The Salt Lake tribune. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1890-current, 1910-05-15
DID TAFT ONLY
SIGN LETTER !?
Continued from Page One.

NesUlEHllnp COnlmlDtecs
President Taft S letter begins as fol
lows
On the 18th day Of August last Mr..
l.. r. CLAWS, chief of field division of
the general land office, with headquar
tcrs at Seattle, Wash, called upon me
here and submitted statement or re-
port relating to the conduct Of the in
terror department and particularly to
the action of Yourself. Assistant Secre
tary Pierce, Commissioner of the Gen
eral Land Office Depnett and Chief of
Field Service Schwartz in reference to
the so'called Cunningham report Of coal
land claims in Alaska
Tho first paragraph Of the Lawler
memorandum is substantially identical.
The seventh paragraph Of the presi-
dents letter and the second of the
Lawler letter are those referred to by
Attorney General Wickersham as alike,
Both read rs follows:
Similar Paragraphs.
''The great responsibility of the
cabinet positions demands the selection
thereof Of men Of the highest charac,
ter and integrity. Possession Of these
qualities as well as an ability and ex-
perience which especially fitted you to
direct the affairs of the department of
the interior, warranted your appoint
ment as secretary. Duty to the coun.
try, TO you and myself requires that
any aspersjon upon the propriety of
your acts or those Of your subordinates
be promptly met and carefully consid.
cred, to the end that if justified, proper
remedy may be applied, and if not, that
it be publicly refuted -
The last phrase in the Lawler para
graph read. "And if not that, it may
be. squarrely, emphaticnlly and publicly
Here the similarity ends,
Tho president, in his letter, speaks
of the inference which CLAWS seeks to
draw to Ballinger's discredit that while
he was commissioner of the land office
he came into possession of facts con
| cernlng the so-called Cunningham group
of coal land claims which made it ''im-
proper for You TO use such facts after
your resignation in the course of So
curing patents,
"Came into possession Of facts which
were, after your resignation, used TO
! the detriment of the government in the
course of private employment by some
Of the parties interested in such
claims.
Contrast in Text
The president says another inference
is "that you have acted improperly
since you became secretary of tho inte-
rior in reference to the Cunningham
|
to interfere with Mr., CLAWS s efforts
to defeat the claims.
Lawler SAYS: ''You have acted i'm
properly since becoming secretary of the
| interior in reference to the considera-
tlon of the Cunningham cases. the I'M
propriety arising out of the fact Of your
having been consulted by parties in
terested therein after your retirement
as commissioner and before being ap-
| DOlUtod secretary. -
Mr.. Taft s letter says: "The whole
record shows that Mr.. CLAWS was hon
estly convinced Of the illegal character
of the claims in the Cunningham group,
and that he was seeking evidence to
defeat the claims.
such honest intent, stating: "The re-
ports and records have been carefully
examined and therefrom ! find that not
only are the differences without lustl-
fication. but that CLAWS has been
guilty Of perversion and suppression
! of truth amounting to actual mlsrep'
resentatlon.
Some Similarity.
Mr.. Taft, in his letter. authorizes
| Ballinger to dismiss CLAWS for fihnG
"disingenuous statement, unlustly
impeaching the official integrity OF his
superior officers.
Lawler calls his statement 'disin.
genuous and colored, seeking, through
| inuendo and Inference. to create a
suspicion of improper conduct on the
part OF his superiors, by recital OF lso'
| lated circumstances, disassoclated from
! the surrounding facts, and quotations
and detached letters and kilograms
without reference to the communion
tion to which they were replies, or 10
responses elected to them
The Iawler document Is very much
larger than the entire Taft letter and
deals exclusively with the Alaskan coal
claims, while only about half of the
Taft letter refers to the Claws charges
the balance relating TO the forestry con
troversy 10 which Lawler hardly re-
fers at all The Lawler draft totals
upwards of 5000 words; that of the
president makes about $500,
"I made the facts public because
had decided that loyalty TO Mr.. Bal
linger did not Justify disloyalty to the
country said Frederick NJ Kerby to
night He added that in view OF what
he had heard Of "snake killing he
assumed he would be dismissed from the
state department.
! off the secretary Of the interior be
lieves that my statements of the facts,
he continued. "calls for my separation
from the service. it is up TO him.
have only stated the facts. He has
said that he wants the truth of all
the facts. 7 have only made my con
tribution of what he had failed tc
make public.
In response to question as TO what
he would do in case he lost his posi-
ton, Kerby said:
ct have had personal assurance from
others than those to whom | gave the
information that they would do the
best they could for me in case l was
dismissed He declined to say from
whom he received the assurance
Mr.. Kerby said that the question had
not been an easy one to decide from an
ethical and moral standpoint.
Notwithstanding considerable pres
sure from newspaper representatives,
he said. "I had refused to make the
story public, believing that the proper
course was to wait until j could be
called as witness, but the attitude OF
tho committee in practically shutting
off the inquiry regarding the memoran
dunn by Lawler, convinced me that the
only course to adopt to make the facts
public would be to give il to the press =