The daily Gate City. [volume] (Keokuk, Iowa) 1855-1916, 1911-07-31

Sioux City Journal: The suspicion
that there was niger" in the Con
troller bay woodpile must disappear
from the mind of any fair-ninded man
after reading President Taft's special
message to congress. The President
proves concllsively not only that
there was no colored person, but that
there was no woodpile in which he
might have found hiding place The
facts as set forth in the Presidents
brief show the Controller bay
scandal" in the light of barefaced
conspiracy to discredit the admins
tration-a conspiracy founded on sus.
picion and bolstered by deliberate
Misrepresentation and outright fraud.
After completing perusal of the spe-
cial message one cannot avoid the i'm
preston that it was nothing short of
an outrage that the President of the
United States should have been forced
publicly to defend himself against
such flimsy charges as we're contained
in the prosecution"
The charges that went to make up
the so-called Scandal were in brief:
That the President secretly withdrew
from the Chugach forest reserve r.
500 acres on the shore of Controller
bay; that it was withdrawn in order
to be grabbed by the Guggenheim rail
way syndicate; that it was, in fact.
withdrawn only after the President had
been informed that it was in the Gug-
genheim interest; that possession
gave the Guggenheims a monopoly OF
railway and harbor facilities for the
transportation of coal from the rich
Boring field. The most startling ex-
hibit offered in behalf of the prose.
cution' was copy of letter said to
have been written by Richard S. Ry-
an, Guggenheim promoter, to Secre-
tary Ballinger, setting forth that Ry-
an had sent Charles P. Taft to see
the President and tell him whom Ryan
represented, after which the President
readily fell in with the plan
The facts as set forth by the Presi-
dent are as follows: The Controller
bay tract was withdrawn from the
forest reserve openly and in regular
order. It was withdrawn in response
to the plea of Richard S. Ryan that he
be permitted to establish terminal ia
cilities for railway there. He pH
fessed to be acting independently of
the Guggenheims, and there has not
yet been an item of evidence to indi-
cat that he was their agent. The Ryan
application was investigated and ap-
proved by the forestry department. 1t
originally called for the withdrawal
of 800 acres, which would afford a ter
minal for only single railway. When
the matter was put up to the Presl,
dent he decided that the building of a
railroad to the Bering coal field should
be encouraged, and that the bay
shore might better be used for harbor
purposes than be locked up in for
est reserve. But he deemed it wise
not to make the concession exclusive.
ly to the Ryan railway So he in.
creased the withdrawal to make it in
clude 1880 acres, including over sew
en- miles of shore line. This would not
only offer all the harbor facilities that
might be needed, but would afford
room for the building of town such
as naturally must spring up beside the
harbor. Since the withdrawal was
made four 160-acre tracts have been
taken up, presumably for the Ryan
interest Not one of these claims have
yet been approved Of the 12,s00 acres
withdrawn, over 10000 remain open
to entry. OF the seven miles of wa.