Daily Kennebec journal., 1910-06-14


department has been characterized by
lack Of fidelity to the public interest;
that Mr.. Ballinger Is responsible not
merely technically and officially but
substantially and actually, for "the en-
tire series of unhappy events" and
that the President would never have
found himself irrevocably committed
to an endorsement of the secretary had
h. not at critical point been sue
cessfully deceived" as 10 the real sig
nificance OF what was happening in
the department.
although the administration Of
which Mr.. Ballinger was a part was
avowedly committed the brief de-
clares. ito a continuation of the policy
adopted under President Roosevelt OF
protecting from monopolistic exploita-
ton the water power sites belonging to
the people, Mr.. Ballinger wilfuliy
struck that policy staggering blow
by hastily restoring to entry power
sites withdrawn by Garfield. thus plac-
ing them within reach of uncontroiled
private acquisition where they would
remain today but for the Intervention
of the President"
"By neglect of duty and by positive
action adverse to his trust In the past
Mr.. Ballinger has seriously endanser
ed public rights to our Alaskan coai
lands. His present course and the at
titude constitute menace to the peo-
ple's interests" says Mr.. Pepper In
summing up his description OF Bal
lingers coal land policy.
AS regards the secretary's attitude
toward forest lands, Mr.. Pepper de-
clares that lin the two instances where
Mr.. Ballinger, as secretary, has to 90
with the administration of the national
forests. he has sacrificed the public in
terests in petty manifestations of hos
tility to the forest service" He says
that care for the public interests in
the reclamation of arid lands has been
subordinated by Mr.. Ballinger to per-
sonal considerations to such an extent
as to result in great decentralization
and loss of efficiency in the reclamation
service.
"It is obvious that Mr. Balllnger
took whatever action was taken in the
department. In all that his subordl-
mates have done they have simply re-
f1ected the wishes and desires OF tnelr
chief. Director Newell and Engineer
Davis of the reclamation service alone
have insisted upon placing RESPONSE
bility where it belongs instead of sac
rificing righteousness to desire to re-
lieve a superior from embarrassment.
The Pepper brief quotes from the
record at great length as going to
show that Mr.. Ballinger misled the
President in presenting to him his own
relation to the Alaskan coal cases, in
explaining his course in restoring pow
er sites and his attitude toward the
reclamation service. Mr.. Pepper con-
tends that the President certainly
would have taken some vigorous ac-
ton to save the efficiency of the re-
clamation service when Pinchot charg-
ed that it was in danger of disintegra-
ton from Ballingers administration.
had he not been misled by the secre-
tary'S assertion that no intimations
Of trouble had ever come to him from
the chief officers of that service. As
serting that the original charge of re-
ception made against Ballinger has
been corroborated by his conduct on
the witness stand. Mr.. Pepper says
that Ballinger was compelled to take
direct issues of veracity with different
witnesses and that his statements on
the stand were in a number of in
stances contradicted by admissions
subsequently wrung from him on
cross-examination or by the terms of
documents subsequently produced.
After discussing the legal questions
involved in the controversy Mr. Pep
per enters into what he terms "a cor
rection of the misconceptions Of the
aims and methods" of cOnservationists
reiterated throughout the hearings by
Ballinger and his associates.
There could be no greater mistake
than to say that Mr.. Pinchot holds the
view regarding the conservation Of
coal that the present generation must
shiver in order that posterity might be
warm; conservation does mean pro-
vision for the future, but it means also
and first of all. the recognition of the
right of the present generation to the
fullest necessary use of all the re-
sources of the country" He said the
first principle of conservation was de-
Velopment, the second the prevention
of waste and the third the development
of natural resources for the benefit of
the many and not merely for the profit
of the few.