The Farmington times. (Farmington, St. Francois County, Mo.) 1905-1926, 1910-02-17
THE ALASKAN FRAUDS
AND SECRETARY BALLINGER
The Administrators Policy Involves
the Selling of Coal Lands OF $40
Rn Acre Which Would Net the
Government Millions in
Royalty.

| tNOydlb1
"Thcrc is something rotten in the
territory OF Alaska" says the Oma-
ha World Herald. "The Shiny trail
Of that rottenncss covers all the
thousands of miles that lie between
the rich coal fields of Alaska and the
Interior Department AT Washington.
Every few days there is Il fresh de-
velopmcnt going to show that Com
! grcssmcn Hitchcock's original rcso-
| luton, calling for u congressional
! investigation of the Interior Depart
ment's administration of Alaskan
affairs, went straight to the mark.
! And the nearer the congressional
committee comes to confirming its in
quirieS to what has been happening
| in Alaska, and what now is happen
| ing there, the better IL will serve the
purpose for which IL was created.
The offer made in writing by John
! T.. Ballaine. described as the largest
individual property owner in Alaska,
| to the Senate Committee on Terri
tories Is absolutely astounding, both
in what II discloses and in the pos
sibilitics ii suggests. The scheme
which is now on foot, and which only
the investigation and the publicity
attending it can defeat, is for the
government to lease or sell the
Alaska coal fields ut $40 mn acre,
"Mr. Ballaine now offers, instead,
to pay royalty to the government
of 80 cents ton for 5000 acres of
such coal land. He offers to file a
bond Of 81 100000 to insure his full
flllment OF the contract. The roy
atty, he estimates, basine the csti-
mate on reports of the United States
geological survey, would run ms high
as e. 600, 900 per hundred acres-or
500, 200, 900 for 3 1000 acres! Contrast
this with the $4,000 the government
would realize out OF the sale or lease
VI b,NiN u'ltb III WV IA'f'N'H
by Secretary BalIinger's friends!
Mr.. Rallainc further quotes the
geological survey as estimating TINT
there are sixteen billions of tons of
coal already in sight in Alaska. II
this were mined on the same royalty
basis he offers the government
would realize, out Of these coal
fields, the stupendous sum of eight
billions of dollarsl
"Is il strange in tn" light Of these
figures that the Guggenheim inter
csts should find it worth while to
make strenuous efforts, to stop at
nothing, to reach even into the Cab
met itself and into Congress, to
realize it's ambition to gain control
of these enormous coal deposits fOi
mere song, $40 an acre-dcposits
worth many billions OF dollars! Ac.
cording to charges made by Delegate
Wickersham of Alaska, even army
officers are ut Washington lobbying
in behalf Of the Guggenheim steal,
and have threatened him with per
sOnal violence for his opposition
One of these officers proclaims him
self to be the adviser of the admin
istration on all matters relating To
Alaska In written charges filed
with the Senate Committee on Terri
tories Judge Wickersham-who for
several years was a Federal Judge in
Alaska, appointed by President Me-
Kinley-makes allegations 50 Sc
rious, rejecting even on President
Taft, that Senator Beveridge, chair
man of the committee, refuses to
make them public or incorporate
them into the record.
Despite anything that may be
done, however, the public attention
has been focused on Alaska. The
Indignation of an entire nation has
been SO stirred that whatever plots
Of gigantic jobbery and rapine Of
public property may have been UNI
der way, il will he impossible now
to put them through. The game has
become too dangerous. 1t may have
been an easy matter to deceive the
President ms to Secretary Ballinger
and theplotters who are backing him.
But light is flooding the dark places
and the deeds that were begun In
darkness can never he carried to n
successful conclusion when the sun
is shining. The President may stand
by Balllnger to the end-to the bit
ter end-but the gigantic conspiracy,
the greatest ever plotted against the
American people, and of which the
f0isting of Ballinger upon Taft ms
Secretary of the Interior was Il
necessary part, is foiled in its begin
ming"