Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1911-07-27
president TAKES
| ALL Responsibility
Informs Senate Why He Open
ed the Controller Bay Lands
to Settlement.
PREVENTION OF MONOPOLY
| CLAIMED FULLY ASSURED
No Secrecy Observed in the Issuance
of the Order.
DICK-To-DICK NOTE FORGERY
Warns Public Against Hysterical
! Suspicious and INSCRIPTIONS
| Misrepresentation Regard
ing Alaskan Affairs.

ing Alaskan Affairs.
Vigorously criticising those persons
who have attempted to characterize the
restoration of part Of the Chugach ma
tional forest reserve bordering on Con-
troller bay. Alaska, as conspiracy to
permit monopoly, President Taft in q
message sent to the Senate late yester-
day afternoon takes upon himself the en-
tire responsibility for the restoration to
settlement of the land in question.
The President brands the "Dick to-
Dick postscript as a wicked fabrica-
ton He declares that his brother,
Charles P. Taft, whose name appears in
the famous postscript alleged to have
been written by Richard S. Ryan, rep
resenting the Controller Railway and
Navigation Company. to Richard A. Bal
Lnger, then Secretary OF the Interior. has
no interests in Alaska or the railway and
navigation company, that he never had
| such interests and that Charles P. Taft
was in entire ignorance of the transac-
ton.
! The impossibility of monopoly OF Con-
troller bay and its facilities by the Con-
| troller aRilway and Naviga ton Company
or any other company or individual is
| pointed out by President Taft. Moreover,
| the President declares there is absolutely
| nothing to show that the Controller
Railway and Navigation Company is in
any way connected with the Morgan
Guggenheiu interests
The message was sent to the Senate in
, answer to a resolution adopted by that
body June 81 requesting the President to
submit to the Senate all the documents
and facts concerning the restoration of
| the forest reserve lands on Controller bay
by executive order October 2s, 1910 Pres-
dent Taft goes fully into his policy in
regard to Alaska, which he insists should
be given a square deal. Opportunities for
the development of the country should not
| be denied. he declares.
| Speaking of the alleged discovery in
the files of the Interior Department of the
| "Dick-to-Dick'' postscript by Miss NJ. F..
Abbott. a newspaper and magazine writer,
| the President declares that the postscript
| is not on file in the Department OF the
| Interior and never was officially file
there for the good and sufficient reason
that it never existed.
| President Himself Responsible.
The President lays great stress upon
the fact that he himself is personally re-
| sponsible for the restoration of the Con-
| troller bay land to settlement, and that
| he ordered the restoration after the fullest
kind of an investigation. He says in this
connection:
Il wish to be as specific as possible
| upon this point, and to say that | alone
am responsible for the enlargement Of
the proposed elimination from 800 acres
TO 1880 acres, and that l proposed the
change and stated my reasons therefor.
The thing which the territory of Alaska
needs is development, and where rights
and franchises can be properly granted to
encourage investment and construct a
railroad without comforting exclusive
privileges / believe it to be In accord
ance with good policy to grant Them
A detailed account of his interview
with Mr.. Ryan. representing the Con-
troller Railway and Navigation Company
in 1900, when Mr.. Ryan applied for the
elimination of the tract to enable the
company to obtain other railroad ter
| minals for its line, which Is designed to
| tap the rich Alaskan coal fields, is given
| by the President. The President referred
| the application to the Secretary Of Agri-
! culture and the forestry bureau. and
| then to the Navy Department. The for
estry bureau replied that the land In
question was not essential In any way to
the Chugach forest reserve. The Navy
Department said that it did not require
the land or the water frontage. The mat
ter was then considered by the Secre-
tary of Agriculture, the Secretary of the
| Interior and the general land office.
Opening the Land to Settlement.
| A recommendation was then made to
the President that 80 acres of land, with
a frontage of l6O rods on the northwest
shore OF Controller bay. be thrown open.
A formal order providing for throwing
open this land was submitted to him i'm
mediately. But the President objected to
finally in throwing open not only the $40
acres advised. but 1880 acres Of land.
| The President explains his reasons for
/ this as follows:
| - expressed dissatisfaction with the
order because ii purported on its face to
| make the elimination for the benefit of a
| railroad company of a tract of land which
| secure. for it was a tract 80 acres in
one body when only 16O acres coluld thus
| be acquired. In the second place.
preferred to make a much larger elimina-
\
| and with sufficient room for a terminal
| railway town. was willing to do this
| because l found the restrictions in the
| law sufiice nt to prevent the possibility
OF any monopoly of either the upland or
| the harbor or channel by the Controller
| Railway and Navigation Company or any
| other persons or company. Because Of a
| lack Of time sufficient to draft men,
| orandum myself. I requested the Secre-
tary OF the Interior, who, with the Secre-
| tary Of Agriculture after full discussion,
| had agreed In my concluS on, to prepare a
letter setting forth the reasons for MAX
| Ing the larger elimination, 30 that 1t
might become a part of the record
Regards Monopoly Impossible.
The President declares that he had
every assurance the Controller Railway
and Navigation Company was an inde-
| pendent concern. He admits that the
| Copper River Railway Company. owned
| by Morgan and Guggenheim. might at
tempt to buy the Controller railway. but
| says that he did not believe 1t would do
so. But even II this purchase was made.
| the restrictions made by Congress we're
/ such, he says, that a monopoly would be
| impossible. The rates charged would be
| subject always to congressional control,
he says, and IL government ownership
/ seemed wise under the peculiar circum-
| stances at any time, ample land for right
| must always remain available under the
law for government use. or IL 1t preferred
| to take over to the government a railway
| built nv priyate ENTERPRISE. condemnation