CONGRESSIONAL INVESTIGATION OF ALASKAN COAL CLAIMS
Congressional Investigation of Alaskan Coal Claims A DRAMATIC touch was given to the Ballinger in-vistigation Monday when John J. Vertrees, Secretary Ballinger's attorney, accused L. R. Glavis of...
...He testified that Secretary Ballinger's alliance with the Cunninghams, as counsel, after he had resigned as Commissioner of the General Land Office, leaving the government and "going over to work for the other side," was something no lawyer of his acquaintance would do...
...This statement brought out the first loud applause that has interrupted the hearing since the investigation began and Chairman Nelson said that he would be obliged to clear the room should it happen again...
...Glavis testified that Secretary Ballinger and Commissioner Dennett were guilty of official misconduct, and that the handling of the Alaska coal cases and the safe-guarding of the government's interests were not safe in...
...Mr...
...Vertrees intimated in his questioning that he expected to prove that the Attorney General did not know that the famous Pierce decision applied to the Cunningham claims when his department handed it down last spring...
...Congressional Investigation of Alaskan Coal Claims A DRAMATIC touch was given to the Ballinger in-vistigation Monday when John J. Vertrees, Secretary Ballinger's attorney, accused L. R. Glavis of having hidden original letters in the case in a box left in the federal building in Portland, Ore...
...Glavis reviewed the principal points brought out heretofore in his testimony, tending to show that the present Secretary was not the man to handle the government's interests so far as the Alaska coal fields were concerned...
...Is it not true, Mr...
...Asked by Mr...
...And I am surprised to think that any government officer would stoop to such a position by joining in such a 'frame up' to curry favor with his superiors...
...Vertrees to name the things or acts which showed anything like official wrongdoing, Mr...
...Vertrees made his dramatic accusation...
...No, it is not...
...their hands, but he did not charge them with corruption, for if he had had evidence to show criminality he would have submitted it to the grand jury...
...Attorney Brandeis, for Glavis, early in the investigation called for a number of letters and documents not included in the papers sent to the President, and it was as a means of explaining the tardiness in furnishing all the papers that Mr...
...Glavis testified that he was surprised to hear this for the Attorney General had his report on the Cunningham claim before him when he consid-ered the decisions...
...He testified that the action of the Secretary and his Commissioner in trying to speed the Cunningham claims to patent, notwithstanding their known fraudulent character, was "More cowardly than if they had stolen something on which it was possible to convict...
...Glavis, that these letters were hidden by you in a box and left in the postoffice building in Portland...
Vol. 2 • February 1910 • No. 7
