District of Columbia

Unexpectedly, the Special Federal Grand Jury in the District of Columbia indicted Senator Burton K. Wheeler of Montana for conspiracy to defraud the U. S. of oil and gas lands in his home state. The alleged fraud is of the most ancient and bewhiskered type , in the land-grabbing business: no one person is allowed to get a permit to prospect over more than 2,560 acres, so crooked prospectors use dummies. Allegedly, some 9,000 acres were so secured by one Gordon Campbell,-- client of the Butte, Mont., law firm of Wheeler & Baldwin, allegedly with Mr. Wheeler's senatorial aid.

Mr. Wheeler goes on trial in Montana on Apr. 16, under an indictment returned a year ago charging that, while Senator, he accepted a fee to represent his client before the Department of the Interior (TIME, May 26, June 2, THE CONGRESS). The new indictment for conspiracy reveals no new evidence. As far as the public has yet learned, Mr. Wheeler's connection with the land-grabbing is so tenuous as to be invisible to the naked eye. But then, full facts are not usually made public before the trial--in this case, two trials. Senator Wheeler, who drove Harry M. Daugherty from office, claims these conspiracy charges are "reprisals."

-- He was also indicted. So was one Edwin S. Booth, former Solicitor of the Department of the Interior. Apparently the suit is directed chiefly against them.