The Glenwood post., 1909-08-21
Saturday, August 81, 1909.
AILEaE COAL LAND FRAUD

If stories coming from the state cap
tai are to be believed there Will
be some merry doings in the higher
courts over some coal lands in which
Judge d. C. Beaman is said to be
heavily interested. The following from
the Denver Republican of Tuesday
gives an idea of what is being done
by government fraud Investigators.
David C. Beaman, secretary and gen
eral counsel of the Colorado Fuel
Iron company, chief of the opponents
of the Roosevelt -Pinchot policies in the
West is made the defendant, with
score of others, in suits filed in the
United States court charging fraud IN
securing title to valuable coal land IN
Huerfano county, Colorado.
Coming at this time when Judge Bea-
man and his trusty senesehals had
girded their armor and drawn their
swords for another attack on PIN
chotism,'' it will be charged that the
Washington Bureaucracy has taken an
unfair advantage; but the department
of Justice is like Justice mot the Cham
pa street lady who has the bandage
off one eyel herself, impersonel. Agents
of the government have been working
on this and other cases for months and
it so happened that suits have been
filed on the eve of the struggle against
the Pinchot policies before the Trans
mississippi congress. Those who Know
Judge Beaman and his aggressive MS
ture say this will not sidetrack him
but will make him more determined To
secure return to the good old Rob
Rov davs in the West when they
shall take who have the power and
they shall keep who can"
Seven years ago $50 acres of lan3
was fled on as agricultural land in
Huerfano county. Agents of the gov
ernment who have examined it state
that it is worth $3.50 an acre for the
coal that underlies it. About two years
ago it changed hands. What the vel
low journal calls the "Huerfano coun-
ty gang with the irredoubtable jeff
erson Farr at the head, took shares
in the distribution. Finally it became
the property of Judge Beaman. The
Colorado Fuel & Iron company owns
coal land on each side and it is charg-
ed that the persons party to the trans
fer were aware of the valuable char
acter of the land. Accusation is made
that the land in question ought never
TO have been filed on as agricultural
lands as it was so clearly coal land
that its character could not escape the
most cursory examination. Restora-
ton to the government is asked of the
court in the suits that have been and
are being filed against all the persons
who had to do with it.
Agents of-the general land office ara
as thick in Colorado these days as in
the rosy Roosevelt day, showing thai
Roosevelt IS successor is not going to
'Iet up" What they are doing is
problematical although rumor has ii
several of the big coal companies will
have to prove their title to large acre
ages of coal lands that were gained by
questionable methods, which carried
ont the letter perhaps but evaded the
spirit Of the law and the regulations.
Judge Beaman, who is responsible,
more so than any single person living.
for the Colorado Fuel & Iron companv's
position in the coal fields and as an in
dustrial force. has been for years the
protagonist of the Influences that on
pose the Roosevelt land and timber con
servation policies, and he has written
much and spoken good deal along
the lines indicated. Clifford Pinchot
has been to him and his coadiutors as
the nroverbial red rag to the bull. Ma
turallv, the opponents of Judge Ben
man this week will point to the gov
ernment suits against him as the basis
for his antagonism They will insist
that It is personal with him.