The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1909-09-27
BY Ernest G.. Walker.

AhdH special TO the Advertiser
BEVERLY, Massachusetts, Sept. IA.
The President has continued tena-
ciously silent about the conservation
quarrels, as accentuated by the Balm
ger-Pinchot controversy, although Secre-
tary OF the Interior Ballinger has come
and gone and concluded conferences
that occupied two evenings with the
President at Burgess Point. Secretary
Ballinger has refused to say anything
that throws much light upon the situa-
ton, since he left here, and President
Taft has said nothing.
Hints here and there are to the eff
feet that there viii be a compromise
and that pacifeatory policy win pre-
vail. The impression is very strong
that Chief Forester Pinchot will not be
removed from Office for insisting that
there IS water power trust and that
Secretary Ballinger is wrong in his in
depreciation Of the law regarding the
withdrawal of public lands from entry
when there are water powers upon those
lands which trust might gobble up.
Perhaps Congress will be prevailed up
on this winter to enact some legislation
that will legalize, from Secretary Bal
fingers point of view, the Withdrawals
of such lands as Chief Pinehot advo-
Gates.
The Secretary, as has been widely
stated, is to accompany the President
on a portion of the western trip. It is
also likely that Chief Forester Pinchot
will be invited to attend the President
for some portion of the way. That
would be accepted as an indication of
the President s favor toward him.
Secretary Ballinger in his contention
that the national forests and the great
reclamation projects have not been ad-
ministered in strict accordance with law
has been steadily upheld by the Depart
ment of Justice. The Attorney General
has been rendering opinion after opin-
ion during the last four or five months
upholding Mr.. Ballinger. One of the
latest, rendered few days ago, up
held Secretary Ballinger's decision
against the so-called cooperative work
of the Reclamation Service. That has
been the bone of contention between
Director T. H. Newell, of the Reclama-
ton Service, and Secretary Ballinger
The cooperative system describes q
practice that has grown up during re-
cent years in connection with govern
ment irrigation projects. When the gov
eminent has dug canal and bitches and
brought water upon a given number of
land units, there have generally been
homesteaders on adjacent lands who are
anxious also to obtain government
water. The Reclamation Service has
been saying to those homesteaders that
if they would construct the necessary
bitches, in compliance with plans and
specifications made by the Reclamation
Service, certificates of credit would be
isued to them for the amounts which
the semi-private work represented
Then the Reclamation Service, having
created a government obligation in this
manner, would proceed to cancel it by
deductions for the use of the govern
ment water.
The Attorney General has ruled with
Mr.. Ballinger that the creation of such
debts against the government is not
warranted by any laws now on the
work. which has come to be of great
magnitude. must CEASE.
i This and other kindred opinions from
the Attorney General undoubtedly
strengthens Secretary Ballinger tire
| mendously. It is certain to restrict The
activities of his opponents in the West
who have been laundering for his Off
cial decapitation. AS Director Newell
is an official subordinate Of the Secre
tarv of the Interior, there is nothing fol
| him to do but to obey the rulings i'm
plicitly. 1t is not believed, however
! that he will be removed from Office for
| like Chief Forester Pinchot, he is al
| exceedingly popular official in the West
The President, of course, has been be
hind all these efforts to determine tht
| legality of conservation operations. HI
| has been distinctly an executive wh'
| acts within the law and it is unreason
| able to infer that he would wink at an
| government operations whose legality
was at all questionable, even if i
! brought upon him the criticisms of thu
ultra Rooseveltians and others wh'
| have welcomed the controversies in thu
| hope of discrediting his administration
| But Beverly has been both grave an(
/ CAV during the last week Of the Presi
| dent 5 residence at the summer capital
| Tariff and conservation may be sufi
GENTLY grave but Beverly harbor bios
somed out with great gayety Of ship
| ping a few mornings ago and more dis
| tinguished people had gathered abou
noon than ever before had been atioa
on the shoal waters in front of the sum
| mer capital. That was on the occasion
| of the bestowaI of the cup to the zach
| ,Jovette. winner of the Sender races
| The President officiated at that func
ton. having invited not only the Ger
| man and the American participants Il
those contests. but also large numbe
of his neighbors from the North Shor
| cottages, all the way from Beverly t
Gloucester, and also all the diplomat
within reach.
It was a decidedly pretty scene. Tn
Maydower steamed up from Boston an
was anchored in the channel as tn
functionary boat She was dressed from
stem to stern. There was band aboar'
and the splendid yacht, once owned i
the Goe1et family, was stocked wit
| every thing necessary to the pleasur
of a jolly international party.
The city turned out to watch fro1