New-York tribune., 1919-06-05
District Attorney
Starts Inquiry Into
Soldier Land Plan
Swami Seeks Facts Concern.
ing Company That Offered
Land to Returned Troops
on the Instalment Plan

The District Attorneys Office yester-
day began an investigation of a con-
Germ, until recently doing business at
~ Fifth Avenue, purporting to sell on
easy payments to men returned from
the war small farms in Clay and Put
nam Counties, Florida
The operations of this concern were
brought TO the attention of the authori
ties by the War Camp Community
Service Following yesterdays pre-
lmlnary lnvestlg tlgation, which was held
before Magistrate Charles n. Harris
and at which voluntary witnesses were
examined, q John Doe summons was
issued, returnable June 12.
Woman Backs Concern
According to the witnesses the NOV
ing spirit behind this concern, which
was said to bear the title MILITARY
Farms" is Mrs. Lois Wilson. 1t
was she. it is said, who rented the
offices and apparently managed the en-
tire project
Detective Sergeant Joseph A. Daly
has been detailed to make the investi-
cation.
Circulars, pamphlets and display
cards of the company were produced in
court. Witnesses said these were
scattered through most of the service
clubs and many hotels in the city.
The advertising matter stated that
service men could obtain farms without
any preliminary payment and work off
thelr Indebtedness within five years
raul Wander, chief of the research
bureau of the War Camp Community
Service, told of having visited the
company's Offices, where miniature
1arm was displayed in the show Win
dow.
He testified that he was shown a
book IN which a large number of men
had signed up for farms, and had also
seen typewriter literature in which it
was stated that Captain Garnett had
100000 acres of land in Florida and
that it was upon this that the farms
were to be set up.
Free Transportation Offered
The literature, Mr. Wander also
said, asserted that wealthy persons
who were interested in the project
would ship the prospective farmers
South, stock the farms and pay their
expenses for six months or more. In
tive years the men were to pay back
the price, ranging from $500 to SIS, ,0OO
with S per cent interest 1t was also
asserted that land was worth S6 an
acre in that district, would yield three
crops year. and that a steamboat
line was to be established, bringing
the produce from the farms direct to
market.
Photographs of the property, Wander
testified, showed only jungle and
swamp land. with no sign whatever of
improvements.
Captain William P Garnett, a
former officer in the British army,
said that he was interested in the prof.
ect, but added that he did not hold
title to the land referred to in the
prospectus.
Soldiers Signed for Land
Henry Goeble, real estate agent
testified that he had let the property
at 721 Fifth Avenue to Mrs. Wilson.
He quoted her as saying that she want
ed to do something for men just out
Of the service, and that she was in
touch with charitable persons who
would furnish transportation to re-
turned soldiers and soilors and set
them up on farms in Florida.
Several discharged soldiers and sail
c.s who signed the pledge to locate
farms in Florida told Of similar con-
versations which they said they had
had with Mrs Wilson,