Omaha daily bee., 1910-01-07
Inquiry Into Cunningham Cases Show
CLAWS In Bad.
CONCLUSIONS BASED ON RECOR.

WASHINGTON jan 6,-The record OF
the Interior department in connection with
the Cunningham (AlaslSa) coal land cases
was sent to the investigating committee
this morning and made public In the form
of a report from Attorney General Wicker
sham to the president The report con-
tains all the correspondence and state
ments in connection with the inquiry car
ried on by l.. r. CLAWS for more than two
years, and makes a printed document OF
| eighty-five quarto pages. The conclusions
Of the attorney general, after examining
the record and the evidence, transmitted to
the president, and by him sent 20 the com
mittee are:
The conclusions which, in my opinion.
are very clearly established by these papers
are as follows:
"First--The insinuatlons or charges OF
improper action the part of Secretary
Ballinger, Assistant Secretary Pierce, Com
missioner bennett, or Chibf of Field Divi-
sion Schwartz are, in my opinion entirely
dsproved SO far from taking any action
to favor the Cunningham claimants the
record clearly shows that Secretary Bal
llnger was scrupulously careful not in any
| respect to act upon these claims, for the
reason that during the summer of 1908,
while he was in no manner connected with
the government, he had been consulted by
some of the claimants with respect to tho
! issuance of patents, and had called upon
Secretary Garfield for the purpose Of as
certaining the attitude Of his department
thereon Neither his action nor any of
his written or spoken expressions were ia
vorable to these claimants. The utmost
he did was to instruct the land office TO
promptly investigate and dispose of all
pending cases.
"Second-The suggestion that 1t was un-
lawful for Mr. Ballinger to have any pro-
fessional relation with these claimants be-
cause of his previous incumbency Of the
office of commissioner of the land office
lis, in my opinion. unsound. The sugges-
ton is based section 1870, United States
revised statutes, which enacts:
ut shall not be lawful for any person
appointed after the first day of June, ono
thousand eight hundred and seventy-two,
as officer, clerk or employe In any or
or agent for prosecuting any claim against
the United States which was pending IN
either OF said departments while he was
such officer, clerk, or employe, nor In any
manner. nor by any means, to aid in the
prosecution of any such claim, within two
years next after he shall have ceased 10
be such officer, clerk, or employe.
I'm the case OF w. d. Harlan Q7 Land
Dec, 216) Secretary OF the Interior Smith,
in a well-reasoned opinion, held that the
words claim against the United States,'
as used in that section, must be construed
to mean a money demand against the
, United States. An earlier decision a Land
Dec, 1T9), which gave a wider application
to the words was overruled. In Yeater
against Prince (S3 Land Dec, 1917, this con-
, struction was adopted and followed by
Acting Secretary Ryan. A similar con-
struction has been given In section 10 OF
. the act of March 3, 1853, now constituting
, section 1869, Revised Statutes, relating to
, the assignment of any claims In favor
s of the United States by Attorney General
- Edwards az Op., 543); and section 549S Re-
vised Statutes, relating to the prosecution
of any claim against the United states by
an officer OF the United Safes, etc, APP
pears only to have been applied to the
> prosecution Of money claims.
''Third-The Cunningham locations were
made in July and August 1904 All but
three of them proceeded to entry prior to
9 MAY 1, 1907. and the remaining three in
n October 1907. payments aggregating $52 800
$ being made and covered into the treasury.
n THE government has had an abundance
n of time to investigate the validity of these
entries. The entrymen are certainly en-
- titled to know with reasonable promptness
the objections to issuing patents on their
claims and to have such objections disposed
of within a reasonable time. The atten-
tlon of the land office was specifically
directed to these claims in August, 1907.
They were investigated by Agents Love
! and Jones They were put In Mr., CLAWS
hands, together with the Investigation OF
all other Alaska coal land locations and
: entries in January, 1905 He had the bene-
tit of the report OF Messrs. Love and
y. Jones All the essential facts relating TO
"a the claims seem to have been ascertained
2 by him in the spring of 1903. Indeed, the
II claimants do not appear to have made any
- concealment of the facts upon which their
4, claims depend Except during a period OF
a not exceeding two months (April and May,
., 1909, when proceedings were suspended
- owing 20 the exhaustion Of the appropria-
u tion, CLAWS had upward Of two years In
which to complete his Investigations. lie
- was furnished by the land office with all
the assistance which he requested. All
efforts to induce him to bring his investi-
- cation 10 a conclusion were met only with
, requests for further assistance coupled
: with criticism Of his superior Officers as
= well as OF other special agents who had
- been connected with the cases; and every
y time the general land office urged q
speedy completion Of the work-which II
20 may be observed. was merely preparatory
D. to a trial OF the questions involved In the
III entries, for the purpose OF determining
D. whether or not patent should issue-Glavis
advanced some more or less speclous rea-
II sons why he was not ready To formulate
's objections and proceed to trial.
Instead OF hampering or interfering with
* him, every facility was given TO him by the
le Interior department, and. with one oi
~ two immaterial exceptions, every request
re for assistance was promptly granted Had
~ the department desired to Improperly pass
h. the claims TO patent II might have done
In so In January, 1905, by simply acting OF
ID the favorable report Of Special Agent Love
c. without notifying CLAWS that the claim.
h.. had been clear listed; or, when the field