The San Francisco call., 1909-12-17

ONCE. under the Ballinger and Dennett
administration, shut its eyes to giar-
ing land frauds in Oregon.
The Guggenheim Connection
AS far back as August 13, 1907, Spe-
cisi agent Horace T. Jones reported 70
nlchard A. Ballinger, commissioners OF
the general land Office: "Fr0m the taik
OF different attorneys and individuals
interested In the Alaska coal lands,
1eci TINT the disposal of the lands all
tend toward one direction, and that Is;
the GuEgenhein, companies. The pa
pers mere In Portland. Orey are full OF
the news that the Guggenheims are
constructing railroads near kataila,
Alaska, Tor the purpose of taking out
tne OIL minerals, etc. and there is an
advertisement in the said papers for
the employment of 1000 men to go to
hataiia, Alaska, and work for the
Guggenhefms" Katalla is the location
OF the Cunningham claims Under
date of December, 1907, Cunninghnm's
books show the receipt of 81 1,35960, with
THIS notations "The above sum was re-
ceived from Daniel Guggenheim (head
0f the GugGcnheim syndicate),. in full
Tor expenses incurred on account of
the examination of coal lands ON his
account"
We have in former article referred
TO the fact that Commissioner Bal
hnger appeared before the house COM
m1ttee on public lands and urged the
passage of the Gale bill, which, had it
passed. would have made the Cunning
ham claims legal with BalIinger there
appeared one Donald r. Mckenzie.
Found among the papers in the possess
MON OF former. Special Agent H. IA.
Love, ON whose favorable report Bal
ifnger souEht to have the Cunningham
claims patented, was the following
In II 1Atf tod
Juneau, Alaska, March 10, 1908, and adj
dressed to Hon. Oscar Foote of Seattle:
sl have Just received n copy of Mr..
Gales coal bill. 1t seems all that ,Ka-
ITALIA interests could possibly wish. In
fact, think 1T was drafted by Judge
Mckenzie, who, with associates, have
acquired large holdings there. 1t
seems to open the whole proposition for
corporate holding. The papers say that
former Commissioner Ballinger urged
before the committee same bill, whether
this us true) or not, / don't know
Mckenzie, like Ais namesake and pro-
totype In the placer story, Is q well
known WashfnEton lobbyist and an old
time political supporter of Senator Piles
of Washington, Ballingcr's friend. He
In one of the bcneflcfnrfes of town site
of 1000 acres ON Cordova bay, Alaska,
the terminus of the Guggenheim rail-
road. This town site was granted,
through the efforts of Senator Piles of
Washington, by the sixticth congress,
to Mckenzie andS-fTo others, one of
whom fs former Governor John III. Me-
Graw Of Washington, former political
manager for senator Piles, and one of
the committee OF the Seattle chamber of
commerce which recently, I'm answer to
Claws article I'm this paper, gave Bal-
linEer a glowing certificate of character
and spoke of him as "R scrupuIously
honest man." On June 28 of the present
year Mckenzie brought S. W. Eccles OF
the Guggenhefm syndicate, on his way
to Alaska. to see Special Agents CLAWS
and Jones in Seattle. in order, as he
stated, that Eccles might learn first
hand from them of the progress they
were making with the Cunningham
claims. AT this interview Mckenzie
ficials that he and Eccles were particu-
larly anxious to know when the mat
ter would be submitted to the COM
missioner of the general land office,
since he. Mckenzie, had assurances
from the department that the cases
would be given immediate attention as
soon as reported.
In October, 1908, In Portland Ore
after Ballinger had ceased all connec-
tion with the land office, and while the
presidential compaign was on-Bnl-
linger spoke to CLAWS of the dffziculty
of raising campaign funds. He told
CLAWS that some of the Cunningham
claimants had contributed freely in pre-