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Show I . STILL ClSIBEl f LAND FRAUDS I ? No Agreement Reached I I " by Board. I Will Not Accept Sanford's II $ Excess Payment Though Advised by Breeden. II Land Board Expected to Declare- Its I I :'v Purpose to Purge State of Iff -i; Stain. Today. IB The State Land board continues to B Etrugglo with tho Cache county conspir acy caao. That forest rcsorvo deal has , become so complicated that Interested ones are losing sleep over It. It Is In such 8hapo at thl3 moment that tho Land board does not know just whoro to let go. It Is by far tho hardest problem that 1 has been beforo tho board elricc Utah como Into tho Union. An afternoon nowspapor, following thrco weeks behind tho lead of Tho Trl-! Trl-! bune, haB announced tho land frauds. It says Gov. Cutler declined to discuss the 1 claim that he had directed tho dismissal 1 " of Jcsso T. Badger. It olijo says tho Land board had another "cxocutlva" session ses-sion yesterday, but would glvo nothing out. Tho Land board, of which tho Governor ' la a member, did hold another session ' yesterday, arid It will contlnuo tho ses- j slon today. It Is trying very hard to .y agree on some legal course In tho Cache county sales. Up to dato tho board re- fuees to accept tho excess payment of s S1303.2S by "V. B. Sanford of Springfield, i Mo., although advised to do so -by At- I ' tornoy-General Breeden. Tho Altornoy-I Altornoy-I ,. Gonoral, It now appoors, acted on tho I knowledge. If not on tho suggestion of Gov. Cutler, when ho wrote to Sanford demanding the excess payment. It seems J that this move was not tho suggestion 1 of tho board. In fact, tho minutes of tho ( a Land board show that tho Attorney-Gcn-1 era! was notified to take what steps ho f r might 8co fit to divert the 5L306.2G Into tho 6chool fund, but was assured that It I could not pas3 Into tho nohool fund . through tho Land board. (. . No Leg-al Right. I Tho board, or a majority, feels that I thero Is no legal right to raise Sanford's bid from J2 to $3.50 an acre. Attorncy-Gcnoral Attorncy-Gcnoral Breeden contends that Sanford 1 authorized him to raise his bid In the I four sections, and that tho S1305.2G should j j 00 accepted as a corrected bid on tho I I $ land. Ho does not Insist that there Is a j legal right Involved In tho transaction, j 'f, but a moral one. 1 .. Members of tho board contend that the 1 & Bale was made for $3 or for nothing, and that personal liability would follow tho accepting of tho excess paymont, Inas-j Inas-j ;5 much as a suit to racover ti.o J1&W.2G ! would doubtless be brought by Sanford ' 0( aa soon as ho secures a title. As pointed ! out by The Tribune, Sanford puts up tho I SjiaOGG to secure the patent. "When he m, secures the patent he will say that by Issuing tho patent the Land board Icgal-'1 Icgal-'1 . Izes tho sale. Tho pale was made for $3, and not for $3.50, an acre. If the '1 Board were to (accept the 1305G It would then go Into the school fund. Should the courts hold that the board had no legal right to accept the excess payment made ' after expose of tho conspiracy, the mcm-, mcm-, bora of the board would bo obliged to 1 a return the amount out of their personal ' r funds. Nothing short of an approprla-j approprla-j tlon by the Legislature would relieve them, j Hence tho action of the majority of tho board, declining tho excess check sent by 'Sanford to Attorney-General Breeden. Now Gov. Cutler Is said to be Unde- elded, what Is tho proper course. He : was with the other members of tho board I yesterday, and somo Interesting history was made. It ,1s not at all certain that Sanford will receive Ills quarter section. It Is practically certain, however, that V. E. Moses of Denver will get his two sectlonH. Says-He Is Not in It. v This Is duo to tho fact that there Is a confession of conspiracy "betweou Sail-ford's Sail-ford's ngcn(3 and Jesse T. Badger, the Land board bookkeeper, while Moses- In- I slsts that ho was not In tho conspiracy. Jcsso T. Badger told tho Land board, tho Governor Included, that both the agents of Moses and Sanford were to-ncther to-ncther when tho proposal was made to him that ho refrain from bidding. K6 also mado such a statement to The Trlbuno Now ho Is said to have modified his story exculpating Moses. Moses bid In two sections, or 12S0 acres. Twelve hundred and eighty acres at 50 cents an aero Is believed by somo to bo an Inducement for a refreshening of one"9 memory. At least this Is tho view of the revised Btatement by Badger, which some arc now taking. Today It Is believed the' board Is likely to declare tho Sanford sale, "off." It declared de-clared It "off" two weeks ago, and "on" laBt Monday. Tho change Is probably duo to the fact that It has been pointed out that tho honorable thing for the board to do Is to advortlso the land anew. Congress Con-gress Is not likely to Interfere with tho scrip law this session. There Is no good reason to bellevo It will. Thero is ample 1,0. ,, .1 .i- . 1. . 1 i , 1 1 VIIIIU iu UlltUI UKU II1U I1JIIU UgUIIl itllU IU dofoat the conspirators. This Is being urged by thoso who do not want to sec good men on the Land board smirched by this outrageous sale. King Represented Moses. A few days agoa statement was mado that Judge W H. King was representing Sanford. This was an error. He Is attorney at-torney for Moses. Ho maintains that Moaes was not In tho conspiracy. Attor-noy-Gcncral Breeder In a general way. was mndc to Indorso this statement; Tho Tribune desires to ray that Qoi. Breeden made no referenco to this In an Interview with Tho Tribune, but to The Tribune's story of conspiracy. Ho said The Tribune's conspiracy story was correct, cor-rect, but that ho understood that' Judge King was Moses's attdrncy, and not Sanford's. San-ford's. Real friends of the board are expressing tho hopo that tho board will set aside both sales. There is too much evidence of a collusion between Moses and Sanford to admit of a doubt that they were In "cahoots" In the Cacho land deal. And as Jcsso T. Badger repeatedly declared that tho representatives of tho two brokers were together when ho was approached, ap-proached, and tho fact that the bids wero mado together, is pointed out as conclusive conclu-sive that there was an understanding. There Is reason to beliovo that If tho land Is resold It will bring fully SI an acre, and It Is urged that the board can not afford to lend its aid to tho conspiracy on tho slender argument that a now sale might cost tho Stato a few hundred dollars. Thero Is a demand for llou land scrip. Tho brokers will flock to a now salo. Thoy will bid the land in at at least the appraisement, it Is belloved, and possibly pos-sibly several thousand dollars above It. Tho Tribune has It from first-class authority au-thority that tho bookkeeper who accepted a bribe will soon bo removed. It is also informed that tho Attorney-General will bo directed to prosecute tho conspirators. |
