Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1911-08-03
TAFT REPLIES To
ALASKA ATTACKS
Denies Selfish interests Have
Secured Controller Bay.
DEFENDS BROTHER AND SELF
President Denounces Letter Charging
Undue Family influence as
Wicked Fabrication and
Malicious SANDER.

Observation-Disclosures Taft sent
20 the senate Wednesday a message
that recalled some Of those received
from his predecessor. 1t was in re-
ply to a resolution OF the senate re-
questing the president to transmit to
the senate all the documents relating
to the elimination from the Chugach
natioDel forest, in Alaska, of land
fronting upon Controller bay. Mr..
Taft seizes the occasion occasion to
make a vigorous defense of his own
honor and that of his brother, Charles
p. Taft, against the attacks made in
relation to this Controller bay scan
DIAL"
The president sent in all the docu-
ments asked for, and more, and
quotes the executive order in ques-
ton, by which 1880 acres were
eliminated from the national forest.
His message describes the import
ance Of Controller bay as a railway
terminal and relates the operations of
the Copper River railroad, owned by
the Morgan-Guggenhei interests,
whose terminal is at Cordova.
Ryan's Application Investigated.
In December, 1909, Richard S.
Ryan applied for the Controller bay
elimination, afterward granted, stat
ing that he represented the Controller
Railroad and Navigation company.
Mr. TAFT tells how this application was
referred TO the district foresters at
Portland, Ore, and in Alaska and
was approved by Chief Forester
Graves: how the navy department
stated It did not desire to use Con
troller bay as reservation; how the
matter was considered fully by the
forestry bureau, the secretary of ag-
riculture, the secretary Of the inter
Tor, the general land Office and the
cabinet As a result, after an inter-
view between the president and Mr..
Ryan. an order was drafted eliminat-
ing 800 acres.
Meanwhile Mr.. Ryan had satisfied
the president and other officials that
he and his associates had no connec-
ton with the Morgan-Guggenheim in
terests and were engaged in an in
dependent enterprise in good faith to
build an independent railroad. The
question again came before the cab
met, and the president, with the ap-
prOval of the secretaries of the in
terror and agriculture, changed the
order so that it eliminated 1880
acres. with sufficient room for
railroad town. The message says:
II was willing to do this because 1
found the restrictions in the law suf-
fcient to prevent the possibility of
any monopoly of either the uplands
or the harbor or channel by the Con-
troller Railroad and Navigation COM
pany or any other person or con-
Germ" These restrictions the presi-
dent sets forth at length, and shows
that the Ryan company has not the
slightest opportunity for exclusive
appropriation of the harbor facilities
unless congress shall by future act
deliberately and voluntarily confer it.
The "Dick to Dick" Letter.
Coming to the personal side of the
matter, Mr.. Taft says:
Before closing, I desire TO allude to
a circumstance which the terms of
1t Is a widely published statement at
tributed TO a newspaper correspondent
that in an examination of the files of
the interior department few weeks
ago a postscript was found attached
to a letter of July IS, 1910. addressed
by Mr Richard S. Ryan to Secretary
Ballinger-and in the present record
urging the elimination of land
enough for terminals for the Control
Ter Railway & Navigation company.
The postscript was said to read as fol-
lows:
Dear Dick: I want to see the presi-
dent the other day He asked me
who it was I represented. I told him
according to our agreement. that
represented myself But that didn't
seem to satisfy him. So | sent for
Charlie Taft and asked him to tell
his brother, the president, who it was
really represented. The president
made no further objection to my
Slain. Yours. DICK"
Uses Strong Language.
'''The postscript is not now on the
files of the department. If it were,
It would be my duty to transmit it
under this resolution. Who is really
responsible for its wicked fabrication
Ii 1t ever existed, or for the viciously
false statement made as to its anthem
ncity. is immaterial for the purposes
Of this communication. The purport
Of the alleged postscript is, and the IN
tention of the fabricator was, to make
Mr.. Richard S. Ryan testify through