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dummies upon school lands in California and Oregon. Then they themselves would map out a forest reserve to cover these claims. B. F. Allen, the forest superintendent at Los Angeles, who was supposed to do this work in the interest of the government, let Benson and Hyde do it in their own interest, and his part consisted in accepting their maps and recommending their reserves. Benson and Hyde got from the states wholesale rights to take up magnificent timber and other valuable public lands elsewhere, and these rights, called scrip, they sold in the open market at a great profit.

Schneider's charges were so extraordinary, they involved so many officials, and accused a business firm of such high standing, that, had Schneider been an outsider, he would have been called crazy. But Schneider said he had been a confidential clerk of Hyde and Benson and his explicit statements showed that he was indeed an insider. Moreover, he confessed that his motive was not the public good; he was out for revenge upon his principals.

The department clerk who opened and read Schneider's letter showed it to Macey. 492