HUGE LAND GRAB.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LI, Issue 151, 17 June 1908, Page 4

HUGE LAND GRAB.

At Washington, {D.C., ifuur millionaires named respectively iiyde. Benson, Dimond. and Schneider liav« i ben. arraigned for conspiring to defraud the I'niied StiiU"?i (iovernnient out of thousands of acres of land. J lie trial attracted immense intere>t. because it had taken the agents of the Eedera! tiovermneiit nearly four years lo proeuro evidence against thoe men. and upward'? of 20(1 were from fourteen States in the We>t lo 1 i testify again-d the accused. Congress | appropriated uIJ.OOO for tin* expenses of tin.' trial, which is expected to la>l. three months The lands alleged Id liave been fraudulently obtained are situate in tin- Slates of California. Oregon. Arizona. Washington, and in territories west ot' the Koi'kie-, The value of the land i» estimated at close oti a million sterling. It is alleged thai these fraud> have been going on f«»r years, the method ot procedure being to -eeiire hundreds of persons to -ipi applications tor publie land, purchase j» at a >mall price in their name, and re* «rll it at an enhanced price. Every citizen is entitled to purchase sixty-four acres ot public land, usually at about Idol, an acre. The <!overnmnet expect to show that Jlyde and lleii*on had ollices in San Francisco within a block of each oilier. These ollice-, were connect* |<d by private telephone. and the two i men. working with Dimond and S> linei- ' der as agents. secured more than loujHHi I acres of valuable rcM-rva!ion- Ihri !he means described. It is al-o alleged that they corrupted clerks in the Land (Hliee of tln> Secretary "f the Interior to secure the lilies l>eijig parsed, and had a number of men in \\ a-hin.-i .m to fimurdi them with inf»nna(io;i .Hon .il-o corruptly emit rolled lie' tinu olliccrs of the llovenr.Ment in (. alilornia and elsewhere. and ci>ndu''ied au enormous business on the-*' lines. Ji took :i ueok lo .secure a jury. Hyde aim J>en-oii are both millionaires. and both had to be expedited from Calilornia. It is stated that this is but a beginning of prosecutions for huge fraud- of character, which had been conducted >o carefully that it was impossible to got up cases until very reeentlv.