The silver state. [volume] (Winnemucca, Nev.) 1909-1925, 1911-01-03
P|NCHOT APPEALS
TO THE PRESIDENT
Especial to the Silver State. !


WASHINGTON, Jan. 3.-President
Taft was appealed to today by former
Forester Clifford Pinchot and his broth
ly, without further hearing, the social
ed Cunningham Alaskan coal claims
for the following reasons:
. The resort to court for rehear-
ing of the case is necessary to secure
Justice and protect the peoples prop
srty," says the brief. sThe case
against the claimants is already con-
elusive. We believe the duty of the
executive in regard to the claims is
obvious and immediate. The claims
should be cancelled by the president
forthwith
HNo transfer of the Cunningham
cases to a court for a decision upon
the present record would relieve the
executive department or responsibility
for failure to have the case against
the claimants fully presented by at
torneys of experience and ability, and
for omitting to produce all the evil
dence Of fraud available.
"The evidence in this case goes
much, further than to establish the
fraud of attempting by subterfuge to
acquire from the government more
coal land than the law allows. It
shows that from the beginning the
claimants acted with the definite ard
sustained intention of defeating the
primary purpose and essential spirit of
the law-the spirit and purpose to pre-
vent monopoly and secure competitive
development of the nations re-
sources.''
Regarding the effect of monopoly in
Alaska, the brief says: cit is evident
that an enormous saving can be made
to the people of Alaska, to the whole
northwest and to the United States
navy if only these coal mines are
opened, under conditions of competi-
tion.''
It charges that "the industries of
Alaska have been for years largely in
the hands of a great and oppressive
monopoly, the Guggenhelm Syndicate,
which has kept out other capital,
throttled competition and held Alaska
at a standstill.' -
The brief recites that the case for
the government is supported by five
main lines of evidence, as follows:
''First-The history of the opera
tions of the Cunningham entrymen in
Alaska, as derived from their own rec
ords and statements, shows that from
the beginning to the end they were all
members of a single association en-
gagged in acquiring a joint property
and that the claimants never owned
these claims separately.
"Second-The book of accounts of
H. 10 rrro,,p opl tho ronorfc
made by its agents are all evidently
based on the assumption that all the
claims are one property, owned by one
association.
Third-From first to last, the sub
scribers took no interest whatever in
the situation or value of particular
claims entered in their respective
names.
"Fourth-Within the shortest prac-
ticable time after final certificates
were issued, the Cunningham asso-
ciates took steps to turn over their
claims to a corporation on a basis of
equal shares.
Fifth-More than one-half the
claimants have admitted in affdavits
that they had already acted with a
mutual understanding that they would
combine their claims after titles were
secured and one so confessed
Discussing the charge that impor-
tant evidence against the claimants
was suppressed by the land Office
agents, the brief says: "John w.
Dudley, register of the land Office at
Juneau, Alaska, one of these agents,
went so far as to advise Cunningham
specifically how one of the claimants,
who had told the truth in his affidavit,
should change his statement so as to
strike out evidence of fraud and avoid
investigation which would at least in
volve an interminable delay
Secretary of the Interior Ballinger
has forwarded to the senate and house
committee on public lands a draft of
the proposed legislation transferring
to the District of Columbia court Of
appeals the Cunningham coal cases.
Secretary Ballinger proposes that