CONGRESSIONAL INVESTIGATION OF ALASKA COAL CLAIMS
Congressional Investigation of Alaska Coal Claims POINTS THUS FAR ESTABLISHED BY THE INVESTIGATION THAT BALLINGER, as commissioner of the land office, had an Intimate and thorough knowledge of...
...Miles C. Moore turned up in Washington and Immediately the writing of patents was begun...
...That after telling his conspiracy story to the President...
...Brandeis: "Is it more problematical now than when you testified before the Senate committee on territories...
...That Balllnger sent a young, inexperienced lawyer ta supercede Glavis in defending the government's rights in these gigantic InThat Glavis, Jones, Love and Sheridan were practically agreea1 as to the necessity for more Investigations...
...Birch: "I do...
...It would be found, said the statement, that "true conservation had no sturdier supporter than Bal-linger, but he believes that those who are now born and breathe have rights as well as the unborn...
...He said they had not decided what disposition they would make of their rights afterward, although admitting that the expense of his trip was charged to the syndicate...
...I take flyers lots of times," said he...
...Congressional Investigation of Alaska Coal Claims POINTS THUS FAR ESTABLISHED BY THE INVESTIGATION THAT BALLINGER, as commissioner of the land office, had an Intimate and thorough knowledge of the Alaska coal cases, M. grained through numerous conferences with Special Agents Jones and Love and Glavis and through frequent reports made by them to him...
...Ballinger which led to such a spirited passage between the attorneys that the committee, on motion of Senator Root, went post haste into executive session for another hour, only to return with the same determination to spare Secretary Ballinger...
...Morganheim" Operations Disclosed STEPHEN D. BIRCH, managing director of the Morgan-Guggenheim syndicate in Alaska, was on the stand all day Friday and the testimony previously given before the Senate committee on territories by him and J. N. Steele, attorney, for the syndicate, was broadened and developed...
...that its copper deposits alone are worth at least six millions and that the key to them is the Guggenheim railroad...
...That the syndicate had acquired an option on the Cunningham claims was brought out...
...that it has sixteen millions or more invested in the territory...
...Witness is Reticent THE various ramifications of the Guggenheim interests in Alaska were with difficulty extracted from the witness...
...That Forester Pinchot wrote the...
...He prefaced the statement with the charge that the course of the other side had all along been to tire out the committee so as to get a ruling that would give opportunity to cry "persecution," "denial of rights," etc., and that the purpose in calling Ballinger was not to get at the truth, but to harass him in order to bolster up a fading cause which everyone could now see was a failure What Ballinger Expects to Prove THIS statement, a remarkable document, declared that a score or more of witnesses will be called by the Ballinger side and that it proposes to prove that the charges brought by "Patriot Glavis" are the fruits of a "perverted mind, the resentment of a discharged official, or the program of unscrupulous political intrigue...
...Mr...
...That Senator Beyburn of Idaho, who, with Senator Carter of Montana, is the most outspoken foe in congress of conservation, had an interest in Alaska claims...
...That his attitude has been one of assumed indifference, if not hostility, toward investigation and the protection of the government, on the plea of former connection with the coal cases as counsel...
...Guggenheim Control of Alaska ATTORNEY STEELE in his testimony sought to minimize the dominant interests of the Guggenheim syndicate in Alaskan commercial affairs, although it was shown that it has already invested upward of $20,000,000 in...
...That soon thereafter the executive order went forth that no more information was to be given out by government subordinates without permission...
...Birch: "That was to be considered part of the working capital...
...Who Owns Alaska...
...When Ballinger went in, however, "the reign of law began...
...Witness testified that the Guggenheim syndicate was interested in nearly a dozen large enterprises in Alaska, railways, copper, steamships, fisheries, etc...
...A telegram was also read from Daniel Guggenheim to Cunningham, dated December 7, 1907, accepting the option of July 20, 1907...
...Brandeis asked that the report of the coal expert of the syndicate who examined the coal claims be admitted in evidence, but Attorney Steele strenuously objected to such private matters being made public and the committee decided to act on it in executive session...
...Also the interesting fact that on August 17, 1907, Clarence Cunningham wrote to Daniel Guggenheim that he had been promised by the commissioner of the land office (Ballinger) that his claimants would receive their patents within ninety days...
...That Commissioner Dennett stated he knew of no frauds, yet affidavit showed such admissions had been made to him...
...That as such counsel he profited by government secrets, yet as secretary, and with the same information, put the responsibility and Interpretation of the law upon subordinates...
...That Balllnger ordered verbally (refusing to make the order In writing) that the reclamation service recommend restoration or the lands withdrawn by Garfield to protect power sites...
...That Balllnger promised to ask Attorney General Wlckersham for an opinion on the legality of the Cunningham claims, but failed to do so until forced to such action by Glavls and Henry: M. Hoyt, then assistant attorney general...
...Committee Spares Ballinger AT the conclusion of the testimony given by J. N. Steele, attorney for the Guggenheim Alaska syndicate, Mr...
...Saturday morning Chairman Nelson announced that the Secretary would not yet be called to the stand...
...Mr...
...He admitted there was an understanding between Morgan and Guggenheim to control, own and manage a large part of Alaska...
...Pinchot is declared to be inordinately vain and to have imagined he was the whole agricultural department...
...Adolph Berens, a real estate dealer of Seattle, who was called by the Ballinger side to impeach the testimony of Glavis, was kept on the stand but a half hour, but made the damaging admission that oil entries in which he was interested were reported fraudulent and that his company had set aside $150,000 worth of stock for "legislative" purposes...
...That Balllnger ignored the unfavorable report of Special Agent...
...That Balllnger ordered Schwartz to consult Postmaster General Hitchcock as well as the President in appointing Alaska agents...
...Purcell: "If you considered the coal worth nothing did you feel that you did right in urging your people to pay $250,-000 for it...
...THE determination of the congressional committee investigating the so-called B ailing er-Pinchot controversy to give every possible advantage to the Secretary of the Interior was emphatically demonstrated Saturday when, after twice taking the matter under advisement in executive session, it flatly refused to summon him until requested by his attorney...
...Madison: "You mean to say that if there were no competition, you, like other syndicates, would charge what the traffic would bear...
...Mav 25,1909...
...That there had been no surveys of the lands withdrawn as stated by Secretary Ballinger in a letter to Senator La Follete...
...Vertrees, the committee took it under advisement...
...Garfield's policy of withdrawing "every water power site that a missionary could find" was ridiculed and declared illegal...
...That Ballinger visited Secretary Garfield at the latter's home in Ohio in 1908 and laid before him an affidavit from the Cunningham claimants saying that no combination was contemplated, yet an option to the Guggenheims had been given and accepted fn 1907...
...Mr...
...Brandeis requested that Ballinger be summoned to testify regarding certain letters but on objection by the latter's attorney, Mr...
...Mr...
...When all the testimony is in, counsel declares, the committee will wonder how Glavis, Pinchot, Jones, Davis and Newell had the daring to appear and testify as they did...
...That, while commissioner, Balllnger had opposed Roosevelt, Garfield and Pinchot in the creation of the Chugach national forest, covering a part of the Cunningham claims in Alaska, and soon i afterward Balllnger resigned as commissioner...
...also Congressmen McLachlan of California and Klnkald of Nebraska...
...Brandeis made another formal call for Mr...
...With Ballinger's entrance, it says, Pinchot ceased to be the whole department...
...Brandeis made spirited protest, declaring that such action was "denying to the committee, and those who were watching carefully the proceedings, the best opportunity to arrive at the facts...
...that In 1907 Balllnger advised Qlavls to go slow on Investigations and "muekraklng," as It was interfering with the raising of campaign funds for next year's election...
...Questioned by Mr...
...Chairman Nelson: "You had to buy British Columbia coal and couldn't use the coal right beside you...
...the Love report which Love also declared dlu not justify or recommend clearllstlng...
...That in the restoration of withdrawn lands Ballinger did not act on the recommendation of the Reclamation Service, as the President seemed to think, but on his own responsibility That Ballinger ordered Chief Engineer Pavls of the reclamation service to segregate withdrawals made by Secretary Garfield for power sites, but to do it quietly so as not to attract public attention...
...That Plnohot had the permission of Secretary Wilson to write the letter to Senator Dolllver which brought about his dismissal That the main objection to the Pinchot letter appears to have been thai it gave to the country a conservation message in advance of that of the President...
...That as counsel he attempted to get patents for the claims, although admitting to Glavls, in consultation, that he had doubts about their validity...
...Tha* Clarence Cunningham said the Secretary had promised him -ateius on his coal claims within ninety days...
...That the Reclamation Service has felt itself more or loss openly opposed and discredited by the Secretary of the Interior ever since he assumed office...
...Witness complained that in building its Alaska railroad the syndicate had to purchase over 16,000 tons of coal at nearly $12 a ton...
...Birch said the syndicate wanted the coal especially to build its railways...
...Vertrees to make a statement as to what witnesses the Ballinger side would call, and what it expected to prove...
...Mr...
...Glavis heard nothing more of It until given his discharge from the service...
...Vertrees' objection was echoed by Senator Sutherland and other members of the committee...
...Is this witness to be allowed to withhold his testimony," he asked, "in order that he may frame it up so as to reconcile it with that of other witnesses, or to be called when the exigencies of the inquiry require it, and when the interests of truth and truth only, depend upon it...
...that several Alaska claimants in particular objected to contributing without some favorable action on claims...
...Among the terms applied to Glavis were "suspicious by nature," "vanity that brooks no suggestion," and "cunning of purpose...
...That Glavis was told not to investigate members of Congress Interested In Alaska...
...That after leaving the omce of commissioner he became counsel for the Green and Cunningham claimants, contrary to federal law on that point...
...President last fall that he wouia not be silent over frauds on the government even if It Involved his official positon...
...That when in December, 1907, Glavis was sent west to make a thorough investigation...
...However, the incident led Mr...
...Friday, Mr...
...the territory, that it owns the only two railroads leading to the copper and coal fields, that it controls the greater part of the steamship business between the United States and Alaska, and that to practically control the resources of the territory it is only neces&ary to get possession of the coal beds...
...That Ballinger permitted an official of the land department to draw $500 a month from the Harriman railroad interests, in addition to his government salary, for lecturing unon lands covered by the Harriman lines...
...That immediately on becoming secretary of the Interior, Balllnger ordered the restoration to entry of many waterpower sites on western rivers that Secretary Garfield had withdrawn...
...That while the Roosevelt and Garfield view and policy had been that the government could withdraw public lands in the absence of specific law to the contrary, Balltnger's view has been that it cannot without a specific law...
...That about this time the Guggenheim-Morgan syndicate secured, through dummy entries and otherwise, options a n the Cunningham and other properties which, with Its railroads, would have given it control of resources worth a billion...
...Thus the witness testified that he and another agent had negotiated for one group of coal lands on their own responsibility...
...Graham: "But this is not the report of the press gallery, but the report of the official stenographer of the committee on territories...
...S. W. Eecles, president of the Copper River Railroad Company, and vice president of the American Smelting and Refining company,—two Guggenheim concerns,—had seen Cunningham...
...Graham, he declared: "Had I known then that I was talking to the press gallery I should have been more careful what I said...
...He was confined to the forest reserves, "but broad as they were they were not large enough for him," and that this was the cause of the Forester's dissatisfaction...
...Brandeis pointed out that there was nothing in the law to prevent getting coal from people having proper patents on coal lands...
...Asked what was the value of the coal in the Cunningham group, he said it was problematical, that it was worth nothing without transportation...
...He denied that there was practically no competition between the Alaska Steamship company and other lines to the territory and said if there were none the rates would be higher...
...Jones and ordered the clearllstlng of the Cunningham claims on...
...That Balllnger misinformed the President aa to a decision of the comptroller of the currency relative to the Forest Service administering operations on forests in Indian reservations...
...That he requested suspension of examinations that he might urge remedial legislation, favorable to the claimants, upon congress...
...Birch had then said it was estimated there were fifty million tons in the Cunningham group and that there were many other groups of equal value...
...That as commissioner, private citizen, and as secretary of the interior he personally directed operations relating to these cases, assuming authority In Instances where subordinates had hitherto acted alone...
Vol. 2 • April 1910 • No. 13
