Tombstone epitaph., 1918-03-31

Hot is at Kamatlah. It isn't doing Holt any good to sit light clamped to that claim of his. He needs a change. Besides. I want him away so that we can contest his claim. Run him up into the hills. Or send him across to Siberia on . whaler. Or. better still, have him arrested for insanity and send him to Nome. I'll get Judge LanA dor to hold him awhile"
 Leave 1t to me. The old man is going on a vacation, though he doesn't know 1t yet"
 Good enough. wally. I'll trust you. But remember. this fight has reached an acute stage. No more mistakes. The devil of it Is we never seem to land the knockout punch. We've beaten this bunch of reform idiots he fore Winton, before the secretary of the interior. before the president and before congress. Now they're begin ming all over again. Where is 1t to endr'
 This is their last kick. Probably Guttenchild agreed to 1t so as to let the party 90 before the people at the next election without any apologies. Entirely formal investigation, I should say"
 This might be true. or 1t might not. Macdonald knew that just now the American people, always impulsive In its thinking. was supporting strongly the movement for conservation. A searchliGht had been turned upon the Kamatlah coal fields.
 The trouble had originated in a de partment row. but 1t had spread until the Macdonald claims had become party issue. The officials of the land office. as well as the national admin istration. were friendly to the claim ants. They had no desire to offend one of the two largest money groups in the country. But neither did they want to come to wreck or account of the Gut. tenchilds. They found 1t impossible to ignore the charge that the entries were fraudulent and if consummated would result in a wholesale robbery of the public domain. Superficial investiga. tions had been made and the claimants whitewashed. But the clamor had per. sisted.
 The facts were simple enough. Mac donald was the original promoter of the Kamatlah coal field. He had en- gagged dummy entrymen to take up 16O acres each under the homestead act. Later he intended to consolidate the claims and turn them over 70 the Guttenchilds under an agreement by which he was to receive one-eighth of the stock of the company formed to 1 work the mines. The entries had been made. the fee accepted by the land of. hce and receipts issued. In course of time Macdonald had applied for pat ents.
 Before these were issued the maga. zines began to pour In their broadsides and since then the papers had been held up.
 The conscience of Macdonald was quite clear. The pioneers in Masks were building out of the Arctic waste a new empire for the United States and he held that a fair government could do no less than offer them liberal treatment. To lock up from present use vast resources needed by Alaskanf would be a mistaken policy, a narrow and perverted application of the doc. Urine of conservation. The territory should be thrown open to the world If capital were, invited in to do its share of the building. immigration would flow rapidly northward. Within the lives of the present generation the new empire would take shape and wealth would pour inevitably into the United States from its frozen treasure house.
 The view held by Macdonald was one common to the whole Pacific coast Seattle. Portland. San Francisco, were