The Salt Lake tribune. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1890-current, 1907-03-18
How the Insistent and Relent-,
less Prosecution by the Coy
ernment Was Instituted. Il
STARTED WITH HERMANN, :
HE'S STILL STORM CENTER
Lieu Land Act Made 1t Compare
lively Easy for Thieves
to Work.
Special to The Tribune

Special to The Tribune. !
WASHINGTON, March 17-Ona
morning III December, 1902, Secretary
Hitchcock of the Interior department.
sent to Binger Hermann Commissioners
Of the General Land Office, for re-
port on land frauds made by special
agent of the department named j. 5.
m9nn 9sHfRSI Himself appeared es~ %1A'S %i5S the T re-
port and laid the same upon the Secre-
tary's desk. Mr.. Hitchcock looked it
over briefly and saw that 1T charged
that prominent and wealthy men III
numbers had been engaged in defraud-
ing the Government Of thousands upon
thousands of acres of the choicest Por
tions Of the public domain. He also
perceived that the report had been III
the hands of the Commissioner of tho
General Land Office for more than a
month. Thereupon said the venerable
Hitchcock:
N'Why has not this matter been called
to my attention before this time!
Mr. Hermann, who was visibly agi~
tated, was unable to make an adequate
explanation. Hitchcock once more took
the floor, and this is what he said:
"'Your resignation, Mr.. Commissioner,
is requested -
That was all, but from that brief
interview started the wholesale prose
cutions Of land frauds which have been
shaking the country ever since. From
that time the hunt for the land thieves
was pursued relentlessly until at the
present moment the record shows l02l
indictments of people IN twenty-1our
States, Territories and districts, and
126 convictions III eleven States The
indictments have fallen upon high and
| low Senators. members of Congress,
public officials, bankers. merchants and
raked in and brought to the bar, OF
| justice,
Hermann Storm Center.
But it was with Binger Hermann thai
the cases started and with him the
| Government is still having its troubles.
He has been indicted in Oregon fo-
conspiracy to defraud the Government,
and he has also been indicted here fol
violation OF the law prohibiting the
unauthorized destruction of public rec
ords, On this latter charge he is now
being tried. The trial has been IN prog.
ress for four weeks, and will probably
continue at least three weeks longer,
The bitter thing about IL to the Gov
erument is that if its theory of the case
is correct this trial need never havo
taken place, and Hermann might now
be behind the bars FOR term OF years.
| The mistake the Government accuses
itself of is in not forcing Herman ou5
| of office the moment it was discovered
that he was holding back the Holsinger
report, and at the same instant se2zing
all the records IN the general land Of
fee. But when his resignation was de-
| manded there came an avalanche OF re-
quests from politicians Office holders,
and prominent citizens protesting
against a summary and disgraceful re"
moval of Hermann and asking that he
be treated with some dignity and per-
mitted to resign at the end of thirty
days. This was done, and now the Gov
ernment charges that during those
thirty days Hermann collected and de-
stroYed all the evidence in the Office
incriminating himself and others in the
land frauds. The specific charge on
| which he is being tried is for the al
legged destruction of thirty'hye letter
press copy books, claimed to have con-
tanned letters which would have made
clear the whole vast conspiracy by
which in a few years all the public
lands worth anything would have been
stolen
Men have been Mt work in the Gen
eral Land Office for the past three years
trying to find some discriminating evi~
| dence overlooked by Hermann, but acv
| has been found The Government saws
Hermann made a clean sweep, but al
though the trial is being prosecuted
| with the greatest care and diligence
with no detail overlooked, it is begin
ming TO he suspected that the case
against Hermann will not result III a
conviction. If he is guilty he has GER
tainly covered his tracks very effectu-
ally, so far as the charge of destroy
ing public records is concerned But out
| in Oregon. where he has been indicted
for conspiracy TO defraud the Govern
| ment, most of his alleged fellow-con-
spirators have already been convicted.
and he VIII have to stand trial there
as soon as the trial here is concluded.
Wide Variety of Frauds.
The land fraud cases under which
the many indictments have been Sc
| cured cover grabs MT all kinds of pub
lie lands, including timber, agricul-
tural. grazing and mineral lands, and
the methods of the various frauds dlf,
fer TO fit the different descriptions of
lands unlawfuly taken. But the frauds
with which Hermann is charged with
having had direct connection referred
To timber lands alone When the
march of time and the destruction OF
the Eastern timber finally served to
| bring the vast and magnificent forests
of the Pacific slope into the market
| the price of lumber had advanced to
sucb n point that much of this Western
timber land was extremely valuable.
Some of it, they say, was worth as
| much ms $500 an acre as IL stood. But
the difficulty about getting it into the
market was that under the law there
was no direct method by which a per
son or company could secure tlt!e to
large consolidated tracts. and of course
| :, NOT nav bip concern n