The Chitina leader., 1914-05-26

upon the part of the administration to secure additional legislation for Alaska before Congress adjourns. It is thought that the passage of the coal leasing bill will result in an early development of that industry. Word from the capital indicates that there is likelihood of incorporating into the bill a clause under which claimants for public lands will be given the privilege of appealing to the courts from unsatisfactory deci- sions rendered by the interior department.
 Under the present system it is possible to violate the laws of Con gress, and during the past four or five years the fact that decisions have been rendered not upon the law, but upon regulations drafted for political purposes, has become notorious. AS the law at present is carried out, the land department gathers the evidence against a claim ant, acts as his prosecuting attorney and the judge in the case, and quite frequently it has happened that the same man who prosecuted the case has written the decision.
 A change in the law, allowing claimants the right of appeal to the courts, was first suggested by R. A. Ballinger, during his term as secre- tary of the interior, who asserted that each succeeding secretary of the interior made different interpreta- tion of the law. His suggestion, embodied in special message to Congress by President Taft, found no support. However, according to the information received from the national capital recently, a poll of the Senate shows that a change of heart has come in it's work since the fallacies and inconsistencies of Gif- ford Pinchot were laid bare to the world, and the idea that Ballinger promulgated stands more than an even chance of becoming a law.
 A judicial ruling on their cases is what the coal claimants of Alaska have always asked. Their claims have been disqualified and rejected for various reasons, the most notable case being that of Clarence Cum ningham and his associates, whose claims were rejected because they had not opened a mine on their property. Yet within two weeks after the final decision was rendered, government employees were sent to Alaska to mine coal on the Cum ningham ground, and they took 800 tons of fuel from some of the open ings that Cunningham made.
 It is probable that an effort will be made to bring about change in the regulations so that claimant for a piece of government land will not be bankrupted in travelling around the country with his lawyers to try the case in which he is in volved. Within few weeks a num- Der of Alaskan cases are to be brought to trial, and the claimants have been notified that the evidence will be taken in 32 cities in the United States. Under the regula- tions a special agent may not he moved more than 40 miles to give testimony in case, but he may travel many thousands of miles in gathering the evidence which he has to tender. Therefore the court is moved to the locale of the particular special agent who is to testify, and the claimant and his attorneys and witnesses, if he has any, have to journel hither and yon all over the country to try his case piecemeal.
 Among the coal claimants who are now cited to appear and travel prac- tically all over the United States to press their claims are Charles F. Munday, c. Christopher, c. F. Dow ton, c. A. Mckenzie and NJ. 4. Green. Some of them already have expended many thousands of dol lars in endeavoring to obtain patents.
 Another important clause in the coal land leasing bill provides that the Alaskan coal claimants who have a vested interest, or cases pending before the department, may have the first option of lease of the property to which they seek to obtain patent. In the aggregate the Alaskan coal claimants have paid the government $320,000 for coal land. but prac- tically all of the claims have been cancelled, and there is no method by which they may recover their money. Fraud has been charged against practically every claimant, but in both cases in which criminal pro- ceedings were instituted the courts held that no fraud had been prac-