The Hawaiian star. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu]) 1893-1912, 1909-10-02

tary Garfield. Being thus overruleu,
Commissioner Ballinger was power
less, and was bound to abide by the
decision of his superior.
A. little later Congress, by an amend
ment to the agricultural appropriation
bill, prohibited the enlargement of for
est reserve areas in Oregon, Wash
ington, Idaho, Montana, Wyoming and
Colorado. In constituting that sta
tute, Commissioner bennett, who had
succeeded Ballinger in the Land Of
flee, held that it was unlawful to
create ranger stations outside of for
est reserves in those six states, mas
much as the stations were in effect ad-
ditions to the forest reserve system,
and therefore prohibited This rul-
ing also, was submitted to Woodruff,
and Pinchot again sustained.
The creation of ranger stations
thrived throughout the administration
of Secretary Garfield In all, 1908
stations were created, embracing a to-
tai area of 6OO,263 acres. Most of
them were within the limits of for
est reserves, but 1Ol stations were
outside, and of this latter number 70
were located in the six states named
| The 73 stations covered 1926 acres
This was the situation when Mr.. Bal
linger became Secretary of the In
terror.
On March 9th, 1909, Mr.. Pinchot re-
commended the creation of another
lot of ranger stations, and from that
day to the present has asked for S12
new stations, embracing in the neigh
! borhood of 121, 900 acres When the
first recommendation reached him on
his second day in Office, Secretary Bal
linger turned it down, convinced as
he had been when in the land office,
that the law did not contemplate or
authorize such segregations of land.
This made Pinchot mad, and he ap-
pealed to the President At the White
House he got no encouragement what
ever, being informed that Secretary
Ballinger was entirely responsible for
the conduct of the Interior Depart
,ment. So he called on Ballinger. The
situation was canvassed pro and con,
but no compromise was reached be-
cause Mr.. Ballinger insisted upon fol-
lowing the law. There was no com
mon ground on which the two officials
could compromise.
Although satisfied in his own mind
that he was right in his refusal e
act, Secretary Ballinger, as has beer
his habit, submitted the facts to At
torney General Wickersham for al
opinion. If his own Interpretation OF
the law was faulty, he was willing tc
abide by the judgment of the CHEZ
law officer of the government. He
has done that a dozen times since
March 4th whenever important pro
blems of Interpretation of the law have
arisen Mr.. Pinchot also took an ap
peal to the Attorney General, submit
ting a brief in support of his conten
ton. Up to the present time the Al
torney General has rendered 10 opin
ion on this disputed question, but IL
view of the prominence given thu
Pinchot- Ballinger row, an interpreta
tion of the statutes bearing on THU
point is expected in the very nea
, future.
Mr. Pinchot has called on Secretar.
Ballinger but once since the 4th o
March; that was the occasion referred
to. Since then he has shown hi
hostility by refusing personally to sub
nit points of difference to the head o
the Interior Department Since tina
first call, all correspondence between
Mr.. Pinchot and Secretary Ballinge
, has been by letter, through the Secre
tary of Agriculture, Mr.. Wilson.
Bitter as was Pinchots resentmen
: of Ballingers course with regard t
: ranger stations, it was nothing a
= compared to his fury over Ballinger
: interference with his (Pinchot's
: scheme of conserving water powers o
the public domain. In the good oil
, Garfield days, when conservation agl
> tation was at its height, toward Tn
= close OF the Roosevelt administration
sixteen enormous tracts of public Ian
along western streams, were WIFI
. drawn from entry for the aVowed pui
AaaWuH Nnna 4