Los Angeles herald., 1909-09-16
SEC. BALLINGER
UPHELD BY TAFT
CLAWS WILL BE DISMISSED,
SAYS PRESIDENT
CHIEF OF INTERIOR DEPARTMENT
FREED OF ALL BLAME
Charges in Connection with Cunning
ham Coal Land Deal Said to
Be unfounded by Chief
Executive
tcontinued from Pare One1

(Continued from Page onel
Illegal character of the claims in the
Cunningham group and that he was
seeking evidence to defeat the claims.
But it also shows that there was
delay on his part in preparing the evil
dence with which to bring this with
other claims to hearing and that JUS
tice to the claimants required more
speedy action than the department,
through Mr.. CLAWS, seems to have
taken.
''AIr. CLAWS seeks, by quoting from
q single telegram, to show that at one
time the department wished to delay
him in his Investigations of the Alaska
claims and at another time unduly to
hurry him. and he attempts to prove
these two circumstances by citing tele-
grams and correspondence without DIS
closing other circumstances and cor
respondence which he knew, or had
under his control and which do snow
an entirely proper reason for the ac-
ton which in each case was directed
to be taken.
IN other words the reading of the
whole record leaves no doubt that in
his zeal to convict yourself, Acting
Secretary Pierce, Commissioner Dem
nett and Mr.. Schwartz, he did not give
me the benefit of information which
he had that would have thrown light
on the transactions, showing them TO
be consistent with an impartial atti-
tude on your part toward the claims
In question"
"The great responsibility of cabinet
positions demands the selection there
for of men of the highest character
and integrity. Possession of these quail
ities, as we'll as an ability and eX-
perience which especially fitted you to
direct the affairs of the department
of the interior, warranted your appoint
70 tha
try, to you and to myself requires
that any aspersion upon the propriety
of your acts or those of your subor-
dinates be promptly met and care
fully considered to the end that if Jus
titled proper remedy may be applied
and that if not it may publicly be re-
futed.
"By appointment of President Roose-
velt you became commissioner of the
general land office in March, 1907, re-
signed the position in March, 1908, and
then returned to Seattle, your home,
to resume the practice of law. In
March, 1909, 1 appointed you secretary
of the interior and you assumed the
duties of your office on the fifth day
of that month.
"In the interval when you were not
holding office one of the Cunningham
coal claimants consulted you in re-
gard to the prospect of securing pat
attention to the character of certain
evidence which was being given to i'm
peach the validity of claims by Spe-
cial Agent CLAWS.
Facts as Stated
"You accepted the employment, Wis
tied Secretary Garfield and Commits
sioner bennett presented the question
to them in respect to which you had
been counseled; found that there was
Iii ~, +1,o ont
of the claims without presenting them
under recent remedial legislation i'm
posing conditions which the claimants
were either unwilling or unable to
meet. You so advised your clients
To pay your travelling expenses and
for your services you received $3.50 and
no more.
"The inference which Mr.. CLAWS
seeks to have drawn to your discredit
in this connection is that you, while
commissioner of the general land Of
fee, came into possession of facts con-
cerning the so-called Cunningham
group of coal land claims which made
1t improper for you to use such facts
after your resignation in the course of
securing the patents
81 find the fact to be that as COM
missioner you acquired no knowledge
in respect to the claims except that Of
the most formal character and nothing
clients when they consulted you.
THE evidence IN respect to which
YOU were consulted professionally was
not secuted by Mr.. CLAWS until after
your resignation as commissioner of
the general land office.
"A second inference sought to be
drawn by Mr.. CLAWS against you is
that you have acted improperly since
becoming secretary Of the interior in
reference to the Cunningham cases and
have used your influence to interfere
with Mr. Claws efforts to defeat the
claims
your only action which could in
any manner affect the Cunningham
claims was your order that the thirty
thousand claims pending and undis-
posed of in the land office should be
pressed to final hearing and disposl-
ton as rapidly as possible consistently
with justice and these included the
9S1 Alaska coal claims of which the
Cunningham group numbered nine
teen.
Expedition Essential
"As such expedition was essential
both in the public interest and in that
of the claimants, it could hardly be
said to be action taken in the Cum
bingham claims
THE record overwhelmingly estab-
fishes that, expressly because of your
previous action as counsel to one of
the claimants, from the time you en-
tered upon your duties as secretary of
the interior until the present you
have studiously declined to have any
connection whatever with the Cum
ningham claims or to air any control
over the course of the department in
respect to those claims; that YOU
have said so in written and verbal
communications to your subordinates
and to the claimants themselves
Moreover, in May last, you came to
me and made a similar statement of
your course and intention in respect to
those claims
''Mr. Claws statement that while
you did thus formally withdraw from
any official connection with the Cum
ningham claims, you continued to air
your influence in regard to them, Is
not sustained by any evidence.
"The truth is that had you or Com
missioner bennett of Chief Schwartz
during the tendency of these claims
been desirous, through dishonest mo-
tives and without regard to law and
the interests of the public, of bring
ing them to patent, the opportunities
for you to have done so We're many
and the circumstances that speaks,
not more conclusively than many 9th
ers but still most emphatically against
Mr.. CLAWS charges Is the fact that
though his conviction that the claim
ants were fraudulent or Illegal was
n, do, ~