Page:Looters of the Public Domain.djvu/363

Chapter XXIII

John H. Hall's repeated efforts to protect his political associates from criminal prosecution for violations of the Federal statutes results in his conviction for conspiracy in the Butte Creek Land, Livestock & Lumber Company Case, during which a gigantic scheme of inclosing Government land is laid bare—Nearly 20,000 acres of the public domain is inclosed in a vast pasture by the wealthy corporation, but the persistency of Edward A. Putnam, a small stockraiser, in fighting for his rights, is the David that destroys the Goliah of evil—Senator Fulton's name is brought under an unpleasant limelight by the Court proceedings, and the inactivity of former United States Attorney Hall is established clearly by the testimony, especially where those "higher up" were involved—George C. Brownell, the uncrowned king of Clackamas county politics, is absolved from blame by Government Prosecutor Heney, as a result of Henry Meldrum's confessions.

ON February 13, 1905, the Federal Grand Jury of Oreg'on returned an indictment against John H. Hall, charging him with conspiracy to defraud the Government of its public lands under section 5440, of the United States Revised Statutes. Fie was not brought to trial until January 13, 1908, and after the case had lasted twenty-three days, the jury, late one Friday night brought in a verdict of guilty, so it would seem that Mr. Hall was up against it all around from a "hoodoo" standpoint.

Hall had been indicted jointly with Winlock W. Steiwer, Hamilton H. Hendricks, Clarence B. Zachary, Adelbert C. Zachary, Charles A. Watson, Clyde E. Glass, Binger Hermann, Edwin Mays, Franklin P. Mays, Clark E. Loomis and Edward D. Stratford, for his alleged connection with the fencing of a large body of Government land in Wheeler County, Oregon, by the Butte Creek Land, Livestock and Lumber Company, of which Steiwer was president, Hendricks secretary and general manager, and Zachary superintendent. A. C. Zachary, Charles A. Watson and Clyde E. Glass were employes of the corporation, and had been drawn into the law's drag net on account of having been used as "dummies" in making bogus homestead entries for the benefit of the Livestock Company. Hermann had been Commissioner of the General Land Office, and was believed to have had knowledge of the illegal operations of the corporation. Edwin Mays was Hall's assistant in the United States Attorney's office at the time the offenses were alleged to have occurred, while F. Pierce Mays, his brother, was attorney for the Butte Creek Company, and had used his influence with Hall to have civil, instead of criminal, proceedings brought against the concern. Loomis and Stratford were the two crooked special agents of the General Land Office who had been sent to investigate the illegal inclosure, and, as usual, found nothing wrong.

By some mysterious process, only Hall and Edwin Mays were placed on trial when the case reached an issue in Court, and while the case was pending, Steiwer, Hendricks and C. B. Zachary entered pleas of guilty and became witnesses for the prosecution. F. P. Mays also took the stand as a Government witness, but developed such a poor memory of events that his testimony was not of much consequence for either side, and in the charity of his heart, special prosecutor Heney dismissed all the remaining cases against him, he having already been convicted in the Blue Mountain Forest Reserve case, and it was thought that the state of his health would not permit any further ordeals of

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