Los Angeles herald., 1909-09-22
TAFT IS BLAMED
BY GOV. PARDEE
SAYS PRESIDENT GAVE THE
ORDERS TO BALLINGER
SEVERE ARRAlGNMENT MADE ON
PUBLIC LAND CONTROVERSY
"Buttress Of Legal Authority" Declared
to Be the Plaything of Interests
Working Against Public for
Private Gain
,COu,,nued from Paro One,

tContinued from Page OneI
up, according to my information py
the agent of a power company
The president, in his vindication OF
Secretary Ballinger, says that these 1oS
acres have no power sites on thein'
Why, then, were they taken up by the
agent of a power company after Secre-
tarv Ballinger reversing secretary
Garfield had restored them to entry?
The president says these locations py
the agent of the power company were
merely "rehlihgs of entries made ten
Years before The fact is, however,
that "reflings" made by the agent of
a power company were not made Whlle
Garaelds withdrawal order was IN
force, but were made about two weeks
after Ballinger had reversed Garfleld
and restored these lands to entry.
Why the coincidence?
Vast Track Restored to Entry
AT the Irrigation congress also read
a copy of a letter, approved by Secre-
tary Ballinger, thus making 1t his act,
directing that over four million acres
of land previously withdrawn by Gar
field to save power sites troms pelhs
grabbed, should be restored TO entry
And this was but one of several similar
orders approved by Secretary Ballin-
ger. The president mentions but one
order of Ballinger's restoring to entry
only one and a half million acres. lie
also says that Secretary Balllnger
made this order of restoration on the
recommendation of the reclamation
service.
1 have seen documentary evidence
that the reclamation service argued
several times with Secretary Balllnger
against the restoration order of which
the president speaks, and that 1t re-
luctantIy made the recommendation re-
ferred to by the president only after
having been repeatedly and peremp-
| torily ordered by Secretary BalIinger
to do SO.
The recommendation of the recla-
nation service referred to by the presi-
dent as a. justification for Secretary
Ballinger in reversing Secretary CAR
field, was, therefore, not the recon-
mendation of the reclamation service,
but was the act of Secretary Ballinger
himself, and was taken in the face and
eyes of the adverse advice of the rec
lamation service, which would nave
made no such recommendation had II
not been peremptorily ordered to 90
so by Secretary Ballinger. 1t may be
mentioned incidentally that Secretary
Garfield made his order Of withdrawal,
which was reversed by Secretary Bal
linger, on the free will and recon-
mendation of the reclamation service.
Calls Acts Identical
The president calls especial atten-
ton to Secretary Ballinger's rewith-
drawals of 300, 900 acres of public lands
after having left them open to the
power-site monopolists for several
weeks. and then intimates that Bal
linger's rewithdrawal orders have
saved from being grabbed more water
power sites than were protected py
the Garfield orders which Balllnger
reversed and that these orders OF re-
withdrawal were made on information
furnished by the geological survey.
If BalIinger's rewithdrawals were
"buttressed by legal authority" Gar
fields original Withdrawals must nave
also been so supported, both being the
same kind of acts. Why, then, Whlle
waiting for the information from the
geological survey, did Secretary Bal
iinger reverse the Garfield Withdrawals
and thus give the power-site grabbers
an opportunity to grab? Nobody eX-
cept the grabbers was suffering
Why, then did not Secretary Bal
linger wait until he had the informa-
ton from the geological survey before
reversing Garfield and throwing open
to the grabbers which Garfield had
made safe? And if Secretary Ballinger
is the great supporter of the Roosevelt
ian policy that he says he is, why did
he not order the geological survey to
inform him about the power-sites on
the Fayette river which were taken up
while he was busy reversing the or
ders of former Secretary Garfield? The
same question might also be asked
concerning a number of other rivers
and streams.
Policies Carried Out Dead
A speaker, at the irrigation congress
said that Secretary Ballinger is "car-
rying out the Roosevelt conservation
policies-dead, on a shutter" There
are many people. especially in the west,
who will be very glad if that speaker
shall be proven to have been mistaken.
The same people will rejoice If the fu-
ture shall justify the presidents encon-
iums on Secretary Ballinger
1t Is also to be hoped that the presi-
dent was not mistaken when he said
that the secretary is fully in SYM
pathy with the attitude Of this ad-
ministration in favor of the conserva-
tion of natural resources" specially
as the president has assured us both
before and after he became president
that he was in full and complete SYM
pathy and accord with the Roose-
Veltian policies of conservation and
would see them carried out.
1t is also to be hoped the criticism
which Secretary Ballinger has incurred
during the first six months of his in
cumbency of the secretaryship of the
interior may not be any indication of
what will happen to him during the
remaining three and a half years of his
term of Office. The west will be glad
If it shall be proven that the secre-
tary has been treated with that "cruel
injustice" of which the president
speaks.