Los Angeles herald., 1909-09-30
TRY RED TAPE
TO FREE MEN IN
LAND FRAUDCASE
ATTORNEYS FOR DEFENSE
SHOW THEIR HAND
CLAIM MISTAKE IN SURVEY
BlLKED UNCLE SAM
Lawyers Argue That No Man Car
Claim Land on Original De-
scriptions Filed in
Land Office

Because there was a mistake in the
original survey of the lands in the I'm
perial valley, no mans original location
numbers are correct.
Because the descriptions originally
filed in the United States land office
here have since been proved to be
faulty on the resurvey the United
States government cannot contest title
to land grabbed by men who prey on
the public domain.
These appear to be the main conten-
tions of the defense in the trial of the
men charged with conspiring to defraud
the United States government of lands
in the Imperial valley.
The second climax in the trial came
rather unexpectedly yesterday when a
single question propounded ea1ly in the
examination of F. c. Prescott, register
of the land office in Los Angeles, was
objected to by attorneys for the de- ense.
Attorney Mccormack, after dlSposlng
of formal queries, asked the witness II
he had with him an official book of
maps or records showing the location
of property in Imperial valley. Witness
replied that he did.
"Can you, by reading that book, say
whether or not the northeast one
quarter of the southeast one-quarter OF
section 80, township Is south, range l6
east, San Bernardino meridian, was
unoccupied desert land on March g.,
1902" asked Mr.. Mccormack.
Innocent as it seemed, the question
aroused every attorney for the defense.
Attorney Meserve, as one of leading
counsel, was given the floor.
Stirs Up Verbal War
"If the government will change that
question so that it reads purport to
say we will accept it, but, as it stands,
we object to it as not the best evidence.
That book does not contain any descrip
ton showing the land referred to was
vacant at that time because no man
living can say where the land described
lies in the Imperial valley. Moreover,
that is not the original book of records
and a large part of it is compilation
from an old book"
Attorney Davis then asked the court
to excuse the jury, as he said he did
not desire to call down the criticism of
the court that he was arguing his case
to the jury. The jury withdrew and
the battle was on.
made by the defense. These points were
not altogether called forth by the
question, but both sides agreed with
the court that it would be well to argue
them now as later The first of these
is that the original survey, under which
the filings alleged to have been fraudu-
lent were made, has been condemned
by the government as incorrect and
has been supplanted by another survey,
Defense claims it is improver for the
government to use such records or
maps as may have been made under
that old survey to connect them with
any alleged frauds, as it is impossible
to say what lands were referred to
in papers filed bearing numbers made
by that survey.
Indictment Attacked
The second technical roint raised was
that the indictment contains no infor-
nation alleging the defendants had
any knowledge, at the time the al
legged offenses are supposed to have
been committed, that the land in the
territory they described was public
domain, that it could be taken up, or
that it was the property of the gov
ernment and set aside for entry
The third claim made came up as a
result of the statement made by As
sistant Attorney General Oscar Law
Ter that, even if it were found the
overt acts alleged in the Indictment
were abortive and that the conspiracy
alleged was rendered of no avail by
some condition outside the control or
knowledge of the alleged conspirators,
it was still possible to find and prove
them guilty of conspiracy, since con-
spiracy under the law is a meeting of
minds with the intent to defraud or
wrong another. This defendants at
torneys vigorously combated.
Points to New Survey
In support of the first objection, At
tCrney MeserVe, who has for many
wears been closely associated with the
progress and development of the val
ley, made an exhaustive explanation
He told the court the first survey, the
one under which all the filings mem
toned iii the indictments We're made,
was entirely false and erroneous and
that for years the government has so
admitted in all it's dealings.
"In July, 1902" continued Mr.. Me-
serve, congress passed an act declar-
ing the first survey false and erronz
eous and ordering new survey to he
made. This work was only recently
completed, and the new survey has
been accepted and approved.
defendants conspired to dcfraud the
government of land within a certain
described set of limits, these limits
being set forth in the indictments by
means of the numbers. range lines and
township lines fixed by that first-or
inaccurate and abandonod-survey.
Now it is manifestly impossible for
the government to prove the location
of any piece of land in Imperial val
ley, if that land is described with
numbers fixed by that old survey, for
no man living can go down there and,
with a set of those descriptions in his
hand, say: This is my land
Descriptions Attacked
at IS legally impossible for the gov
ernment to assert the defendants at
tempted or planned to attempt to de-
fraud the people of a piece of land de-
scribed as a given quarter # given
quarter of section 80 of such and such
a range and township, because no such
description has any legal or valid
standing under that abandoned survey.
'It has been the practice of the land
office for several years to say to APP
plicants Now you file on your land