Page:The American Magazine volume LXIV.djvu/512

494 and plain, is a most interesting document.

Schneider, he said, had been twenty-three years in the employ of F. A. Hyde and John A. Benson; from January, 1879, till January, 1902. All the business of the firm was done under Hyde's name, "Benson not being known in the concern, although he had an equal interest." The report goes on to tell about the beginning of the frauds: "The firm, not content with legitimate business, conceived the idea of securing school lands by locating them under false names or dummies. The first work was done in the Sierra Forest Reserve in California. The methods employed were to forge some name to an application for school lands. A notary public, a party to the fraud, for a certain consideration testified that the person appeared before and was known to him. These applications were made in the state land offices and title secured. Bogus powers of attorney were executed in favor of F. A. Hyde and in due time the scrip was secured and placed on the market. ... As this business grew it became apparent that to keep up the supply of scrip they must resort to other frauds. So they embarked in the business of making forest reserves according to their own ideas and interests. They used every possible influence to secure the creation of forest reserves and also ... to fix the boundaries so that every acre of school land was made a part of the reserve."

Here we have business men helping to preserve the forests, apparently; really, however, the reserves they marked out were not always forests; sometimes they were treeless wastes.

"Schneider alleges," says Holsinger, "that to successfully carry out their schemes, it was decided that not only should some of the government agents in the field be fixed, but to send one Henry Dimond, an employee of Hyde's, to Washington to interest some department clerk so that they would know every move made in the Department of the Interior. Dimond soon notified Hyde by letter that he had made a satisfactory arrangement with a clerk whereby information would be furnished, the consideration being that when the scrip was secured, the clerk should receive two cents per acre. Thereafter, Schneider states, they received telegrams and letters from this clerk signed 'B.' . . ."

"After the creation of the Sierra Reserve the Hyde concern entered actively into the agitation in Oregon and California of movements (for the preservation of the forests), and in every instance where a reserve was created they were instrumental in fixing some of the boundary lines so that school lands would fall within a reserve. . . . Schneider implicated two government agents: Forest Superintendent B. F. Allen and Special Agent Prior. He states that early in 1900 it was decided in the office to secure the co-operation of Superintendent Allen, and he was accordingly invited to call and did so; that thereafter he w^as often in the office when in San Francisco. Soon after this Hyde informed Schneider in a casual way that he had had to take Prior into the secret and he (Schneider) was instructed to give Prior the liberties of the office."

Please remember in reading what follows that Allen and Prior were supposed to mark off the boundaries of reserves and that they were not supposed to consult with anybody: "Schneider states that Allen and Prior were freely consulted and were furnished maps made by Schneider of these reserves as they were proposed by Mr. Hyde. . . . These maps were made to meet as far as possible the requirements of the Department, but always with the view of including as much unoccupied school land as possible."

In other words, the purposes of fraud came first. Holsinger goes back to the statement which to him, an agent, seems almost incredible. "Schneider claims," he says, "that he himself, for Mr. Hyde, actually drew the map of the Proposed Lassen Forest Reserve. The first map was destroyed and an amended one formulated to exclude certain lands owned by wealthy men who threatened to start a strong opposition. The general mode of procedure was to enlist themselves (Hyde and Benson) in a good cause (to save the forests) with the special object of securing boundaries to best suit their interests." As to the price paid for corruption "Schneider stated that Allen once asked for a loan and was accommodated. Prior was presented with a thoroughbred Durham bull."