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Show ITIio Real Issue Is, Sliall There, . Be Honest Government There? STATE LAND BOARD IS BADLY DELINQUENT The People of the Gem State g Jjl Are Threatened With 3i $ Vicious Graft. 11; BY C. E. AENEY. ff Wt ' Epcciai to The Tribune. 3H I i BOISE. Ida., Aug. 4. The Idaho state Hj ! 'land board- delinnuencies Is. a subject gj B ; which will not down! Try as may the H three present members of the board who Wj I ' J appear as candidates for renominatlon I ' for their respective olticcs. tliey cannot III i divert the issue. It is the absorbing topic l i. In Uic political arena of this state loday I H L. and B0"ld the party renominate any or WttlA. tho tliree James H, Brady for governor. sMSjSr S BellQ Chamberlain for superintendent, SmW or D. C. McDougall for attorney general- It the Republican party will be at once on Ir" the defensive, for the people of all Idaho l aro agitated and they will demand a thor- "uSli investigation of what has been done ' "i" past state administrations. . Speaking editorially in its Sunday last ss",?' ,he I,,aho Da,I' Statesman, the r leading Republican paper of the state. . says in relation to the state land board ; record: ! : "Tho Republican partv will onlv lose i casto with tho public in proportion as f the Republican voters mav saddle their 34 lk'let with indlviduuroff Ice" holders whoso -1 actions have been shady. "It seems to tho Statesman that the Idaho Issue in the coming campaign may bo summed up in two words, 'Honest government. " In this tho Statesman Is entirely cor-. cor-. rect ! It has less than thirty issues left in which to Impress its views on a reading read-ing clientele, and it is fair to state that in no one issue will it undertake to suggest sug-gest to the Republican party the wisdom of placing cither Slss Chamberlain or Mr. McDougall on the ticket as candidates of their party for Indorsement at the polls. Each, to say the least, is Involved in shady" stato land board transactions. Each has certainly profited by "Inside information" received through thu betrayal be-trayal of that confidence reposed in them by a generous people. Neither of Ihcm can be elected. If nominated, bo can so they cannoL justify at ihc bar of public opinion opin-ion for the Care? act land they have aociuired and for the favors Ihcy have granted, at tho expense of the people, to their own appointees. Brady's Dolinquency. ..j Governor Brady, while not profiting ,t U financially, has profited politically by questionable deals as the chairman of the state land board. He has aided his associate asso-ciate members who have profited financially, finan-cially, In cloaking their peculations, leaving leav-ing an inquisitive public to guess what is the scope of the fraud committed by M thorn at the expense of a deserving pub- He has refused to admit newspaper men and taxpayers to -meetings of I ho state land board when In session on matters of . scandalous character, and he has publicly justified his course to (he protection or trH his compatriots whoso acts he has seen JI lit to condemn. IB The Republican party has a stale chalr- S9 . man. He is the head of his party in Idaho today. He stood sponsor for Gov- ernor Brady, Superintendent Chamberlain BMr nn(l Attorney General McDougall in the JB v last state campaign. When convinced 11 lhat they were unworthy of tho confidence B of his party imposed in him, he stepped WM Into the nice ns a candidate for gover- nor. This Is Barney O'Ncll of Wallace, and hero Is one of his recent utterances, which Is peculiarly germanu to the foregoing fore-going line of thought, much of which haa been indulged In. for altogether righteous purposes, by tho Idaho correspondent lor The Salt Uaku Tribune; Barney O 'Neil's Position. . Mr. O'Ncil said: "For some years past there have been more or less persistent rumors of flagrant wrongdoing by the public officials of tho slate of Idaho with reference to the handling of the public domain, and especially with reference ref-erence to lands coming under what Is known as the Carey act. "The laws of the state of Idaho are sufficiently stringent and far-reaching. It seems to me. to have provided a sui-llclent sui-llclent means of bringing the guilty. If and such there be. lo Justify long but ore this time. A uucstion so far-reaching us this Is. of couie, decidedly bigger than a mere party measure. It will not do for cither party to merely make the charge that all of the wrongdoing was done under the administration of the opposition. Thu people are less concerned In knowing what party was responsible than they are In knowing whom the real gullly persons arc; in bringing them to justico; In having returned lo tho state the bcnellts so illegally taken, and In taking tak-ing such measures and in throwing out such safeguards as lo make a repetition of such offenses less easy, If not entirely impossible. "As a candidate for the Republican nomination for governor of this state, I therefore want. In the clearest terms I know how, to say that If 1 should be nominated and elected, ono, of the very first things I shall do Is to lake the most effective steps that may be hi my power as tho chief executive of the stato to learn the true conditions and to apply the most effective remedies to existing evils. "If, as has been suggested and charged, there have been reprehensible dealings by thoso in public office, cither directly or Indirectly, I shall spare no pains lo discover dis-cover the guilty ones, to seo that there is moled out to them the fullest measure of punishment, and secure to the state. In so fjir as the same may bo possible, a complete restitution of that property, those assets, and such considerable bcnellts bcne-llts as It is charged have been pilfered from the state and Its people. "I shall do this, no matter upon whom It mav bo necessary to turn the spotlight spot-light of Inquiry. If I fall In this, the people will be justified in claiming that 1 have not made good in my administration administra-tion The time has gone by when the people will bf satisfied with mere campaign cam-paign promises. Tho development and fiascos In tho nature of attempted Investigations Inves-tigations Into the land transactions have stirred the people to such a point that something definite must be done." Whore Is This Hopo7 Tf the conditions did not Justify this langunge these would he costly words for Mr. Barney O'N'fil to weave into the history his-tory of this campaign at this rather crucial cru-cial stage of its Interesting progress. In Uio. name of enlightened reason, what hope does the Republican party hold out to a purloined public that this land board investigation will be mado thorough, thor-ough, from the shoulder, and in a manner man-ner that will "return to the state the benefits so Illegally taken." by tho reelection re-election of three of the present members of that Inefficient board, Brady, Chamberlain Cham-berlain and McDoupall? , Apropos to the situation, the good fellows fel-lows over the slate nro enjoying a full dogroo of levity over a card which some "wag" has published ami is passing out over Ihc state, which reads thus: "The Brady land board ticket. "Candidates for re-election. "For governor. James II. Brady. "For siiprlntondont of public instruction. instruc-tion. S. Belle Chamberlain. "For attorney general, D. C. McDougall. "Platform Cheer up! The worst Is yet lo conic." This stalf land board granted to a corporation cor-poration of three men, Gaylord W. Thompson. L. G. Bradley and J. II. Pe lerson. a Carev at contract for watering the West End King Hill Extension or Mcdbury tract, at the price of ?lo pur acre, the highest price ever fixed by any board for water on any project. Ims J. II. Peterson was then, and Is now. the assistant attorney general In the orticc of D. C. McDougall, tho legal adviser or tho board of land commissioners. , Ho s a Mormon, hence the security of his position. posi-tion. Through Peterson. McDougall expects ex-pects the Mormon vote at the primaries. This is not the sum total of questionable question-able transactions in relation to this Mcdbury Mcd-bury project. , , In the center of this project is an orchard or-chard tract named Frultland. It Is composed com-posed of several small units of ten acres each. On reading yesterday The bait Lake Tribune's account of S. Belle Chamberlain's ownership of forty acres of land at Twin Falls; of 120 acres of laud at Gooding: of eighty acres of land at Molllster; of two town lots in Jerome: of two town lots in Gooding and of two town lots In Buhl, all being Carey act projects and Carey act townsiics, on which she sat in judgment as a member of the state land board, a gentleman came to me. who should know tho facts, and reminded mo that Ihc list was not complete; that Miss CliamberlaljT-also had two of these small ten-acre tracts In Frultland. and thai one of these was donated do-nated to her. Frultland Is a subdivision of tho Mcdbury tract, In which Attorney General MeDougalPs assistant, J. H. Peterson. Is a one-third owner, situated near the town of Hammell. some eight miles west of Glcnns Ferry, in Elmore county. Why, Oh Why? It mav likewise be of Interest to the Republican party of Idaho, whose votes sho asks for In primary, lo know why Miss Chamberlain received S2000 for her Payette Lumber company timber claim when 5900 was the selling price of other claims of the same size, equally timbered. tim-bered. In ills Initial interview, James H. Hawley gives cmphaBls to tho trend of public opinion as to the deficiencies of the present stato land board by use of this language: "We need a business administration oT the state's affairs, not an attempt on the part of tho officers elected lo further their own private interests, or to upbuild the political party to which they may belong," It Is the stato land board in particular particu-lar which Is under suspicion in Idaho loday. Tho people are nol concerned so much as to what party succeeds to power as they are as to which men and women can and will do tholr full duty In giving them the true Inwardness of past land board records and recovering lo tho funds pillaged such land or moneys as may have been acquired by officials, elective and appointive, fraudulently. a |