and titles could be rushed through much quicker than by the pre-emption or homestead laws. Some state lieu land selections were made, but this form of "scrip," so called, was too scarce to be available for the purchase of large bodies of timber.
In the meantime, the timber lands continued to be turned over to the different lumber concerns, and the various land offices throughout Oregon had more business than they could conveniently attend to. As a matter of fact, the Oregon City Land Office was obliged to suspend business for several weeks, in order to catch up with the accumulated work, the timber filings were coming in so fast.
The increasing demand for patents at this office also aroused the suspicion of the officials at Washington, and special agents were sent into the field for the purpose of making investigations, wdiich action had the eft'ect of suspending a great many patents, as well as the holding for cancellation of a large number of entries. There was considerable talk of indictments by the Federal grand jury, and it had a tendency to m^ke the land business unpopular for the time being, the land grabbers having about all they could do to keep out of jail, as well as to preserve their titles. However, in spite of all the storm of indignation that seemed to have pervaded the Governmental atmosphere, there were comparatively few actual cancellations, the special agents, as usual, standing in with the land grabbers.
Out of all the howl about frauds in those days, there were but two convictions, Stone of Seattle, and Diamond of Portland, both of whom were locators — the former for subornation of perjury, and the latter for conspiracy. They represented the sole production of gems from the Government's operations, among the various gigantic mines of iniquity existing in those days. Allowing for the immense harvest which had been gathered in by these two men, and the moderate sentences imposed, their incarceration in the Government penitentiary was referred to as a trifling matter, for whatever the price they may have paid in the way of humiliation and lost time, as against the hoards they had amassed and deposited for their future comfort, it was often said of them that they had bargained well.
Thousands upon thousands of acres, which included the very cream of the timber claims in Oregon and Washington, were secured by Eastern lumbermen and capitalists, the majority of whom came from Wisconsin, Michigan and Alinncsota, and nearly all of these claims, to my certain knowledge, were fraudulently obtained.
As to the special agents sent out by the Government, they were picked up, each in turn, as they appeared upon the scene, and with the capitalists and locators standing hand in hand, it was an easy matter, with the aid of these agents, to baffle the Government in its attempt to secure evidence.
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