The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-07-11
Neither Taft Nor Fisher C.n Get Track of the
 Epistle
BROTHER CHARLEY'S
 FILES ARE SEARCHED
Dennett, in Testifying Before Con trollcr Bay" Committee, Says Important Omission Was
 Made in Final Order

1 Washington. July 10-The story Of
 vanishing letter. both addressed and
 signed Dick from Richard & Ryan of
 New York to Richard A. Ballinger. then
 secretary of the interior, purporting to
 show that Charles P. Taft had infiu- enced his brother. President Taft, to 1 forward the alleged attempt of the Gng-
 genhem interests to acquire Controller
 Bay. the only outlet for large coal fields 1 In southern Alaska. figured in con- gressional inquiry begun today 1 The testimony before the House conn nhtee on expenditures in the interior de- partment and statements from the White House and Charles F. Taft's offices failed to lift the mystery enshrouding the al- l legged letter. Commissioner Dennett or
 the general land office, the only witness
 today. testified that he knew nothing of 1 1t and that he would not necessarily
 know of Its existence and such q letter was not recalled in any other quarter The letter was not to be found in tho
 files, though Miss M. r. Abbott, a news paper writer, who will testify later. says she copied such D document from the official files.
 | President Taft has expressed confi-
 denee that hs brother never conmuni- cated with hiu on the subject, either orally or in writing.
 Miss Abbott. already subpoenaed as a
 witness. probably will appear before the committee Wednesday,
 fspr,tu,fsainpa, JAanpaft &avf{f;nd ta.,o,- thai some time between the framing or the first draft and that of the final or
 der. opening the Controller Bay lands
 to entry. the usual provision was eIim- mated which would have required sixty days notice from any one intending to
 file the lands He did not know
 who struck ie out and did not attach
 much importance or mystery to that
 point, but replying to questions, said the effect of inc ornissioIs. would be tp sige Adxeneage to those ori the Arounu, who happened to know of the order.
 It was explained later that this order
 was given to the press at the time. Ballinger's Secretary To Testify 1 Among the witnesses the committee
 will summon is Ashmun Brown,
 Seattle newspaper man who was private
 secretary to Secretary Ballinger and. i who according to Miss Abbott, was pres
 ent when she saw the alleged Ryan l Ballinger letter.
 l Secretary Fisher today told President Taft that careful search of the in- terior department records failed to show the "Dick to Dick letter in which it was alleged that C. r. Tart used his influence in behalf of navigation inter- ests in Alaska to secure control of Con- troller Bay.
 Secretary Fisher also told the Presi- dent that he saw the article written by Miss Abbott before it was printed and remembered no such letter in the arr ticle.
 It was stated at the White House to-
 day that a careful search of the files In
 the executive offices failed to reveal any recovery of a letter to the President
 from Charles P. Taft encouraging Ryan or bearing in any way upon the Con- troller Bay affair.
 Omission Benefited Someone
 The most important development of the investigation of the case by the house committee on the interior department to- day was the testimony of Commissioner Dennett of the general land office that the claimants reported by Richard s.
 Ryan of New York. said to represent the Guggenheim interests had benefit
 ed by the omission of a provision in the final papers.
 MT. Dennett said that when the ex- ecutive order opening the Controller Bay land to entry reached his office. it con tained a provision under which entry
 men could not file on the land for sixty days after the order was issued In some way or other, he did not know how, he
 said, this provision was lost or elim- mated before the final promuga tion of l the order
 l MT. Dennett said that the first, which
 was the usual custom, was prepared at the department of agriculture, and con- tained the sixty days provision, but that
 1t was not in the order as finally signed | by the President.
 l "who struck 1t out?" he was asked. | q do not know" he replied
 Taft Starts Investigation | Immediately following his return to Washington today President Taft set hts office to work to investigate the Con l troller bay affair All four of the depart
 ments interested were requested to make
 investigations and report any information
 that might be- found. The Controller bay | and Charles P. Taft letter files were
 searched for letter to the President 1 from his brother in regard to this mat
 ter, the report that such letter had been written having been brought to tho Presidents attention for the first time | this morning
 l telegram has been sert to Charles P. Taft's secretary at Cincinnati, asking l that an inquiry for such a letter be in- sti.uted there. MT. Taft said he had never discussed R. S. Ryan or Controler bay with his brother and had received no | letter so far as he could remember. It Is explained that R. S. Ryan, repre- senting the Controller Bay Navigation | company. secured a front of 80 rods on Controller bay. The government retained l the other s0 rods of the water front of
 the bay, making. the department officials | declare. monopoly impossible. At the l White House 1t was said there had been no secrecy or anything unusual in the or der opening Controller bay to entry Tho matter was passed upon by the cabinet l in regular form, it was stated. C. P. Taft Files Searched | Cincinnati, July 10--At the request of l President Taft, the letter files of ns i brother, Charles P. Taft. were searched | bara today for OossihIe crrrespondenra