INVESTIGATION OP THE FUR-SEAL INDUSTRY OF ALASKA. 785 



Mr. Elliott (interposing). Oh, whatever "employment" I had 

 with them I never solicited; they came to me. I was trying to get 

 these men (Mills and Tevis) to understand about the matters that 

 were then being held up from the public and in my report; this report 

 of November 17, 1890, which contains the very words you read; they 

 were in my official recommendation, which I inserted in this record 

 yesterday. I assumed that Mr. Mills and Mr. Tevis, the latter, 

 who, by the way, I met in San Francisco, and who came to my room 

 the night I left the city, the day after I arrived, and where we had 

 a rice 



Mr. Stephens (interposing). What year was that? 



Mr. Elliott. 1890. I wanted to show these men that I had no 

 hostility toward them; that I was not a "conspirator," "hired by the 

 old company" ; that I was doing this thing for the best interest of the 

 Government, and that theirs must be subsidiary, and that as good 

 citizens they must agree with me. And, therefore, being an entire 

 st" -anger to every one of them, never having seen any of them in 

 1890, May 6, when I went up to the islands (for the first time since 

 1876), except Liebes — nobody connected with the fur-seal business 

 could have gotten into San Francisco or out of it without seeing him — 

 but never having seen any of these other stockholders, and having 

 stopped them in their work, and hearing myself denounced in the 

 papers by them as "a conspirator," "hired by the old lessees," etc., I 

 n It I would like to come in touch with them, and let them understand 

 fully what I had in view. I always had had this opinion of D. O. Mills: 

 That he was a man of high character. I felt at that time that he had 

 b en misled, if any man had been. My friends all told me, "If Mr. 

 Mills understands this thing, Mr. Elliott, he will agree with you," and 

 that caused me to write that letter, being simply a review, in short 

 words, of my report to Mr. Windom. Mr. Windom was dead, and I 

 soon (Apr. 22, 1891) separated myself from the Government after I 

 wrote that letter, because I would not follow Mr. Blaine or Mr. 

 Foster in what I considered malfeasance. 



Mr. McGuire. You thought Mr. Blaine was guilty of official mal- 

 feasance % 



Mr. Elliott. I have put that charge of mine in this testimony; it 

 is ail in detail. I do not "think" so; I have proved it was so. (See 

 pp. 662-672, hearing No. 10, Apr. 24, 1912; and pp. 304, 305, hearing 

 No. 1, Jan. 17, 1914.) 



Mr. McGuire. And you thought Mr. Foster was, too ? 



Mr. Elliott. Yes; that is in the testimony also, and I have proved 

 it. That is the reason I separated myself from the Government's 

 employ. (See pp. 662-668, hearing No. 10, 1912; pp. 304-314, hear- 

 ing No. 1, Jan. 17, 1914.) 



Mr. McGuire. I believe you stated that Mr. Tingle was a member 

 of the last company % 



Mr. Elliott. He was their "general manager." He had been 

 a United States Treasury agent for five or six years, and that is where 

 he rr ot his knowledge of the seals. 



Mr. McGuire. I do not care anything about that. As a member 

 of that company 



Mr. Elliott (interposing.) Not as a member but as an official of 

 the company. I do not think he held any stock. 



Mr. McGuire. You do not think he did ? 



53490—14 50 



