The daily star-mirror. (Moscow, Idaho) 1911-1939, 1912-07-18
time the state, through the governor

time the state, through the governo
was trying to get its land gram
lselections, given by the federal gov
eminent to the public schools an(
educational institutions of the state
Morrison, as governor, had the APP
to represent the state, and Mr.. Nor.
rison is morally responsible for the
official action of his appointees. 1t
was his business to see that the men
he named to represent the people; the
men who were charged with the re-
sponsibility of looking after the inter-
ests of the children of the state, did
not betray their trust.
Now what happened? A man named
| Dwyer did the selecting in the Lew
iston land district, and Mr.. Morrison
is entitled to all the credit he can
get out of the disgraceful mess of
corruption and neglect OF duty that
stands as a monument of incompetency
to the Morrison administration during
those years. 1t is known that Dwyer
did not represent the people; the state
selections included bald buttes, scab
land and scrub timber, while private
land grabbers robbed the state of it's
heritage. The best timber, rightly the
property of our children, was deliber-
ately allowed to pass into private
hands. And this condition was no Sc
cret even at that time.
In the northern part of the state,
where Mr.. Budlong was representing
the government as register of a land
office, similar condition existed
Dummy contests were started against
the state filings; fake entries were
made on valuable land belonging to
the state, or claimed by the state, and
there is record to prove, one case be-
ing cited by the Star-Mirror with the
Budlong letter, in which litigation was
started and continued until private
timber interests had cut and shipped
And then what? The Morrison admin
istration had the cases dismissed. The
laws were made farce; land office
rules and regular procedure were
ignored. Hoffman enjoyed Lucrative
practice that made him rich, and Reg
lister Budlong, aroused by the rotten
ness and apparent fraud and farce,
took occasion to appeal to Morrison.
then governor, and protested against
the outrage. Mi.vBudlong did not hes
ftate to na6 Gilman, and insist that
the Unte and office could not
be thHs tn; that he had no
ume to yfng fake cases.
Nov comes Morrison who says the
letter was misquoted; that the
word not is now in the original
and that there was nothing wrong;
that it was all protest against the
rottenness of the former democratic
administration.
But the fact remains that Regis er
did write a protest agains
the way Hoffman and others, apparent
ly with a pull with the Morrison al |
were violating the Law. |
Mr.. Budlong did not refer to things |
that had TRANSFERRED during the Hunt |
administration. He did refer to cases |
then being tried, and named Heitman |
is one who was helping to do it.
When Governor Gooding went in |
Morrison, he appointed hon
est men to look after the state land |
,usiness,and one of these was Charles
T. Munson of Latah county, man
whose honesty has never been ques-
ioned Mr. Munson proved a faithful
public servant and there was uncover
tate land department For the first
ime an honest effort was made to save
or the children their heritage, and
Governor Gooding appealed to the ma
ional government for the right to re-
nquish some $4,000 acres of worth
ess selections, a lot of it chargeable
D Morrison, and give Idaho such tim
er land as was still available. And
he government did, after looking up
he evidence, part of which was the
'udlong letter to Morrison, allow Ida
o to relinquish some $4,000 acres,
nd did permit the selection of some
1000 acres in lieu thereof
The Star-NIirror has never charged
lat Morrison personally profited by
NY graft that existed. But the evil
ence is plain that Morrison appointed
lose who did permit it, and that the
udlong letter was a protest to Gov
nor Morrison against the graft that
listed and practiced through mel he