New Ulm review. (New Ulm, Brown County, Minn.) 1892-1961, 1910-06-22
Ballinger and Taft.


"Glavis," says Golfers Weekly
in summing up the revelations of the
Ballinger inquiry, ''was an obscure
young government employee; he ad
dressed formal communication to
the President of the United States,
charging that his superior, Mr.. Bal
linger, was expediting the transfer Of
valuable lands to The Guggenheims.
Taft read the charges. He consulted
Ballinger and Wickersham. Then he
tipped CLAWS off like a fly from his
sleeve: to Ballinger he gave that pom
porous sweeping letter of exculpation
and Endorsement intended to be a
permanent seal of sanctity, to refute
all present charges against Ballinger
and to make future ones impossible
such a document as man hands down
to his grandchildren. This was on
Sept. Is - bear the day in mind, for
in disentangling the truth from this
mass of suppression and evasion, ex-
act dates are important.
"Then Taft went his august way
among the people, on that two months
journey of defence and glorifcation
of Aldrich, Payne and the tariff.
By every law the Ballinger episode
was finished, settled, closed. CLAWS
ought to have crawled off to his quiet
corner in obscurity; but the injustice
done him found him powerful friends;
his side of case was presented to the
public; the wheels that would finally
grind out the truth were slowly be-
ginning to revolve; the people refused
to accept the presidents word; finally
congress met, and on day in Deem
Der the senate passed a resolution
calling upon the president to furnish
to the senate all reports, statements,
papers or documents upon which he
acted in reaching his conclusions.
The president had before him some
"reports, statements and documents"
on which he had depended in reaching
his conclusions, but it was felt that
they were hardly sufficient to satisfy
public scrutiny. One of them it
wasn't considering wise to let the Sc
nate or the public see at all - it was
the original draft of Taft's letter,
written by Lawler, Ballinger's friend
and subordinate and CLAWS personal
enemy. So Wickersh am, on a Deem
Der day, sat down and began writing
a document whose ninety pages it took
him three weeks to complete. It took
up all the CLAWS charges and ended
with the statement that his charges
"are so unjust and unfounded
as to merit his i'm mediate separation
from the SERVICE" This, mind you,
full three months after CLAWS had
been "separated from the service"
by presidential order. Having
finished this document, Wickersham
wrote at it's top the date ''Sept. II.
1909" This was two days before the
presidents letter ofSept. Is. because it
was necessary to make it appear that
the president had had sufficient time to
analize and digest these ninety pages
that were not to be written until three
months later. This document, for
mally addressed to the president, was
sent to the senate as one of the
documents on which the president
has ''acted in reaching his conclu-
sions.'
That should have closed the Incl
dent again. But crime has difficulty
in concealing itself - and this cooked
up process of making a Dreyfus out
of CLAWS in the interest of Ballinger
and Guggenheim was crime. Kerby
let it out that Lawler, Ballinger's
friend and Glavis's enemy, had pro-
vided the draft on which the presi-
dents letter was based. The president
and Wickersham had to admit that
the Wickersham letter of Sept. IL. on
which the president was supposed to
have based his decision wasn't writ
ten until December. It was necessary
to admit that the presidents letter it,
self was based upon a draft prepared
by Ballinger's friend and Glavis's
enemy.
Here, according to Golfers, is the
moral: s'If you haven't got the docu-
ments, make them.
scared into Sound Health
Mr.. B. F. Kelley, Springfield, ILL.,,
writes: "a year ago began to be
| troubled with nv kidneys and bladder.