The Hawaiian gazette. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1865-1918, 1909-12-03
PlNCHOT VS.. BALLlNGER
ATTRACTING WASHINGTON
BY Ernest G. Walker.
Nail Special to The Advertiser

WASHINGTON, November 1o.-Sec-
rotary of the Interior Ballinger was
one of the first to get little of the
Presidents time after the latter re-
turned to Washington. He drove up
in his departmental phaeton very early
after the Presidents first arrival in his
office and had long audience. 1t came
Just after a vigorous revival of the
Ballinger. Pinehot controversy and the
publication by former Special Agent
L. r. CLAWS of the history of the
Cunningham coal cases in Alaska. The
Rooseveltians the country over had
made a great TODD about that history,
intended to show that the present sec.
rotary of the interior had been active
ly interested as an attorney in rushing
those coal claims, involving fortune
as large as Rockefeller's, to final
patent. They had no immediate bear
ing upon the controversy with Chief
Forester Clifford Pinchot, although the
department of agriculture, of which
Mr.. Pinchot is bureau official, has had
something to do with the investigation.
The old hurrah about the necessity
of throwing either Pinchot or Ballinger
to the wolves sounded forth again. The
secretary told his friends anew that
he was satisfied with the endorsement
President Taft gave him and the old
newspaper files. were resurrected to see
Just what it was that the President said
on that occasion. 1t was really about
as strong an endorsement of Ballinger
and as vigorous denunciation of
came to town. The Rooseveltians did
not dare attack the President vigorous
ly in the open and therefore they were
hammering away at members of the
cabinet. Discredit few of those over.
worked men and breach would be
made in the wall for further and more
direct operations against Taft himself.
Had not Secretary of State Knox been
viciously assailed for dismissing Charles
r. Crane as minister to China? Had
not the motive behind it been declared
to be the opposition of the j. Pierpont
Morgan interests in Wall Street, Had
not Postmaster General Hitchcock been
accused of aiding the Guggenheims to
get control of the coal supply of Alaska
which would be worth untold millions
of dollars in the distant future7 Then
the members of the cabinet must stand
together and repel these insinuations
And they did hold meeting on the
case of Ballinger and get the news of
the Roosevelt conspiracy into the news
papers and all that.
Which naturally stimulated curiosity
as to what Secretary Ballinger said to
the President when he had driven up
in his departmental phaeton the morn.
ing after the return. But Secretary
II \ Ill 11,,E
Taft did not tell and the tenor of their
remarks in the oval room still remain
a secret. An eager coterie around the
White House offices has been waiting
for some sign or portent, perhaps a
statement from the secretary or tho
President that would warrant tall head.
lines on the front page and over the
first column but none has been forth
coming. Men have been busy express.
ing opinions, widely divergent. as to
CLAWS as Mr.. Ballinger himself could
have wished. And, of course, Chief
Pinchot was Intercepted and he told
his friends, not for publication but as
an evidence of good faith, that he was
going to stay right where he was and
if they got him out they would have
to throw him out.
The talk of a Roosevelt cabal, ac-
cording to which his friends were earn
estly at work laying the foundation
for his denomination, was also heralded
in most impressive fashion. The par
| ticular interest in it was that cabinet
officers had been responsible for put.
ting it forth just before the President
what Roosevelt himself would do or say,
! if he were down at Oyster Bay instead
| of off in the wilds of Africa, but that
! was only talking around in a circle and
the comment about Roosevelt cabal
has been gradually fading away. The
| efforts to get Pinchot out of the Office
and the efforts to get Balllnger out of
Office and the efforts to boom a renom-
ination of President Roosevelt in 1912
however, will not down. There will be
more about them from time to time as
the winter progresses. Bitter political
hatreds of men and disapproval of poll
cies are involved and the agitation
idle as it may be, will be continued.
Incidentally it is worth noting that
! just about the time all this hurrah about
getting Roosevelt back into the White
House as Taft IS successor was at its
height, Senator Cummins strobe fortf
with the assertion that he expected
President Taft would be renominateC
and reelected. That took little WIND
out of some sails for it indicated that
the western insurgents as distinguished
from the ultra Rooseveltians were moi
furthering the 1912 Roosevelt boom.
Another of the President S early call
ers was Vice President Sherman, whose
request for the nomination of Circuit
Judge Alfred c.. Coke as Supreme Court
Justice indicated that New York pro
poses to be around early and that the
Vice President wants not only fellow
townsman of Utica but a Republican
named to fill the vacancy created by
the death of Mr.. Justice PeCkham. I'm
doubtedly big New York lawyers, wht
are concerned lest New York and tbs
second circuit be deprived of represen
tation by the nomination of some on,
for justice, outside of that circuit Il
which Justice Peckham belonged, wer,
prompt TO urge the Vice President Il
help out. Circuit Judge Coke is of dis
tinguished lineage. The late Roscoe
Goulg linz Wus his kinsmuu De WINS IA "a