116 THE COMMISSION OF INQUIRY, 



at $1.45 per acre, and on Aug. 17, or eight days before, he had sold the 

 S W 14 of this to Anna H. Ritter at |12.00 per acre. 



Again we find that Max Gluck, of Chicago, on June 16, 1907, pur- 

 chased 160 acres in town 12-12, at $1.50 per acre, or |240.00, and that 

 he. on June 1, or fifteen days previously, sold this land to Edward 

 Hubert for |600.00. 



Probably the worst offender in this particular manner is F. W. Sad- 

 ler, . of Chicago, and, by the way, this man has probably bought and 

 sold as much State land as any other of whom we heard. On Novem- 

 ber 3, 1904, he purchased the S E 14 of the N E % of 1-17-13-W, at 

 fl.OO per acre. On Oct. 26 he sold this land at $5.00 per acre. On 

 April 20, 1905, he purchased the N E % of the N W i^ and the N W % 

 of 26-18-14-W, at 50 cents per acre. On Sept. 29, 1904, or six months 

 before buying it himself, he sold this land to Frederick C. Schmidt at 

 $3.50 per acre, or seven times what he later was able to buy it for. 



On July 18, 1905, Sadler purchased the entire section 1, of town, IS- 

 IS- W, 646 acres, at 75 cents per. acre, or $481.50. He had, on Sept. 29, 

 1904, or nine months and eighteen days before he purchased it of the 

 State, sold it to J. J. Joseph, et al., at |5.00 per acre, or $3,200. "These 

 facts, in addition to indicating that certain speculators have appar- 

 ently an inside track in the Land Oflflce, would further go to show that 

 the State is exercising no supervision over its appraisers, for in all of 

 these cases speculators were assured a handsome profit before they 

 were even obliged to pay any money to the State." 



"A complaint frequently met with during our investigations was that, 

 because of the large purchases of different land speculators, actual set- 

 tlers are kept out of the districts. Such a complaint was made by Wm. 

 E. Lincoln, of Peacock, who said that such people as Swigart, who 

 purchased State lands in large quantities, at 50 cents to $1.00 per acre, 

 were holding these same lands at from $7.00 to $15.00 per acre. The 

 same may be said of such people as Geo. A. Hart, of Manistee, who is 

 holding his lands at $10.00 per acre; Granville W. Browning, who has 

 personally purchased over 30,000 acres of State lands at an average of 

 about $1.00 per acre, and is now selling these lands for from $8.00 to 

 $12.00 per acre." His agent in many deals is Chas. P. Sherwood, who 

 told O. P. Burgess that he was at Baldwin and White, Cloud when the 

 appraiser Avas there, and that the appraiser had never seen 90% of the 

 lands he was valuing. 



Further, we found the State and county offlcials acting as agents 

 for lumber dealers, and such a case is set forth in the following agree- 

 ment made between Wm. F. Johnson, the probate judge of Roscom- 

 mon, and Rasmus Hansen, of Grayling: 



"March 7, 1908. For a valuable consideration of $400.00, to me in 

 hand paid by Rasmus Hansen, of Grayling, Mich., the receipt of which 

 is hereby confessed and acknowledged, I hereby grant, bargain and 

 sell in and to the lands hereinafter described, under certain bargain en- 

 tered into by myself and said Rasmus Hansen, wherein I was to par- 

 ticipate in said lands the title which was taken by said Rasmus Han- 

 sen under purchase from the State of Michigan, to-wit: « * * * 

 Signed, Wm. F. Johnson. Witness, Lulu E. Cronin, L. L. Moiles. No- 



