The Birmingham age-herald., 1909-11-08
LENGTHY EXPLANATION
 0F TIE CANCELLATION
Secretary of the Interior Says That the Step He Took Was Most Prac- tieable For the Conservation
 of Power Sites.

Washington November 7.--Secretary of the Interior Ballinger's widely discussed revocation of the famous Garfield order
 withdrawing from settlement l ,5ooooo acres of public lands. and the substitu- ton therefor of a withdrawal order with holding from settlement BOG. 900 acres today was declared by MT Ballinger 10 have been wholly promotive-not snbversive- of the conservation policy
 A lengthy explanation of his canceIla- tion of the Garfield withdrawal was given 10 the press by MT. Ballnger who assert ed that it was logical step in the prosecution of the policy of conserving he waterpower on the federal domain and one which MT. Garfield must have taken himself had he remained in office
 The first clder was blanket with drawal issued to meet an emergency and without altinF time to ascertain Jast where tho power sites were located" See retary Ballinrer said. Intelligent prose cution O. the poiicy demanded tl,at as soon as possible thereafter these sites l;e 'aeated ana the lands not needed 60 pro tect them be restored to entry It was an lnwsiTpnted reelection of Secretary Garfield to assume that he would not have done precisely what did ascertain as soon as practicable where the power sites were actually located. and issue a new order withdrawing them from set clement and restoring to entry all lands not needed for that purpose,
 q found that by utilizing the geological survey instead of the reclamation ser vice which had been employed by my nation as to the location of the power sites. On consultation with the legal off cers of my department I found that I could make withdrawal orders retro active; that is, that I could issue with drawal orders later which would effectuai- ly protect any power sites within any en- tries which might have been made in the interim. The retroactive provision Of the subsequent withdrawal operated com petely to conserve the sites
 Not a single power site has passed out of the possession of the government dur Ing this administration. As matter of fact. the withdrawals ordered by ma protect go per cent more power sites than were conserved by the Garfield order. This implies no criticism of the Gar field order and merely shows that the Garfield order was tentative
 My first withdrawal order was dated May 1. 1909. and the last which included any of the lands formerly withdrawn June 10, 1909, but each of these orders con tained the language. all existing claims filings and entries are temporarily sus- pended As a matter of fact, there was not single filing on a power site during the interim On the other hand the re- storation to entry of over 100000 acres of land not needed to protect the power sites allaved widespread dscontent and thus avoided unnecessarily making ene- mics for the conservation policy Since June 10, l have made 25 additional with drawals in entirely new territory"
 Secretary Balinger stated that his or ders of withdrawal do not protect power sites within forest reservations and added in explanation that previously he had of fered to include power sites on forest reservations but that the offer was de- clined on the ground that the forest ser vice could take care of such sites. The Secretary asserted that number of fac tors caused his course to be msunder- stood and misrepresented but some of these he was not at liberty to discuss.
 Garfield Ic Silent