236 INVESTIGATION OF THE FUR-SEAL INDUSTRY OF ALASKA. 



CHARGES MADE ARE RECORDS — PROF. ELLIOTT DECLARES THEY ARE NOT PERSONAL 

 WITH HIM — INVOLVE QUESTION OP SEAL SLAUGHTER — WHY HE TAKES MATTER UP 

 WITH THE ATTORNEY GENERAL. 



"Those are not my charges," said Prof. Henry W. Elliott, when questioned Saturday 

 by the News concerning the letter he sent to Attorney General Wickersham, and 

 which was published in the News Friday. 



" The charges are statements of official record and sworn affidavits in the files of the State 

 and Treasury Departments which convict and order the punishment of those men. I 

 have merely made an arrangement of them, so that they become at once intelligible 

 and indisputable in their showing," replied Elliott. "I found that these men had 



fotten into complete control of the officialism which succeeded John Hay in the 

 )epartment of State, and I had no other way at my command of removing them than 

 this one of showing them up." 



ASKED BURTON TO HELP. 



"You say that mutual friends of President Roosevelt and yourself assured you that 

 the former would surely act on this showing of yours. Do you mind telling who these 

 friends were? " 



"No, I do not object; and I will tell if you press the question: It is a natural one, 

 because so many have asked me why Mr. Burton has not insisted on this being done, 

 which I now urge upon the Attorney General. Mr. Burton did try to get Secretary 

 Root to make a date on which to meet with him and myself, in the State Department* 

 this attempt was made by Mr. Burton on March 6, 1907. Root peremptorily refused 

 to do so. Mr. Burton was very much surprised, and when he reported that refusal to 

 me, I at once told him why Root did not meet us in his (Burton's) presence. Root 

 knew I would bring these matters up." 



" What is the particular offense of those men whom you desire the Attorney General 

 to proceed against and punish?" 



"Those men are the men who, in 1890-91, seduced Mr. Blaine from the path of his 

 plain duty in the premises; and that lapse on his part cost us that fiasco at Paris which 

 resulted in the award of the Bering Sea tribunal; that award put the fur seal herd of 

 Alaska into the hands of the land and sea butchers of it completely; just what it was 

 not supposed to do, by the people, and not intended to be; that result has cost us the 

 loss of over 5,000,000 of fur seals — a property loss of over $30,000,000 up to date, and 

 still this question is unsettled. Now yet, and worse, it has inflicted the most indecent 

 and cruel killing of those seals that has ever been licensed by a civilized government; 

 all this sin and shame fairly fastened on us by those men. Do you wonder why I want 

 them punished?" 



WHY HE DIDN'T GO. 



"Couldn't Senator Burton have gone to see President Roosevelt?" 



"Yes, and, no; necessarily there is a distinct line drawn between the legislative and 

 executive officers of our Government; a Senator or a Congressman has no right to go 

 down to the office of a Cabinet member and personally order business; and no Cabinet 

 officer has the right to go up to a committee in Congress and personally lobby or pro- 

 mote his business there. True, some Senators and certain Congressmen and certain 

 Cabinet officers do violate this proper rule; but Mr. Burton would not. Mr. Burton 

 understands that I am right in this Alaskan fur seal business; he has frankly admitted it, 

 and he has explained to my complete satisfaction why he thought it would be useless on his 

 part to try and get Roosevelt to act. Mr. Cassidyand Mr. Howland both so understand 

 it now, as they would have understood it then," replied Mr. Elliott. 



"Then you believe that these men can be punished on that evidence which you 

 ask the Attorney General to order out of the Ways and Means Committee?" 



"There is not a shadow of doubt of it. Why has it been suppressed if that fact of its 

 power to convict those men was not well known to certain men close to President 

 Roosevelt? " said the professor. (Evening News, Cleveland, Ohio, June 26, 1909.) 



