The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1910-01-10
PINCHOT HAS JUST
BEGUN THE FIGHT
Depesed Chief Forester Sought
Dismissal PurpoSely
CENTER OF RISING STORM
Not in Many Years Have Political
Conditions Been in Such Mud
die and Enemies of Pinchot
Are Very Active.
CENTER OF RISING STORM

''Pinchot," said a friend of the former
chief forester, who was dismissed from
the government service Friday. is just
beginning to fight"
Out of the chaos that followed this crisis
in the Ballinger- Pinchot affair there
comes one clear fact, namely, that the
former chief forester deliberately put
himself in the way of dismisssl-under-
standing that it would come sooner or
later-in order that he might go into the
Ballinger investigation free Of official OBJ
legations and fully equipped to make the
fight which he believes is necessary to
save the Roosevelt policy of national con-
servation.
Over night the political sensation fol-
lowing Mr. Pinchots dismissal did not
subside any. On the contrary, Pinchot to-
day was the center of a constantly rising
storm. the end Of which no one can fore
see, Already, however, republicans are
separating Into two camps. News from
over the country is to the same effect 1t
is not an exaggeration to say that the
republican party has been badly split.
Since that day when the Taft administra-
ton was only two days old that Secre-
bdillQReT
predecessor, Secretary OF the Interior Gar
field, restoring TO entry large tract OF
land set aside for conservation purposes,
the fire has been smouldering. The CLAW
is charges famed 1t into blaze and
now with the dismissal of Pfnchot the
confiagration has gone beyond control
Very Bad Middle.
Not ia a decade have political conditions
II h.
lican party splitting up into hostile
camps represented by the Taft and the
Pinchot or Roosevelt followers, with the
insurgent espousing the Pinchot side and
hurting Speaker Cannon from his high
post, with a fight brewing in the Senate
next Monday on the plan, method and
scope of the Ballinger inquiry, with the
Senate old guard planning TO set Can
non on his feet again and rumors abroad
that the President is perfectly willing to
have the speaker kept PROSTATE, with
Pinchot receiving hundreds of congratu-
lations in person and by wire on his
disgrace" with no man knowing where
his brother stands and all Of them afraid
to talk lest the situation be further com
plicated, it is clear at least that President
Taft is harried as no President in the first
year of his administration has ever been
harried before.
First of all, it is generally agreed that
Pinchots dismissal necessarily followed
the reading of his letter to Senator Dol
liver IN the Senate the other day. But
this does not carry the friends of the
President very far. in fact. that the
friends Of Pinchot declare that he knew
when he wrote the letter that he would
be dismissed and this was what he was
aiming at; namely, a fat, outright dis
missal.
Pinchot Is Cheerful.
Pinchot is the only man in political
circles today who apparently is cheerful
and happy He received an ovation when
he left the office finally this evening.
having turned over his post to George
| P. Mccabe, solicitor for the agricultural
department, who will remain in charge
until the arrival of Albert f. Potter,
assistant forester, who has been teIe-
graphed to return to Washington at
once and who will act as chief forester
until a successor to Mr.. Pinchot has
finally been selected.
Mr. Pinchot declined to say word on
his dismissal II may have something
to say later he announced with a smile.
The prospect Of the later utterances
by Mr.. Pipchot is not pleasing to Taft's
friends. They are worried over the sit
uation and frankly admit it. They are
building on the hope that in five or six
months the matter will blow over and
Pinchot's dismissal be forgotten by the
people.
But in. this they have figured without
thought of the investigation of the In
terror department and of the forestry
service. This investigation is now bound
10 come; the friends of Pinchot will not
permit it to be smothered. 1t will drag
along for months, a bleeding wound or
a running sore in the flesh of the Or
notwithstanding to developments. 1t
is certain that Pinchot and his friends
will make the investigation sufficiently
interesting to hold the public attention.
Hope of Opposition.
The only hope of the opponents of Pin
chot is that the investigation will bring
forth facts that will destroy public faith
in the forestry service. There are many
rumors floating about administration cir
cles that Secretary Ballinger is in pos
session of startling facts concerning the
forestry service. Mr. Ballinger has been
only too willing to publish these facts
| but has been held silent by the Presi-
dent. In the Investigations the facts
will be developed and the Ballinger
people say wait and see.''
Into every nook and Granny of Pin
chots private life, his enemies have
reached for months to find weak place
in his armor Of probity and unselfish pub
| lie service. They have found he has
money invested in the Pocahontas coal
fields of West Virginia. They argue that
| his interest in the Alaskan coal fields
| grows from his desire to PR vent their
| development because 1t will lessen the
value of his coal mine holdings. This
/ is all that has been discovered and wiser
heads among them counsel silence on the
Il a