Begins Suit to Get Job Back: Former National Park Official Asks Mandamus Against Secretary Lane

The Washington Post
May 2, 1915

William F. Arant, who claims to have been forcibly ousted from his position as superintendent of Crater Lake National park, Oregon, began mandamus proceedings last week in the District Supreme Court to compel Franklin K. Lane, Secretary of the Department of the Interior, to reinstate him. The petitioner's attorneys are Maddox & Gatley, of this city, and J. A. Carnahan, of Klamath Falls, Oregon.

Arant shows that he was appointed superintendent of the park on June 25, 1903, at a salary of $1,000 a year. On June 27, 1913, he was requested by letter, signed by Secretary Lane, to resign. Arant's petition includes a copy of the letter and the one he wrote In reply, in which he said that he was ready at any time for an accounting in connection with his superintendency, but resign he would not, as he was appointed under the classified civil service.

On June 28, Arant shows, he was notified in a communication from Secretary Lane that he was "removed." His reply to that, Arant states, was a telegram to the Secretary flatly refusing to get out. Two days later, he reports, he was visited by a United States marshal and a posse of men who forcibly ejected him from the house he occupied as superintendent, and then put his wife and family out. The officer took possession of the building and the effects.

Justice Stafford cited Secretary Lane to show cause by May 11 why a mandamus should not be issued.