The watchman and southron. [volume] (Sumter, S.C.) 1881-1930, 1911-07-01
ALASKAN SCANDAL NCT ENDED
GCGGENEIEIM SYNDICATE LOATU
TO GIVE UP FIGHT.
Matter not Closed by Retirement of
Ballinger, Placed i'm Cabinet
Through Guggenheim Influence
Delegate Wickersham Persistent i'm
Efforts to Prevent SpOIiation of
Rich Northern TerritOry-Former
Henchman of Syndicate Commits
Suicide Under Charges.

ger has left the Presidents Cabinet
and his place has been supplied by a
genuine cOnservationist of the Pinchot
type, but the fight between the great
forces represented in the struggle of
which these changes in the Cabinet
nave been dramatic incidents is no.
ended. The prize is still at stake.
Alaska is yet a tempting field for
syndicated exploitation. and the Fed
eral Government moves so slowly in
the line Of her protection that the
delay seems almost to invite further
efforts from those who would be her
spoilers.
1t is an open secret that Mr.. Bal
linger was placed in the Cabinet Of
President Taft at the suggestion of
Mr.. John Hays Hammond, the mill
lionaire mining engineer, who is one
of the Executives most cherished
personal friends, and was chosen to
represent this Government at the
coronation of King George V of Eng
land. Mr.. Hammond had been in the
employ Of the Guggenheims at a SAL
ary said to have exceeded that drawn
by any other private individual in
the world.
The selection Of Ballinger by the
Taft Administration to succeed Gar
field as Secretary of the Interior De-
rarment was a Guggenheim move.
Nevertheless, there is no evidence
that President Taft entertains the
slightest hostility towards the Gug-
genheims as a result of the hot water
the Administration got into by the
Ballinger appointment. Senator
Simo.. Guggenheim, the lone repre-
sentative of the State Of Colorado in
the upper house of Congress, appears
Yet to bask in Administration favor.
Capt. David H. Jarvis, the former
executive head of the affairs of the
Morgan -Guggenheim syndicate in
Alaska, committed suicide at Seattle
the other day on learning that Judge
Wickersham, Alaska's Territorial Dele
gate TO Congress, had introduced a
resolution calling on the Secretary Of
War for information as to charges
on file with the department that there
had been a conspiracy to raise the
price Of coal furnished to Uncle Sans
Alaskan forts.
This charge is understood to have
involved Capt. Jarvis as the alleged
distributor of money in effecting the
illegal agreement whereby the Gov
ernment was mulcted. Delegate
Wickersham has also been making
persistent efforts to arouse the de-
partment Of justice in the same con-
nection, and it is believed that the
majority of the members Of the House
of Representatives are in sympathy
with his argument that there has
been too much concealment about
this Alaskan business. Moreover, the
department of justice has been for
some months looking into charges
that Capt. Jarvis was responsible for
certain killings (murders, Delegate
Wickersham would call them,) which
occurred in the furtherance of the
advance of the Guggenheim railroad
interests in Alaska. 1t was on such
alleged occurrences as these that a
young newspaper man of Chicago
who had been to Alaska built the
plot of one of the best sellers"
among the novels of the past decade.
The suicide of Capt Jarvis in the
face of the prospect of investigation
does not augur we'll for the innocence
of the Morgan -Guggenheim Alaskan
campaign. 1t does not strengthen
the claims of the members of this
syndicate to be accounted conserVa-
tionists, in the public acceptation of
that term. And yet. when we glance
at the committees of the United States
Senate, We find that Mr. Guggcnheim
Of Colorado, is placed as follows:
Philippines chairman; agriculture
and forestry, census, conservation Of
national resources. military affairs.
uiros AND mining. Gorimor chair
m1nD postotljcc> ANA post roads and