The Washington herald., 1910-01-08

Letter Of President Taft 10 Clifford Pin
chOt. Forester OF the Agricultural De-
partment;
January g 1910
"slr: The Secretary Of Agriculture IN
forms me that the 18th Of December your
! associate forester. Mr.. Price. went to
him and proposed TO resign on the ground
that he had been engaged with Afr. Shaw
| assistant law Office, in instigating the
| publication in various newspapers and
magazines, attacking the good name or
| Secretary Ballinger and charging the In
terror Department and the Land Office
/ with corruption.
THE Secretary thereupOn wrote note
to you. under the date Of December 2,
asking for your recommendation in the
| premises. You did not answer. but on
! January you had q conversation with
/ him, In which you said you wished 10
make a statement which should be read
in the Senate at the same time that my
message transmitting the record in the
CLAWS case reached there, and that you
thought you could induce Senator Doln-
yer TO introduce the statement for you
The Secretary advised against such a
course; but asked you for a recommen-
dauOn as to accepting Prices resigna-
ton, in order that he might bring the
matter 20 me, 10 whom, he told you, il
must ultimately come, because 1 had
considered the CLAWS charges and had
passed upon them.
Cites Letter 10 DolIfVer.
without further conference with the
Secretary, and before making a report to
him, you succeeded in making public by
having Il read IN the Senate. a letter
from you stating that you had sufh-
GENTLY disciplined Messrs. Price and
Shaw by reprimanding them. and that
your recommendation would be that no
further punishment was required, and this
before that recommendation was submit
ted to the Secretary and me, whose power
and duty it was to determine upon Prices |
admissions TO his completely what action |
should be taken with respect to his resig-
nation.
In order to understand the full purport |
of your letter, in which you admit the |
completely Of Price and Shaw in the pub
lications OF the press, il should be said |
that the gravamen Of the CLAWS charges |
was that Secretary Ballinger and the |
others were all affected By corrupt wish |
to patent thirty-three so-called Cunning |
ham claims upon coal lands in Alaska; |
that the question whether these claims /
were fraudulent or not remained TO be /
decided upon the evidence after both the |
United States and the claimants had been |
heard; that every patent, as an Executive
act Is completely within the jurisdiction
Of the President 20 direct the withhold
ing of it in order that he himself may
examine the evidence as to the validity
OF the claim.
Criticises the Letter.
These facts, understand. the plain in
timations in your letter are, first, that I
had reached a wrong conclusion as to
the good faith of Secretary Ballinger and
the officers of the Land Office. although
YOU and your subordinates had only seen
the evidence Of CLAWS. the accuser, and
had never seen or read the evidence of
these accused or the records that they
disclosed which was submitted to me;
and, second, that under these circum-
stances. without the exploitation by
Messrs, Shaw and Price in the daily,
weekly. and monthly press of the charges
IF CLAWS, the administration, including
The President and the officers of the In
erior Department and Land Office, would
have allowed certain fraudulent claims
10 be presented on coal lands in Alaska,
although the matter had been specif1cal-
v brought to the attention OF the Presi-
lent by the Claws charges. You solicit
ID the opportunity to make such a decla-
-ation in Congress for the purpose Of OFF,
setting, If possible. In the public mind !