Page:Looters of the Public Domain.djvu/369

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Edward W. Dixon, Chief of Field Division No. 3

embracing State of Washington and western portion of Idaho, who rendered material aid in uncovering the Oregon land

frauds

passed between Hall and Binger Hermann, and also a letter from Hall to Hermann, all relating to the claims that had been filed on by the men in charge of Burke and Gosslin. In the first telegram Hall notified Hermann that the men who had been indicted on the conspiracy charge had offered to compromise the case by forfeiting their filing fees and would execute relinquishments to the land that had been filed on in consideration of a dismissal of the indictment. He asked Hermann what he should do.

With his characteristic shrewdness, the ex-Land Commissioner replied that the case not being before the Department, it was up to Hall to do what the facts and circumstances in the case warranted. But this did not satisfy the District Attorney, who subsequently wrote a letter to Hermann, in which he detailed the circumstances attending the filing on the land and the evidence on which the indictment had been returned.

C. B. Moores, Register of the Oregon City Land Office from October, 1897, to May, 1903, identified a letter dated October 12, 1899, in which he hadPage 363