The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1910-09-10

demonstrated by his conduct toward the
Cunningham coal claims.
"Pinchot charged that Mr.. Ballinger's
course as Secretary of the Interior had
been characterized by a lack of fidelity
to the public interests; that he was an
enemy of the policy of conservation of
natural resources, that this was more evil
denced by mis- restoration to entry of the
water power sites withdrawn by Sec
rotary Garfield. his conduct toward the
reclamation service and the Alaska coal
fields"
Mr.. Madison then described Alaska as
the last great natural storehouse of nat
ural resources that to a large degree
belongs to all the people of the United
States; that the Secretary of the Interior
should guard against both fraud and mo-
nopolyt
The Cunningham coal land claims were
then described, Cunningham being re-
ferred 10 las the promoter of plan
whereby he and his associates were to
prove up the land and then operate 1t as
one mine by means of an association or
corporation; he was to have one-eighth of
each subscribers stock for his services in
prospecting land and managing the deal.
The findings declare that strong evil
dence was produced that this plan was
adopted and acted upon by the subscrib-
ers; that the Cunningham entries can be
cancelled for fraud If vigorously prose-
cuted by the government that the claims
contain from 100000 to 100000 tons of
COAL"
Alaskan Syndicate
The composition of the Morgan-Guggen-
hemer Alaskan syndicate is given and
declared to be IAN association organized
to exploit Alaska"
The findings of Mr.. Madison declare
that this syndicate entered into an OPP
ton agreement with the Cunningham
claimants in 1907, whereby said claimants
were to organize a corporation capital
lied at s5,0o000O and convey one-half'
the stock to 1t for $250.oO0.0oO. The coal
lands of the Cunningham group were to
be decided to said corporation.
THE evidence fairly shows that the
syndicate aimed at the monopoizaton
of the Behring river coal fields.
I'm December, 1907, Mr.. Ballinger, as
commissioner of the general land Of
flee, at the request of ex-Gov Miles C.
Moore of Walla Walla, Wash, a Gun
ningham claimant, ordered the Cunning
ham claims to patent. Previous to this
order the Guggenheim option agreement
had been made. The claims had gone
to entry, but patents were being de-
layed. All Alaska coal claims were un-
der suspicion of being fraudulent The
order, under such circumstances, was
wrongful. CLAWS. who had a few days
before been instructed to investigate all
Alaska coal claims, and who was given
a formal notice of the order protested
against 1t and the order was revoked.
Ballinger as Adviser
After resgning as commissioner, Mr..
Ballinger acted as adviser and counsel
for the Cunningham claimants, in their
attempts to obtain patents. He prepared
a lengthy affidavit for Clarence Cunning
ham and presented 1t to the secretary of
the interior and commissioner of the gen.
eral land office in an attempt to explain
away a former affidavit of Cunningham
and the entries in the Cunningham jour-
nal both of which had been secured by
- Ito I'D We're the most damaging pieces
Of evidence against the claimants in pos
;, ,. lis, government. Mr.. Ballinger
violated no statute in so doing but he
did violate the moral obligation which
was upon him. not to attempt to en-
barrass the government in an effort to
conceal the entries begun while he was
commissioned and which 1t was his duty
to aid in good faith while in office.
The act of May 49, 1908, permitting a
consolidation of coal claims in the ex-
tent of 2560 acres, where the locations
had been made In good faith. The con-
struction placed on the act by Messrs.
Pierce, bennett. Finney and Clements,
and seemingly by Mr.. Ballinger. would
have condoned all agreements to combine
The Pierce decision had that effect.
Through the efforts of CLAWS and Henry
NJ Hoyt this decision was reviewed by
the Attorney General and reversed.
I'm the summer of 1909 H, H, Schwartz.