Mr. SUMMERS. Certainly not.

The CHAIRMAN. And if it was public land and the grant was a forgery the Government could not give a patent?

Mr. SUMMERS. The Government could not give a patent until the Congress made provision for it to do so, and the Congress never made such provision.

The CHAIRMAN. I thought you said it did.

Mr. SUMMERS. Congress made provision to separate the two. But the Supreme Court in many different cases has passed on that. Senator ASHURST. That seems a little confused.

Mr. MASON. I am afraid that is a little bit confused?

Senator ASHURST. We want the record to be clear.

Mr. SUMMERS. Two kinds of land came over, and it was not known which this was. Some claimed that it was private land and some claimed that it was public land. Congress in 1851 appointed a factfinding commission to ascertain what was public land and what was

not.

Senator ASHURST. What did that commission do?

Mr. SUMMERS. That commission confirmed this as a grant without there being any grant.

Senator ASHURST. When did that commission report?

Mr. SUMMERS. It reported about--well, I do not know the date. Senator ASHURST. About when?

Mr. SUMMERS. Along about 1854.

Senator ASHURST. Have you the report of that fact-finding commission?

Mr. SUMMERS. Oh, yes.

Senator ASHURST. What did the commissioner say?

Mr. SUMMERS. They said that they had investigated this case.

have the testimony. But they did not produce a grant. Senator ASHURST. What did the commission say?

I

Mr. SUMMERS. They found four leagues were granted; that is, the 17,752.72 acres

Senator ASHURST (interposing). Did they say it was a valid grant? Mr. SUMMERS. Well, they confirmed it to Yorba.

Senator ASHURST. Was appeal taken from that decision?

Mr. SUMMERS. The record was transferred to the district court.

Senator ASHURST. By whom?

Mr. SUMMERS. By the Government.

Senator ASHURST. By the Government of the United States?
Mr. SUMMERS. Yes, sir.

Senator ASHURST. And then what happened?

Mr. SUMMERS. The District Court of the United States affirmed the commission as to the four leagues.

Senator ASHURST. Was any appeal taken from that decision?
Mr. SUMMERS. No, sir.

Senator ASHURST. Did the District Court's judgment give title or affirm the grant?

Mr. SUMMERS. Only the 17,752.72 acres, not the 47,226.61 acres. Senator ASHURST. Please explain; I am not sure that I have it clearly.

Mr. SUMMERS. Will the Senator bear with me for just a minute? Senator ASHURST. Certainly.

Mr. SUMMERS. Here is my contention: Irvine and his attorneys and associates know that they have no title and admit it. They declare, however, that by reason of their exerted influence, to use their expression, their ability to buy and control the Land Department and the Department of Justice, that they have continued in the possession of this land, and intend to so continue in possession of it just as long as they can control these departments.

Senator ASHURST. Well, now, Mr. Summers, it seems to me that if the parties contend that this is public land, and if someone would file a homestead entry, and they were refused permission to file, that that person would then take an appeal, and that that would bring it up squarely before the Land Department.

Mr. SUMMERS. That was done, and the Land Department admits that it is public domain, that this so-called patent is not a patent, that is, that it does not carry the title; and yet they refuse to take jurisdiction, and the Attorney General refuses to take action, and Irvine says he has control of them both.

Mr. MASON. There are a lot of different statutes in connection with that.

Mr. SUMMERS. I am not asking this committee to pass upon the title to these lands. Irvine and associates know that under the law of Mexico and under the laws of the United States, and under the decisions of the Supreme Court of the United States they have no title. In many cases the Supreme Court has said that there was forgery, and the educating of witnesses to commit perjury, and that witnesses were not worthy of belief; that this man Pio Pico had an elastic conscience and a flexible character, that there was a great conspiracy to defraud the Government. These people know that they do not have title to these lands, but what I want you to investigate is this: The Congress in its wisdom a good many years ago stated in section 19, page 484, volume 7, Federal Statutes, Annotated, second edition:

If two or more persons conspire to injure, oppress, threaten, or intimidate any citizen in the free exercise or enjoyment of any right or privilege secured to him by the Constitution or laws of the United States, or because of his having so exercised the same, or if two or more persons go in disguise on the highway, or on the premises of another, with intent to prevent or hinder his free exercise or enjoyment of any right or privilege so secured, they shall be fined not more than $5,000 and imprisoned not more than 10 years, and shall, moreover, be thereafter ineligible to any office, or place of honor, profit, or trust created by the Constitution or laws of the United States.

In the case of the United States v. Waddell (112 U. S. 76):

Right to establish claim under homestead acts: A conspiracy to deprive or hinder a citizen of the United States of his right to establish his claim to certain lands under the homestead acts, and to prevent his compliance with those laws, is an offense under this section.

We know where the titles to these lands are, and so do they know. I am not asking this committee to go into the details as to the titles, but what I want to know is: If the Land Department, the great domestic branch of this Government, is being controlled by private interests; if the Department of Justice is being likewise controlled.

If the Land Department of this Government, in the face of the decision of the Supreme Court of the United States, which says as long as the Government has title, the land department has jurisdic

tion, refuses to take jursidiction; and if the Department of Justice refuses to institute proceedings, and the private interests boast they control them both by reason of the fact that they have paid for the privilege, then I want this committee to investigate that fact and let us know the truth.

Senator ASHURST. Mr. Summers, have you any evidence to sustain this charge? Do you assert that you can bring forward evidence to support such a charge as this?

Mr. SUMMERS. Do I? I certainly do. I assert that there is evidence that will disclose a conspiracy to defraud the Govern

ment

Senator ASHURST (interposing). Do you assert that there is such evidence?

Mr. SUMMERS. Yes; and I believe that I can produce it. I can produce evidence that will disclose a conspiracy to defraud the Government and withhold from it vast tracts of land

Senator ASHURST (interposing). Do you refer to the tract about which we have been talking?

Mr. SUMMERS. I mean this land and other lands; vast tracts of other lands, there are many of these fabricated grants.

Senator ÁSHURST. First, it was only 4 leagues.

Mr. MASON. But there are many of these grants in this shape. Senator ASHURST. In California?

Mr. SUMMERS. Not only there, but some in Arizona.

Senator ASHURST. Please give me the names?

Mr. SUMMERS. In California the Santa Margarita grant. It was not and could not be a grant.

Senator ASHURST. Where is that?

Mr. SUMMERS. Down between San Diego and Los Angeles, and is said to cover 253,000 acres. Then you take the Malibu. The only claim to this is a man by the name of Tapia, a smuggler, got a permit to land smuggled goods on a point around what is now called the Malibu grant.

Senator ASHURST. Mr. Summers, as one member of this committee I should not want to be a party to denying to any citizen the right to have a hearing. But you are asking this committee to take up a colossal, a gigantic task.

Senator ASHURST. Now, what do you want us to do?

Mr. SUMMERS. I want you to conduct an investigation in order to ascertain whether or not these private interests control our public officials, and to ascertain whether or not they can refuse to submit rights that are constitutional to the courts.

Mr. MASON. May I interpose right there

Senator ASHURST (interposing). Just one minute. The poorest citizen in the land can go to court. There is nothing to stop you from going to court.

Mr. SUMMERS. But you must remember that in this case when you go into court for the purpose of settling these questions you go over the signature of the Attorney General of the United States.

Senator ASHURST. I beg your pardon, but are you not mistaken about that?

Mr. SUMMERS. I think not.

Mr. MASON. These indictments grow out of this land matter.

Senator ASHURST. But indictments do not prevent you from going to court. You seem to ask us to investigate alleged acts of oppression and intimidation?

Mr. SUMMERS. That is it. I want to know whether or not it is legitimate for public officials to represent private interests, if they are so doing.

Senator ASHURST. I see here by your brief that you and other attorneys represent Mr. McLendon and others?

Mr. SUMMERS. Yes, sir.

Senator ASHURST. How many others?

Mr. SUMMERS. More than 200.

Senator ASHURST. Do you assert upon your responsibility as a lawyer of good standing that you believe if given a hearing you can produce evidence to substantiate what you have been telling us? Mr. SUMMERS. Yes, sir.

Senator ASHURST. Do you say the same thing, Mr. Mason?

Mr. MASON. Yes, sir. We will put in the correspondence with the department and with the Attorney General, which will bear it out. Mr. SUMMERS. Not only that, but I will put in the record. It will show that this matter has been presented to the President.

Senator ASHURST. Where do you want to sit, in Los Angeles? Mr. SUMMERS. Wherever the committee can render the greatest service to the people and the country.

The CHAIRMAN. And where is that?

Mr. SUMMERS. I would suppose in Washington and in Los Angeles. You will have records here of course.

The CHAIRMAN. What records do you mean?

Mr. SUMMERS. If they are records as to the so-called grants, then, of course, they would be here, and there would be some records in Los Angeles in the local land office.

The CHAIRMAN. You understood the request that Senator Ashurst made, that you furnish for the record a list of the names of material witnesses and as to what each will testify to?

Mr. SUMMERS. I will be very glad to do that.

Senator NYE. You have said, I believe, Summers, that the aggregate of the land involved in these questionable claims is very great. Mr. SUMMERS. Yes, sir. To illustrate, in Lomas de Santiago there are 47,266 acres approximately. That is public domain of the United States, and that has been taken away. In other words, Lomas de Santiago was fabricated for 4 leagues, or 17,752 acres, and then there was a fake survey of 47,226 acres, making that amount of land that is all public domain of the United States.

Santa Margarita is a fake grant and it takes out of the public lands over 253,000 acres.

San Fernando, as I stated a while ago, was a mission of 6 acres. This man de Celis took 6 acres and got Pico to sign a paper that involved 62,000 acres, and then got a Government surveyor to fake a survey for that, took over 116,858 acres of the finest land in California.

Then Malibu. There was a man who got a permit to land smuggled goods down on the coast there. The permit to a smuggler is the foundation for possession of a great property of many thousands of acres that magnificent property is still in the possession of parties who have guilty knowledge.

The Palos Verdes. It originated in a permit to graze cattle and horses on about 75,000 acres of land, and he made a will, giving the cattle and horses to his sons and daughters, and the will provided that the cattle and the horses were on this tract of land. So they cut out the "on" and inserted the word "and"-"and this tract of land."

But the law of Mexico says that no land could be granted without the consent of the supreme officers of Mexico if it was within 10 leagues of the sea. Palos Verdes is washed by the waters of the Pacific, so they could not grant it, and they did not grant it.

In connection with Palos Verdes a petition for partition was filed and there was some 32,000 acres of land set apart as Palos Verdes and it was divided up between a man by the name of Bixby and others. Bixby I am informed turned it over to a man by the name of Doheney for $600,000. Doheney turned it over to a man by the name of Vanderlip for $1,500,000. Vanderlip enters into a deal with a fellow by the name of Lewis, and they start out to exploit it for many millions of dollars and they carry on an interstate and international campaign. Not as a Mexican grant, but they advertise that they are the sixth in succession from the Crown of Spain-a Spanish grant, and as such they gather in millions of dollars.

Then my clients raise the question as to its being public domain and file applications to homesteads on it, and then, in a letter directed to the applicants the management of the Palos Verdes says in substance that they know all the wealth of the title companies, and all of the wealth of Vanderlip and his associates, and all of the wealth in the city of Los Angeles will be used to defeat them, and it would take an untold amount of money to ever get the case through the courts. And those in possession do not hesitate to say that they do not own the lands; they admit that they have not the title, but they say that by reason of exerted influence they control the Land Department and they control the Department of Justice. That is what we want a committee to investigate. We can fight over the titles to these lands, but we can not settle the question as to whether or not private interests can exert the influence that they say they can and do. And they designate the kind of influence. They say that they have $100,000,000 and that they will use it if necessary. Mark you, they say that they have $100,000,000 to use to buy every person who touches this proposition and to prevent an investigation. And they secretly say that if this resolution is sent to the Senate and an investigation is started, that it spells ruin for them. If private interests are controlling the great domestic branch of this Government, and if private interests are controlling the Department of Justice of this Government, then it is time that the legislative branch should ascertain that fact.

Senator KENDRICK. Where do these lands lie?

Mr. SUMMERS. They are lands that were ceded to the Government of the United States by the Mexican Government under the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, and they lie in Arizona, New Mexico, California, and down through that country. There were 334,000,000 acres of lands that were ceded. There were several hundred grants, or so-called grants that were manufactured and antidated. And there was a school, where witnesses were educated as to the facts, and arrangements were made with and for them to testify falsely.