The San Francisco call., 1910-03-02

! had, however, secured his permission
to write to Senator Dolliver."
The former forester ended his direct
testimony by saying:
! IF | had had 10 minutes with Presi-
dent Taft-if | had been accorded a
hearing-it would have been easier for
me to have convinced him that | had
been neither disrespectful or insubor-
dinate, and thus L could have avoided
the, necessity which he felt of relieving
me of the public service"
The cross examination of Pinchot
was delayed until Secretary Wilson,
who desire6 to take the stand at once,
could be heard. The grizzled old Off
cial, who holds the record for cabinet
service, was plainly agitated when he
took the oath as a witness, and when
he began to testify his voice was high
pitched and strained.
The secretary proved inpatient at
questions put to him on cross examina-
tion and became somewhat mixed as to
just what letters were being referred
| to by his questioners and resentful of
any inference other than his own that
they wished to draw from his testi-
mony
TAKES ISSUE WITH PINCHOT
Vertrees, counsel for Secretary Ball
linger, conducted the direct examina-
ton
You have heard what Pinchot has
said. Have you any statement to
maker he asked
Some of the things Pinchot has said
here-a good many of .them"--began
Secretary Wilson, are correct But
there are other things which are not
correct" The secretary brought his
fist DOWN on the table with a resound-
ing wflack He continued:
He never gotsmy. consent to send
that letter to the senate There are
two things in it that would have made
it impossible for me to give my con-
sent. He attempted to review and
judge the mental processes of the
president He assumed the authority
that was mine to discipline officers of
my department Pinchot says it was
January. that we talked of this mat
ter. There is no use making point
as to date. 1t may have been the Sd
or the 4th. We did have the talk
Mr.. Pinchot did not tell me he was
going to send letter dealing with the
president. ~He said he was going to
send somcAhing to Senator Dolliver re-
garding departmental ma tiers If he
had said he was. going to pass upon the
president. / don't think he would ever
have sent that letter. They kept this
Shaw business from me. L didn't
know anything about it,"
Secretary Wilson said he had tried
for two months to get report from
Pinchot on the alleged activity of the
forest service in the Galvis matter. He
said Pinchot kept delaying the report
:. And what did he finally bring me2''
the witness said.
He set Shaw and Price to work to
prepare a report to him for some reason
or other This report was nothing
more than their opinion of their own
work
Now, gentlemen, / know compara-
lively nothing of what you are con-
sidering here. / have read something
about it in the papers and know what
the president has said. Pinchot wants
you to believe that because / raised no
objection to his writing letters to Sena-
tor Dolliver regarding departmental
matters, he had a right to write what
he did. He had no such authority from
me. 1 knew nothing of it. The ques-
tion before this committee is Did he
have my consent to write that letter.
He did not. never saw 1T. I never
heard of it until read 1T in the Con-
gressional Record
WILSON DEFENDS PREsIDENA