The Birmingham age-herald., 1909-08-30
ORMSBY M'HARG
 RESIGNS PLACE Assistant Secretary of Con-
 merce and Labor PRESIDENT WILL ACCEPT Resignation May Have Something To Do With the Ballinger Controversy Over Forest
 Conservation Matter.

Beverly, Mass, August 29.-The resig- nation of Ormsby McHarg, assistant secretary of the department of commerce and labor, will be accepted. Secretary Nagal head of the department, had an extended conference with President Taft today and the question of a successor to MT. McHarg was discussed.
 Secretary Nagal received letter from the assistant secretary today saying that he must adhere to his first intention of remaining in the department only for a period of six months. This term will ex- pire September and by that time Sec retary Nagel hopes to be ready to an- nounce the choice of a new assistant MT. McHarg announced some time ago that he would soon leave the government service to engage in private business In his letter to Secretary Nagel today he reminds him of his intention to leave the service, but says that If a successor cannot be found by September 4 he will continue until October l. Mir McHarg' S formal letter of resignation will follow.
 There was no one in Beverly today who would say that MT. McHargs res ignation was in any wise the result of the interview with him published in Washington last week in which the Sec retary is accredited with having said some rather sharp things about former President Roosevelt and his policy of forest conservation. MT. McHarg has de- nied making any such references to Mir. Roosevelt personally.
 Roosevelt Element.
 Assistant Secretary McHarg Is said to have grown quite bitter over the free manner in which some of the govern ment officials in Washington, generally Lnn flaa .Jn been criticsng members of the Taft administration. Consequently, he is re- ported to have expressed his own views in rather forceful manner and the con troversy started by Chief Forester Pin chot with the Secretary of the Interior MT. Ballinger, is declared here to be growing to such proportions that the President will have to take a hand and put the government house at Washing ton in order. Mir Taft has been reluctan mt to take official cognizance of the con troversy, which started at the irrigation congress In Spokane, continued through the TransM ssissippi conference at Den yer and since then has been waged with more or less intensity at the national capital. He had hoped that the whole af- fair was tempest in a teapot which soon would simmer down without any ac- tion on his part.
 In addition to the Secretary of Com merce and Labor President Taft had with him this afternoon the Secretary of State, MT. Knox, and Secretary of War Meyer. It is said that the Pinchot- Ballinger controversy had a large share In the deliberation of the conference
 President Taft has engagement to see Secretary Ballnger earlier than just prior to his arrival in Seattle on Sep tember 20. MT. Ballinger has been in vited and has accepted an invitation to accompany the President on a large part of the latter's Pacific coast itinerary.
 The invitation will offer an opportunity for MT. Ballinger to lay his side of the controversy before the President. In all matters affecting the departments under the control of cabinet officers 1t has been the Presidents policy to uphold the cab inet member unfailingly
 President Is Silent.
 The President, while refusing absolute ly to discuss the Pinchot-B -Ballinger con troversy in any way, has intimated to friends that he hopes no drastic action will be necessary. Mir Taft soon is to traverse the territory where the conser vation plans are of supreme importance The President unquestionably will take advantage of his presence in the west to state the policy of his administrati tion as to conservation of natural recourses.
 Secretary Knox Is the guest of Henry c. Prick at Beverly Farm. He will re- main for a week or more: will be the Presidents opponent at golf over the Myopia links, and will have a number of conferences with his superior
 Secretary Nagel left for New York to- night to attend the first meeting of the Presidents law commission tomorrow morning.
 MT. Nagel stated that President Taft would have before him some time this week the names of the census super visors who are yet to be appointed.