The Daily Missoulian. [volume] (Missoula, Mont.) 1904-1961, 1910-09-10

10. 1909. To the president and In other
correspondence and communications to
the president. Mr. Ballinger has been
frequently uncandid. that he has on
number of occasions been guilty Of
duplicity and that his conduct In the
premises was intended to and did have
the effect of decciving the president.
"Ciear Listed"
That Mr.. Ballinger.7 while commits
sioncr of the general land office, clear
listed the o-callcd Cunningham
claims on insufficient evidence and
under circumstances which convinces
US he was aware of the existence of
other material evidence which he did
not call for or consider and which. II
considered. should surely have pre-
vented the clear listing of the claims.
said claims Mr.. Ballingcr showed
either lamcntablc want OF capacity
and competence or such n disregard
for the rights Of the public as amount
ed to bad faith.
The Gale Bill.
That AS commissioner of the gen
crai land office. Mr.. Balllngcr pre-
pared the Gale bill; that he appeared
before n committee of the house of
representatives I'm advocacy Of said
bin and that he then knew and In
tended that said bill, If 1t became n
law. would have the effect Of valldat.
Ing the said Cunningham claims and
nj .,l.,t.
claims were, In fact, fraudulent be-
cause of non compliance with the law.
That after rcsigning az commits
sioner of the general land office Mr.
BallinGcr resumed the practice OF law
In Seattle, Wash. that he became In
tcrested aS an attorney In cases which
were pending In the general land Of
flee while he was commissioner and In
at least one case he received co,npcn-
satl1n for his services and that such
conduct was highly rcprehensibc."
Madison's Summary.
a summary of Mr.. Madson's find
inss follows
'"Fhe investigation resolved itself into
two branches, the Claws and Pincllot.
CLAWS charged that Mr. Ballingcr had
been an unfaithful trustee of the pep-
pies interests: that this vas more par
ticularly demonstrated by his conduct
toward the Cunningham coal Claim,
"Pnchot charged that Mr. Balinger's
course as secretary of the interior had
been characterized by lack of fidcl-
ity to the public interest: that he was
an enemy of the policy of conservation
or natural resources. that this was
more particularly evidenced by his res
toratlon to entry of the water power
sites withdrawn by Secretary Garfield.
his conduct toward the reclamation
service and the Alaska coal fields"
Describes Alaska.
Mr.. Madison then described Alaska
as "the last great natural storehousc
of natural resources that to "a large
degree. belongs to all the people of the
United States; that the secretary of the
interior should guard them against both
fraud and monopoly"
The Cunningham coal land claims
were then described Cunningham
being referred to as "thc promoter of
a plan whereby he and his associates
were to prove mp the land and then
operate 1t as one mine. by means of an
association or corporation; that he was
to have one-eighth of each subscrib-
cr's stock for his services In pros
pectng land and managing the DEAL
Great Coal Country.
The findings declare that strong
evidence was produced that this plan
was adopted and acted upon by the
subscribers; that the Cunningham en-
tries can be cancelled for fraud If vig-
orously prosecuted by the government:
that the claims contain from $4,000, 900
to 9D,O00,O0O tons of COAL
The composition of the Morgan -Gug
genheim or Alaskan syndicate is given
and declared to he IAN association or
ganized to exploit Alaska"
The findings OF Mr. Madison de-
clare that this syndicate entered into
an option agreement with the Cunning
ham claimants In 1907. whereby said
claimants were to organize corpor-
alton capitalized at $5,000,000 and con.
vey one-half the stock to itsfor $3.50, 900