Mountain Home maverick. [volume] (Mountain Home, Idaho) 1906-1911, 1909-11-25
(Alfred Henry Lewis in

human Lie.
Be it known that, speaking for my
self as to the merits of what con-
troversies are set forth below, my
feeling is upon the side of Mr.. Taft.
Mr.. Ballinger has had two fights.
Mr.. Taft as President was ex-ofii-
clio referee. He gave a decision in
both for Mr. Ballinger. It is upon
these decisions that all that adverse
criticism of Mr. Taft depends and
hangs as from book
Mr.. CLAWS, a subaltern of the In
terror Department, complained that
coal land frauds were afoot in Al
aska by which the public was threat
ened with the loss of hundreds Of
millions of dollars. Mr.. CLAWS said
that divers Cunninghams were being
employed in these frauds in the
capacity of what New York Citys
East Side call stalls" but that the
true parties in william interest, the
real bugs under those coal-land
fraud-chips, were the seven Guggen-
helms. all of them millionaires
smelter kings, one of them in that
milliOnaires' club, the Senate. Mr..
CLAWS explained that by turning
their convenient blind side to what
was so fraudulantly going forward,
Mr.. Ballinger and sundry of his un-
derchiefs were giving nefarious aid
and comfort to the Guggenheims,
alias Cunninghams.
Mr.. Taft, as / have stated, went
all through the situation with a
lantern, and decided against the
CLAWS assumption. AS under the
circumstances was not fitting, the
accusatory Mr.. CLAWS lost his Off
cial head Mr.. Ballinger and his
department are exonerated of the
charge of conniving with the Gug-
genheims, the Cunninghams, or any
one else to rob the nation of its
sooty rights in coal.
There was, or rather is, a Mr.. Pin
chot-a Mr.. Clifford Pinchot. He was
born rich, which is no good thing for
any man. Cradle-riches make one
opinionated, dictatorial, petty. They
destroy ones perspective, limit one
experience and therefore, one
powers of comparison. Worst OF all
they weaken ones fiber by removing
the reason for the work.
Mr.. Pinchot went to Harvard
which. if you are able to do, is
very good thing. There Mr.. Pinchoi
met Mr.. Roosevelt. 1t was a meeting
of moment to Mr.. Pinchot, since Il
very much nodded his career.
Mr.. Pinchot has fad. II IS trees
Fads are all right in private lie. II
public life they have to be watched
1t is no exaggeration to say ina
personally Mr.. Roosevelt really
/ loved Mr.. Pinchot. The latter was
honest. loyal clinging, vine-like
Mr.. Roosevelt was honest, self-reli
ant. sturdy, up-and-down as an OAK
MIR. Roosevelt, then, loved Mr.
Pinchot for Harvard as well as 1ol
himself. Never shall 1 forget the
beaming look of Mr.. Roosevelt wher
he presented me causally to MT
Pinchot.
"Pinchot." said he, slapping tina
fad-swept parsonage on the shoulder
lis in charge of my tree policy.
Mr.. Pinchot, officially as well az
privately. was raised a pet. He was
a favorite and trusted member o.
Mr.. Roosevelt's famous tennis
cabinet" l do not understand tina
Mr.. Pinchot was riotously populal
elsewhere than at the White House
That may have been born OF M
nearness to Mr.. Roosevelt. AS th'
poet Gray explains in what lines h'
tearfully commentaries the drown
inc Of his pet tabby cat and how
little the sad affair affected the
other animals, "a favorite has n'
friends"
AS forestry chief under Mr. Roose
Welt, Mr.. Pinchot did as he pleased
He dealt with the law as it should
have been done and not as it was
Full Of his tree fad, he carried for
estry as an element of government
to every exaggeration. He robbed
the present to enrich the future
and-so they say-took 1S0,0O0,0O'
acres out of public lands available
for settlement, and enthusiasticall.