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Show For moro than two years the Department De-partment of the Interior at "Washington "Washing-ton has been engaged in attempting to discover tho Identity of those who wore stealing the public lands in Idaho and Oregon. That tho task was dim-cult dim-cult is shown by tho length of time it took to got at enough of the facts to warrant tho calling of a Federal grand jury. A striking feature of It all is the continuous theft that has been carried on simultaneous with the Inquiry. There seemed to be no fear on tho part of tho culprits that they would bo punished. There aro intimations that the drag-net will catch many prominent citizens. If there aro enough promlnet citizens Involved, there will be no person of lesser Importance Im-portance than tho President himself who will havo tho temerity to cast the net. There Is reason to believe that tho President is closely associated with tho Investigation, as was evidenced evi-denced by tho Instant removal of United Unit-ed States District Attorney Hall at Portland. The complaint against Hall was mado by telegraph directly to the President, and answered within an hour. Now penitentiaries will have to be built to accommodate the timber thieves if even one-half of them aro convicted. President Roosevelt has tackled tho biggest Job In his flrenu-ous flrenu-ous career. Ho will probably havo to imprison a dozen United States senators, sena-tors, ono of whom is a frequent visitor vis-itor to Salt Lake, aria Is weir known hero. Tho list will Include distinguished distin-guished officials and ex-officials of the Northern Pacific Railroad company, Now York capitalists and many who pass tho plate in church on Sundays. Tho fraud has a wider horizon than anything that has ever agitated the government In many years. Tho postal pos-tal scandal will bo like tho theft of a peanut compared with it. |