The Birmingham age-herald., 1910-02-20
Figures Given By Representative Of Guggenhsim Syndicate
 Are Startling
GENERAL M.NAG[R BIRCH
 TELLS HIS LITTLE STORY
Value of Cunningham Coal Land Claims Are Estimated at Nine Hun- dred MiIlions-WiII Give Profit
 of Two Hundred Millions

Wasnlngton, FeDruary 19.-(Speclal-)- Two hundred million dollars of profit in clean, cold cash is only one feature of the colossal game of exploitation of Alas ka played by the Guggenheim-M Morgan syndicate, according to testimony today in the Glavis-BaIlinger administration | scandal
 The audience before the committee on l territories of the Senate was fairly stunned when General Manager Birch of this syndicate revealed the figures of values at stake in this famous contro- versy.
 l Here are some of the cash values which MT. Birch rolled off as lightly as if he were telling merely fairy tale: | Cunningham coal fields, 5000 acres. mine- able coal in their neighborhood 50o.000o0 1 tons.
 Value of tonnage ssoo.ooo,Ooo; cost to get 1t out of the ground s7o0, 100000. Net profit to the exploiters 2000o0.000. At the earlier stages of this Cunning ham, Balinger affair, to call 1t by po- lite name, it was vigorously denied by | Ballingers friends that the coal lands were of any extraordinary value. In order, ostensibly to clear their skirts of lnnuendo and allegations of improper connection with the exploitation of the richest domain In the United States. Nor gan and Guggenheim came out into the open and so far, instead of helping Bal finger, they have helped only themselves and MT. Glavis.
 Bought for q Song
 For the mere song of s25o,ooo Morgan and | (rll2Renhpin1 themselves in line with the assistance of Cunningham for the ultimate cleanup of s2oOoOo.OOO. One of the strangest of all the circumstances is that experts like Cum ningham did not know that they were endeavoring to get lands which would
 make Morgan-Guggenheim immensely
 richer and that they were to sell for a l oagatelle rights that would make them 1 $ rich as Monte Crsto. statement Just 1 IS startling Mir. Birch's mountainous 1 pile of figures was that the syndicate used
 10 influence with Congress or any one else 1 o get possession of the richest domain n the world. The plan pursued by the I Morgan-Guggenheim altruistic syndicate vas. according to the testimony. simply 1 get A, B, c, D and all the other little members of the alphabet to buy up and | patent parcels of the immense whole and
 when they had done so, to turn it all over 1 % the x, Y and z.
 The Glavs- -Ballinger scandal is in full
 blast now, both before the special investi- gating committee and the committee on territories of the Senate. Meanwhile politicians are wondering, not | to say amazed, at the voluntary act of Morgan, Guggenheim and company in coming to Washing and from all appear ances helping out Glavis, who had made I charges against a member of the cab inet.
 Prominent Facts
 Out of mass of the testimony sub mitted by Birch today these facts stood l out prominently:
 That the syndicate had purchased competing railroad, owned by Post Bros. of London, and that through its own line from Cordova bay to the coal and copper i fields it absolutely dominated the situa- 1 tion.
 That, in addition to holding an option on the Cunningham group of coal lands. | the syndicate had acquired in which the syndicate had obtained a half in- 1 terest for $250,000 contained coal that would not yield profit of s25,000; that the entire Behring river coal field con | tained 500,000 tons of coal, worth in gross ssOo OoO.OOo. which would net it's exploiters. after paying all expenses of mining and | carrying to the market, $200. 0.000,000.
 That the syndicate had paid S3.o00.o0o on the copper properties 1t now had. while only very slight development of | the fields had brought to view copper ore estimated to be worth $6,000000. That notwithstanding its vital enormous | interest in this call interest in the Gun | ningham group, the syndicate, according l to Birch, had taken no steps toward se- curing a patent from the government and | that indignant denial'' was made of the charge that the syndicate maintained a lobby in Washington to further its in- l terests.
 These facts were brought out as re- suit of careful questioning, in which Sen ator Beveridge, chairman of the commit | tee, had an active part
 Insight Into Methods
 The expose that the syndicate's copper mining company had obtained copper lands through private individuals locat- ing the claims, making their entries and then turning their interest over to the company as soon as the patents were is- sued gave the committee clearer in sight than 1t previously had had as to the methods by which syndicates created | for the purpose of obtaining the public {. domain and favorable mining lands have been able to make a monopoly of whar, under the law, is supposed to give every enterprising man an equal opportunity to discover and develop the riches that Ma ture has concealed.
 "Your entrymen then,' asked Senator Frazier, were mere uufnmlesl | Mr. Birch entered vigorous denial. He said there was no understanding with them and that the law had been fully complied with.
 1 Dummy entrymen are very unpopuar with federal officials in western states where those instrumentalties have been utilized in putting the timber tracts in the hands of the lumber interests. In some cases where federal officials have been very zealous and have not been interfered with from Washington. entries of this character have been set aside and patents refused. Naturally Managing Di- rector Birch would deny the impeach- ment of Senator Frazier that he had been using dummies.
 MT. Birch contended that he was ono of the locaters on the tract now belong ing to the syndicate but when asked how much land he had located, Mir. Birch could not say.