The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1910-05-14
Ballinger Wrote His
 Own Vindication and
 Taft Signed the Same
'(Continued from First Page. )

(Contlnued from First Page.)
 When congress asked for the rec
 ord which Taft had considered he in
 cluded among the documents de-
 cIsion of over 47,000 words by Attor-
 pey General Wickersham, but under
 the examination of Attorney Bran
 Geis, Ballinger has read a letter from
 Wickersham admitting that the de-
 clslon was not written for months
 after the Taft letter was signed
 More than that, not only was this
 moSt important document put falsely,
 In the record, but an equally import
 ant one was left out.
 The one that was left out was a
 letter written in the first person and
 very substantially the Taft letter, but
 dictated by Oscar Lawler, law officer
 in Ballinger's department.
 The story of this mysterious Law
 Ter memorandum is told by the man
 who typewrote it, Frederick M. Kirby,
 stenographer in Ballinger's office.
 He said: There is a passage in the
 Taft letter which certainly embodies Law1er's thought: The responsibility of the cabinet positions demands the selection therefore of men of the highest character and integrity Pos session of these qualities, as we'll as an ability and experience which es- pecially fitted you to direct the af- fairs of the department of the in terior, warranted your appointment as secretary.
 Tn general, Taft softened Lawler's draft and doubtless very materially changed the wording, in that he sub St1tuted for certain Lawler phrases phrases of his own meaning the same thing.
 | sion of the letter I will take up the events of the evening we drew the hnal draft and made ready to go to the President at Beverly. We-that | is Massey and had finished com pairing the final drafts, Massey took the four copies of the final draft one original and three carbons-and first fastened each together with a McGin fastener. I remember parti- l cularly about it because we two talk ed over the proper way to fasten the | sheets together.
 'Just about that time MT. Lawler came into our room and asked if the drafts were ready. Massey then ask ed him what disposition should be
 made of the rough drafts.
 Massey had carefully preserved all | these. MT. Carr came into the room l about this time. Four of us-Law- Ter, Carr, Massey and myself-con- | ferred as to what should be done with the rough drafts-what was the | best way to dispose of them. Lawler said that it wouldn't be safe to trust | them to the waste basket. Then | think it was Carr who declared that | they ought to be burned. After we l lad discussed the matter for a while | it was decided to go to room 215 and destroy the papers in the grate. That | room was formally notified by us. | E. C.. Figney, assistant to the secre- | tary, has his office there now. There | is closed grate in the room and I suppose that is the reason why the 1 EaperS weren't burned in the fire | place in the secretarys office where iC otT org Ia member that this was actually de- | stroyed and yet I seem to have a recollection that the reason we didn't go into that room was because the papers would make too many ashes" " The young stenographer gives a vivid description of the burning of the ori- ginal draft of the vindicatiOn, as fol- lows:
 There was Lawler and Carr, and Massey and myself. I am dead sure that MT. Lawler went in with us. can swear that Carr was there. The papers were put in the grate and somebody touched a match to them. 1 don't remember who it was who light eds the match. I know it was not as 1T don't smoke and never carry matches. I think it was Carr. "The papers blazed up and burned l fiercely. We stood around the fire | place and watched ' the smoke curl
 around the pages and the fire lick | up line after line of typewriting. We | did not leave until every bit of paper 1 had been consumed and the drafts 1 were reduced to a mass of black ashes. | This was between 10 and 10:30 on the | night of Friday, September 10th. Af- I ter burning up all pieces of the drafts | we all went back into our offices | Massey and I to the reception room | (room 21O and the final finished cop- | ies were handed to MT. Law1er He | took the copies with him into the sec
 retary's room.
 | "No, I don't think that the secre- | tary witnessed the burning of the pa | pers. I am pretty sure that he was around and in his room. At any rate 1 MT. Lawler took them into the secre- l tarys room.
 | "A few minutes later he came out | through our office, in company with | Secretary Ballinger, I think. Carr | was waiting out in the room with | us. The secretary's carriage was wait | ing out in front of the office and Lawler and Ballinger and Carr | think all drove to the station.
 MT. Lawler bid us all good bye | and Massey and I wished him a good | trip. Sometime after this MT. Lawlel | left for the west
 1 When I told Carr that I had des- ! troyed my notebooks I was honest in | that statement. I believed that I had l You sec I'd been in the government