INVESTIGATION OP THE FUR-SEAL INDUSTRY OP ALASKA. 143 



Mr. Elliott.- — concerning the "ogden mills letter" to secretary charles 

 foster, april 2, 1891, and its inclosures. 



[See pp. 311, 312, Hearing No. 7.] 



On Saturday, August 5, 1911, Mr. Bowers read into the record of this committee, 

 for the purpose of discrediting me, a copy of a letter which I have searched in vain for 

 during the last 16 years; it was the "Ogden Mills letter" of April 2, 1891; it asked 

 Secretary Charles Foster, Treasury Department, to immediately overrule all the sworn 

 official reports of his own special agents on the seal islands, and issue to the North 

 American Commercial Co. (the lessees) a permit to kill 60,000 seals on the Pribilof 

 Islands during the season just ahead — the summer of 1891 ("if they can be found"). 



These agents of the Treasury on the seal islands, four of them — Chief Special Agent 

 Charles I. Goff and assistants, Joseph Murray, S. W. Nettleton, and A. W. Lavender, 

 had all united August 1-14, 1890, in specific reports which urged that the Secretary of 

 the Treasury permit no killing of seals in 1891 by the lessees, and for an indefinite 

 future; those reports were supplemented by mine, dated November 19, 1890. 



The tragic, sudden death of William Windom, January 29, 1891, brought a successor 

 to the Treasury whom the lessees seemed to have completely in their control, for so 

 complete was that control that the following astonishing record is made in the premises, 

 started April 25, 1891, by issuing that killing order April 11 following and the full 

 sequence of the "Ogden Mills" letter, above cited, to wit: 



The sole warrant which this letter gave to Secretary Foster for asking him to set 

 aside the verdict of those sworn officials above cited was ' ' the inclosure of a series of 

 five affidavits" and a letter. "signed by Capt. Healey, U. S. R. M.," all of whom de- 

 clared in their "affidavits" and statements that after that date on which the lessees' 

 work was stopped, July 20, 1890, the seals "hauled out" in large numbers suddenly, 

 and there were plenty of fine killable seals to be had, and would have been secured 

 by the lessees if Elliott and Goff had not unjustly and perfidiously used their official 

 authority to so order that stoppage. 



This letter, though signed by Ogden Mills, was really written by George R. Tingle, 

 who was the general manager of the lessees on the seal islands. Mr. Mills never could 

 have written such a false and detailed letter of his own knowledge, and had he known 

 the truth of what he was writing about, I firmly believe that he would have refused 

 to sign it. I can not think otherwise, because it was such a letter. 



In the first place, all those a'ffidavits he has cited must have been made after the 

 14th of August, 1890. They were made by the employees of the North American 

 Commercial Co. under pressure from George R. Tingle, who also signed one of them; 

 they were supplemented by a letter to Secretary Charles Foster, from Capt. Michael 

 Healey, U. S. Revenue Marine, who touched at the islands in October, 1890, and who 

 wrote to Foster about the "seals being as numerous then as they had ever appeared 

 to him in all previous years. " (Think of such a statement from such a man, who knew 

 so little!) 



Those "affidavits" were simply bogus — they were false ab initio. They were 

 received by Mr. Foster on April 3, 1891, in- this Mills letter aforesaid, and then what 

 happened? 



On or about the 5th of April Mr. Charles I. Goff was called into Secretary Charles 

 Foster's office and told that he need not concern himself with the seal-island business 

 any further; that "the department had other business for him to transact at Montreal, ' ; 

 Canada (i. e., looking after immigration cases). Goff was directed to proceed there 

 forthwith (and he did). No complaint against him was uttered by Foster — just called 

 him in and sent him to Montreal in the "regular order of official business, " which 

 governs all the special agents. Goff was astonished; he was speechless, but obeyed. 



Then what happened? On or about April 9 a man named W. H. Williams was 

 appointed "Chief special agent' of the seal islands, vice Goff, transferred;" and on 

 April 11 this man started for San Francisco from Washington with a secret permit 

 from Secretary Charles Foster, dated April 11, to the North American Commercial Co., 

 giving them authority, as lessees, to kill 60,000 seals on the Pribilof Islands during 

 the season just ahead, "if they can be found," etc. (Hearing No. 10, pp. 662, 663, 

 Apr. 24, 1912, House Committee on Expenditures in the Department of Commerce 

 and Labor.) 



Following this removal of Mr. Goff, we have found by inspecting the 

 official journal of the United States special agent's office, on St. Pauls 

 Island, that on May 21, 1891, United States Special Agent A. W. 

 Lavender, having sent word to the Treasury Department that the 

 lessees were not living up to the terms of their contract, and being 



