Page:Looters of the Public Domain.djvu/414

 While these two suits were pending before judge Ross and the Laud Department, during August and September, 1900, it was announced with a great blare of journalistic trumpets, that Binger Hermann, the immaculate Commissioner of the General Land Office, was coming West for the purpose of studying conditions affecting the issues between the oil men and the scrippers. According to the statement contained in the dispatch conveying this information, Hermann was not satisfied with the reports he had received from special agents and through other sources, but wanted lo be on the ground and investigate for himself. "Out on the firing line," as he proclaimed afterward.

It is necessary for me to enter into details concerning some of these occurrences, in order to show the close connection between certain events about this stage of the game, and in order to fortify what I am about to relate covering other phases of different matters.

No sooner had it been announced that Commissioner Hermann was personally going to visit the Kern River oil fields, than the big oil operators began to develop a tremendous vein of activity. More than $25,000,000 worth of property was involved in the suits between themselves and the Scrippers, and it was a case of desperate ends requiring desperate measures. What followed is best shown in quotations from the Los Angeles newspapers of the period, wherein it appears that Mr. Hermann was well treated during his brief stay on the Coast. He was met at Albuquerque. New Mexico, by a private car containing Charles A. Canfield, Edward L. Doheney, A. B. Butler and Congressman R. J. Waters, of the Eighth Congressional District of California, and escorted with all due pomp and ceremony on his so-called tour of inspection of the oil fields.

The Los Angeles Herald, of August 27, 1900—page 3, second column — contains a dispatch from Bagdad, Arizona, to the effect that Hermann had reached there the preceding day, and was accompanied by Congressman Waters, whom the report stated met him at Albuquerque, and that the two had visited several forest reserves while en route. They expected to arrive in Los Angeles August 27, and would spend the day inspecting the local land office.

The Los Angeles Times of August 28, 1900—page 12, Column 4—prints an account of Hermann's arrival in a private car, accompanied by Congressman Waters and wife, C. A. Canfield, "and others," including Edward L. Doheney and bride.

Los Angeles Herald, Tuesday, August 28, 1900—1st page, column 1, 2, and 3, and page 3, columns 6 and 7—also had an extended report regarding Hermann's movements. Wallace L. Hardison, the proprietor of the paper at that time, was a heavy oil producer, and heartily in sympathy with the mineral locators. He therefore had a large-sized axe to grind in showering attentions upon the Land Commissioner. The Herald of this date announced Hermann's arrival in a private car on the Santa Fe Overland, escorted by Congressman Waters. They were met at the depot by a committee from the Chamber of Commerce, in addition to Forest Superintendent B. F. Allen, A. J. Crookshank and Arthur W. Kinney, register and receiver, respectively, of the Los Angeles land office. It was likewise stated in black-face type that it was Hermann's intention to visit the Bakersfield oil fields that morning.

Los Angeles Herald, August 29, page 9, column 3, contains a dispatch from Bakersfield in its "News from the Oil Fields and the Mines," department, telling about the arrival there of Commissioner Hermann in a special car, accompanied by United States Surveyor-General Cleaves, Special Agent Jay Cummings. Congressman Waters, and C. A. Canfield, E. L. Doheney and A. B. Butler, three of the principal oil producers of the State. The dispatch stated further that the private car was pulled direct on the spur track to Oil City, the shipping point of the Kern River fields, where they were met by teams provided (by the oil men) and taken all over the fields. Page 408