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Show OREGON LAND SWINDLE REACHES GREAT TOTAL; NO LIMIT ON FRAUDS MSMSMSBSaSjSi - PORTLAND, Or., Dec. 4. Only when all persons holding certificates for school fand in this State have sent their' certificates :o Salem to have them examined, will It be possible to make an estimate of the extent of the gigantic gi-gantic swindles perpetrated on Easterners East-erners by unscrupulous land operators. Gov. Chamberlin stated to the Associated Asso-ciated Prera today there is no limit to the. number of forged certificates which could have been made, and It is safe to say, he added, that where the certificates were hypothecated the full sum amount shown by the certificates was obtained or where sales were made outright paid by the victim. Frauds Far-Reaching. Very few of the persons who possess forged certificates are known so far,-but far,-but from the fact that persons in Minnesota, Min-nesota, Wisconsin, Illinois, New York. New Jersey, Ohio and Florida are in possession of them, the officials fear that when the whole number develops that it will include people In every State cast of the Mississippi river. The heaviest losers known to the officials so far,, are H. Goddard of La Crosse, Wis.; , George Baldwin of Appleton, Wis.; H. M.- Delalttre of Minneapolis, Mlmv . Who Cbnunltted Frauds.' " '.' " Gov. Chamberlain said last night that at the present time he was Unable to say who the fraudulent operators are. From other officials It was learned that there are certain Twrsona under suspi- don. but it Is admitted that this suspicion sus-picion Is based on the fact that a man now !er conviction, in the Federal couiU of conspiracy to defraud the Tinted Slates Government of part of the public domain, appears -as the assignee as-signee of the original entryman in one of the forged certificates On this piece of property, which lies in southwestern Oregon, the State has issued two deeds on forged certificates. The original certificate was Issued to Grant B. Johnson. . One of the forged certificates shows that Johnson assigned as-signed the property to'H. H.. Biggs who reassigned it to Hiram Goddard. The other certificate purports to have been assigned by Johnson to S. A. D. Puter, who reassigned it to C. G. Foster and W. H. Richardsfin." When. Certificates Were Issued. The certificates which were forged were all for land sold by the State prior to 1900. So perfect were the forgeries it is. said, when W. H. Odell, former clerk of the land board -was shown a forged certificate and asked if it were his -signature which was attached he unhesitatingly answered that It was. Only two methods by which holders may determine the originality of their certificates without sending them to Salem are offered by the State officials; .the first. Is so far. all the forgeries discovered dis-covered ' are-- on a paper bearing the water mark "sterling," a brand of paper pa-per that has' never been sold in Oregon and the other is the forged certificates are printed from sine -etchings made. , from photographs of the original blank form. ' - |