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

Sioux City Journal; The suspicion
that there was a niger" in the Con.
troiler bay woodpile must disappear
from the mind of any fair-minded man
after reading President Taft's special
message to congress. The President
proves conclGsiyely not only that
there was no colored person, but that
there was no woodplle 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 were contained
in the prosecution
The charges that went to make up
I the so-called scandal" were in brief:
That the President secretly withdrew
from the Chugach forest reserve IL,
/ 500 acres on the shore of Controller
bay; that it was withdrawn in order
to be grabbed by the Guggenheim rail
j way syndicate; that it was, in fact
withdrawn only after the President hao
been informed that it was in the Gug
! genheim interest; that possession
gave the Guggenheims monopoly O
railway and harbor facilities for thu
/; transportation of coal from the rics
Boring field The most startling eX
4 hibit offered in behalf of the prose
/ cution'' was copy of letter said tt
have been written by Richard S. Ry
an, a Guggenheim promoter. to Secre
tary Ballinger, setting forth that Ry
an had sent Charles P. Taft to SCI
the President and tell him whom Ryal
. represented, after which the Presiden
J readily fell in with the plan.
: The facts as set forth by the Presi
dent are as follows: The Controlle
bay tract was withdrawn from tn
J forest reserve openly and in regula
order. It was withdrawn in respons
: to the plea of Richard S. Ryan that h
: be permitted to establish terminal ia
cilities for a railway there. He pr
tfessed to be acting independently G
| the Guggenheims, and there has no
vet been an item of evidence to ind
: cat that he was their agent The Rya
application was investigated and al
: proved by the forestry department.
! originally called for the withdrawa
: of 500 acres, which would afford te
e minal for only a single railway. Whe
the matter was put up to the Pres
/ dent ne decided that the building of
/; railroad to the Bering coal field shoul
S be encouraged, and that the ba
L shore might better be used for harbe
/ purposes than be locked up in 70
est reserve. But he deemed It wis
e not to make the concession exclusiv
ly to the Ryan railway So he Il
L creased the withdrawal to make it il
T clude 1880 acres, including over Sc
g en- miles of shore line. This would M
$ only offer all the harbor facilities tn;
r might be needed, but would affol
Q room for the building of town SUE
y as naturally must spring up beside Il
e harbor. Since the withdrawal WI
IS made four 160-acre tracts have bee
u taken up, presumably for the Ry;
t, interest, Not one of these claims ha'
r yet been approved OF the 1880 acr
d withdrawn, over 10000 remain OPP
g to entry. OF the seven miles of W