During Hermann's visit to the oil fields he came in contact with no person not in sympathy with the mineral locators, and on all sides his head was filled with tirades against the Scrippers.
F. Roper, vice-president of the Kern Valley Bank, and one of the most respected citizens of Bakersfield, was an old friend of the Land Commissioner, having known him in Oregon, but on account of Roper's well-known sympathy with the Scrippers, he was not allowed to come within trumpet call of him, there being a constant guard of oil men around Hermann to see that the Scrippers' side of the story did not reach his ears.
Hermann submitted to an interview at some point while returning to Washington, and made the declaration that he had found positive evidence of the existence of petroleum oil "leading up to the derricks" in every portion of the Kern River fields. According to his statement in this respect, oil seepages were visible upon every hand, and this condition had prevailed at the time the first mineral locations were filed. As a matter of fact, the only known seepage in the Kern River oil fields exists at the point of original "discovery," in the southeast quarter of the southeast quarter of Section 3, Township 29 South, Range 28 East, M. D. M., and aside from that insignificant outcropping—which really had no bearing whatever upon the existence of petroleum in the vicinity—there was nothing to show that the lands were fit for anything except grazing purposes at the time the rush to acquire titles first began.
At all events, Commissioner Hermann lost no time after his return to Washington, in deciding the two contest cases of the Cosmos Exploration Company against the Gray Eagle Oil Company, and the Pacific Land and Improvement Company against the Elwood Oil Company, in favor of the defendants, and completely reversing himself in former rulings.
On top of this came the decision of Judge Ross relative to the injunction proceedings pending before him in these two cases, in which the Court swept away whatever props Hermann had left for the Scrippers to lean on.
I had been in constant attendance during the arguments of counsel in the cases before Judge Ross, and had taken an active part in securing evidence for the Scrippers. I had sent in thirty-three affidavits, in addition to my own, of well-known citizens of Kern County, showing that the lands in controversy never had any signs of petroleum oil on them prior to the filing of the mineral locations, and that they had been used for fifty years past as grazing lands; also that there were no improvements on the west half of Section 30, Township 28 South, Range 28 East, M. D. M.,( claimed by the Gray Eagle Oil Company) in December-, 1899, when the forest reserve or "Scrip" selections were made, nor in fact until January, 1900.
Opposed to this array of testimony were the affidavits of C. A. Canfield and Edward L. Doheney, to the effect that they had seen a Standard rig in operation on the west half of Section 30 as early as November, 1899, and the affidavits of Frank Pitney and O. B. Phelps (both of whom were also deeply interested in the success of the mineral locations), that the formation bore unmistakable evidence of petroleum deposits. Pitney had formerly been a local fish dealer, and Phelps had never seen an oil well before coming to Kern County. Neither had any more intimate acquaintance with the geological conditions affecting the formation of the Kern River fields than a pig has about astronomy, and yet Judge Ross accepted their unsupported statements as gospel truth, and turned down the disinterested testimony of some of Kern County's best citizens!
The decision of Judge Ross in the case was one of the most remarkable documents I ever perused. Prominent lawyers of Los Angeles, who attended the arguments and familiarized themselves with every phase of the situation, declared in emphatic terms that the attorneys for the Scrippers had made much the best showing, and that there was no possible excuse for Judge Ross to decide against them. Everybody on our side felt the same way because the oil men had certainly made a lamentable showing.
