Mower County transcript., 1908-12-23

~ IN the message sent TO congress.
The president last winter was op-
posed to that legislation and claimed
then as. he does now, that it was
intended to embarrass the govern
ment in it's prosecution Of land and
timber thieves. He wrote a personal
letter to Speaker Cannon on the sub
ject and that letter was shown to
Mr.. Tawney before a vote was TAX
en-. -n - !,
., Plainly on Tawnev. 49,. 81
In this way the Minnesota repre-
sentative has been made personally
responsible for doing the & thing
which the president declared in his
official message to congress, which
will be preserved in the records. Of
the government, 1ahas been .of bene-
fit only and could be of benefit only
to the criminal classes. 81, g..s@ p
OF course no such plain speaking
in the presidential message could
fail to create a cOmmotion at the
capitol. This was especially true be-
cause President Roosevelt touched
upon a raw spot which had only
been hinted at hitherto. At the last
session when this legislation was
under discussion, it was freely
charged that the sole purpose of the
amendment to the appropriation bill
forbidding the use of service agents
outside their own bureau, was to
put stop to the prosecution of land
and timber thieves. It was we'll
known that William J. Burns, the
famous operator of the secret SER
vice, who subsequently left the bu-
'reau to undertake the prosecution of
the San Francisco ring, was the,
first to produce evidence against land
and timber thieves in the west and.
far northwest. 1t was his work which
eliminated in the indictments of
United States Senator Mitchell and
Representative Williamson Of Ore
goh.' .'t {. > z 49, -. 80: -
Other agents of the same service,
acting under control of the depart
ment of justice, unearthed a wide.
spread conspiracy of fraud upon the
government, and many of the cases
are still pending. When Secretary
Garfield reOrganiZed the interior de-
partment it was found that certain
sections of the land Office were
honey combed with men who were
in the pay of a ring of land thieves,
Certain representatives and senator's
exerted all their political influence
in opposition to Secretary Hitchcock
who was at the head of the inter-
ior department., and they attempted
to exercise the same influence to
embarrass the Investigations of his
successor, Secretary Garfield. a.5&
Efforts Towards CONGRESS. ,
= Finding themselves unable to put
a stop to the prosecution of land and
timber thieves, many Of whom rep
resented powerful corpora tions they
turned their attention to congress.
They succeeded in persuading certain
members Of the appropriations COM.
mittee to tack a rider on to the ap-
preparations bill for the purpose of.
breaking down the prosecution. AT
that time agents of the secret ser
vice had worked up all the evidence;
on which the prosecutions were:
based. The department Of justice had
absolutely no detective service Of its
own and no special agents who were were.
trained in the work of f8running down
evidence. The investigating branch
of the interior department was rot
ten to the core. "a - VI ..55 IL.
The result was that the secretary
of the interior and the attorney gen
Ieral applied to the secretary Of the
treasury for sistance. The chief OF
the secret service was instruc ted to-
furlough certain Of his best men and
to- supply substitutes ia other cases
for the use Of the departments of. the:
interior and justice, These 81 men