CONGRESSIONAL INVESTIGATION OF ALASKAN COAL CLAIMS
Congressional Investigation of Alaskan Coal Claims THE Congressional committee began taking testimony on the Alaskan coal claims Thursday, January 27. Sessions were held also on Friday and...
...He was never over-eager, and some of the strongest points were brought out by the cross questioning of members of the Committee seeking to discredit his story...
...Mr...
...A letter from Field Chief Schwartz called attention to the connection of the Guggenheims with the Cunningham group, showing that Daniel Guggenheim sent a check for $1,359.60 to pay all expenses incurred in examination of the coal lands...
...On the witness stand Mr...
...When he came to Oregon we talked the matter over...
...Mr...
...gress, strengthened the general conviction as to the truth of all he laid before the President in his report upon these cases...
...It looks as if he was returning our favors by not standing by us as he ought to...
...He told of Attorney Shaw's visit to Chicago to aid him in preparing his report...
...And that involved perjury...
...Do you believe Secretary Ballinger was sincere in his declarations that as secretary of the Interior he did not want to have anything to do with these Alaska cases with which he had been connected as a private citizen...
...A summary of his evidence follows, with comment...
...It looks a little treacherous to me, this calling in the forestry...
...Representative James...
...The Glavis evidence, in brief, was to the effect that Ballinger after being associated with the coal land claimants, sometimes as attorney, sometimes as friend, as Secretary ordered the "clear-listing" of the claims in the face of evidence of their fraudulent character...
...Glavis testified as to his meeting Gifford Pinchot at Spokane and how the latter advised him to lay the entire matter before the President...
...Representatives James...
...Glavis said the statement in Attorney Wickersham's report that he had taken no steps to secure criminal prosecutions was untrue...
...But Dennett took the view that if they were kept out of the land that was sufficient...
...Conspiracy to defraud the United States...
...He said: "In June, 1908, I prepared a report on this subject to Commissioner Dennett, but learning that he was to be in Oregon soon I did not send it...
...After Ballinger left the land office he became attorney for the Green group and represented Congressman Kinkaid, one of this group...
...That Glavis was under suspicion, is revealed by a letter of Land Commissioner Dennett to Field Chief Schwartz, in which he wrote: "Glavis has these coal cases on the brain...
...I had some evidence that led me to believe that Dennett needed the support of all the influential people he could get in order to be reappointed Commissioner of the Land Office and would go further than he would under ordinary circumstances...
...Glavis...
...Shaw, the law officer of the Forest Service, because some of these coal lands were within forest reserves...
...He was not questioned but was informed by Secretary Carpenter that the report had been sent to the Secretary of the Interior...
...It seems to me that you were more anxious to make a point against these officials than to secure the cancellation of the coal claims...
...Representative Denby...
...Was it your idea that Dennett and Ballinger were in league to favor these claimants or did you think they were merely incompetent...
...Well," said Glavis, after some reflection, "I thought the Alaska coal cases would be better protected with them out of the way...
...Glavis was well poised, and by his manner made a profound impression as an unbiased and truthful witness...
...Representative Denby...
...Glavis...
...Schwartz may have been a good friend of Glavis, as claimed by Dennett, but during the summer of 1909, he gave evidence that Dennett's estimate of him was incorrect...
...Senator Nelson...
...The order to "clear-list" was made upon the request of one of the claimants within a fortnight after Ballinger had ordered a full investigation and before such an inquiry could be well under way...
...No, sir...
...This is the affidavit which was characterized by Field Chief Schwartz of the land office as "ingenious but not convincing...
...GLAVIS, the dismissed special agent whose vigilance saved for the time the Alaskan coal fields, by his testimony before the investigating committee of Con...
...He has not acted as you or I would under similar conditions...
...It proved that this evidence was never properly digested, and in order to bolster up the assertions of the report, these records in some instances were distorted and some important documents omitted...
...Ballinger talked with Glavis about these claims during 1908 once advising him against muckraking and at another time complaining because C. J. Smith and H. C. Henry, Cunningham claimants and liberal contributors to other campaigns, refused to contribute to the campaign fund because they were kept out of the coal lands...
...He testified that after the Pierce decision, which was later set aside by the Attorney General, he was so discouraged that he was about to resign...
...Glavis...
...Ballinger is presented as seeking to have the Alaskan inquiries stopped because they interfered with campaign contributions...
...He carried the report to Beverly, delivered it to the President, and waited four days to be questioned in regard to the facts by the President...
...He told of the affidavit of former Mayor White of Seattle to the effect that Ballinger had been attorney for the Green group...
...What criminal offense had the claimants committed...
...I don't know that he did take part in these cases after becoming Secretary...
...Representative James...
...Ex-Governor Moore, one of the claimants, said the claims would have been patented but for Glavis' protest...
...Glavis...
...Mr...
...endeavoring to delay the hearings of the Alaskan land cases and ordering McEniry to get into the Associated Press and other news agencies...
...Did you have any personal ill-will against either Dennett or Ballinger...
...It was hard to judge what Ballinger would get out of it, if he got anything...
...L. R. Glavis is the only witness examined at the time this is written...
...Dennett said he did not think there should be any criminal prosecution, that he thought it was sufficient if the claims could be cancelled...
...His testimony was significant in that it and the records connect the names of Senator Heyburn and Representatives Mc-Lachlan, California, and Kinkaid, Nebraska, with the claims, and that Mr...
...He next heard from it when he was discharged from the service...
...Glavis...
...Glavis said he made up his mind in the summer of 1909, that "Commissioner Dennett was crooked...
...Representative Graham...
...He also acted as attorney for the Cunningham group and drew the affidavit intended to establish the legality of these claims...
...Dennett telegraphed back, "No admissions made by claimants" and afterwards Glavis secured affidavits in which claimants said that they had made important admissions to Dennett which the latter had kept secret...
...Glavis testified that he called upon Mr...
...La Follette's will publish a synopsis of the testimony taken by the committee each week.—Editor's Note...
...Recounting a visit he made to Washington to get an affidavit from Congressman McLachlan, one of the Green group, Glavis testified Ballinger would not permit him to interview the Congressman, saying, "There has been too much of that sort of thing in the past...
...The Glavis testimony was largely corroborative of the evidence contained in the printed record accompanying the Wicker-sham report...
...Schwartz sent a telegram to M. B. McEniry of Denver, outlining a newspaper story to the effect that several eastern railroads were...
...Yes...
...Sessions were held also on Friday and Saturday...
...Glavis revealed the details of the visit of Dennett to Seattle and the peculiar letters the latter sent to Washington...
...With the exception of the questions put to him by Representatives Madison, James, and Graham, he received no sympathetic assistance from any member of the committee to develop and bring out the details buried in the large volumes of records making up the history of these alleged land frauds...
...Henry M. Hoyt, Attorney General of Porto Rico dissuaded him and told Glavis that he (Hoyt) would talk to Horace Taft, brother of the President and endeavor in that way to bring the President to a realization of the impending scandal...
...He wrote Dennett asking whether he, Dennett, had received any admissions of frauds from claimants...
...Glavis...
...Yes...
...That would be only an opinion...
...I have told him how it looks to us and have reminded him of everything we have done for him...
Vol. 2 • February 1910 • No. 5
