Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1911-08-11

thing: as the Ballinger investigation
showed to exist.
Whether Mr. Garfield or any one
| else had been told that the Gugsen-
| helms We're engaged in syndicate to
act in Alaska, | know not, for l never
was informed but, in any event, II
was of no possible consequenct. be-
cause at that time nothing had de-
veloped to show chat they had become
an exploiting syndicate tending to es-
tablish a monopoly in mining and
transportation-asi from the fact
that 1t had never been suggested, as
: it has since been proved, that they
were expecting To he the benei1ciaries
of what has since been declared to be
a fraudulent transaction. The differ
ence between elimination in one case
and in the other seems to me to be
sufficiently obvious
THE examinations at Eyak and Valdez
Arm have no more bearing upon the
elimination of the controller Bay tract
than have the previous examinations Iii
the Rocky mountain states. III the
Rocky Mountain states eliminated
tract after tract Of forest reservation
to permit IF agriculture, of manufac-
ture. or the establishment OF town
sites, and | refused to make what on
the surface were similar eliminatlons
when | became convinced that they
were really asked for the purpose of
monopolzins the water power.
In the newspaper despatch TO which
have referred it Is limited that | act
cd c l did because I thought the law
then and still in force, sufficiently pro-
tected the public interest. Perhaps
this IS meant to he ironical 1t is Ger
tain that the law did not sufficiently
protect the public interest. 1t is for
that reason that as President, I re-
peatedly urged that the laws pertain
lug "a Alaska be amended; as | still
urge that they he amended.
In the Eastern states We have suf-
fered from the tact that the owner
ship NJ the coal and the ownership of
the railways have been permitted to
fall into the same hands What havoc
such a combination can work was
shown when during the anthracite
strike the people OF a large section of
the country were threatened with a
winter coal famine which would have
"a HStu tlSFStFi : aE SltHl us ltlpSt VI
the Civil War. The effort to remedy
this state Of affairs by Government ac-
ton. after il had been permitted to
arise because of Government inaction.
was necessarily fraught with hardship
and suffering for many innocent hold
ers of securities. 1t is. to my mind,
the duty of the United States Govern
ment to prevent a similar condition
arising in Alaska ] do not believe in
the policy of state-owned railways as
"a general thing: but ! am quite will
ing to see the Panama Railroad owned
and run by the Government as it ac-
tually is: and in the same way, if diff
fculty occurs in connection with what
has been done in Controller Bay. | feel
that il would be good thing for the
United States TO build and operate the
short line of railway with it's termi-
nals) which would connect the bay
with the coal-fields Then. with the
coal-helds given over to private devel-
apers on a leasehold system as simple
as possible. and on such terms as to
guarantee an ample profit to thos3 en-
gagged in the work Of development, the
trouble in connection With the Alaska
coal-f fields would vanish. l have said
already that the resources of Ala ska
must he devs leped. advocate with
al my heart tho conditions of devel-
opmcnt heiug made sub as to give
ample return to those willing To I'M
dertake the work. and. as there is an
element of hazard in the work I would
prefer to see the government err, if
at all on the side of liberality n max
irC those conditions. \ bill il prin-
ciple such as or at least on the gener-
al lines Of, that introduced by Mr.. Rob-
inson. of Arkansas, ought to become
I1aw''