were granted by the local Land Office. and that the holders of title were exceedingly active in securing the issuance of patents.
The trial of Willard N. Jones, Thad S. Totter and Ira Wade during 190r. wherein the two former were convicted and the latter acquitted, developed enough evidence to show that hardly an entry in the former Siletz Indian Reservation was made in good faith. Naturally, there are some exceptions, but they are so scarce as to render them unworthy of notice.
When it became known that John H. Hall, the United States Attorney for Oregon, was shielding from punishment some of those since found to have been most prominently identified with the general system of looting. President Roosevelt lost no time in removing him summarily from office, and appointing Mr. Henev to the vacancy. The latter continued to conduct the affairs of the office until December 3. 1905. when President Roosevelt sent in the name of William C. Bristol, a brilliant young lawyer of Portland, Oregon, to fill the position. Bristol was known to be a man of strict integrity and marked legal ability, and as one possessed of the courage of his convictions. It was an open secret that he was Heney's choice for the place, and this, in itself, was sufficient to bring down upon his head the accumulated opposition of every land grafter in^ Oregon and elsewhere, who were against everything bearing the stamp of Heney's approval.
Every possible effort was made to prevent the confirmation of Bristol by the United States Senate, until finally the President withdrew his name and after Christian Scheubel, of Oregon City, James T. Cleeton, of Portland, and James McCourt. of Pendleton, had been successively named for the place, the Senate, in March, last, confirmed the latter.
The fight against Bristol was led by United States Senator Fulton, of Oregon, and it is believed that his stand in the matter had much to do with his recent rejection by the Republican voters of the State for re-nomination as a Senatorial candidate, and while there is, no doubt, a multitude of causes that led to Fulton's defeat at the polls, it is thought the friends of Bristol contributed their share, nor is there any reason to deny that Fulton's indifference in connection with fraudulent land schemes of the Siletz order operated as much as anything to his political downfall.
Under a recent ruling of the General Land Office, Special Agents are required to make daily reports to the Commissioner covering all their movements, while on duty. This order has had the effect of arousing considerable hostile criticism in the ranks of the better class of Special Agents, who reason that if the head of the Laud Department was a person of unsavory stripe, these daily reports would have a tendency to keep him in constant touch with the movements of all the men under his jurisdiction, and enable him to thwart any honest effort to prevent fraud where the Commissioner himself was personally concerned. As an illustration of the idea there is herewith presented a facsimile of the report cards in use by the Special Agents of the General Land Office at the present time, which is filled out with a presumed report of a crooked special agent:
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