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Show .-'OFKCE i. m M SITS and until very-recently the Land department-has been working under the impression that the same rules applied to gold and silver as applied to coal. The formations, he declared, were very different, dif-ferent, and that there was not a geologist geolo-gist living but would say that the formations for-mations were radically different. Yet he averred that the same rules had been applied to all. The rules, he asserted, that were applied, were that there must.-be must.-be an actual outcropping of each subdivision sub-division of land. . Attorney Maynard read a number of authorities upon the questions raised by Attorney Waldron in his argument yesterday. The tables where the Government Gov-ernment attorneys sat were stacked high with reference books. Critchlow Makes Argument. E. B. Critchlow, who has been, appointed, ap-pointed, special United States Government Govern-ment attorney in the ease, was the next to argue in behalf of the Government, lie declared that he did not believe it was necessary for the Government to set up in its bill what process was necessary ne-cessary for the conclusion to be made that the defendants took up known eoal lands. To back this statement he read a number of authorities on the question. Further, he showed that there was a decision that coal lands could be secured se-cured in no other way than that proscribed pro-scribed by law, and that the act of Congress Con-gress gave them unreservedly to .the Government. His argument was mostly devoted to the technicalities of the suit, and caused the reading of a great mass of legal decisions. Closing Arguments. "Our chances of ' recovery in this i , : case are to convince. the courts of the land that the rulings of the Commissioner Commis-sioner the Department of, the Interior ; ; were radically , and ridiculously i wrong! There have been the grossest " possible mistakes in the Land department depart-ment in saying what are and what are not coal lands." 1 ' ; Such was the statement made by ' i V ni,te S Assistant Attorney-Gen- ' faynd in upeaking in v behalf, of the Government in the arguments argu-ments on the demurrers now being fceard bef ore United States Judge Mar-L,n Mar-L,n iha eoal land 'rand suits. Attorney Maynard occupied nearly Je entire morning session of court in answering the questions raised by At- i torney J. M. Waldron,. representing the I I f? a Z1 0IUPy 4 others, who l defendants to the action brought by the Crovernment to recover 17.000 acres I of coal lands alleged to have been se-. cured by fraudulent means. Government Negligent! Attorney Maynard declared that up to 1903 there had been no one employed by the Government to ascertain whether wheth-er lands which persons in Utah wanted selected were coal lands. He declared that it was an "extravagant and wanton wan-ton procedure indulged in . by. the State r' prior to that time. He declared that the conspirators in the case knew that such was the procedure at the Land omce and acted accordingly. He declared that there was not a bit of evidence before the Commissioner of the General .Land Office to show that there was coal upon the land. He asserted as-serted that as there was no proof before be-fore the Commissioner the court had a right to review the-case and the evidence evi-dence before the Commissioner. Difference in Formations. He declared that from the beginning United States District Attorney H. E. Booth will close for the Government this afternoon. Attorney Waldron will then close for the defendants. When court adjourned at 12:30 this afternoon Attorney Critchlow was still speaking. He again took np his argunfent at 2 o'clock. The legal battle promises .to be the most bitterly fought of any seen in the courts in some time. It will involve every point possible, and will even go back to the grant of the Mexican Government Gov-ernment to the United States of which Utah was a part. Already the question of the proper action to be brought has been raised against the present bills filed by the Government. Some of the best known attorneys of the West have been retained by the railroads to defend the action. |