The American Magazine (1906-1956)/Volume 64/The Taming of the West/Discovery
THE TAMING OF THE WEST
DISCOVERY OF THE LAND FRAUD SYSTEM; A DETECTIVE STORY
BY LINCOLN STEFFENS
AUTHOR OF "THE SHAME OF THE CITIES," ETC.
ILLUSTRATED WITH PHOTOGRAPHS
HIS country owes as much to Ethan Allen Hitchcock, as it does to the ancestor after whom he was named. The debt may never be paid; Mr. Hitchcock is not a popular figure. Undemocratic, uncommunicative, independent, he was in office no respecter of persons. To the President a crooked senator is a senator; Mr. Roosevelt plays the game. To his ex-Secretary of the Interior, a crooked senator is a crook. He cannot play the game. And that's one reason why he was able to open up the land fraud system which not only took from the American people an empire of land, timber and mines, but corrupted the government of many territories many states and the United States.
The Ancient Order of Land Graft
Mr. Hitchcock was not expected, nor did he intend to perform this great service. Outside of the grafters, few men knew that there was an organized system of land grabbing. Who realized that the great captains of pioneers who had "cleared** Michigan, Wisconsin and Minnesota had perfected methods by which they were stripping and "fencing in" for themselves Wyoming, Montana, Idaho, Washington, Oregon and California? Not Mr. Hitchcock. Who imagined that this corruption had extended from the petty land offices to county and state officials, thence to legislatures and governors, and finally to congressmen and United States senators who, in turn, "stood in" with all the representatives at Washington of ail the "protected" businesses which get privileges out of the government; and that these all worked together until they were controlling the judicial, legislative and the executive branches, not only of states and territories, but of the Federal government? Patriotic Americans had to have either the facts or some imagination to grasp this state of things, and Mr. Ethan Allen Hitchcock had neither. It was necessary to show him.
Taking in a Cabinet Officer
The mail of any cabinet officer would show him enough to start him aright, if he could read it himself and himself investigate. But when a new Secretary enters his office for the first time, he finds himself at the head of a great machine the mechanism of which he knows nothing about. He is overwhelmed with the magnitude of his task. At that juncture, a few respectful functionaries greet him, take him about and show him the mysteries of red tape. He may have heard of inefficiency, even of corruption among these hold-overs from another administration, and he may have promised their places to friends of his, good men. But now he sees that all this perfectly adjusted, delicate machinery must not be tampered with and that his whole safety lies in these bureaucrats—so expert and polite.
Mr. Hitchcock let these men read his mail for him and answer it. One of the anecdotes related of him tells how he rebelled when, on his first day, a pile of letters was laid before him by a clerk who bade him "sign there, please." The Secretary said huffily that he would read them first. The clerk bowed, withdrew, and by and by brought more letters and more, and more, and as the pile grew, the Secretary surrendered. He read all he could, but he didn't see all, and what he did see he couldn't follow up. He let the "ring" 
ETHAN A. HITCHCOCK
Who as Secretary of the Interior opened up "the land fraud system which took from the American people an empire of land, timber and mines"
investigate, and when men like Binger Hermann himself, the head of the land office and an ex-congressman from Oregon, where the land business was understood—when such men reported again and again that there was absolutely nothing in any of the complaints, Mr. Secretary Hitchcock lost all patience with "letter writers," "yellow journalists" and cranks.
"A Crazy Priest"
There was a priest, for example, the Rev. Joseph Schell, of Tillamook County, Oregon, who saw some poor parishioners of his ousted by fraud from their land claims. He followed the agents of the gang to the bank of the banker in whose interest they were working, and thence to the office of the lawyer in Portland who was steering the deal through the law. Father Schell gathered facts, records, evidence, which Secretary Hitchcock's prosecutors told me they wished they had had. This tireless priest reported his facts to the local land offices, to the United States district attorney, to the Interior Department at Washington, and to the newspapers. He knocked at every door of the system, excepting only those which opened to knock him. Nothing was done. On the contrary, his life was threatened; the lawyer attempted first to bribe, then to blackmail him; and his church rebuked and finally twice transferred him. Well, Father Schell wrote to Mr. Hitchcock and he received an acknowledgment from him, but nothing was done. And the priest went to Washington to see the Secretary. He saw the "ring." The Secretary was "busy." To break through the "ring," Father Schell appealed to Senator Mitchell, of Oregon, and he thought he had the Oregon "pull." But no, the "ring" said the Secretary was "out." They referred him to the Assistant Secretary of the Interior, who referred him to the Assistant Attorney-General's office, which referred him on, and on, and on. Father Schell ran round and round the icy circle of official Washington until he became known as the "crazy priest." That "crazy priest" had the truth and he cried it aloud in the wilderness; when he needed help from on high, he was disciplined, and when, at last, Rome fell, and there was no man to deny his testimony, then his superiors, the church in Oregon, boasted that "it was a priest, the Rev. Joseph Schell, who first called attention to the land frauds!"
Why is it that the churches are so often caught on the side of wrong? Why is it that the forces of evil, oftener than those of good, defeat evil? The land frauds, like the life insurance graft, and the corruption of so many cities and states were first exposed, not by good men, but by the quarrels of the grafters over the graft. Secretary Hitchcock, having had Father Schell's explicit complaints investigated, by the "ring," concluded, with the "ring," that the priest was unreliable and his charges false. That settled Father Schell and, coming as he did, at the end of two or three years' experience with cranks, his settlement settled outside informers generally with Mr. Hitchcock. The Secretary's ear was for the men about him, and, stiff-necked and obstinate, those who know him have long wondered how it happened that he, of all the secretaries of the Interior, came to be the discoverer of the ancient graft of the General Land Office.
Inferior Department Cliques
The explanation is simple. In the Land Office there were two cliques. Binger Hermann, the commissioner, was the head of one, the so-called "Oregon bunch." W. A. Richards, the assistant commissioner, was the head of the other, the "Wyoming push." Richards wanted Hermann's place, and his side was the stronger. He had with him his clerk, James T. Macey; the assistant attorney-general assigned to the Interior Department, Willis Van Devanter; and, best of all, the secretary's private secretary, W. Scott Smith. Back of the Wyoming clique were Senators Warren and Clark; back of "Oregon" were Senators Mitchell and Fulton. Not all the men on a side were after the same thing, but all were united against Binger Hermann, the sly.
Richards and Macey watched the commissioner. They knew what he was doing. They didn't expose him publicly. They meant only to expose Hermann to the Secretary. So they worked upon Mr. Hitchcock quietly. They poisoned his mind with doubts concerning his unctuous land commissioner till, in 1902, when the opportunity offered for a bold play, Mr. Hitchcock was ripe with suspicion.
Beginning of the Exposure
Photograph by Harris & EwingPhotograph by Harris & Ewing
W. A. Richards, Assistant Commissioner of the Land Office.
"THE WYOMING PUSH"
dummies upon school lands in California and Oregon. Then they themselves would map out a forest reserve to cover these claims. B. F. Allen, the forest superintendent at Los Angeles, who was supposed to do this work in the interest of the government, let Benson and Hyde do it in their own interest, and his part consisted in accepting their maps and recommending their reserves. Benson and Hyde got from the states wholesale rights to take up magnificent timber and other valuable public lands elsewhere, and these rights, called scrip, they sold in the open market at a great profit.
Putting It Up to Hermann
Schneider's charges were so extraordinary, they involved so many officials, and accused a business firm of such high standing, that, had Schneider been an outsider, he would have been called crazy. But Schneider said he had been a confidential clerk of Hyde and Benson and his explicit statements showed that he was indeed an insider. Moreover, he confessed that his motive was not the public good; he was out for revenge upon his principals.
The department clerk who opened and read Schneider's letter showed it to Macey. 
Photograph by Harris & EwingPhotograph by A. B. McAlpin
Binger Hermann, Commissioner of the Land of the Land Office.
Photograph by C. M. Bell
"THE OREGON BUNCH"
Macey understood its importance. Having taken a copy of it, Macey let the original letter go on to Hermann, and Richards watched the commissioner to see what he would do with it. Hermann pigeonholed it. Schneider wrote again, saying he had had no answer, and when this letter also was ignored, he had his attorney, J. A. Zabriskie, write. Zabriskie was an ex-United States district attorney from Arizona and his entrance into the situation caused some stir in the Department. Hermann stood pat, however, and Schneider and Zabriskie might have been worn out by silence, but for an accident. Once when Hermann was away, Richards as acting-commissioner received officially one of these letters. He ordered an investigation by S. J. Holsinger, a special agent of the land office in Arizona. A pretty bold stroke, but Richards seemed to have acted only in the way of routine, so Hermann, upon his return, and before Richards' letter reached the agent, sent a telegram directing Holsinger "to leave at once for Montana and make an examination of the Kootenai forest district." This assignment kept the agent busy from June until September (1902). But in November he took Schneider's story, and the report he sent back, offiofficial and plain, is a most interesting document.
Land Graft Officially Described
Schneider, he said, had been twenty-three years in the employ of F. A. Hyde and John A. Benson; from January, 1879, till January, 1902. All the business of the firm was done under Hyde's name, "Benson not being known in the concern, although he had an equal interest." The report goes on to tell about the beginning of the frauds: "The firm, not content with legitimate business, conceived the idea of securing school lands by locating them under false names or dummies. The first work was done in the Sierra Forest Reserve in California. The methods employed were to forge some name to an application for school lands. A notary public, a party to the fraud, for a certain consideration testified that the person appeared before and was known to him. These applications were made in the state land offices and title secured. Bogus powers of attorney were executed in favor of F. A. Hyde and in due time the scrip was secured and placed on the market. ... As this business grew it became apparent that to keep up the supply of scrip they must resort to other frauds. So they embarked in the business of making forest reserves according to their own ideas and interests. They used every possible influence to secure the creation of forest reserves and also ... to fix the boundaries so that every acre of school land was made a part of the reserve."
Here we have business men helping to preserve the forests, apparently; really, however, the reserves they marked out were not always forests; sometimes they were treeless wastes.
"Schneider alleges," says Holsinger, "that to successfully carry out their schemes, it was decided that not only should some of the government agents in the field be fixed, but to send one Henry Dimond, an employee of Hyde's, to Washington to interest some department clerk so that they would know every move made in the Department of the Interior. Dimond soon notified Hyde by letter that he had made a satisfactory arrangement with a clerk whereby information would be furnished, the consideration being that when the scrip was secured, the clerk should receive two cents per acre. Thereafter, Schneider states, they received telegrams and letters from this clerk signed 'B.' . . ."
Pushing Business
"After the creation of the Sierra Reserve the Hyde concern entered actively into the agitation in Oregon and California of movements (for the preservation of the forests), and in every instance where a reserve was created they were instrumental in fixing some of the boundary lines so that school lands would fall within a reserve. . . . Schneider implicated two government agents: Forest Superintendent B. F. Allen and Special Agent Prior. He states that early in 1900 it was decided in the office to secure the co-operation of Superintendent Allen, and he was accordingly invited to call and did so; that thereafter he w^as often in the office when in San Francisco. Soon after this Hyde informed Schneider in a casual way that he had had to take Prior into the secret and he (Schneider) was instructed to give Prior the liberties of the office."
Please remember in reading what follows that Allen and Prior were supposed to mark off the boundaries of reserves and that they were not supposed to consult with anybody: "Schneider states that Allen and Prior were freely consulted and were furnished maps made by Schneider of these reserves as they were proposed by Mr. Hyde. . . . These maps were made to meet as far as possible the requirements of the Department, but always with the view of including as much unoccupied school land as possible."
In other words, the purposes of fraud came first. Holsinger goes back to the statement which to him, an agent, seems almost incredible. "Schneider claims," he says, "that he himself, for Mr. Hyde, actually drew the map of the Proposed Lassen Forest Reserve. The first map was destroyed and an amended one formulated to exclude certain lands owned by wealthy men who threatened to start a strong opposition. The general mode of procedure was to enlist themselves (Hyde and Benson) in a good cause (to save the forests) with the special object of securing boundaries to best suit their interests." As to the price paid for corruption "Schneider stated that Allen once asked for a loan and was accommodated. Prior was presented with a thoroughbred Durham bull."
As to the extent of these operations in the good cause of preserving the forests, the report says: "Schneider alleges that about three-fourths of the school entries in the Cascade Forest Reserve in Oregon were bogus. All the school section entries in the Lake Tahoe Forest Reserve were bogus, as were most of those in Zaca Lake, Pine Mountain and the addition to the San Jacinto Forest Reserve."
The State Corrupted, Too
Now all this was Federal corruption, but the states also suffered as Holsinger explains: Having drawn the maps for reserves, the firm had their agents, in the government employ, recommend them, and arrangements were perfected to locate "on every acre of unappropriated school land, and private land (held by persons who did not know the reservation was coming) was secured by bond or purchase as far as possible. But," the report explains, "the dummy locations were not filed in the state land offices until word was received from Washington that the recommendation for the reserve had been forwarded to the President. When this was known the dummy locations were filed, the officers of the State Land Offices being party to the fraud and receiving an agreed-upon commission.
"Surveyor-General M. G. Wright, of California, was implicated and always managed to file the dummy entries ahead of bona fide applicants. Schneider states that while in Wright's office, where much of his time was spent, bona fide applicants had several times asked for information but none ever secured a filing even though the land desired was vacant. Wright would inform him (the bona fide applicant) that the office was busy.... The person was advised to leave his application.... As soon as the bona fide applicant was out of his office, Wright informed Schneider, who at once prepared a 'dummy' which was filed and the bona fide applicant was duly informed that a further examination revealed the fact that there was an application ahead of his.
"Trouble arose several times between Wright and Schneider as to the number of entries on which Wright was entitled to a commission. At such times Schneider would suspend business and telephone Hyde, who was always able to satisfy the surveyor-general." This was a "hold-up" by a politician in office, and the report tells of another such "outrage" upon Hyde by a politician out of office: "At one time last year, ex-Surveyor-General Gardner insisted that he should have a share of the spoils which he had enjoyed while in office, and upon refusal, Gardner complained to Governor Gage that certain school section applications were fraudulent. The Governor refused to sign the patents and the claims were suspended until Hyde took Gardner to his office and paid him. Then Gardner visited the Governor, reported 
"A detective of the old school, the kind you read about in books"
Photograph especially taken for The American Magazine by A. M. Goethe
that he had been misinformed, and the patents were signed."
The Coup Against Hermann
This report came like an infernal machine into the Land Office, and as such it was handled—with care. Richards and Macey saw it but they didn't say anything; they copied it, passed it on to Hermann, and waited. Hermann didn't say anything either; he waited, and when his enemies saw him file the report they knew they had him. Richards and Macey told Van Devanter about it and he told the Secretary.
As the insiders relate, Mr. Hitchcock "went right up in the air." Indignant, enraged, the Secretary was for sending at once far Hermann and demanding his resignation. That was Mr. Hitchcock's way: direct, natural and ruthless. But that isn't the Washington way. Judge Van Devanter, however, won the Secretary over to send for Hermann, proposed the promotion of B. F. Allen, and ask if there was anything against him. If Hermann was "in with" Allen, and Hyde and Benson, he would favor the promotion, and conceal the charges.
Hermann, summoned, came rubbing his hands and bowing, and the blunt Secretary tried to play out the game. But either he blundered or Hermann was too cunning for him. For when the Secretary told what he proposed for B. F. Allen and asked if there was anything on record against his promotion, Binger Hermann searched his mind.
"Let me see," he said. "B. F. Allen. It seems to me there is something against B. F. Allen. I may be mistaken, but—B. F. Allen, hum; if my memory does not deceive me there is a report on file that contains charges against B. F. Allen." Thus Binger Hermann, the sly, defeated the intriguers. But he didn't defeat the Secretary. Mr. Hitchcock wanted to see that report, and Hermann had to go and get it. And when Mr. Hitchcock read it (as if he had never read it before) he flew into a fresh passion. Why was such a report of such a scandal kept from him? He demanded the resignation of Mr. Binger Hermann.
Hermann ran to Senator Mitchell, and the Senator applied the Oregon pull. The President was seen and Secretary Hitchcock; they both were too angry to listen to anything but an appeal for mercy. So Senator Mitchell pleaded for time. There was to be a wedding in Mr. Hermann's family, he said, and it would be a pity to spoil the festivities by the sudden removal of the father from office. On this ground a reprieve was granted. How the President, the Secretary, Heney, Burns and all the others did regret this act of clemency! Hermann spent the time allowed him to burn the so-called private letter books of his office—the offense for which he was tried this year at Washington, and acquitted.
But no matter: a great result was accomplished. Mr. Hitchcock was aroused, and so was the President. Richards was made land commissioner in Hermann's place; Macey became chief clerk; and there were other changes and promotions. But the Secretary was far from satisfied. Hard to start, he was as hard to stop, and now that he knew there were crooks in his land office, his obstinacy became a fierce virtue. He called his altered cabinet about him, and, deciding that he must turn Holsinger's report into evidence, he proceeded to act.
Arthur B. Pugh, a law clerk in Van Devanter's office, was sent west with Charles Steece, a special agent. They encountered difficulties. They called on Schneider at Tucson, but, for some reason, he would talk no more. Unfortunately his statement to Holsinger had not been sworn to and, since he refused now to make an affidavit, his testimony was worthless as evidence. At Los Angeles, at San Francisco—all along the line, they were balked. They got some facts, however. They reported their convictions that there was fraud and, baffled themselves, they offered a suggestion. Mr. Pugh advised Secretary Hitchcock that only a detective could solve the problem.
Hitchcock Gets Him a Detective
A detective! The Secretary, more determined than ever by this set-back, seized upon the idea. He wanted a detective, but where do you go for detectives? Judge Van Devanter bethought him of the Secret Service of the Treasury Department and Chief Wilkie was called in. He heard the story. The problem lay out of his jurisdiction, but he said he could help. He offered to lend the Interior Department "the star of the Secret Service"—William J. Burns.
Burns is a detective. He is a detective of the old school, the kind you read about in books; he uses his head. Burns also makes thieves help him, but the thieves he uses are those that did the job. He "gets them right," makes them "come through" (as he calls confessing) and his genius appears in the way in which he finds out who the thieves are. He exercises his imagination; he calls it forming a theory, but, as we follow this detective's story through the land frauds, we shall see that his theorizing consists in nothing but mental seeing aided by reason. And the beginning thereof is suspicion.
Burns' suspicion is almost universal. The President once complained that Burns thought everybody was a thief until his innocence was proven, and Burns answered with surprise, "Well, they are—here in Washington." Burns knows his Washington. His suspicion is built up by insight, but it is founded upon facts. Knowing that So-and-So is stealing, he knows that the other So-and-Sos near the thief must know about it, and he asks, "Why don't they holler, eh? What are they getting out of it?"
To the Secretary, hard-headed and unimaginative, Chief Wilkie's star came as a shock. Burns did not know the graft map of the Interior Department, so he suspected everybody in it. His first request, made before he himself arrived, was that nobody but the Secretary and Chief Wilkie should be informed of his engagement. No doubt he would have kept out the Secretary himself, at first, if he could, but the Secretary had to know, of course, and he took into his confidence four or five other men besides himself and Wilkie. And the sequel proved that Burns was right; too many knew. When the detective had indicated the depth, breadth and height of his suspicions at their first council, the Secretary drew Chief Wilkie aside.
"Now, Mr. Wilkie," he said, "do you think your man will be able to handle such a difficult, delicate job as this? "
"He has never failed yet," said the Chief, and the Secretary was resigned. He gave Burns the case, and he hoped for the best. As time went on he came to put great faith in the detective, but it was sometimes hard to do so, and their intercourse was a series of shocks.
Burns' next move was the next shock. He asked to be put to work in the Land Office. He said he must have an understanding of the laws, methods and general organization of the General Land business, and that was true; but also he needed to "form his theory."
"I wanted to find out," he told me, "first, how the laws intended that the public lands should be distributed, honestly; second, the methods by which they were actually disposed of, honestly; third, how the crooks got hold of them, crookedly. And, finally, I knew that if the outside crooks in the business got land crookedly, certain crooks in office had to know about it, and I wanted to know before I went after them just who they were, both in the Department at Washington and out West in the field."
Burns at Work in Washington
Reading law in the Land Office, Burns saw that the policy of the United States government and the intent of its open land legislation was to distribute the public domain gradually in small parcels to bona fide settlers, miners and others, who would cultivate it for their own and the common good. The evils that had grown up with time, he found, were all the results of the efforts of "enterprising" business men to get large tracts of land for the purposes of reckless, selfish exploitation. Thus the land frauds were not only violations of the land laws; they were a general violation of the policy of the government; and they were bringing about a condition in which, as in the old countries, a comparatively small number of large land-owners would own the land in the United States. Burns saw that this process of appropriation was carried on by several methods, and he studied them all, but he worked out most carefully the schoolland, lieu-scrip frauds, since they were the specialty of Hyde and Benson, his first case.
Having grasped the general principle underlying the land policy. Burns perceived at a glance that Hyde and Benson were merely brokers through whom big operators got hold of lands meant for small settlers. Who the big operators were was well known in the Land Office, and the mere fact that they were getting lands wholesale was of itself an evidence of fraud and corruption. Moreover, the clew to the crime was written plain in the Land Office records. The lieu-land act read as if it was drawn to compensate settlers, the states and others for land taken back by the government, and the applications on file were indeed from many "settlers" who signed many names. But throughout hundreds and hundreds of these papers there recurred constantly one name: F. A. Hyde. Schneider's letters said that the settlers were dummies, and that with their applications for school lands went also a deed of relinquishment to Hyde, but even if Schneider had not written this letter, the constant recurrence in so many papers of "F. A. Hyde," the name of one man should have aroused suspicion in an honest official's mind; and since everybody knew that Hyde was one of the brokers through whom big operators were getting too much land, the Land Office should have investigated. The machinery and the men to investigate were there: special agents, forest superintendents and all the other divisions of experts. And the records showed that these all had investigated or passed upon all these papers. Yet there were Hyde and Benson dealing on the open market in scrip!
Burns' Imagination
Bums didn't have to be a detective to detect the fraud, nor did he have to be very shrewd to guess who the guilty official were. Some or all of these experts, posted all along the lines to prevent fraud, must be corrupt. Schneider told of two that were, but these couldn't be all. To settle upon the others, all Bums had to do was to follow a typical, fraudulent claim from its inception out in the field to the Land Office, through the proper divisions there and thus back again to the local land offices, where the patents were delivered. When he had done that. Bums "knew" that not only Forest Superintendent Allen and Special Agent Prior at Los Angeles were corrupt, but that Grant Taggart, the forest supervisor at San Francisco and H. H. Jones, his chief and Allen's, at Washington were corrupt; and that Major Harlan, the chief of the special agents, and J. J. Barnes, the expert of the school-lands division,—all of these and many others had to be corrupt. The Land Office, inside and out, at Washington and in the field, must be corrupt from the rim to the core.
And so Burns told the Secretary, and the Secretary went "right up in the air." When Bums went on to say that certain officials, whom he named,—men high up in the Department; veterans in the service; gentlemen in deportment; members of good families; friends of great men—when Bums said they were "crooks," the Secretary demanded to know how the detective knew. And when the detective said the fraud simply could not go on without their knowledge and connivance, the Secretary asked for evidence.
"I have no evidence yet," Burns had to admit; "that's only my theory."
"Oh," said the Secretary, "if that's all you've got! Well, we shall have to have more than theory, you know. "
The Uses of Imagination
Bums did not resent the Secretary's incredulity. He was used to it. He tells how in his most celebrated case, the Taylor-Bredell-Jacobs and Kendig-Philadelphia-Lancaster counterfeit conspiracy, he had a similar experience with Chief Wilkie. Bums assumed that very few engravers could have done that job. From talks with men in the business he learned of six who were capable of such perfect work. Four of them he found to be openly engaged all the time at legitimate labor. Thus by a process of elimination he settled his suspicion upon the other two, and, finding them grouped mysteriously but handily for crime, he wired Wilkie, who was then new in the service, that he had located the criminals.
"The Chief came rushing over to Philadelphia," Bums relates, "and talked of warrants. He was utterly disgusted when I told him that I had only formed my theory, and he laughed. Well, I laughed, too, and I laughed last. It took a year to get the evidence. It had taken only a few weeks to form my theory. But the evidence bore out the theory in detail."
Of course Burns has to get evidence. That's his business: to convict.
So he determined to make somebody confess. He picked out J. J. Barnes, an able clerk in the school-land division, who had been forty years in the service and stood high in the esteem of Mr. Hitchcock. All Burns had to go on was the theory that since the frauds went through his hands, Barnes, being experienced and intelligent, must know and do certain things that were wrong. Some people say Burns bluffs; they are wrong. Burns knows; he is sure; his mind's eye sees as surely as his physical eye; and his assurance counts. He confronted Barnes with a complete and graphic account of the manipulations of the land frauds. Barnes paled, and Bums, seeing he was right, accused him of accepting bribes. Barnes broke down and confessed.
Barnes turned out to be the clerk "B.," whom Schneider said Dimond had hired to keep Hyde and Benson posted. But Schneider didn't know it all. Barnes said it wasn't Dimond, but Hyde himself that had ruined him. Dimond's visit wasn't the first. Before that Hyde had come to Washington. Like Bums, Hyde had gone into the Land Office, and studied the procedure there; like Burns, Hyde had seen that Barnes must be corrupt if business was to be done; and so, like the detective again, the business man had had to "get" Barnes.
Hitchcock's Practical Mind
The confession of Barnes astonished the Secretary, but it did not convince him that his Land Office was "corrupt to the core." Only Barnes was bad. Mr. Hitchcock was just as amazed at each subsequent confession. Once when a certain fine old clerk had expressed a willingness to tell the Secretary something, Burns was called in to hear the story. The old man related how when he, as a special agent in the field, was making an investigation into some suspicious land operations by United States Senator Warren of Wyoming, Richards had transferred him. The Secretary listened till Richards' name was mentioned, then he refused to hear any more. "Richards? Impossible!" And he turned the old man out of his office. But Burns did not think there was anything impossible for Richards. He followed the clerk out and he took from him the rest of the story. The time came when the Secretary had to let Richards resign, but that was years later. He couldn't believe then any evil of the Commissioner who had exposed Binger Hermann, and it was always hard for him to change his mind about a man he once had trusted. But this fixity of mind was a comfort as well as an exasperation to Burns and afterward to Heney. For Mr. Hitchcock was as stanch with honest men as he was with "crooks." After he had given his investigators his confidence, nothing could move, him; neither whispered lies nor open charges, neither political pull nor pleas for business. When the fight was on, and Heney and Burns needed blind support, they put their backs to Secretary Hitchcock and, like a stone wall, he stood immovable behind them.
Burns Goes West
It was the confession of Barnes apparently that first won for Burns the splendid faith of the Secretary. Having it, he went west. Burns headed straight for San Francisco, and there he began his field work as he did his investigation in the Department at Washington, by studying out the system. At the bottom of the Land Office corruption were the big business men, Hyde and Benson; and they were, indeed, big. If Burns had been a novice he admits that he would have been staggered by the position, wealth and influence of these men. But the detective had detected business back of crime before. The counterfeiters of Philadelphia had brought out against him the influence of men prominent in business, law and in politics; and in another case, that of a robbery of the U. S. Mint at San Francisco, some of the criminals had developed a pull which reached up into the offices of the Federal prosecutors. Burns had no astonishment to waste on the millionaires, Benson and Hyde, therefore, nor on the political and business relations they sustained with the leading citizens of California.
Now, Burns found in California what I have found in every state that I have studied, that a railroad rules. The Southern Pacific Railroad, having corrupted the state, furnished about all the government it had and that government represented, naturally, not the people, but first, the railroad, and second, any other (non-competing) business that would help pay the cost of keeping the state corrupt. And, having thus the state, these corrupt businesses corrupted also so much of California's share in the United States Senate, the House of Representatives and the Executive Departments as they "had to" control.
We have seen how Burns followed the stream of corruption from Washington down through the Land Office of the Interior Department to the State of California. Since the frauds he was after were operated in part through the land office in California, the state's land office had to be similarly corrupt. Schneider said it was. Burns proved it. Schneider had implicated two surveyors-general of California; the third was in office now, but it was common knowledge in land business circles that the office still was corrupt. "Of course it was," says Burns. The railroad, having been granted land by the government, had had to go into the land business and, since the surveyor-general's office would represent and protect the people of California if it was honest, it had to be made dishonest. Herrin, the chief of counsel for the Southern Pacific, was the boss of the state and he named himself the candidate for that office. And since Benson and Hyde were getting land ahead of honest men, and in quantities not contemplated in the law, they *' had to " have, and pay for, an unlawful standing in the surveyor-general's office. They had such a standing. Schneider told Holsinger that he spent most of his time there, not only furthering the business of his principalsy but hindering that of honest men.
Proving the Detective's Theory
Burns' "theory" then was that the state government represented corrupt business. He had to prove his theory as to the land business. He engaged detectives to "shadow" the officials and the business men who "must be crooks." He induced honest men that had suffered from the system to tell him their experiences and he verified or, as he puts it, "ran out" their stories. This all by way of working up circumstantial evidence. To clinch his case, however, he had to "get" as witnesses for the government the only men that could testify to a personal knowledge of the graft—grafters. He went after B. F. Allen. The Forest Superintendent at Los Angeles "had to" be either a "crook" or a fool and Schneider's story indicated that he was no fool. Allen therefore must "come through." The detective's first step was to find "something on" Allen and he had foreseen and prepared for this need at Washington. He discovered there that Allen's record contained a charge of making false expense accounts. Binger Hermann had whitewashed the matter, but that only increased Bums' suspicion. He had taken copies of Allen's subsequent expense accounts. These contained charges for work done in certain weeks; in San Francisco Burns ascertained that in those same weeks Allen had gone to Yosemite for an outing with his daughter. There were charges for railroad tickets; in San Francisco Burns learned that Allen traveled on a pass. Having "run out" enough such things to convict his man, Bums proceeded to Los Angeles. Confession of an Ex-Banker Allen proved to be not a professional politician, but a former banker of Des Moines who bad come west for his health. He did not have to hear much of Bums' "theory" to be persuaded that the detective knew the whole game. Allen "came through." He confessed that his recent accounts were "doctored" and that the old accounts, which had been whitewashed, were false also. He said Schneider's story was true. He admitted that he had allowed Hyde to draw the maps, which he, the superintendent of forests, should have drawn, and, not only that: Hyde had written his reports to the Department. In proof of this, Allen showed some of his correspondence with Hyde. One letter that accompanied a report which Hyde wrote for Allen to send in, closed with the remark that "I (Hyde, the author of it) am satisfied that you will be highly complimented on this report." Allen said it was Hyde who first did business with him. The railroad helped; it was the Southern Pacific Land Department that furnished him his annual pass. And Hyde did a great deal of land business for and with Mr. Herrin. But Allen showed on the Hyde-Allen maps of reservations how he and Hyde had "done" the road sometimes. The railroad was in the lieu-land business, too, and since the price rose and fell according to the amount of scrip on the market, it was to the interest of Hyde and Benson to draw their maps so as to get around railroad land. Allen showed the crooked lines they had drawn to take in Hyde and Benson's school sections and to leave out those that belonged to the road.
Looking Higher Up
Having Allen, the detective looked for the ex-banker's superiors. For, according to Burns' theory, Allen could not have carried on this corrupt business without corrupt connections higher up. Burns asked about Binger Hermann. Allen replied that he wasn't "in with" the commissioner; he worked with his own chief, H. H. Jones, the head of the Forestry Division of the General Land Office. Thus Burns was balked as to Hermann the sly, but he had extended one line on his graft map of the Interior Department back to Washington again.
From Los Angeles Burns went to Tucson, Arizona, to see Schneider, whose letters had started all this "trouble." Schneider was obdurate. Bums had a "theory" to account for the change that had come over Schneider. He remembered that Schneider had explained his willingness to tell all about the frauds by confessing his desire for revenge. In San Francisco the detective had heard that the Land Office (not Binger Hermann, but somebody) had warned Hyde or Benson that Schneider was "squealing." Also he had heard that Hyde or Benson sent back word to the Department to "let him squeal." This, if true, would account for Hermann's cool disregard of Schneider's complaint. But when the investigation was begun by Holsinger, and Hyde's "good name" was being "bandied about," that gentleman had given out an interview explaining that a former employee was attempting to blackmail him. Burns' theory, therefore, was that Schneider had "shut up" because Hyde had submitted finally to blackmail.
But Burns could not break Schneider down on this point. He tried again and again, and always in vain, but he did make Schneider talk. Taking along with him as a witness Knox Corbett, the postmaster at Tucson, Burns would begin by asserting something which he knew to be false. Schneider would deny this, with heat and energy, and then he and Burns would enter into an argument.
"Well, anyhow," Burns would say, "this is true." And he would state a fact, some fact that Schneider had told Holsinger, for example, or one that Allen had told Burns. Schneider would admit the fact and the argument would proceed. In this way Burns, with Corbett by, drew from Schneider the whole story which they hope to use on the stand against Benson and Hyde.
Grant Taggart Comes Through
The best service Schneider rendered to Burns, however, was to clear up his view of the system as a whole, and, much enlightened, he hurried back to San Francisco. There he went after Grant I. Taggart. A former chief clerk of the Supreme Court of the State of California, Taggart was a man of force, influence and standing, but he was the forest supervisor for northern California. He must be corrupt. Burns had nothing on him, but his theory was highly perfected by this time, and it looked so much like knowledge to Taggart that he broke down and "came through." He said that it was Benson, not Hyde, that did business with him. This disclosure disturbed somewhat Burns' preconception of the Hyde-Benson methods, but by following out the clew he discovered that Benson and Hyde had two organizations. Each had a separate but a complete group of corrupted officials. They worked together, but, generally speaking, Benson handled the north, Hyde the south.
The Pull that Failed
Meanwhile Burns had been "working upon" the clients, clerks, stenographers, messengers,—all the employees and associates of Hyde and Benson. Nearly all of these "came through "under Burns' treatment, but some of them warned their employers of what was going on. Hyde applied his pull in the Department, but Burns, who had set a watch at Washington also, received from there a copy of the answer that Hyde received, viz., that nobody could pull Burns off; he reported to the Secretary himself direct and no one else could touch him. So Hyde appealed to the Secretary. He sent a telegram of about a thousand words saying that he knew Mr. Hitchcock intended to be fair and honorable; that he (Hitchcock) had sent out special agents twice before and they proved to be gentlemen; they had investigated and found nothing against Hyde; but this man Burns was no gentleman; he was questioning and alarming his clients, clerks, messengers, and interfering generally with his business. Wherefore Mr. Hyde besought the Secretary to recall Burns.
The Secretary mailed the telegram to Burns, and the detective found written across the face of it an indorsement to the effect that: "You are evidently a very bad man." Burns felt then that he had the faith which Mr. Hitchcock, "stiff-necked and obstinate," as I have called him, could give to a man when he believed in him—^a faith which "makes a man make good."
Burns obtained from Hyde and Benson's employees and clients further light on their business methods. Hyde's stenographer told him Hyde customarily enclosed money in letters addressed to the registers and receivers of the local land offices, and to other petty Federal officials. The amounts were small, mere tips, but she said she knew of but one official that had ever returned such a gift. The stenographer and others told how Hyde and Benson got names for dummies: they would advertise for clerks and use the signatures of persons who applied for positions. Sometimes they would change the names a little, but the hand« writing was imitated and the signatures forged (if this be forgery) to papers. In many cases real persons were used and these helped Burns. He ran out some of them, both men and women, and he learned from them that for a small fee they had signed applications to the state for school lands. They had a right to take up such lands if they meant, and would swear, to use them for their own benefit. If they took up a claim to sell it, however, they com- mitted perjury. Yet they admitted that at the same time they signed the applications they signed relinquishments of their rights to Hyde and also a power of attorney. These American citizens were as cheap or almost as ignorant as dummies, and, to escape punishment, they turned state's witnesses. Burns was about ready to return to Washington.
Burns' Service to California
Before he left California, however, he did the state a service. A Federal detective after Federal grafters, he had nothing to do with the state grafters, but he gave out an interview describing the corrupt part the state surveyor-general played in these corrupting operations, and, corrupt as the Republican party was, it did not dare carry out its program of nominating men whom Burns' interview implicated. But nobody else did anything else to him and I know that Hyde is still a member of the "best" club in San Francisco; he is still a business man with credit at the banks, and he is still doing "business" in California; and the surveyor-general's office is not preventing his operations. And this is four years later.
When Burns returned to Washington, he went as a victor and as such he was received. Secretary Hitchcock took him over to the White House and there, to the President, he told his story and outlined his evidence. The President, delighted, slapped the detective on the back and, in his vigorous, enthusiastic way, bade him go and get the men higher up, no matter how high up they were. And Burns, delighted, promised to go as high as he could. The prospect for a complete exposure and a thoroughgoing reform was considered. The outlook was bright and there was much rejoicing, very genuine rejoicing. But there was little imagination. Mr. Roosevelt's remark about the men higher up suggested that he sensed the system, but Secretary Hitchcock couldn't see it. Mr. Hitchcock couldn't see, for example, that certain other officials than those who had confessed must necessarily be corrupt. Burns was astounded. He had from the subordinates of H. H. Jones the evidence that the chief of the Forestry Division was "bad"; wasn't it equally obvious that Valk, the head of the lieulands division was likewise bad? And wasn't it clear that Major Harlan, the chief of the special agents, must be implicated with his subordinates who had confessed?
No. The Secretary couldn't believe it. Especially any suspicion of Major Harlan, a veteran and a good man, seemed to offend him.
But Burns "got" Major Harlan and, to show the Secretary, he made the poor old man repeat to him his whole shameful story. Then Burns "got" William Valk. Harlan was easy, but Valk was difficult. He came indignant into Burns' office. He was an honest man, he protested, and a gentleman, and he wasn't going to let anybody take away his good name. It was really a most dignified and rather a convincing bit of acting, but it was acting. And Burns is an actor, too. Telling his secretary, Rittenhouse, to leave the room, the detective got up and came over to Valk.
"Now," he said, "I want to tell you something. I know what you are doing. I know the whole rotten situation here." And he described it. "Now I want you to understand that I won't be bluffed. I am making an investigation and I'm going to prove the crime on every last one of you. And you're first. That's all."
There was more of this, more theory, more assurance. The whole system was as vivid in Burns' mind as evidence is in a legal mind, and he can make those who are part of the system see it as he sees it. After he had made his little speech. Burns called back his secretary.
"Now, then, Mr. Valk, you sit down there," he said, "and you see that you tell the truth, too."
And Valk sat down there and he told the truth; the same truth that Major Harlan had told the Secretary. They were both Benson's men, not Hyde's, and with their help Burns caught Benson red-handed in Washington.
Taking Thieves to Catch a Thief
Harlan said that he had been in constant touch with Benson, and was yet. Burns wanted to know how he expressed himself in his communication. Harlan recited a sample letter. "Write it," said Burns, and Harlan wrote a letter to Benson. Then Burns wanted to know how Harlan addressed this man, and he made him prepare a typical envelope. After Harlan had gone, Burns put the letter in the envelope and mailed it. He believed Harlan would write another letter warning Benson, and, sure enough, no reply was received from Benson to the first letter. So Burns called Harlan down hard.
"You are still playing with Benson," he said. "You wrote and stopped him from answering that letter which you gave me as a sample and which I posted."
Burns did not say, of course, that he only guessed this. He talked as if he knew it and Harlan, thinking no doubt that the detective had spied upon him, admitted having warned Benson. In his humiliation Harlan was brought completely under the will of the detective who had a use for the man. He ordered Harlan to sit down and write again to Benson, and this time Burns dictated the letter. It was brief. It told Benson that "everything was O.K. once more." Expecting that the contradictory letters would puzzle and alarm Benson, the detective hoped that he would come in person to Washington; and that's just what Benson did do.
When Benson arrived, one of Burns' shadows was on him, and when he sent for Valk, which he did at once. Burns sent for Valk. Valk reported first to Burns and Burns told him to go to Benson.
"But what if Benson offers me money?"
"Take it," said Burns, "and bring it to me."
And Benson did offer Valk money, and Valk took the money, or, as Benson called it, the "pictures." After talking about the investigation and being reassured, he proceeded to talk "business." He had new schemes to work, new reserves to put through, and after arranging for these, Benson asked Valk about the "market for pictures." Valk said they were scarce. Benson, he says, stepped into his bathroom and, coming out, asked Valk if he didn't want to go in there, too. Valk went in and he found $100 lying on the washbasin.
Exactly the same thing happened in the same way when Harlan (similarly instructed by Burns) called, except that the Major found $200 in the bath-room. Both men brought their "finds" to Burns, who marked the "pictures" and felt finally that his case was complete. He so reported. Benson was arrested. He jumped his bail of $5,000 and went to New York, but Burns had him rearrested and put him under a bond of $20,000. Benson protested and he carried his protest from the United States Commissioner up through the United States Circuit clear to the Supreme Court of the United States, but he was held. And thus he and Hyde, the business men, and Dimond, their attorney, and Schneider, their tool, were indicted for conspiracy to defraud their government.
The politicians (Prior, Allen, Taggart, et al.) who conspired with them were not indicted with them. They are to go free. Having been compelled finally to serve, as state's witnesses, the government they were betraying, they are to have immunity. That was, and it is, the policy of these government investigations; and it is a practical, official recognition of the theory that business is the source of political corruption; that "bad" politicians are mere agents of "good" business men. Business men protest bitterly at this policy. They say that a man can't do business without bribing these bad politicians, and they say true. A lot of bad American business couldn't go on without corrupting politics and government. Railroad men have told me they must, and they do, corrupt every state they pass through. Public utility men plead they have to contribute to the corruption of the cities,—all the cities,—which grant them privileges. But that doesn't justify them. Does it? To an uncommercialized mind, even good business seems to be less important than good government. And if there is something about these businesses which makes it necessary for the managers of them to degrade themselves, debase their neighbors, and debauch their cities, their states, and the United States, why, then, it would seem that we are to conclude, not that our institutions are to go, but that all such businesses must be either taken away from private owners or put under public control.
Oregon Corrupt Like California
But that's theory, and theory is offensive to practical people. Let's stick to business. And the startling truth about this land business is, that like the railroad and the public utility businesses it has to corrupt every state where it is carried on and every part of the Federal government that it touches. We have seen what Burns saw in California; Burns has seen more since in that state, and we shall see all that also, later. But while he was working up the land frauds in California, it developed that similar land frauds were being practiced in Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Colorado—in all the unsettled states and territories. It will be remembered that Holsinger reported Schneider as saying that Benson and Hyde operated in Oregon as well as in California, and Burns had made some inquiries up there, but he couldn't "run out" the Oregon and the California cases at the same time. So Secretary Hitchcock had assigned to Oregon a special agent. Col. A. R. Greene, A special agent is not always a detective, and Col. Greene had gone noisily about his work. He has been severely criticised for proceeding with such a delicate task with "one brass band playing in front of him and another in his rear." But that's one way of working and it turned out to be a good way in this case. For there happened to be a quarrel among the land-grafters of Oregon, and when it became known that Col. Greene was making an investigation for the Secretary of the Interior, some of the insiders called on the special agent and gave him a peep at the inside.
Hitchcock Gets Him a Prosecutor
The result was a steady fire of reports from Greene to Mr. Hitchcock of facts, rumors and enough evidence to give the Secretary the impression that Oregon was worse than California. It looked as if even Binger Hermann, the sly, might be caught up there, and the Department desired ardently to catch that man. For Hermann, upon his dismissal from the Land Office, had gone home to appeal to the people. He ran for his old seat in Congress. His party organization (for some reason) gave him the nomination and luck, or a trick, did the rest. While he was running. President Roosevelt went touring up through Oregon. Binger Hermann boarded his train, and once when the President was standing on the rear platform greeting a crowd, Hermann stepped out beside him. Just as the President glanced about laughing, a photographer, who was there for that purpose, took a snapshot of the two together: the President and the Land Commissioner he had put out of office. The people seemed to conclude, as many of them said, that they could "stand for" Hermann if the President could, and they re-elected him. Speaker Cannon and the ring that runs the House put Hermann (for some reason) upon the Public Lands Committee, and there he was, a thorn in the side of Secretary Hitchcock.
Col. Greene made a case; he made his case before Burns made his; but the special agent had not got Binger Hermann. The special agent had got big information; indeed he had obtained indictments in several cases, but the cases and the culprits were small. The Secretary wasn't satisfied. Like the President, Mr. Hitchcock wanted to go "higher up."
The only hope was in a strong prosecution, a prosecution that should be also an investigation. Burns had a theory about the United States District Attorneys in the timber-land regions. Since they had jurisdiction in land fraud and other Federal grafts, which went on all about them, he held them guilty until their innocence was proven. He was as suspicious of the attorney-general's department as he was of the Department of the Interior, and his suspicion had been grounded somewhat by his experiences in both California and Oregon. He was for a special prosecutor, therefore, and that is what Secretary Hitchcock came to want: a prosecutor who would prosecute not one but all his land cases, and expose the whole system. And he got him—Frank Heney.
(In the next article, which will appear in the October number, Mr. Steffens will take up Heney and the story of his wonderful work in the prosecution of the land thieves.)