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Chapter XX

A few pertinent facts connected with Oregon State School Lands, which have a tendency to throw considerable light on the inner workings of one system of plunder slightly out of the ordinary—Indemnity selections are shown to be a favorite method of operation, and the "School Land Ring" comes in for its share of attention—Governor Pennoyer's heart and the State Treasury are touched simultaneously by a clever ruse, wherein a bum actor plays a leading part—How the Hyde-Benson gang stole a march on the Oregon "Push," and got away with 40,000 acres of lieu in the Cascade Forest Reserve under their eyes, causing much wailing and gnashing of teeth among the "faithful"—Ex-Governor Geer looms up in the land fraud limelight—The election of Governor Chamberlain marks the downfall of the School Land sharks, and Oswald West earns an enviable reputation as State Land Agent—Puter's explanation of the State Indictments against him.

IN the course of my twenty years' experience connected with the public domain of Oregon, I have devoted considerable attention to handling State School and Indemnity Lands. School Lands comprise the 16th and 36th sections of every township, while the State indemnity lands embrace those tracts selected in lieu of the school sections. That is to say, where the State loses any portion of a 16th or 36th section., by reason of appropriation before survey by a claimant under the United States laws, or any other process, it is entitled to select an equivalent area in lieu thereof. Lender the "Donation Claim," Homestead and Pre-emption laws, actual settlers were permitted to perfect title to school sections after survey, and in consequence, nearly all the 16th and 36th sections in the Willamette, Umpqua and Rogue River valleys have been acquired in this manner.

The State Land Office of Oregon, as at present constituted, was created by an Act of the Legislature in 1887, at which time the Secretary of State ceased to be the keeper of its records, an officer technically known as the "Clerk of the Board of Commissioners for the Sale of School and University Lands," being made the practical head of the institution. Now the law creating the office of Clerk of the State Board made him the keeper of its records, the conductor of its correspondence, and required him to give bonds, as well as subscribe to an oath to "faithfully perform the duties of his office;" and while the Act of 1887 did not specifically require the Clerk of the Board to furnish basis for lieu land applicants, it was evidently within the purview of the law that he should answer such questions as might be put to him concerning matters of record in his office by persons wishing to purchase lands from the State. So, as a matter of fact, the law of 1887 demanded that the applicant to purchase lieu land should "state in his application designating the loss to the State the 16th and 36th section or fractional township in lieu of which the land is to be taken." In other words, he could not buy any indemnity land until he had named its base, and as no citizen of the State, with the exception of the Clerk, was accorded access to these records, they had no way of ascertaining where a deficit existed.

For several years following the passage of the Act of 1887, there was a great deal of speculation in lands, and especially in connection with fine tracts of Oregon timber. Timber land could be obtained under the Act of June 3, 1878, at $2.50 an acre, but the price of the same character of lands purchased from the State was equivalent to but one-half that amount, and in addition, the applicant

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