Bismarck daily tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1881-1916, 1910-10-15
Result of Alaskan Investigation Very Gratifying to
Officials of United States Land Office and
Department of the Interior
indictments Handed Down in United States
District Court
Entries Involved l54 in Number and Cover
$4,000 Acres


Seattle, Wash, Oct. 14.-Charles F..
Munday, George Simmonds and Cor
neius christopher. all prominent Seat.
tie men, were arrested here late today
on indictments charging conspiracy
to defraud the government in the
Alaska coal cases. They were releas-
ed under bonds of $500 each.
Washington, Oct. 14.-After months
of secret effort and patient waiting,
the officials of the general land office
%ere able to announce today the in
dictment of a number of claimants to
valuable coal land in Alaska. The en-
tries involved number 154 and cover
almost $4,000 acres of land, all of
which lies in the Deh"ing strait dis
trict in which the Cunningham claims
are located. They are what are known
as the English or Stracey and the
Christopher-Simmonds groups, the for.
mer containing eighty and the latter
"a claims of 160 acres each.
The deposits covered by these
claims are believed to be as rich as
these of the Cunningham mines which
cut conspicuous figure in the Bal
linger-Pinchot controversy. The in
dictments were handed down in the
United States district court sitting at
Tacoma, and the information that
they had been returned was convey
ed in two kilograms received by Com
missioner Dennet from Special Agent
Christensen in charge of Alaskan
matters, to whose efforts the findings
are especially due. The first message
contained the announcement of the
action against the English group and
stated that indictments had been re-
turned against l. c. F. Munday, A. H.
Stracey, Archie w. Shields and E. E.
Siedley. A few minutes later came
the second telegram telling of the in
dictments of Cornelius Christopher,
George Simmonds and Mortimer G.
Sweeney of the second group. He
added that warrants would be issued
as soon as the indicted men could be
apprehended. The first group of de-
PENDANTS takes it's name from the fact
that a number Of the persons in
Western Canada are supposed to be
interested in the claims taken up by
this party. Stracey, one of the men
1uUlCLSu,, Is d 1cS1uCuI VI Vancouver,
and is charged with being instrument
tai in making some of the locations.
Munday is an attorney in Seattle. The
charge against the indicted men is
that the entries were made in the
names of dummies" Most of the en-
trymen were residents of Washington
and their claims are said to have been
located with an agreement that they
should be decided to third parties as
soon as the parties willing to become
interested could be found by the To-
cater. There is said to have been a
further understanding that the locat-
er should receive a large percentage
of the sale price. The charge differs
from the charge made in the Cunning
ham claims, in which there was no
allegation that the entrymen took the
claims for persons other than them
selves, but rather that they had a
previous agreement to work or dis
pose of their claims as unit. 1t
is said that few of the claimants in
the new classes ever saw the land
on which their names were used for
location. Both groups of claims fig
ured to a considerable extent in con-
nection with the Balinger-Pinchot in !
Guiry. Charges of fraud in connec-
tion with the entries were maed two
years ago, and it was asserted that |
the investigation had been stayed |
by the land Office, supposedly for a
sinister purpose.
Meeting the allegation with the
statement that the services Of the
land Office force we're imperatively re-
quired elsewhere, and that there was
no statute of limitAtions to run against
these cases, it was conceded that they
were not pressed for a period. Since
last May, however, Christensen has
been giving the major portion of his
time to them with a result over which
the land Office and the interior depart
ment confesses itself gratified. 1t is
also known that another federal grand
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