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Show 34 REPORT OF THE COMMISSIONER OF INDIA3 AFFAIRS. And these statistics, be it understood, do not include any of the seizures made by deputy marshals, or the considerable number of shipments, information of which came to our special officer so that he could intercept them by long-distance telephone communications to lpcal authorities. It has been Mr. Johnson's uniform practice to cooperate with the United States marshals and their deputies on the theory that he was sent to the Territory to assist rather than to instruct other Federal officers stationed there. Hence he an$ his deputies have always turned over their prisoners to the nearest deputy marshal immediately after arrest. During the eleven months of his servicehe and his deputies have made, or directly @usid to be made, 491 arrests in whisky cases that have resulted in grand jury indictments, though in a considerable number of instances the indictment was procured first and the arrest followed. This list is exclusive of arrests in cases where the United States commissioner failed to bind the prisoner over to the grand jury, as well as of many arrests made by deputy marshals on information furnished by him. Owing to the fact that nearly all the gamblers in the Indian Terri-tory also traffic in whisky or are active abettors of whisky peddling, Mr. Johnson has had occasion to .make war upon these people, and his raids have resulted in the conviction of 52 gamblers and the destruc-tion of 49 gambling houses and the collection of nearly $1,500 in fines. The value of the gambling paraphernalia captured has been estimated at some $12,000. Arrests in other cases incidental to his work but not exclusively for traffic in intoxicants have been more or less frequent, and include 7 for the high crime of murder. These results have not been attained without hardship and peril. Two of Mr. Johnson's men and one posse man have been killed in skirmishes with boot-leggers, and 10 violators of the liquor laws have met a like fate. Mr. Johnson has had several narrow escapes himself, and during a good part of the time has worked in the face of a reward of $3,000 offered by outlaws for his assassination. His cour-age and devotion to duty deserve the highest praise. I know of no more e5cient officer in the Indian Service; and indeed I may safely give him the credit of turning what used to be a rather dreary farce into an actual accomplishment in the enforcement of the acts of Con-gress forbidding the liquor-traffic in the Indian Territory. In July, 1906, Jesse E. Flanders, who had been an efficient clerk in our agency service and had shown what seemed to me a rather notable detective instinct, was assigned to duty as a special officer in Arizona and New Mexico, and was later sent into Colorado and Nevada. He has visited most of the reservations in these States and Territories, and has effected the conviction of a number of violators of the laws, |
