The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1911-07-28
ABOUT
 C0NTROLLER BAY
President AnsWars Critics of
 His Elimination Order.
LINE aHcK TO DICK" LETTER.
.an aefT-T -Fa7f fn3G


 <where-charies p. Taft Never Heard - ,f Controller Bay Railroad. President
 Says, Until Very Recently.
 I Washington. July 2,i.-President Taft tpday sent to the senate a message fleoncerning the Controller bay affair md the reduction of the area of the Ehugact national forest reserve to per | init the Controller Bay Railway and < Navigation company to acquire land )Dn the bay 10 be used as terminals Tor a .rasi way l:ne to the, Boring coal 1elds. twenty-five miles away. The Ehnessage is in response to a resolution passed by the senate June 27 last, EzEWhich asked for copies of all depart khnentai orders. maps. surveys. letters Epeports and 5z1g7H cocuments fn-the Ebase. Copies of these documents ac- company the message.
 Ii The executive order of Oct. 2S. 1910. Ereferred to in the resolution was in the
 erms following: I4r 5i Asyiesaa 9A CEUGACH NATIONAL FOREST. Al<AOhA Ess Under authority of the act of congress kpf June 1. lsssu tce Statsq11. ataa4 and 3s). E]nnd on the reeomzsendat ton of the secre- naRy of agriculture it Is hereby ordered $4hat tho proclamation of Feb. 22 1900,r en-i H1arg1ng the Chugach National forest be Emo0ded to reduce the area of such na-. E Uo0A forest by eliminating therefrom the SeDl1Dwing described tract. containing ap- 5 WuKimately 12.800 acres of land, which Hoes been found upon examination to be H1ot ehief1y valuable for national forest &6nfposes:
 Boginning at point where the meridian ED( longitude IA degrees 5 minutes west EQrooses the coast line of Controller bay. rsehence north along said meridian line to S Dhe parallel of latitude at GO degrees 10 E<x1nfnuee0 north, thence west along said Rpas1na to point where the sane crosses seho coast line at near the mouth of I. Raoen6 liver and thence along the coast + - {ho paace1ef beginning ts-z sF4 1r ! 44os f1act above described is hereby re- u6ots6 to the public domain.
 | L. WILLIAM H. TAFT. Tln White House. Washington. Oct. B. 49nA
 Tho president declares that the order noes not permit the Controller Bay Ranway and Navigation company to uecnse as monopoly of the Controller ba1 haxbor as, under the law, strip
 ei9hfy rods wide must be left between
 each entry, having a frontage of 16O
 rods on nayieable water. The law also
 heeps the control of the shore, which
 Includes the flats lying between high pvu1H and low water, under the di- nect1oa sf congress. This provision, bayw Mr- Taft, fully protects the pub
 uc and absolutely prevents any in-
 uzs1dsA or corporation from acquir-
 lng monepo1y. .sSf,
 In-regnrd to the .sDick to Dick' let tse, h which there is reference to Char1ss Taft, the president denies that 1zlB brother eyer spoke to him con- pefu2ng Controller bay. Richard s. Ryan or any grant in Alaska. He says l k6at the letter in question cannot be kound in the files of the government, cad he refers to it as wicked fab Eication." He declares that his broth or never heard of Controller bay un- n tho president sent him a cablegram eegWdmg the subject K PsssibIe Harbor In Controller Bay. < The message describes the location i = Controller bay. which was original H Included in the Chugach forest re- FDeEve. For q time it was thought that tts tts he water of the bay was too shallow ED make it valuable as a harbor, but t51u 1901 a. channel was discovered ex- tlbendtng into the bay about seven miles. E The tract taken from the forest re- . berve by the presidents order covers H26O0 acres in a triangular form, the aide along Controller bay being be- ]. tween six and seven miles long, which kiDoveRs the channel mentioned
 gs The presidents message then says: All the territory, surrounding Con- ! Honer bay wasrincludef i'm the Gnu r Baoh forest reservation in 1909 by a t1Drochmation of President Roosevelt. 1.-The importance of Controller bay is That it lies about twenty-five miles frum very valuable Coal deposits, ' known as the Boring coal fields. Ka- falia bay is to the west of Controller
 bay and almost immediately adjoins : kE It is an open lroadstead. upon the shore of which an attempt was made by the Morgan-G Guggenheim syndicate
 t0 establish a railway terminal and khence to build a road to the Bering,
 
 attempt failed for the reason that the breakvater protecting the terminals
 was destroyed by storms and the bermt1als became impracticable. Some fifty miles CT more farther west of KetaHa bay is the mouth of the Cop per river. Yhere there, is an excellent harbnr. on which is the town of Cor dove There the. Copper River rail 1oad. owned by the Morgan-G -Guggen- heim interests. has its terminals. and The line runs to the northeast along ohe Copper river and has nearly reach d certain rich copper mines in the tn- f.riors A branch from this main line
 - projected 10 the Boring coal fields md is feasible.
 When the channel in the Controller bay was discovered MT. Tittman, su- Derinfendent of the coast survey. as nhown by his letter in the record. was If opinion that it was of great value f1n1 eueht to b maintained as a nar