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Show no'v - w 4 j'j.J k" uL A ILl L'' Evasion, of the law, whether results are considered criminal or not, la held T 7 the Government In the coal land ; uJ cases before Judge Marshall this : rrnlng, as a yiolation of the law. Per-r Per-r r.al gain secured by shrewd methods of getting around the workings of the law, is deemed by the Government to be criminal. ' ' . . Along these lines was the argument this morning on demurrers filed by defendants de-fendants in the indictment returned by the grand jury lsst fall against E. W. Senior, Don C. Bobbins,- W. G. Filer and C. M. Freed, charging them with conspiracy to defraud the Government , by illegal acquirement of public coal lands in Utah. Friends of Messrs Freed and Filer were in court as a compliment compli-ment to them. Much svmpatbY was expressed ex-pressed for both Freed and Filer, the public considering thorn . as innocent victims. .. Loudly , and forcibly, putting his whole being into his pleading, realizing as does the public the great importance of, the 'case before the court, John M. Waldron of Denver, counsel for the defense de-fense and for the Utah Fuel and Pleasant Pleas-ant Valley Coal companies, also under Indictment, put the aide of the defense before the court Fiercely attacking the prosecution upon one of its lines of defense, relating to the decision of Justice. Harlan wifh regard to the United States against the Trinidad Coal company of Colorado, connsel for defense argued that a decision de-cision handed down in a court of equity had no bearing on a criminal action. In the Trinidad Coal company case the United States Supreme court held that titles to lands acquired in equity through fraud are void, and that, all contracts made between interested parties par-ties are nullified by such action. . Answering the argument; of the defense, de-fense, the Government insists' that conspiracy to defraud Is a conspiracy to defraud, whether it be under the Jurisdiction Juris-diction of a court of eqnuity oramena-ble oramena-ble to criminal action. . Investigation by the grand jury showed, it is claimed, that for years ia systematic robbing of the Government had been carried on bv various bodies of men in this State, With this alleged knowledge, the indictment' was returned against the defendants in the case before be-fore the court todav. Methods of the a'lleged land grabbers were simple and, as claimed by certafn of those under indictment, entirely within the law. Under the law, associations asso-ciations of two or more men are permitted per-mitted to aequire but 640 acres of public pub-lic mineral lands. Individuals are allotted al-lotted 160 acres. . By approaching a person and offering offer-ing him a certain amount as a consideration, consid-eration, and by guaranteeing his attorney's at-torney's expenses and entry fees, the latter was enabled to turn over to the association, by previous agreement, his 160 acres. In this manner, iH is said, thousands of acres of public lands in this State have been Illegally and fraudulently acquired. The question as to the constitutionality constitution-ality of certain land lays has been argued ar-gued for years in Federal courts, but a case of this kind has never before appeared ap-peared in this district. Attorneys on both sides concede that the question involved is a very close one. Fred A. Maynard, special assistant to the Attorney-General, and Hiram E. Booth, United States District Attorney, appeared for the Government today. C. 8. Varian acted for C. M. Freed, E. B. Critehlow f or W. G. Filer, W. II. Dickson Dick-son for Don C. Bobbins, and E. W. Senior for himself. |