The Billings gazette. [volume] (Billings, Mont.) 1896-1919, 1909-06-22
Senate Committee
Wants to Knotu of
a Land Case
UNJUST METHODS
District Attorney Devlin Roasted Be-
cause He Failed to NOlIe Case When
1t Was Found to Be Based Upon
Perjured Testimony. = Roosevelt
Wanted an Indictment Brought, !

RA1 1ASHINGTON, June 21.--Attorney
W. General Wickersham, by an or
der adopted by the senate COM
mittee on judiciary today, is COM
manded to send to the senate all the
facts in his possession relating to the
prosecution of DR.. E. B. Perrine Of
Williams, Ariz., on the charge of con-
spiracy to defraud the government in
the California land cases. This data
was sealed by Attorney General Bona
parte and the package, which was left
in the files of the department of JUS
tice. was marked Confidential"
Several days ago members of the
subcommittee considering the re-
appointment of Robert T. Devlin for
United States attorney of the northern
district of California, obtained some
information regarding this package
and requested Mr. Wickersham to send
it to the senate. He declined to do so
because of the endorsement on the
package, which, he said, had been
placed there by his predecessor and
which he desired to respect. The or
der to send the data to the senate COM
mittee was made so as to relieve the
attorney general of responsibility i'm
the matter.
Confirmation of the reappointment
of Mr.. Devlin, which was not made ON
March %, last, has been opposed be-
cause of criticism of his course in
conducting the Perrine case. The
subcommittee investigating the Dew
lin nomination is composed of Sena-
tors Piles, Borah and Overman. It
was brought out during one of their
sessions that a report had been made
to the department of justice by w. r.
Harr, formerly a special attorney in
the land fraud cases and now an as
sistant to the attorney general, bear
ing directly on the cases in which
Perrine was involved. Perrine was
convicted, but on an appeal the case
was reversed and remanded for re-
trial. l was said that the conviction
had been obtained by reason of per-
jured testimony given by witness
named C. P. Smell, who had been in
Perrines employ.
The chief criticism of District At
torney Devlin is that he has declined
to nolle PROSE- the case, although the
Harr report declares such action
should be taken. Mr.. Devlin has been
condemned also for his failure to Sc
cure the conviction of Smell on a
charge of perjury.
1t was brought before the sub-com-
mittee today that the Harr report de-
clared Perrine's prosecution was pro-
cured by methods which could not be
approved by the department of JUS
tice. Mr.. Harr gave the details Of
the Perrine case which he attributed
to statement made by w. j. Burns,
a United States secret service opera
tive whose services were loaned to
Francis J. Heney in gathering evil
dence in timber fraud cases. This
statement, which was made to the
grand jury was that he (BurnsJ had
come from Oyster Bay and knew that
President Roosevelt desired to have
Perrine indicted.
Senator Borah criticised the action
and declared to his colleagues it
was evident that Mr.. Bonaparte did
not want to proceed on the line
recommended by Mr.. Harr, which
called for dismissal of proceedings
against Perrine and the prosecution
of Smell on a charge of perjury. Mr..
Borah insisted that the reason for
Mr. Bonaparte's failure to act should
be given.
BALTIMORE, June 21.-Charles J.
Bonaparte, former attorney general,
positively declined to make any state
IL H.