The Spokane press. [volume] (Spokane, Wash.) 1902-1939, 1909-12-14
G 0 N TIL u f D
r o -
P A @ f Q n f
CAN THEY WHITEWASH
THIS ONE?

Hon. Oscar Foote of Seattle: 4
have just received a copy of Mr..
Gales coal bill. 1t seems all that
kataila interests could possibly
wish. In fact, think it was draft
ed 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 ex-
Commissioner BalIinger urged be-
fore the committee same bill;
whether this lis true) or not | don't
know.
mckenzie, like his namesake
and prototype in the placer story,
is welI-known Washington lobby
ist End an od-time political sup
porter of Senator Piles of Wash
ington, BaIineer's friend. He is
one of the beneficaries of a town
site of two thousand acres on Cor
dova bay, Alaska, the terminus of
the Gugeenheim railroad. This
townsite was granted, through the
efforts of Senator Piles of Wash
lngton, by the Sixtieth congress, to
Mckenzie and two others, one of
whom is Ex-Governor John H. Nc
Graw of Washington, former politi-
cal manager for Senator Piles, and
,ne of the committee of the Seattle
chamber of commerce, which re-
Gently. in answer to Claws article
in this paper, gave BaIlinger a
glowing certificate of character and
spoke of him as "a scrupuIously
honest man.
Ballinger and Hepburn.
Clarence Cunningham lived at
Wallace, Idaho, at the time he first
became interested in the Cunning
ham claims. Wallace is the chief
tswn of the Occur d'Alene mining
region. By a sort Of financial ma
nipulation, not here necessary to
explain, the Guggenheims control
the lead output of the Occur
1'Alenes. Wallace is the residence
Of Senator w. B. Hepburn of Idaho.
Cunningham and Hepburn are, and
have been for years, friends. In
his affidavit, presented by Balm
ger to Garfield, Cunningham says
that certain of the claimants failed
to come forward with their sub
scriptions and that these expenses
were advanced by A. b. Campbell
another Cunningham claimant and
a prominent Occur d'Alene mine
owner, who was subsequently REIN
bursed. John A. Finch, Campbell's
mining partner, is also a claimant
Another is Charles Sweeney, Occur
d'Alene mine owner, who floated
some Occur d'Alene mines and sold
them to Standard Oil interests
Standard Oil, indeed, may get deep
er into this story at some later
date. For the present, it may inter
est the reader TO know that court
records in Seattle show that Bal
fingers law firm represented the
Standard Oil Company in three diff
ferent suits.
Senator Hepburn was, at the
time of his election to the United
States senate, the leading attorney
at Wallace for some of the large
Occur d'AIene mine interests. At.
ter the hearing on the Gale bill,
Senator Hepburn, on April %, 1908,
introduced in the senate another
bill which would have legalized the
Cunningham claims, and which
would have passed but for the in.
tervention of Secretary Garfield. In
Washington Hepburn and Ballinger
appear to have acted in concert. In
our issue of August % last, we
made reference to sort of political
partnership between Hepburn and
Baitinger In certain land matters
II Is unlawful for a United States
senator to act as attorney for per
sons interested in urging claims be
fore the departments at Washing
ton. II was for this offense that
Senator Burton of Kansas and Sen
stor Mitchell of Oregon were tried
and convicted. Hepburn was elect
ed Senator from Idaho January 49,
1903. In cunningham's books, un
p der date Of September, 1908, nine
months after Heyburn's election as
senator, there is an entry which
reads as follows: "Have agreed
with w. q. Hepburn, In considera
tlon for his services as attorney, tc
carry him for one claim of one hun
bred and sixty acres In the coal
free OF cost to him, and he agrees
TO do alt our legal work in procur
Ing titles, etc, free of expense tc
u.s."