Arizona republican., 1909-03-02

were refused, he threatened MT. Hill dreth. then receiver Of public moneys saying he would secure his removal These threats he made good by secur- ing MT. Hildreth's suspension, pending an investigation. Two inspectors came and carefully went over his books. af- ter which the suspension was removed
 In the meantime. says MT. Hildreth he reported to the department that Mir Alexander, while acting as United States district attorney, was defending two entrymen in their controversy .against the government. This resulted in Mir Alexander being disbarred from practice before the land office.
 In further retaliation, says Mir. Hill dreth, Mir Alexander then secured his indictment on two counts for the em-
 ezZlement of $50 in connection with the Villa case. There were two indict- ments, he says, for the reason that MT Alexander was not at that time certain as to whether he preferred to stand on one charging that the money belonged to the government. or on one charging that it belonged to Villa. The circumstances of the Villa case. MT. AlAlnltNtl ltNlAtS dS lplAONos
 In May, 1906, Santiago Villa sent to the land office his final proof, with two money orders, amounting tO slO625. Milton R Moore, then regis ter of the land office, and Mir. Hildreth, as receiver passed on the proofs, and found that only portion of the money should be paid in cash. the filing being on the abandoned Fort Mcdowell mili- tary reservation. They decided to re- turn $50 and place on the unearned fee account a credit of $56.25.- The latter was so placed for the reason that the proof had to be rejected. as Villa had failed to prove his natUrali- zation. June 2. 1906, MT. Moore noti- fled Villa by registered mail to fur nish the proof of his naturalization or the entry would be cancelled. The same day MT Hildreth returned the $50.
 After repeated attempts to obtain service on Villa to secure his proof of naturalization. the papers were trans mitted to tFe general land office and the commissioner cancelled the entry for Villas failure to comply with the rules of the office.
 About a rear later Philip ContZen of Tucson made an application as the agent of Villa for a reinstatement of the entrv, saving that Villa was an ignorant man. had no knowledge of the English language, never called for his mail, had never received the notices sent him, end since the rejection of the entry, he had become naturalized. ha . sion CT reinstated the entry and instructed the register and receiver to issue a final receipt and certificate.
 Lyman Wakefield. r'ho was by that time in office as register-of the land office. instead of taking it up as a cash entr-. as he should have done, accepted it as a regular five-year proof on which the fees amount to $31O. This was taken from the S56.25 placed to Villas credit on the unearned fee account. and MT. Hildreth mailed a check for S53.15 to Mr. COntZen for MT. Villa, which was received and turned over When this was received. Mir. Contzen claimed Villa was entitled to $50 more. having turned in S106.25 in the first place. MT. Hildreth inves- llBdltu, anu tOiiNEth NC pN rect, but that his (Hildreth's) records showed that he had transmitted the $50 to him on June ,. Villa did not receive it, and all the letters sent to him in Tucson were returned. On this information, MT. Hildreth requested a clerk in the office to search through the several thousand letters that had accumulated in the. office, and the clerk found the one with the draft in it for $50. This was deposited to Hil- dreth's credit as receiver of public moneys and an official check was mailed for the amount, which was re- ceived by Contzen and delivered to Villa.
 This money, says MT. Hildreth, was received by Villa long prior to the in- vestigation of Hildreth's books.
 After the indictments were returned. MT. Alexander requested the depart ment to send it's most competent man to investigate the records so he could prepare his case for trial. E. P. Hol- comb, a special inspector, was sent and after an investigation of three weeks, he reported to Secretary of the