The Spokane press. [volume] (Spokane, Wash.) 1902-1939, 1910-03-27
HE MAY HAVE ERRED
"PINCHOT VAIN AND FLAT
TERED BY HIS OWN PUB
LIClTY BUREAU"

= ing; attempting to assassinate .
= Mr.. BaIlinger's good name; =
=. suspicious by nature and per- .
. verted until it is here folly =
. and there a reproach. .
. The resentment of a dis .
. credited public servant and =
. "the program of an unscrupu- .
. lous political intrigue" =
. The Pinchot service: .
= On March d, 1909, there =
= came the reign of law; before =
. it was the reign Of men. .
. q = q . = = = . = = = . . . .
(By United Press Leased Wire)
WASHINGTON, March 2o.-The
defense had its first inning today
at the congressional inquiry into
the Ballinger-Pinchot controversy.
Attorney Vertrees, chief counsel
for the secretary of the interior,
in statement presenting his case,
poured out the walls OF his wrath
upon Clifford Pinchot, former forest
err, and L. r. CLAWS, former chief
of the Seattle field division of the
land office, the two principals in
the prosecution. He answered the
charges against BaIIinger in terms
of bitter denunciation on the one
hand and warm recommendation of
the secretary on the other.
The Pinchot-Glavis side finished
its case shortly after the luncheon
recess. Attorney Brandeis at that
time made a second Intellectual at
tempt to force the committee to
force BaIlineer to testify as the
first witness for the "defense," but
the committee overruled the re-
quest, as it previously decided
against demand by Brandeis that
he he allowed to call Ballinger as a
witness for the prosecution.
Attorney Vertrees then began his
opening statement, which he read
from carefully prepared manu-
script.
when Mr.. Ballinger has been
heard" said Attorney Vertrees, "it
will be seen that true conservation
has no steadier supporter than he.
He holds that conservation is not a
thing of caprice, but of law; that
| those who have already been born
and now breathe have rights as
we'll as those yet to be born and
! to breathe.
| Mr. Ballinger did restore vast
sections of domain under one pre-
| tense or another. He still believes
/ he was right, but if he erred. he
denies ii is an error for which the
good faith of his official action
should be questioned at the in
stance of those who would sub
stitute opinion for law
The evidence now to be offered
will make all things so clear, so un-
deniably clear and so plain that
this committee will cast about to
discover how it is that men who
knew as much OF the truth as Pin
chot and CLAWS and Garfield and
Davis and Newell knew, could have
the daring to present themselves as
sincere. honest harborers of a sus-
picion, much less as persons really
believing that they had knowledge
of inculnatory facts.
CLAWS, suspicious by nature be-
, came perverted by detective ser
vice, until apparently he has be-
| come incapable of fair judgment.
| "Mr Pinchot, vain and flattered
as chief Of the forest service by his
own publ city bureau. had come TO
regard himself as the most impor-
tant personality in the department
of agriculture.
| Conservation, like all sound doc
! trines. when preached by the vain,
self-seeking had become perverted
until il was here folly ana there a
reproaCh, Reclamation and CON
| servation believing, toured hand in
hand. and those who read. and those
who think, appear to see great for
ests spring up like Jonah's gourd in
a night. and vast reclamation pro
| iects established not only where
projects can and ought rightfully to
flourish, but at every power site
which a missionary might describe
Combining these doctrines. their
chiefs swept all aside that stood in
their way Cooperative agreements,
cooperative certificates, range
schools, wholesale Withdrawals of
the peoples lands became the
vogue.
BUDAPEST, H,pgary-Riot of