Martinsburg herald. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1881-1920, 1911-07-15
Search in Vain For Dick
to Dick" Note.
COMMITTEE STARTS PROBE
Vain Search in Interior Department
For Epistle Rejecting on Taft
in the Controller Bay
Land Deal.

washington, July IL. - Secretary
Fisher told President Taft that a care
full search of the interior department
records failed to show the Dick to
Dick" letter in which 1t was alleged
that G. p. Taft used his influence in
behalf of the Guggenheim interests in
Alaska to secure control of Controller
bay.
Secretary Fisher also told the presi-
dent that he saw the article written
b. Miss Abbott before it was printed
and remembered no such letter in the
Article.
Published charges have been made
that Richard S. Ryan, of New York,
alleged to be a secret agent OF the
Guggenheim syndicate, wrote a letter
to the then secretary of the interior,
Richard A. Ballinger, declaring that
he (Ryan) had asked Charles p. Taft
to speak to his brother, President
Taft, about the Controller bay claims.
II was further charged that following
this the president made no further
objections to my claim"
Secretary Fisher told the president
that careful search of interior de-
partmert records failed to show this
alleged Dick to Dick" letter. Mr..
Fisher also told the president that he
saw the article, containing the charge,
written by Miss M. F. Abbott, before
it was printed and remembered no
such letter in the article.
Miss Abbott has declared that she
saw tbs Dick to Dick" letter In the
department files and transcribed it'll
with other notes regarding Controller
bay. Both she and Fred s. bennett,
commissioner of the general land Of
fee, appeared before the house COM
mittee on expenditures in the interior
department, which has charge of the
investigation into the circumstances
surrounding the opening to entry off
the Controller bay lands by the presi.
dent
The land is said'to have been want
ed as terminus for railroads from
the Guggenheim mine properties, and
it is asserted that these railroads
could thereby dominate the entire
Alaskan coal field
1t was also stated at the White
House that a careful search of the
files In the executive Offices failed to
reveal any record of a letter to Presi-
dent Taft from Charles p. Taft con-
corning Ryan or bearing in any way
upon the Controller bay affair.
Immediately following his return to
Washington, President Taft had set
his Office force to work to investigates
the Controller bay affair. All four of
the departments interested were re-
quested to make investigations and re-
port any information that might be
found.
A telegram was dispatched toll
Charles p. Taft's secretary at Cincin.
natl asking that an inquiry for such
letter be instituted there. The presi-
don't said that he had never discussedl
r. S. Ryan or Controller bay with his
brother and had received no letter sol
far as he could remember.
1t is explained that r. s. Ryan, rep.
resenting the Controller Bay Naviga-
tion company, obtained frontage of
eighty rods on Controller bay. The
government retained every other
eighty rods of the water front on the
bay, making. the department officials
declare, monopoly impossible.
AT the White House IL was said that
there had been no secrecy or anything
unusual in the order opening Con
troller bay to entry The subject was
decided upon by the cabinet in regu-
lar form, 1t was stated.