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Show I NO FRAUD IN FREED ENTRIES, ISJEGISION Noted Coal Lands Case Is Decided by Local Land Office for the Defendants. De-fendants. PARTIES TO ACTION FULLY EXONERATED Property Is Situated in Carbon Car-bon County, and the Government's Gov-ernment's Valuation Is $3,000,000. a FTER four years - of irrigation, f including investigations which extended into Washington and California, a decision long lor.L-,wl fnr onil onf nr fllft ntost. illinor- tant which has been rendered in Salt Lake, because it affects more than a dozen prominent local people, was piv-en piv-en vesterday by E. D. It. Thompson, fl t register, and AT. M. Kaighn, receiver of the United States hind oflice at Salt Lake, sitting as a board of examiners, when the case of tho United States vs. Rilla Snyder, also known as the ''Freed coal entries case," was decid-ed decid-ed in favor of the defendants. Vesterday's decision involves 3000 acres of coal lands in Huntington can-von, can-von, Emery county, which are valued bv the government at about. $,000,000. Twenty-six entries of ISO acres bach were niado upon this land. It was charged that these entries had been fl fraudulently made with dummy entry- men for the purpose of convoying them to Walter G. Filer in violation of fed- fl cral statute. The decision of the examiners is to fl the effect that there was no fraud in tho proceeding and that there was no agreement to convey the land to any party or "parties before the money in payment for the lands had 'been con-veyed con-veyed to the government and before the entries had been completed. The defendants were exonerated from all fraud and all fraudulent intention. Government to Appeal. F. A. Mavnard, special agent of the government in examining titles to coal lands in Utah, and who prosecuted the HBh Freed coal entries case, said last night HBV that the decision would be immediately HBV appealed from to the general land of- HBV fice at Washington and to the secrc- HBb tarv of the interior. He said that if Bv the secretary of the interior upheld the BV decision, iftvas. -possible that the Unit- ed States attorney general might bring tui't in equitv against the defendants in the United States district court of HI Utah. Hj CJaud W. Freed, one of the twenty- six defendants in the case, said last night that he considered the decision to be .just and gave a detailed history of the esse. The defendants are: Rilla Snvder, Brigham Y. Snyder. Ray S. Bowman, Harvey G. Fisher. Mary A. Ellingwood, Jennie Snyder, Bismarck Snyder, Mur- ray Shepherd. Lillian Levy. Ruth Freed. Rose Levy. Carrie Levv, Louise Freed, William K. Murdock," Ernest Bowman. C'rayton "'. Snyder, Thomas F. Riley. Hvman A. Leipsiger, Emma I Leipsiger, Ellis C. Freed, Claud W. J Freed. Samuel M. Levy. Emil J. Rad- I datz. Lester D. Freed," Dave TP. Block, F. C. Schramm and the estate of Charles M. Freed, deceased. Following are the salient points in the case gathered from the evidence and from the decision: The eutrymen in the case paid $10 and -$20 an acre for the land. After the entries were made the government appraised adjoining land at $300 an acre. Of the twenty-six entries, six- teen wore made by Bismarck Snyder, relatives and business associates, Money Is Borrowed. In all entries, the money was bor- rowed by tho entrymen from Walter H G. Filer, each entryman giving a note for the amount of the purchase price of the lands with 30 per cent interest, payable in one year. Each gave a mortgage on his individual tract of land to secure the payment of the borrowed money. It was charged that these entries were fraudulent and taken out for the sole purpose of conveving them to Mr. Filer. Some time after the entries were made all were sold to Charles M. Freed, during the years 1905 and lf0(3, at an average profit to the entrymen of $150. The evidence showed "that there had been no fraud in this, In the Freed cases, the entries hadi been made by C. M. Freed, sons, rela- tives and by one employee of the Freed Furniture & Carpet company. No lraud was found in any of these cases. In some of the entries, however, it was round that they embraced lands that were not coal lands and the land of fu-e recommended that thesp entries be canceled. The non-coal lands include about 800 acres. H wP?ior f? ,lfl07 sPecia Agents W. S. Wade and ,1. f. Lamoreaux invest igat- ivl entries aud interviewed entrymen. Mr. Lamoreaux testified that he found no fraudulent iutentions on tho part of C. M. Freed. On January ifc, 3907, tho federal grand "jurv returned indictments against 0. M. Freed. W. G. Filer, Edward Ed-ward W. Senior and Don C. bobbins. They were chnrged with fraud in, making mak-ing entries. On November 10, 1900, the United Status district attorney dismissed dis-missed those indictments. On Mardi 123 of tho same year notices wore issued is-sued from the local Innd oflico and served on the defendants. It was upon that day that C. M. Freed died. Tho evidence shows that there was no agreement between the entrymen prior to the entry. The .day the notices no-tices wore served nil defendants filed answers averring that there had been no fraud in their manner of making entries or hi their intentions. Tho decision covered seventeen pages and the 'transcript of the investigation inves-tigation covers 172(5 pages. The hearing hear-ing of testimony .begnn Decombcr 14, 1910, and closed March 20, .1913. Depositions were taken at Castle Gate. Utah. Los Angeles, Cal., and Seattle, Se-attle, Wash. No Agreement Found. A point in the case upon which the government, relied, according to Judge Maynard, was the fact, brought out. in the testimony, that Walter G. Filer went into an agreement with tho Union Pacific Coal company fo convey the lands to that compauv. Tho prosecution prose-cution assumed that tho Si'der applicants appli-cants made entry at Filer's instigation to enable him to control tho large bod3 of the coal lnn'd. Following is the decision de-cision upon that point: "There is nothing in tho testimony io show that any of the Snyder applicants appli-cants had any knowledge, of the Filer option at the time they made their several entries. Tndood, "most of them testify that they knew nothing of it until they heard of it at; tho trial, and all of them further testify that the entries en-tries U'ftfO KAVOrnllv mi'iflo '.,. W.r,; own use and benefit, and that they had no understanding or agreement, express ex-press or implied, heforo entry, whereby where-by the title which they acquired should inure to the benefit of some other rer-son. rer-son. Loans to entrymen aro permissible permiss-ible under public land laws.'' The decision concludes thus: .'The local office finds that the entries en-tries involved in these several cases aro valid and should be upheld, and that the protest cases against tho said entries should be dismissed." Claud W. Freed Talks. Claud W. Freed, discussing the de cision of the local land oflice in the con land cases, vesterday said: The decision in the case is a Just one. Pn"th wn,,ber 10, 1900. Special Assistant cL. Ayoy General of the United States. Fied A. .Maynard, voluntarllv caused to be dismissed in the Federal court the case wherein my father and others were Indicted on the charge of an unlawful conspiracy in connection with these same land.. And now after all the evidence has been produced and Is of record the decision of the register and receiver based thereon Is surelv a vindication vindi-cation of all concrned. In the conspiracy case, the defendants were indicted on Janunry IS. 1007. it being charged that In September, 1905. thev had entered into a conspiracy to fraudulentlv secure title to 1000 acres of coal land In Winery county by a process contrary to law. in that the respective entrymen acted not for themselves but for others and were by government counsel termed "dummies." Other than the ten entries of 160 acres made by my father, myself and other members of our family, entrvmen and entrywomen to the number of sixteen borrowed bor-rowed respectively from my brother-in-law, Mr. Filer, amounts sufficient to pav the 50,ernment purchase price for their lands and attorney's fees and gave Mr. Filer their Individual promispory notes, drawing Interest at ten per cent per annum an-num and payable one year from date, secured by mortgage upon their coal land, which mortgages were duly recorded n Emery county at the time. Purchases Are Made. Three months' subsequent, Emil J. Rad-datz, Rad-datz, who was one of those who borrowed money from Mr. Filer, sold his land to my father and more than six months subsequent sub-sequent to the making of their respective entries thr remaining fifteen sold their lands to him, the conveyances for each 160 acres being In the form of warranty deeds, the considerations being stated In the deed and running from 51784. the lowest price paid, to 3561.35. the highest price paid, and thereafter the respective mortgages were released by Mr. Filer, who received his money and interest. The total purchase price of the land, amounting to about 40,000. was paid Into the land office at the time of the making mak-ing of the entries In the fore part of 1906, but no patents have issued by reason rea-son of the government charging that, the entries were fraudulent, which If true, would result in the entries being cancelled can-celled and confiscation by the government of the 40,000. After the Indictment was dismissed, special agents in a civil suit before the land department, challenged tho bona fides of the entries, hence the hearing before be-fore the local land office. In which the government was represented by Special Assistant to the Attorney General Maynard May-nard and Special Agents Wade and Lamoreaux. Lam-oreaux. Our Interests were represented by Attorney E. W. Senior. Attorney Bismarck Bis-marck Snyder appearing for the entry-men entry-men who gave warrants" deeds. Hearing Is Prolonged. This hearing has been prolonged one way and another extending over a period of almost two years, some of the eyldence-having eyldence-having been taken at San Francisco, Los Angeles. Seattle. Omaha, at Castle Dale near the land, and before the land office In thin city. The testimony in the hearing before the land office is voluminous. It fills three large printed volumes containing 1744 pages, in addition to the briefs of the attorneys in the case. To print and bind this mass of testimony cost us 3000, and was done by us In order that the whole story could be preserved and placed In our homo library for future reference, and also that our friends who wished might read the testimony and judge for themselves as to the merits of tho case. A few extra volumes were printed and should any one be sufficiently Interested and desire a complete knowledge of all the facts. It will be a pleasure to loan a sot of tho three volumes containing all of the evidence produced, to any person. When asked regarding the value of the lands, Mr. Freed replied: "Oh. the value is problematical. At present It is not accessible ac-cessible to any railroad and then again. It requires a large Investment of capital to properly equip and operate a coal mine successfully, but. the land and Its value Ik a .secondary consideration with us. Our object in defending the title to these lands Is (o remove In every way posslhlo tho shadow that, was cast over the name of myVather, now dead, as also that of the family." Discusses an Appeal. "Is the government likely to appeal from the decision of the register and receiver?" re-ceiver?" was asked. "Oh. yes." replied Mr. Freed. "Some of these special assistant as-sistant attorneys and special agents appear ap-pear to labor under the delusion thai all persons except' themselves are crooked. I am told that more than a month ngo Mr. Maynard stated that he would carry the case from the local office to the commissioner com-missioner of the general land office, and from there to the interior department, and then If he lost out and the patents were Issued, he would start a suit in the Federal court to sut aside the patents. How far the government will permit him to go In further harassing us, remains to bo seen. In fairness to Special Agent Lamoreaux, Lamo-reaux, I wish to say, his admission while upon the witness stand wus especially gratifying. It was to the effect that he believed my father was Innocent of any wrong of any nature, form or description In connection with theso lands. Mr. Lamoreaux Lam-oreaux in his official capacity as a special spe-cial agent for the department of justice was engaged In securing evidence for tho government In connection with the case iflore or less for the past five years. |