Bisbee daily review., 1910-03-20
THE sBsE DAILY REVIEW 8sBEE ARIZONA
ALASKA MINING SITUATION GIVEN
 WITHOUT COLOR OR BIAS
Mining and Scientific Press.

Mining and Scientific Press.
 The Alaska coal land situation con tinaes to be thoroughly muddlel.
 Even so well informed a paper as the Chicago Tribune says editorially that if the Beyeridge bill be passed the Cunningham and similar claims would be extinguished We have al- ready pointed out that the Cunning ham claimants rest on rights believed to have been acquired under existing law. If their rights prove valid they cannot be eNtinguisHed except by condemnation and purchase It may be proper to reserve thee Alaskan coal; we believe it is. but this cannot in terfere wi,h rights already acquired under the law. and as yet there has been no determination as to whether or not the Cunningham claims are valid
 Mir. J. E. Ballaine has contributed to the gaiety of nations. if not to the solution of the matters in question. by his much advertised offer of 50 centsper ton royalty" As often hap pens this single phase of his propo- sal has caught public attention while other. and more essential elements. are neglected. F We would respect fully indicate that there is a s-ring tied to Mir. Ballaine's offer;a string so big as to constitute a veritable steel-wire cable. Among the condi- tions are that the Government shall guarantee interest on a thousand miles of railroad. It is provided. IL is true, that interest shall be paid from the proceeds of the royalties if the latter are sufficient If the income from this source prove too small. the general revenue of the Gov ernment would be liable. IL is fur ther provided that no leases at less royalty shall be granted. and that the Government shall either buy half it's coal form the Jesse. or establish mines of its own which would nec- essarily ship over the lessee 'srailway Nothing is said as to railway rats Under these conditions amount of royalty to be paid is of little import ance. A wise man remarked many years ago that he cared not who wrote the nations laws if he might write it's songs. An equally wise coal operator might well profess indifer  so long as he held the privelege of fixing railway rates. The proposal is not 10 be taken seriously, and we can only suspect that it was not in tended to be so taken. It will be re membered' that Mir. Ballaine was con cerned in the promotion of the rail way north from Seward. and that when only fifty miles was finished he got into difficulties and finally lost his equity in the property. With a Government guarantee of the inter est on bonds he might naturally ex- to be more successful in a second venture
 Another curiously exaggerated esti- mate of the value of the Alaskan coal fields has been given prominence Of late. and this time from a source most unlikely to make a mistake.
 Our Washington correspondent this week tells the s.ory Of the vOlun- tary appearance before a Senate com mittee of Mir. Stephen Birch and Mr. J. N. Steele, representing the Morgan Guggenheim syndicate. We are glad they took this step. It was d cour- ageous and proper means of meeting criticism. A frank avowal of their position, plans and purposes was made. It was shown .hat the syn dicate includes J. P Morgan & Com pany. Danniel Guggenheim. Murray Guggenheim. and s. R. Guggenheim. It controls the Northwestern Commer cial Ccnpany. The Alaska Steamship Company. The Northwest Fisheries, The Kennecoot Mine Compony. The Copper River & Northwestern rail way, and the Katalla company. In. terest centres mainly in the last two because of the relation of the railway and the Katalla harbor works Of the Boring coal field.
 The famous contract with the Gun ningham claimants was submitted, and Mir Birch estimated the net profit in sight to be S200. O00. This is