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Show HOST IMPORTANT LAND FRAUD CASES IN OREGON GO BEFORE COURT TODAY territory, amounting to about 3,840,000 acres, contained in the contemplated reserve. re-serve. Acting upon this suggestion, Secretary of the interior Hitchcock a few days later ordered the temporary withdrawal of the tracts indicated, and the reserve has since been confirmed in modified form. Are Punished Enough. Singer Hermann and J. N. Williamson William-son have been severed from the present proceeding, the first named by reason of a stipulation entered into by'Mr. Heney and attorneys for the ex-Commissioner of the general office, not to try him in Oregon until after the charge at Washington, Wash-ington, D. C, of having destroyed Government Gov-ernment letter press copybooks, case is disposed of and ex-Congressman Williamson, Wil-liamson, on account of a prior conviction, convic-tion, the Government deeming that sufficient suffi-cient punishment and lasting disgrace enough to justify his elimination from the cause. Pitted against them in this trial. F. J. Heney, special assistant to the Attorney-General and District Attorney W. C. Bristol will have an exceptions'! array ar-ray of legal talent, including W. P. Fenton of Portland, his brother, J. E. Fenton of Seattle; W. Lair Hill of Oakland, Oak-land, Cal., former Judge Martin L. Pipes of Portland, and former Judge S. B. Huston of Hillsboro, Or. PORTLAND, Or., Aug. 20. Trial commences today in the Federal District Dis-trict court before Judge William H. Hunt of the Blue Mountain forest reserve re-serve case. Of all the land fraud cases it is by far the most important. It involves Congressman Binger Hermann, Her-mann, Congressman J. N. Williamson, State Senator F. P. Mays and others not so well known, who, are charged with having violated section 5440 of the Revised Re-vised Statutes by entering into an alleged al-leged conspiracy to defraud the Government Gov-ernment out of 200,000 acres lying in different States and Territories, by means of an alleged fraudulent plan contemplating the obtaining of the title' in the first instance, to 150,000 acres of State school lands in Crook, Grant, Harney, Malheur, Baker,. Union, Umatilla Uma-tilla and Wallowa counties, Oregon, through the use of illegal affidavits and applications, and the subsequent inclusion inclu-sion of such lands in the Blue Mountain forest reserve, thus creating the possibility possi-bility of their use as a base In exchange for valuable timber lands under the lieu land act of June 4, 1907. Established Forest Reserve. ' Steps in the direction of the establishment estab-lishment of the Blue Mountain' forest reserve were first taken in 1902, when the late Senator John IL Mitchell is al-lodged al-lodged to have sent a petition to the General Land office, of which Binger Hermann was at that time Commissioner,' Commission-er,' asking that the reserve be created. This petition was accompanied by a strong indorsement by Senator Mitchell, and on July 2, 190-, Hermann recommended recom-mended the temporary withdrawal of the |
