The Sentinel=record., 1909-11-20
'BALLINGER MAKES REPLY SAYS HE IS NOT INTERESTED IN 155,ooo SHARES OF COAL
 COMPANY.
Glavis Articles is Denounced as a Plain, Ordinary Faisehood and Is Not Founded Upon
 Fact.

Washington, Nov. 19-Replying to charges made in magazine publica- tion, Secretary Ballinger of the inter. for department took occasion to deny many reports today, which recently have been circulated concerning the conduct of his department and to ex- plain others
 ITO say that I have ever advised, ordered or lent support to any effort to perpetrate a fraud upon the gov ernment," he said lis not only false. but is Intentionally so, if made by anyone who has taken the trouble to inquire into facts"
 Tn explanation of the charges in connection with the Alaska coal lands he went into the history of President Roosevelt's withdrawal from entry of all the coal lands of Alaska in 1906, showing that the order was SD modi- fled by Secretary Garfield as to vali- date all applications made prior to May 16, 1907 Mir. Ballinger then called attention to the fact that in his annual report of 1907 as commission CT of the general land office, he had recommended action by congress flo prevent and punish the formation of combinations or trusts by claimants to coal lands, and adds.
 "The antitrust clause of the Alaska coal act as passed May 2S, 1908, was not submitted by Mr Clifford Pinchot but was submitted as suggestion to Secretary Garfield by Representative Herbert Parsons of New YorE In his 0e fo ,lt, considered and endorsed by the secre- tary in his report to congress"
 Secretary Ballinger then stated that no Alaska coal claims whatever have been patented and says that the in- vestigstion of all such claims with view of determining their validity or nvalidity has been vigorously prose cuted
 MT. Ballinger denounced as "a plain ordinary Justification" report that he is interested in 155, 900 shares of the Alaska Petroleum and Coal Com psny.
 The statement that or my former firm was attorney for this company or ever aided or counseled it in it's effort to acquire title to public lands
 is also without basis In fact" he ad- ded.
 It was true that in his private prac- tice after he had resigned as com missioner of the land office he had been consulted in the preparation of articles Of incorporation under the law of 1908, which had been approved by the president and which permitted the entry of as much as 2.560 acres of coal land, but not true that either in this or any connection he had giv- en any advice looking to a fraudulent act against the government. ! Asked about a statement that he had said that the proper course to take with the public domain was to | divide 1t up among the big corpora tions and let the people who know low make money out of it, Mir. Bal finger replied;
 So nssinine a statement hardly mef- its a denial. Of course I made no
 not be entertained by any normal in such statement. Such thought could telligence. What 1 really think in re- gard to the public domain and the conservation of natural resources may be found in my official reports as commissioner of the general land of flee and in my present annual report, soon to be published
 T have not only been consistently in the vanguard of the conservation movement, but I have sought to give 1 1t permanence along lines reasonably within the spirit of present law and to secure adequate additional laws" He made equally emphatic denial of statement that his finn is known
 as he Standard Oil legal adviser in Seattle
 MT. Ballinger also made response to a charge that in granting rights of way to the Hill and Hartman roads through the Deschutes Canyon in Ore gon he had rendered impossible the construction of a power plant in the canyon. Admitting That the department had given it's approval 10 the applications,
 MT. Ballinger said that this course had been pursued under the law: and in pursuance of the wishes of the peo- l ple of the section affected but not
 without taking the precaution of in- serting a requirement. that when need
 ed for power plant purposes. each of the railroad comnanies should elevate l its tracks a hundred feet
 | But this action. he said insured to the neonle of central creeon ~esaret- ing lines of railroad aFd al the same