Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1910-02-15
Other Side of Controversy
With Pinchot to
Come Out.
COUNSEL ON THE JOB
VertreeS Takes Action After
CLAWS Puts Charge in
Concrete Form.

Washington Feb. 15.-To ascertain
whether or not L. R. CLAWS, accuser
of Secretary Ballinger, was the victim
of a frame up" in connection with the
finding at Seattle and various missing
official papers which II Is alleged Gla-
Wis failed to turn over to his successor
Attorney Vertrees. counsel for Ballin-
ger, requested that subpoenas issue
forthwith for A. Christensen, CLAWS
successor, and G. W. O'Ne1 Of Seattle.
Wants Others Called.
Ballinger's counsel later requested
that the committee summon as wit
nesses Miss Ella NJ. SharteH of Seat
tie. Special Agent Frank L. Spalding
of Cheyenne and W. w. Barr of Sc
attic.
CLAWS Cross Examined.
Washington. Feb. 15.-The BaIlin-
Ger-Pinchot congressional inquiry be-
gan to bristle with interest yesterday
when John J. Vertrees. counsel foT
Secretary Ballinger, undertook the
cross examination of Louis R. CLAWS.
principal witness for the "prosecu-
ton"
The climax of the day was reached
late in the afternoon session when Mr.
Vertrees announced that a box belong
ing TO Mr.. CLAWS and left in the grand
jury room at Seattle had been broken
open a few days ago and that a num-
Der of letters missing from the files of
the land Office in Seattle, copies of
which have recently been published in
a weekly paper, were found therein
Declares II EcFrame-Up.S
CLAWS angrily declared that If any
letters had been found in his belong
ings "a frame-up" had been prepared
against him. His denunciation of fed
eral officers who would stoop to such
a trick to win the favor of their SUI
periors called out demonstration of
applause from the spectators, which
<caused Chairman Nelson to announce
that a repetition of the outburst would
result in the room being cleared. /
Throughout the hearing the sympa-
thies of the spectators, a great ma
jority of whom are women, have clear |
ly been with CLAWS.
CLAWS Gives Charges.
At the afternoon session CLAWS. in
response to a question by Mr.. Yer
trees. summed up the specific acts of
wrongdoing which he charges against
Secretary Ballinger. His statement.
which was listened to with intense in
terest, for the first time gave a def
mite statement of the prosecutions /
case. He said:
THE first action I would cite is the
appearance of Mr.. BaIlinger in the
Wilson coal cases. His action of par
ticipation in the drawing up of an es-
crow agreement to turn over claims /
that should not have been proved up
and have not been proved up as a mat I
ter of fact was criminal. But the
statute of limitations has run and the
evidence is not quite clear. The rec /
ord speaks for itself.
Knew of Violations.
Another thing was Mr.. Ballinger's .
expressions in the summer of 1907 to (
/ Special Agent Jones when he knew /
that there had been violations of the
coal land laws-his statement that he .
was coming to Washington to see what .
congress could do to help the claim .
ants get patents.
His next action-one of the most
important going to show that he is not
lOydl u MS LTuSJ anu IIOI ldAlIllu4 "
the people-was this one: After Civ
ing me the full right and instructions
to make a full and complete investiga-
ltton of all the coal cases, he person
ally took up an old report by Special
Agent Love a few days after and delib-
erately ordered the Cunningham claims
to proceed to patent.
Favored Doubtful Bill.
Another evidence that Mr. Ballinger
was not trying to protect the peoples
rights was his appearance before the
public lands committee of the house
in favor of the Cole bill, which car
ried out the statement Ballinger made
to Jones that he would do what he
could to secure legislation which would
have enabled these fraudulent claim
ants to secure patents.
The next step Mr.. Ballinger took
was his unprofessional action IN de-
liberately going around and represent
Ing the other side after having been
commissioner of the land office and
having full knowledge of the charac-
ter of the Investigations we had made.
Asked CLAWS to Hold OF.
His next action consisted in his /
asking me in the fall of 1908, when he ]
was in politics and arranging for cam |
Gaign contributions 70 hold off my in