Page:Looters of the Public Domain.djvu/353



LL the salient features of the Blue Mountain Forest Reserve conspiracy are embodied in an indictment returned February 13, 1905, by the Federal Grand Jury of Oregon, charging John H. Mitchell, Binger Hermann, John N. Williamson, Franklin P. Mays, Williard N. Jones, and George Sorenson with a violation of Section 5440 of the United States Revised Statutes. Mays, Jones and Sorenson were convicted September 13, 1906, for their part in the alleged plot to cheat the Government out of a large portion of its lands, while Hermann and Williamson are yet to be tried.

The defendants were accused of having entered into a conspiracy to defraud the United States out of the possession and use of thousands of acres lying in different States and Territories, by means of a fraudulent plan contemplating the obtaining of title, in the first instance, to about 44,000 acres of State school lands in Crook, Grant, Harney, Malheur, Baker, Union, Umatilla and Wallowa Counties, Oregon, through the use of illegal affidavits and applications, and the subsequent inclusion of such school lands in the Blue Mountain Forest Reserve, thus creating the possibility of their use as a base in exchange for valuable timber lands under the lieu land Act of June 4, 1897.

The story of the conspiracy, if given in all its glaring details, would sound like some astounding tale of fiction. It would show how men of national reputation and political renown had affiliated in a brotherhood of corruption with some of the lowest elements of humanity in an effort to profit by the spoils of a gigantic steal, and if all the facts were made known, they might sound even greater depths of degradation than were reached during the trial.

The idea of creating the Blue Mountain Forest Reserve originated in the shrewd minds of those who saw in President Roosevelt's well-defined policy of preserving the remaining timber of the country for the benefit of future generations a chance to further their own selfish interests. They were aware that nothing would appeal to the Nation's chief executive with such vivid force as the plan to embrace a large area in Eastern Oregon in an immense reserve. On its face it was a legitimate proposition, because the necessity actually existed for measures of protection of this character, inasmuch as there was danger of an extensive body of timber falling into the hands of Eastern speculators through process of fraudulent entry. There was even some local sentiment in favor of creating the reserve, and those at the bottom of the scheme merely took advantage of all the surrounding conditions in order to carry out the general plan of plunder.

By virtue of their sovereignty, each public land State is granted the 16th and 36th sections of every township within its borders for school purposes at the time of its admission into the union. These are consequently known as school lands. In cases where any portion of a school section becomes lost to the State

Page 347