The Mitchell capital. (Mitchell, Dakota [S.D.]) 1879-1918, 1911-07-27
PRESIDENT USES
WARM LANGUAGE
DENYING SCANDAL
Assails Authors of Sto-
ny of Controller
Bay order
DENIES LETTER
DENIES r
Resents Suggestion he could
Have Influenced his
Brother

today, concerning the Controller
Bay. Alaska, scandal, President Taft
dips more deeply into his supply OF
vitriolic language than he has ever
before lone in such a document.
What aroused the presidents in
%dignation is the publication of the
Dick TO Dick letter, in which it
was asserted an agent of the Gug-
genheim-Morgan syndicate told of
securing the desired concessions
from President Taft by using the
presidents brother, Charles. In dis
cussing this phase of the Controller
Bay affair, the president uses such
terms as wicked fabrication,
"maliciously sla~nderous", "intense
malice, "wanton recklessness", and
~"malevolent scandal-mongering,'
The president denies any knowl-
edge of such a note as this, and says
no one has ever seen it in the de-
partment files. He concludes by de
ploring the disposition to make SEN
stations of every attempt to develop
Alaskan and "a in the
interest of Alaska Il reasonable OPP
p%ortunity should be given those who
want TO invest their money in its de-
v%elopment.
Explains His Order.
Concerning the executive order
signed by himself, Withdrawing the
Controller Bay section from the pub
lie forest lands which We're not sub
ject 10 entry. the president makes a
detailed statement. The burden OF
this is to show that it is possible for
the Controller Railway & Navigation
company, which wanted this district
rest red to entry, TO secure q o
opoly for terminals. The president
shows that under the law the gov
eminent would retain so rods be-
tween each 100 rods OF shore line
taken up by any claimant. Further,
he quotes from the law TO show that
my owner of terminal property
could not secure any monopoly upon
wharves along the channel, for the
reason that all such construction
would be subject to control by con-
gress.
The president frankly states his
belief tAat it was right to restore the
Controller Bay lands, amounting to
1880 acres, in order to encourage
the building of a railroad line to the
Betting coal fields. He asserts that
he has never had any information
q Navigation Company, represented
by Richard S. Ryan, with the Gug-
genheim-Morgan syndicate. After
discussing the issuance of his order
in great detail, the president takes
IN and comments upon the dick to
Dick letter, as follows:
The Famous Letter.
Before closing, | desire to allude
to a circumstance which the terms
of this resolution make apt and
relevant. 1t is a widely published
statement attributed to a newspaper
correspondent that in an examination
OF the files of the Interior Depart
was found attached to a letter of
July 13, 1910, addressed by Mr..
Richard S. Ryan to Secretary Ball
inger-and in the present record
urging the elimination of land
enough for terminals for the Con-
troller Railway & Navigation Co.
follows:
Dear Dick:
~ went to see the President the
other day. He asked me who it was
! represented. told him according
to our agreement, that | represented
myself. But this didn't seem to
satisfy him. So | sent for Charlie
Taft and asked him to tell his
brother, the President, who it was
represented. The president made
no further objection to my claim.
"'Yours. Dick"
The postscript is not now on
the files of the department. If it
We're, 1T would be my duty to tran
smit it under this resolution. Who
is really responsible for it's wicked
fabrication if it ever existed, or for
the ~viciously false statement made
as to its authenticity, is immaterial
for the purposes of this communcia-
ton. The purport of the alleged
postscript is. and the intention of the
fabrication was, to make MIR. Rich
ard S. Ryan testify through it's words
to the public that although l was at
- 81. So - =. .@~5;sf %. s. - ..-A a