Omaha daily bee., 1911-08-11
Guarding Against Monopoly.

ApAN Hldh IOuu anu NHt 1ukbtunVlth IA
terests are merged into one.
... Guarding Against Monopoly.
'.The state OF affairs brought to light
during the administration of Mr.. Ballin-
ger showed oonelusively. and for the first
time, that we had to guard against mono
poly in connection with the development
Of Alaska or. to speak more properly. the
exploitation Of Alaska by a great indicate
sar the sole benefit Of that syndicate.
when thS eilminations at Eyak and Val
aez Arm were made, not q revelation as
regards the Guggsnhein syndicate. or any
other syndicate. had been brought to my
attention, or, as far as knew, or know,
to thu attention of any man In respon-
sible" position around me. and the public
was wholly unaware OF the existence OF
any such state OF things Is the Ballinger
Investigation showed to exist.
whether Mr.. Garfield or any one else
had been told that tina Guggenheins were
engaged in a syndicate to act In Alaska
know not. for I never was informed;
but. In any event, II was Of no possible
consequence, because at that time nothing
had developed to show that they had be-
come an exploiting syndicate tending to
establish a monopoly in mining and trans
portation-asIde from the fact that 1t had
never been suggested. as it has since been
proved, that they were expecting to be
the beneficiarfes OF what has since been
declared TO be a fraudulent transaction.
The difference between elimination in one
case and In the other seems TO me TO be
sufficiently obvious.
THE elimipations at Byak and Valdez
Arm have no more bearing upon the elimi-
nation OF the Controller bay tract than
have the previous eliminations in the
Rocky mountain states, In the Rocky
mountain states ] eliminated tract after
tract OF forest reservation to permit OF
agriculture, OF manufacture, or the. estab-
,lishment Of townsites; and i refused TO
make what on the surface we're similar
elimnations when became convinced that
they were really asked Tor the purpose OF
monopolizing the water power.
Urges Amendment of Laws.
ia the newspaper dispatch TO which I
have referred II IL limited that l acted az
] did because / thought the law then and
still In force sufficiently protected the
public interest. Perhaps this Is meant to
be ironioal. II 10 certain that the law did
not sufficiently protect the public inter-
est II IL for that reason that, as presl-
dent ] repeatedly urged thatAthe laws
pertaining to Alaska be amended, as I still
urge that thsy be amended,
'In the eastern states we have suffered
from the fact that the ownership of the
coal and the ownership of the railways
have been permitted TO fall into the same
hands. What havoc such q combination
can work was shown when, during the
anthracite strike, the People Of large
section Of the country were threatened
with q winter coal famine which would
have caused disasters as great as those
OF the ciyil war, The effort 20 remedy
this state Of affairs by government action,
after II had been permitted 20 arise be-
cause Of government inaction, was necss-
sarily fraught with hardship and suffer-
ing for many innocent holders of securi-
tea. II IL, 10 my mind, the duty Of the
United states government 10 prevent a
similar condition arising in Alaska. I do
not believe In the policy of state-oWued
railways as q general thing but | am quite
willing TO see the Panama railroad OWNED
and run by the ssvernment, as II actually
Isl and In the same way. II difficulty oc,
ours In connection with what has been
done in Controller bay. l feel that Il
would be q good thing for the United
States to build and operate tina short line
OF railway with lite termlnAls) which
would connect the bay with the coal fields.
Then, with the coal fields given over to
private developers on leasehold system
as simple A. possible, and on such terms
as 10 guarantee an ample profit 20 those
engaged in the work of development. the
trouble In connection with the Alaska coal
fields would vanish have said already
that the resources of Alaska must be de-
Nsloped. ! advocate with all my heart the
conditions OF development being made
such as to give ample return 70 those
willing 10 undertake the work and. as
there is an element of haEard In the work.
] would prefer to see the government err,
II AZ ALL on the side OF liberality in max
ing these conditions. bill In principle
such as, or al least on the general lines
Of that introduced by Mr. Robinson OF
Arkansas ought 60 become law"