INVESTIGATION OF THE FUR-SEAL INDUSTRY OF ALASKA. 783 



Mr. Elliott. I had to. I was assuming when I wrote this letter 

 you recite that those men had been misled into taking up this lease 

 with the understanding that there were 100,000 seals ahead of them 

 there to get, and that they had been cut down to 60,000 by an arbi- 

 trary ruling. 



Mr. McGuire. You were assuming that they had been misled ? 



Mr. Elliott. Yes. 



Mr. McGuire. Whom did you assume misled them ? 



Mr. Elliott. I will tell you. I assumed that George R. Tingle did. 



Mr. McGuire. Who it he? 



Mr. Elliott. He was their general manager. 



Mr. McGuire. Do you know whether he was connected with the 

 company ? 



Mr. Elliott. He was their general manager at the time. He was 

 the one who helped get them the lease. 



Mr. McGuire. Was he a stockholder in the company? 



Mr. Elliott. No; he was associated with Senator Elkins, who 

 soon became a stockholder. 



Mr. McGuire. And in what way was he associated with Senator 

 Elkins ? 



Mr. Elliott. Before the lease was awarded to this company, he 

 was associated with Senator Elkins in urging the Secretary of the 

 Treasury to give the lease to another company, of which Elkins 

 was one of the stockholders; but that company did not bid as high 

 as this company, the North American Commercial Co. Then they 

 got into an agreement whereby Mills, Liebes & Tevis, representing 

 the North American Commercial Co., united with Elkins and his 

 associates, and went in together, with the understanding that George 

 R. Tingle should be the general manager. 



Mr. McGuire. Where did you get that information? 



Mr. Elliott. Oh, that is all in detail in my testimony before the 

 Ways and Means Committee of this House, given January 14-28, 1907. 



Mr. McGulre. Whose testimony? 



Mr. Elliott. Mine. It is all in print. 



Mr. McGuire. Where did you get it? 



Mr. Elliott. I got it from these men. 



Mr. McGuire. From what men ? 



Mr. Elliott. Tingle himself. 



Mr. McGuire. Where is Tingle now? 



Mr. Elliott. He is dead. 



Mr. McGuire. Whom else did you get it from ? 



Mr. Elliott. It is a long story; it would take me a week to tell 

 you all the details. 



Mr. McGuire. Is there anyone living from whom you got that 

 story ? 



Mr. Elliott. Unfortunately I can not think of anybody. Gen. 

 Jeffries is dead; Mr. Hutchinson is dead; Dr. Mclntyre is dead. He 

 expected to have been retained as " general manager" or "superin- 

 tendent," and he told me most of it. 



Mr. McGuire. So far as you know now all persons who talked to 

 you about that are dead ? 



Mr. Elliott. So far as I know at this moment. It may be I can 

 recall somebody. 



