The Salt Lake tribune. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1890-current, 1911-08-09
FISHER VERSUS pINcHoT.

| When President Taft sent his mes
sage to Congress on the Controller Bay
contention, the press of the country
universally recognized the fact TINT he
had absolutely settled the whole ques-
| ton, The one dissenting voice was that
| of Clifford Pinchot, who declared that
| "the President s defense of his course
| in the Controller Bay affair shows how
hard il is to make good excuse for a
bad mistake.'' And yet it was no mis-.
| take; President Taft y letter was A
complete and crystal-clear, emcidntion
of the whole question. In 1T reference
| was made to the fact that Mr. Roose.
welt, while President, had excepted
| from the Chugacb National Forest re-
serve $4,000 acres extending along the
shore of Valdez Bay, and other tracts
also, upon one Of which the Guggenheiu,
Railway Company established its ter
minal and built up the town of Cor
dova On the Valdez reservation, Ryan
established his holding, and has it yet.
President Roosevelt, apparently In for.
getfulness of the fact that ha made
these reservations in behalf OF the Gug.
genheims and of Ryan, and allowed
them to file their monopolistic claims
upon them, denounced President Taft 3
action in opening the other frontages
along Controller Bay, although these
frontagcs reserve alternate tracts, and
secure to the government the complete
control of all access to deep water
along the whole frontage of the tract
opened, Every tramway, every form of
approach over the mud flats Of the bay
from the shore TO deep water is, and
must remain. under control of the gov
erument absolutely; every form Of mo-
nopoly being thus strictly provided
against. And yet President Roosevelt,
without taking the great precautions
Ryan and Guggenhem interests to Sc
cure their foothold; and now dc,
nounces the action Of the President for
an act much more commendable than
his own
To complete the round, Secretary
Fisher. who succeeded BalIinger at the
head of the Department of the Interior,
and who was commended by the Pin
.ehot Garfeld-Roosevelt clique as their
sort Of man, they warmly commencing
his appointment to succeed Ballinger,
now backs the President. Mr. Fisher,
whose integrity is admitted by all, ana
was especially indorsed by the Pinchot
clique, takes square issue with Pinchor
He says that, in place Of the President
making ga good excuse for bad mis-
take he didn t in fact need to make
any excuse at all, for he had made no
mistake, Mr.. Fisher AYERS that the
President s statement of the Controller
Bay contention puts the matter ex-
actly as it is; that his explanation
leaves everything in exactly in the
right place, Mr. Fisher says, further,
that the government has given away
nothing in Controller Bay that it can.
not take back; that if any attempt
should be made to abuse the privileges
that have been granted, the govern.
ment would simply annul the privilege
of passing over the mud flats to deep
water, and that would end the monop-
oily; for no passage over those mud flats
is possible, except by the continued
consent and under the direct regula-
tlon Of the government. Mr.. Fisher
shows and insists that there is no
chance for any monopoly of water
fronts upon this bay. and that. in short
Pinchot has no true sense of the sit
nation, and does not know what he is
talking about And that is the real
fact in the case. .