away from them such of their
| wealth as has been illegally obtained.
| The scope of the machinery the gov
! eminent has set in motion against the
land thieves is little ~comprehende1,
says a Washington correspondent. In
addition to the force Of district attOr-
neys, Burch, a well-known Michigan
lawyer, has been assigned by the De
partment of Justice to general charge
Of these prosecutions. Cooperating
with him under the direction of L. G.
Wheeler, who received his training in
Washington, is thel largest secret serv-
ice staff in the country. Mr.. Wheeler
has more than 100 men. They are scat
tered over the immense area of the
Mountain States, all burrowing for evil
dence against the men who have pl-
rated Uncle Sam out Of his valuable
coal and timber These men
do not call themselves secret service
employees, since the secret service Is
supposed solely to be engaged in ferret
ing out counterfeiters n protecting
the person of the President. Mr..
Wheeler and his staff are known as
special agents of the Department Of
Justice. In fact, however, their bust
ness is that of a secret service, spe-
cialy created by the President to camp
on the trail Of the railroad corporations
and the mining and timber millionaires,
who have been the chief INSIDERS in
land %thievery.
The prosecutions in charge Of Mr..
Burch are not to be ~confouEded with
the much-storied chapter of fraud in
Oregon. The work of Mr.. Burch and
Mr.. Wheeler lies chiefly in Idaho, Mon
tana, Wyoming, Utah and Colorado.
Though not so well known, the land
fraud inquiry and prosecution in the
latter States have been conducted O.
much wider lines and with more star
Ting results than in Oregon. The gov
eminent investigation has brought
about the most startling Of all the dis
closures by its probing into the coal
land frauds. It has been brought out
. conclusively that in Wyoming, in Colo
RADIO, in Utah and in Idaho, the Harri-
mar railroad system, the Hill interests
and the Gould lines, respectively, have
secured a grip on the bulk Of the coal
deposits in the West-deposits now
known to be large enough to furnish
the nation with fuel for years when the
Eastern coal mines shall have been ex-
hausted.
The last batch Of indictments for IL
legally obtaining coal lane came out in
Colorado and included seventy promi-
nent men, some of them resident West
erners and others from Eastern and
Middle Western cities, who thought
they saw a good thing and ravenously
Joined in the wholesale grabbing for
rich public lands.
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