The Miller press. [volume] (Miller, S.D.) 190?-current, 1910-03-03
DECLARES INTERIOR DEPT CHIEF
SHOULD BE oUsTEp FROM
v. S. SERVICE.
PINCHOT GIVES HOT SHOT
power Sites From Monopolistic
Control and Was DisIoyal
to Taft.

washington, ID. Clifford Pin
chot, taking the witness stand at the
Ballinger-Pinchot inquiry, read a state
ment to the committee before being
sworn, in which he charged Secretary
Ballinger with falsehood and disloyal-
ty to President Taft and declared that
Ballinger should be dismissed from
the service. The statement follows:
What / desire to lay before the
committee is a consecutive story of
my experience with Secretary of the
Interior Ballinger in relation to the
conservation of natural resources.
Among several other matters there
are three of principal importance to
be called to your attention.
Enemy Of Roosevelt Policy.
THE first of these concerns the
policy devised and inaugurated by the
last administration of protecting
against monopolistic control the water
power sites owned by the people. l
shall show you that Secretary Bal
linger 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 with
u the remotest idea of re~-withdraw-
ing them, and that, finally, when l
charged him last autumn to the presi-
dent with being an enemy of the
policy Of conservation, he capped the
climax by giving to the president HIM
self an explanation of his conduct that
was essentially false.
The second has to do with my con-
nection as a government officer with
the Cunningham coal Eases and with
the CLAWS charges. | shall show you
how the forest service became in
volved in these cases and how CLAWS
submitted his facts to me. l believed,
as | am convinced now as I was when
he came to me, that CLAWS was a
faithful public servant and hat the
facts which he presented prove that
Secretary Ballinger has been unfaith-
full to his trust as a servant Of the peo-
pie and as the guardian of public prop
erty of enormous value.
BaIIinger Dangerous, He Says.
Il shall show you that since I
learned the facts you have heard from
CLAWS and others, which / am about to
lay before you, | have acted steadily
in the light of them, as it was my
duty, both as a public officer and as
a citizen, to do. | shall show you that
in pursuance of that duty / laid before
the president, both by word and
mouth and in a letter of Nov. 4, a
statement of my conviction that Sec
rotary Ballinger has been a dangerous
enemy to conservation.
Il shall show you that this letter
was submitted by the president to
Secretary Ballinger and that as part
of his reply he laid before the presi.
lent a statement concerning the Gun.
ningham coal cases, which statement
is shown by i~ndisputed documentary
evidence to be absolutely false in three
essential particulars. 1t will then ap-
pear that Secretary Ballinger wilfully
deceived the president and was dis.
loyal to him.
"The third principal matter is con.
cerned with the attitude of this gov
eminent in law and administrative
practice toward the conservation of
the natural resources belonging to the
people. / desire to show you that the
story of CLAWS courageous and sue,
cessful fight to protect the property
of the people, which ended in his dis
missal without a hearing, is but a
single chapter In the history of the
public lands. I 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 1t.
and that under the present system the
betrayal into monopolistic control of
what belongs to all of US is made
easy, and often, in practice, inevitable.