Los Angeles herald., 1910-01-10
FORMER LAND
COMMISSIONER
TO FACE TRIAL
BINGER H. HERMANN WILL BE
ARRAlGNED TODAY
WAS CONGRESSMAN FOR OREGON
SIXTEEN YEARS
Once Prominent Man Accused of Stu
pendous Frauds-Three Con-
victed-Two Died Under
Indictment in 1905
Associated Press1

TAssoclated Pressl
PORTLAND, Ore, Jan 9.-Btnger H.
Hermann, who for sixteen years rep
resented the state of oregon in the ma
tional house of representatives and for
several years was commissioner of the
general land office at Washington, to-
morrow in the federal court will face
the charge of conspiracy to defraud the
government of part of the public
domain.
The indictment under which he is to
be tried was returned February Is,
1905, and the conspiracy, it alleges, was
the most stupendous in conception of
all the oregon land fraud cases. Her.
mann was jointly indicted with the
late United States Senator John H.
Mitchell, former State Senator and ex-
Deputy United States District Attor-
ney Franklin Pierce Mays; former
state Representative Willard n. Jones;
George Sorenson, a professional poll
tician and H. A. Smith, deceased.
OF these, Mays, Jones and Sorenson
were on September Il, 1906, convicted
as charged in this indictment. Senator
Mitchell and Mr.. Smith died without
coming to trial; Congressman William
son was convicted under another in
dictment, and, following the procedure
of the government prosecutors in the
oregon land fraud cases, was not tried
on ibis indictment.
Long Postponed
Hermanns trial under this indict-
ment has been postponed year after
year, sometimes at his own request
f1,n of
Francis J. Heney to conduct the trial.
At the trial of Mays, Jones and Sor-
enson, who were convicted under this
Indictment witnesses testified that
they conspired to have set apart as a
forest reserve 100000 acres of land in
Oregon and other states.
In this state the reserve was to be
known as the "Blue Mountain Forest
reserve" and comprised 10000 acres in
the eastern part of the state. This
land, according to witnesses, was tim
bered mostly by sagebrush and bunch
grass.
The testimony showed that Mays,
Jones and Sorenson sought to benefit
by securing the 44,000 acres of state
school lands embraced within the re-
serve, which they proposed to use as
base" for exchange for valuable tim
ber lands located in other parts of the
of congress, approved June 4, 1897.
Evidence was introduced, apparently
intended to show that this trio secured,
though fatty in violation of the law,
both advance information as to the
identity of the government agent who
was TO pass on the merits of the pro-
posed reserve, and advance information
as to the date the temporary with
drawal was to be made, and that the
information on this latter point was
given out by Hermann, who was then
commissioner of the general land Of
flee.
Ornsby Confessed
Captain Salmon B. Ormsby, govern
ment agent, was designated to view
the proposed reserve. Ormsby con-
fessed at the trial of Mays, Jones and
SOrenson that he reported in favor of
the withdrawal, and that in consider
alton he was given two sections of the
school land.
Captain Ormsby had a son. Merritt
Ormsby, who, according to testimony,
talked too much. and in a burst of
confidence told Daniel w. Tarpley, one
of those convicted in the notorious
''11-7" land fraud cases in this state
that his father was working on big
reserve scheme in eastern oregon.
Tarpley and Horace @. Mckinley, an
ulnEF VI lllOSG COIN III the LIZ
cases, taking advantage of this infor-
nation, procured dummy" entrymen
and, it was testified, forestalled Mays
and his party to the extent of pur-
chasing through these dummies"
1850 acres of the $4,000 acres of the
school lands to be included within the
reserve.
This caused a row, witnesses testi-
fed, between Mays and Mckinley
NJ
with being interlopers, and demanded
that they bear half the expenses of
getting the reserve established, and
If they did not Mays would have their
lands checker boarded" out of the
reserve.
offered to Pay Mays
It was testified that Mckinley Of
fered to pay Mays the sum of 80 cents
per acre for such lands as they had
bought from the state. but that Mays
scorned the offer, saying:
THAT is not as much as we shall
have to give the people at Washing
tom
Who "the people at Washington"
We're the government was not permit
ted to show.
Mckinley and Tarpley, after con-
sideration, discovered that MAYS could
not Checker board" them out of the
reserve without eliminating his own
sections from the reserve, and they
refused to have further dealings with
him
The temporary withdrawal of the
reserve was made, according to the
testimony, by the then acting secretary
of the interior, Ryan, on recommends
tion of Hermann, July %, 1902. It
Mas also testified that Hermann gave
out on July %, the day before the
withdrawal. the fact that the with
drawal was to be made.
The reserve was finally established.
but before this occurred the act of
congress, June 4, 1897, which provided
for the exchange of school lands in
cluded in government reserves for gov
ernment lands located outside the re-
serves, was repealed and the fraudu-
lently acquired "base" was useless.
Bitterly Contested
The case was the most bitterly con-
tested of all the land fraud cases in
Oregon, and the trial was the longest:
but Mays, Jones and Sorenson were
convicted as charged.
Imposing counsel will try to defend
Hermann on the charge of connection
with this conspiracy, and it is predicted
the trial viii be as long and bitterly
fought as the other.
Facing each other before United
States District Judge Cherries r. VOL
verton will be, on behalf of the gov
ernment, Francis J. Heney, special
prosecutor and SEM, T counsel--the man
who secured the convictions in the pre-
vious land fraud cases \ in Oregon;
John McCourt, United States district
attorney for Oregon, and, Tracy c.