The Boise citizen. (Boise, Idaho) 1906-1910, 1907-01-04
-
Presents W6u6rhd6uS-
er $3.000.00O
SPECIMEN OF LIEU
LAND LEGISLATION
IDAHO Should Profit bu Lesson and
Refuse to Elect Corporation
Attorney

In our last issue we gave portion OF
an article from the Cosmopolitan Maga-
zine for January, in which Chas. P. Nor
cross wrote of the methods of the Wey-
erhaeuser syndicate in securing millions
of acres of timber land in exchange for
worthless lands in the forest reserves.
Although a large area of this land thus
illegally grated" is located in Idaho the
daily press of Boise had no mention of
Mr. Norcross' articles, notwithstanding
it is mighty interesting reading" to
quote favorite expression of Horace
Greeley
1t may be that the daily papers of
Boise do not wish to call attention to
the fact that Weyerhaeuser attorney
has been selected by the Republican
bosses for the next United States sena-
tor from Idaho; but the interesting fact
was also brought out in the article that
the Weyerhauesers already have friend
in the senate and, of course, another
would be greatly to their liking. Just
read the following account of a friendly
piece of legislation in the interest of
Weyerhaeuser and notice what a good
turn senator can do the lumber syndi-
cate and then ask yourself if Idaho
should be represented in the senate by
a Weyerhauser attorney, just because the
the Republican bosses at Pocatello treat
ed the convention delegates as a lot of
puppets and brazenly attempted to usurp
the constitutional prerogative of the leg
5islature to choose a United States SEN
ator. Mr.. Norcro9s concluded his article
as follows
Another of the methods used by the
Weyerhaeuser interests to secure land
is of SO recent date that there is every
possibility that it may yet be officially
investigated; in this instance, as in 9TH
ers, it brought about the turning over
BY the government to the Weyerhaeuser
people of an enormous tract of rich and
valuable land. Somewhere back in the
ffties the state of Oregon granted to the
California and Oregon Land Company
a large tract of land lying between Eu-
gene, Oregon, and Silver City, Cal
ifornia. This grant was made for turn
pike road Much of the land is worth
less now, and the road is practically
unused; still there are parts of it heavily
timbered The establishment of the
klamath foreet raea-,-o+;o,,, h., H. -.
'ernment took in eight hundred thousand
acres of this land. 1t may seem strange,
but by some mysterious means these
eight hundred thousand acres drifted
into the hands of one man. He gave
an option on the whole thing to o. o. |
Searle, of Minneapolis, at an upset price
of one million dollars, or one dollar and
a quarter an acre. Searle, who is in
business with A. E. johnson & Co., of
minneapolis, entered into negotiations
with the Weyerhaeuser syndicate to buy
the land. They held off, and never did
act through Searle, but going behind his
back they secured it in another way. 1t
is safe to assume that they did not pay
more than Searle asked
1T may be merely coincidence, but
Soon after this tract of land had passed
into the hands of the Weyerhaeuser
crowd, Senator Fulton, of Oregon
4 whose name has frem time to time been
mentioned in connection with that OF !
the late Senator Mitchell, who, CON
victed of land frauds, died suddenly, I
introduced resolution as an amend
ment to the Indian appropriation bill
authorizing the land company to ex-
change one hundred and eleven thou