Los Angeles herald., 1910-01-29
Field Agent Exposes Political Tricks

claims all the other 500 or 900 in Alaska
might follow suit. That was my op-
ject."
wouldn't it have been impossible for
the wives and friends of these claim
ants to have filed upon relinquished
claims without previous agreement
asked Mccall.
THAT was Mr.. Ballinger's objection
to the plan.
CLAWS said Mr.. Ballinger spoke of
the difficulty he was having in securing
campaign contributions.
He said" declared the witness, that
II. c. Henry and c. J. Smith, two Of
the Cunningham claimants, had usually
been liberal contributors but were mad
because they had not received patents
to their lands and woul6 not give any
thing. 1 told Mr. Ballinger l was
under orders to investigate the claims
held by these men. He said he wished
l would not act on that until after the
election. I told him 1 wouldn't, and L
did not. l was in the midst of big
conspiracy case in oregon and could
not have given any attention to the
other matter If had wanted to- And
then it was a favor to Mr.. Ballinger
as we'll"
Met in Seattle
CLAWS said he next saw Mr. Ballin-
ger in Seattle in February, 1909 after
it had been announced that Mr.. Ballin-
ger had been selected as secretary of
the interior in President Taft's cab
met. They discussed the coal cases,
and Mr.. Ballinger said he thought that
where there had been only a technical
violation of the law the patents ought
to be issued. CLAWS said he agreed
with him..
CLAWS said he was ordered on May 2,
1908, to discontinue the Alaskan in
quiry and take up the Oregon case
where he had recommended that, ii
something We're not done at once the
statute of limitations soon would prove
a bar.
But 1 also said the Alaska investi-
CATION should not be dropped at that
time" added CLAWS.
Reading from Attorney General
Wickershams report to the president
on the CLAWS charges, Attorney Bran
deis quoted this sentence:
He (Glavis) might have added he
has never taken any action whatever
to bring those criminal prosecutions
which he advised the land office must
be brought before October, 1908, to
escape the bar of the statute of limita-
tions.
rs that true?" demanded Mr.. Bran
deis.
1T is not" answered CLAWS. "In
May or April took the Alaska cases up
with United States Attorney Todd at
Seattle. He afterward wrote to me
saying he had laid the matter before
the department of justice, as there was
some doubt in his mind as to whether
he should lay the cases before the
Seattle grand jury, where the claim
ants lived, or in Alaska, where the
claims were located
Report Submitted
I'm June, 1908, 1 prepared a report
on this subject to Commissioner Dem
nett, but learning he was to be in Ore
gon we discussed the entire situation.
should be any criminal prosecution;
that he thought it was sufficient if the
claims were cancelled"
Representative James-"What Grim
inal offense had the claimants COM
mitted?"
Conspiracy to defraud the United
States
Representative James-"And that in
volved perjury?"
YES"
Representative James-"But bennett
took the view that If they were kept
out of the land that was sufficient"
yes"
CLAWS said he was ordered back on
the Alaskan cases in November, 1908,
but did not actually take them up unit
March, 1909. He was busy on other
matters. He could have assigned
agents to the case, but he preferred to
give it his personal attention, as it in
volved millions of dollars.
If he had not been taken off the work
in May. 1909, CLAWS declared, he would
have had final reports in the land
office in the fall of that year.
At BIZ o'clock adjournment was
taken until 10 a. m. Saturday.