The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1910-02-26

noon, read a statement before the
committee before being sworn in
which he charged Secretary Balling-
er with falsehood and disloyalty to
President Taft and declared that Mr..
Ballinger should be dismissed from
the service. The statement follows:
What I desire to lay before the
committee is a consecutive story of
my experience with Mr.. Ballinger in
relation to the conservation of natural
resources. Among several other mat
ters there are three of principal i'm
portance to be called to your atten-
ton.
THE first of these concerns the
policy devised and inaugurated by the
last administration, of protecting
against monopolistic control the wat
er power sites owned by the people.
Il shall show you that Secretary
Ballinger entered his office with the
clear determination to make short
work of that policy; that he reversed
it so far as he was allowed to do so;
that he restored the power sites to
entry without the remotest idea of
withdrawing them and that finally,
when 1 charged him last autumn to
the president with being an enemy of
the policy of conservation. he cap
ped the climax by giving to the pres
conduct that was essentially false.
The Second Charge.
''The second had to do with my con-
nection as government officer with the
Cunningham coal cases and with the
CLAWS charges. I shall show you how
these cases ana how CLAWS submitted
his facts to me. I believed then, as 1
believe now, that he told the truth.
81 am convinced now as 1 was when
ne came to ne, that CLAWS was a
faithful public servant and that the
facts which he presented prove that
Mr.. Ballinger has been unfaithful to
his trust as a servant of the people
and as the guardian of public property
of enormous value.
''I shall show you that since learn
cd the facts you have heard from
CLAWS and others, which am about to
Law before yoI. 1 have acted ad1ly
in the light of them. as it was my duty
both as a public officer and as a citi-
zen to do. I shall show you that in
pursuance of that duty I laid before
the president both by word of mouth
and in a letter of November 4, state
ment of my conviction. that Secretary
Ballinger has been a dangerous enemy
to conservation.
"I shall show you that this letter
was submitted by the president to Mr..
Ballinger and as part of his reply, he
laid before the president a statement
concerning the Cunningham coal cases
which statement is shown by undis-
puted documentarv evidence to be alb
solutely false in three essential particu
lars. It will then appear that Mr.. Bal
Iinger wilfullv deceived the president
and was disloval to him.
The Third Charge.
'The third principal matter is con-
cerned with me attitude of this gov
ernment in Jaw and administrative
practice toward the conservation of
the natural resources belonging to the
people.
II desire to show that the story of
Claws courageous and successful fight
to protect the property of the people,
which ended in his dismissal without a
hearing, is but single chapter in the
history of the public lands. shall show
you that under our present law and
practice the more difficult task falls on
those who would protect the public
property and not on those who would
despoil it and that under the present
system the betrayal into monopolistic
control of what belongs to all of us is
= hade easy and often in practice, in
evitable.
The imperative duty before this
country is not merely to get rid of an
unfaithful public servant. A far more
important duty is to bring about a
fundamental change in the law and the
practice toward conservation to pre-
vent for the future what has been in
the past the almost inevitable sacrifice
of the public welfare and to make pos