Aberdeen herald. [volume] (Aberdeen, Chehalis County, W.T.) 1886-1917, 1914-05-08
State, Public School and Institutional Funds
Robbed OF Vast Sums, and Sales
Records Spirited Away
EXAMPLES INDICATE EXTENT OF TIMBER FRAUDS
Crooked Work in Land Commissioners Office
Responsible for Extensive Frauds
In Selling Timber Lands

Below we produce another of the tax
stories which are being told by E. D.
COwen, in the Spokane Spokesman
Review, which tells its own lament.
able tale, and accounts in a measure
for the high rate of taxation
when economy and retrenchment
are demanded in general terms it is
proposed to abolish some state board
or department without considering
the real value Of usefulness; or
whether the less Expensive service to
be substituted will not in the end
prove the more extravagant.
Such was the case in the revolu-
tionary period of politics in this
state, when the appointive land COM
mission was put out Of business, and
the land commissioner given su-
preme and nonsupervised manage
ment of the biggest and richest asset
of the state government, with a dunn
my commission of elective state Off
cials to legalize automatically the de-
partment records
"This stroke of economy has cost
the permanent school and granted
land funds millions of dollars worth
of first class property selected by the
appointive commission and juggled
out of the possession of the state
since then by corrupting timber syn
! dicates and mill companies.
Even Original Appraisments Are
Spirited Away.
Even the original appraisments of
the high grade selections made by the
appointive bipartisan commission
have been spirited out of the state re-
cords. lest they serve some time as
a clue to the thrifty and economic
system of public land management
instituted by the reformers.
"In no other department of the
state government is honesty and Wig
ilance afforded such chances of dis
tinctiOn, and in no other department
are the temptations OF personal inter-
est SO Turing.
Although it was matter of COM
mon unde rstanding for years among
the woodsmen Of western Washing
ton that the state was parting com
pany with it's most valuable timbe
lands at inconsequental prices, and
th9 n'n~o over, there was dirhones:
commerce somewhere between the
land Office and the buyers. the seri-
BUSINESS of the losses to the perma-
nent school and other land grant
funds did not become apparent
until the tax commission tutored the
county assessors into assessing the
timber lands which had been escap-
ing taxation.
I'm further pursuit of an inquisi-
tive and defensive policy they per-
suaded the legislature to incorporate
the tax commission into the state
land commission. Since then publi
city and more searching considera.
eAOu VI lhuU SStlc6 nave SllcuCcU SC6u-
dal and promoted competition as we'll
as prices.
Unpublished Records Contain Story
Of Losses.
I'm the archives Of the state some
where, if not lost or destroyed, are
unpublished proofs of many transac-
tions by which the timber syndicates
have enriched themselves at the ex-
pense of the public school and insti
tutional land grant funds.
mot going beyond Pierce county,
two illustrations Of injury inflicted
upon the state by connivance between
buyer and sellers agents may be
cited In the case of the northeast,
northwest and southwest quarters of
section 16, township 16 north, range