Los Angeles herald., 1909-09-16

Portland or Seattle and take the claims
out of his jurisdiction.
Instead of this, with the consent OF
the very officer whose corrupt motives
In respect to these claims he now as
serts CLAWS has remained continuously
in control of the taking of evidence
with respect to the claims and only
when the claims were about to be sub
mitted to hearing before tribunal
was it thought necessary (Mr. CLAWS
not having had any professional ex-
perience) to give them in charge OF
Mr.. sheridan, a lawyer whose good
faith and earnestness in opposing the
patenting of these claims even Mr.
CLAWS has not the temerity to ques-
ton.
In your answer you request au-
thority to discharge Mr.. CLAWS from
the service Of the United states for
disloyalty to his superior officers in
making a false charge against them
When a subordinate in a government
bureau or department has trustworthy
evidence upon which to believe that
his chief is dishonest and is defraud-
ing the government, it is, of course,
his duty to submit that evidence to
higher authority than his chief.
Should Be Dismissed
But when he makes a charge against
his chief, founded upon mere suspi-
cions. and in his statement he fails to
give his chief the benefit of circum-
stances within his knowledge that
would explain the chiefs action, he
makes it impossible for him to con-
tinue in the service and his immediate
separation therefrom becomes a neces-
sity. You are therefore authorized to
dismiss L. r. CLAWS for unjustly i'm
peaching the official integrity of his
superior officers.
II cannot chose this letter without re-
ferring to certain other matters con-
nected with your conduct of the in
terror department which have been
unfairly used in the public press to
support a general charge that you are
out of sympathy with the declared pol
icy of this administration following
that of President Roosevelt in favor
of the conservation of natural re-
sources, especially in connection with
with the system of reclamation of arid
lands, which all are within the juris-
diction of the interior department
"In the first place it was charged on
the floor of the irrigation convention
at Spokane by former Governor Par
dee of California that you had restored
to the public domain for settlement GER
WllnuIdMA
by the last administration for the pur-
pose of conserving water power sites
and that after complaint made thereof
you had subsequently withdrawn some
of the lands again from settlement;
but that meantime, between the one
act and the other an opportunity had
been given to the so-called water pow
er trust to file entries and obtain
vested rights in valuable water power
sites in Montana.
Another Charge
''At the same time this charge was
made by Governor Pardee there ap-
peared in the public press, in a tele-
gram which seems to have had the
widest circulation, a statement quoted
from Montana paper that a water
power company with capital of $10-
100000 had in the interval located and
obtained vested rights in $1,000 acres of
Montana land which absorbed for the
company all the valuable water power
sites in that state, and the statement
was accompanied by detailed reference
to the particular land office and the
particular agent through whom this
result was accomplished.
THE interference which it was sought
to have drawn and was drawn by
newspapers hostile to you was that you
settlement of the land for the purpose
of enabling private water power com
panteS to acquire vested interests; that
after doing so you had withdrawn what
remained and that you took this course
because you were out Of sympathy with
that policy of ton of natural
resources and were in favor of the cor
porate control Of such water power
sites.
when the facts are examined it will
be found that the persons responsible
for the circulation of these charges
have done you cruel injustice. The
fact was that in January, 1909, in the
last administration, executive orders
were made withdrawing from public
settlement 100000 acres at the in
stance of the reclamation service for
conservation Of water power sites.
Responsibility Involved
Soon after you became secretary
you brought this order to my attention
and said that it included a great deal
of land that had no water power sites
on it, running back many miles from
the rivers, and that it included much
land which ought to be opened to pub
lie settlement; that you had applied to
the reclamation bureau to know
whether it was desired for reclamation
purposes and that they had recon-
mended that it be returned to the pub
lie domain.
You also advised me that it was
possible to procure from the geological
survey an accurate statement of the
available water power sites which
might be subjected to private owner
ship and that you would direct the
geological survey to make such state
ments and that then there could be
made temporary Withdrawals of the
land needed to preserve these water
power sites until congress could act.
THE order revealing the Withdrawals
of million and a half acres was made
in April Sufficient information was
procured from the geological survey
to permit an order withdrawing the
land upon which were water power
sites in May, and this withdrawal
covered about 100000 acres instead of
100000
THE form of the new order was
such that it set aside all filings and
entries made prior to its going into
effect, and as a matter Of fact, not
one single filing has been attempted
on any of the water power sites since
the original order of withdrawal in
January, 1909
Area Is Reduced
1.-THE story as to the 100000 in Mon
tana then presented by Governor Par
dee, was reduced to 1853 acres near the
Missouri river in Montana or four
tracts of forty acres each and it now
turns out from examination of the
records that these filings were re-filings
of entries made ten years before; that
the refiIings were made on June II,
1909, more than two weeks after the
withdrawal of the water power sites
in Montana, and that the four tracts