The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-07-27
No Fear of Monopoly

No Fear of Monopoly
 isident goes on to explain that
 iron bound limitations covering
 Dd for securing title for gov
 lands and for this reason he
 fear of any interest obtaining
 lv Briefly the restrictions are:
 lore than 160 acres can be en-
 single body by scrip.
 ation of scrip along any navi-
 t or other waters can be made
 rods of any lands along such
 Id no entry can be allowed eX-
 bre than 16O rods along the
 hv navigable water; and along
 a space of at least so rods
 served from entry between all sa, Is.
 2 No in the act contained Is to be construed to authorize entries to be made or title to be acquired to the shore of any navigable waters within the dis trict. The whole contention that the eXecu- five order and the opening to settle ment of the shore of Controller pay grants a monopoly to the railway com pany." he resumes, rests on claim that it has given an opportunity to persons using scrip to appropriate the control or the only available and practicable parts of the channel by the location of the scrip opposite to those parts. If now the Iocation of the scrip opposite to the har-
 
 cept as Congress may expressly give it, clearly the Controller Railway and Navi- yation company has not the slightest op- portunity for exclusive appropriation or the harbor facilities unless Congress snail bv future act deliberately and voluntarily confer it.'
 Having explained in detail his reasons for opening up the land in question, the President takes occasion to answer seV- eral incidental criticisms. "The order has been criticised because it was not in the form of proclamation, instead of an nrder.' he writes This was determined by MT. Graves the forester. he explains. and he quotes a letter of MT. Graves to the effect that when comparatively small area is eliminated from a national forest the executive order is very com monty used instead of proclamation.
 As7to the charge made on the floor oi .<f tfie Senate that the order was secret, the President says. This was utterly un founded" Tn support of this he says tha ,J0 days before the order was made tho details of Ryans application and tho probability of it's being granted were given wide publicity. He cites in this re iEpect that the Associated Press carried an account of the matter October 2S, 1910 as taken from a typewriter statement is- sued by the interior department.
 Criticism
 The order has also been criticised. he says, on the ground that 1t did rot con tain provision delaying it's taking ef- feet for 30 days after it's publication as orders restoring land to settlement by homesteaders frequently do. In this respect the President says An examin- = ation of the record furnishes an eX- planation of this feature of the orders made. When in October the two de- apartments had agreed with my acquies- cence that the order should be an elim- ination of only 320 acres. It was deemed wise to spread on the face of the order a specific declaration that 1t was made to afford terminals for the Controller Railway and Navigation company and as no one else was ex- pected to intervene and take up any part of the eliminated tract the restor- etion was made immediate. The form thus amended was submitted to the Secretary of Agriculture, who expressed his preference for the immediate restor- stion order. When I directed the strik- ing out of the reference to the railway company and the enlargement of the area from 32o acres to 12.S00 acres, the form of the order in it's provision for immediate restoration was not changed. I have no doubt that this was the reason why the order issued took the form it did. Had the postpone ment clause been suggested, I would doubtless have directed 1t to be em- bodied in the order. But the event has proven that it was really not important fin this case, for in now nearly hint months only the Controller Railway ant Navigation company has made any scriI entries on the eliminated tract"
 Taking up the Dick to Dick" episode the President says in conclusion:
 Before closing. I desire to allude to circumstance which the terms of thi resolution make apt and relevant It i a statement by one Miss M. F. Abbot that in an examination of the files of th' lr.tA dayaa rt,~ fauT ufpaf acn oh found a postscript attached to letter o July 13, 1910, addressed to MT. Richard s Ryan to Secretary Ballinger-and in tn present record~urging the elimination 0 land enough for terminals for the Con troller Railway and Navigation company The postscript was said to read as toi lows:
 Dear D.: I went to see the Pres ident the other day. He asked me who l was I represented. l told him accordin, to our agreement that, I represented my self. But this didn't seem to satisfy him So sent for Charlie Taft and asked hin to tell his brother the President, who was I really represented. The Presiden made no further objection to my claim Yours, Dick
 Not on File
 sThe postscript is not now on the file Of the department If it were it woul De my duty to transmit it under thl resolution. do not transmit it. not cnl for the reason that it Is not now on tn ties of the department, but for the req son that 1t never was on the files Of tn department, at least as an authent document. Who is really responsible f. It's wicked fabrication if 1t ever existed o1 for the viciously false statement mac ns to its authenticity, is immaterial ft the purpose of this communication. if purport of the postscript is. and the fl tertion of the fabricator was, to mal MT. Richard s. Ryan testify through words to the public that although l vt a; first opposed in the public interest granting the elimination which he IT auested, nevertheless through the undt --- iradaance ac nax hrnfh her MT. Charlea