The Salt Lake tribune. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1890-current, 1910-03-11
THEIR BALLINGER. .PHOBIA,

1t is evident that Mr.. Garfield, ex-
Secretary Of the Interior, and Mr.. Pin
chot, cx.Chief. Of the Forestry Bureau,
are both suffering from extreme
cases of Ballingcr. .phobia. They arc,
also, clearly of the opinion that Presi-
dent Taft is n simple. minded person
who has been shamefully imposed upon
| by the wicked present Secretary OF the
Interior
| Mr.. Pinchot testified that Ballinger
had willfully deceived the President,
but when called upon TO specify, it ap.
peared that tho deception was with
Pinchot, who thought the President had
been furnished Only garbled letter,
when in fact he had the true version.
Again, when the cooperative agreement
between the Interior Department and
the Department of Agriculture was
terminated. it was Bullinger who had
done it, misleading the President as
10 the law; when the fact is, that it
was the First Comptroller of the Treas
ury who pronounced the agreement un-
lawful, and his opinion went direct to
IDENTIFY, Mr., Pinchot thought the Presi-
dent needed a guardian, and that he
himself ought to be that guardian.
And now Mr.. Garfield is Of the same
opinion as to the need Of a guardian
for the President, but thinks that he
himself should be the guardian Mr.
Garfield thinks that the $30,000,000
bonds proposed. TO be legally issued to
finish reclamation work, are not at nll
necessary He thinks that his Gear
field currency issued without war
rant of law, is ample, and besides. it
could be issued in unlimited quantities;
for when an issue has no foundation in
law upon which to rest, there can be
no limit fixed upon it. Here. again.
Mr.. Garfield thinks that tho President
was deceived by Secretary Ballinger.
it does not seem TO occur to Mr.. Gar
field that the President may know
the law and the facts; he does not
recall, evidently, the journey made last
fall through this region by the Presi-
dent, so that he could observe for him
self and otherwise get frst-hand infor-
nation He also seems to ignore the
fact that Mr.. Taft has performed cred
liable and long service on the Federal
bench, and fairly may be supposed not
to act upon onesded information, and
10 be capable of coming TO calm,
judicial judgment for himself And
when President Taft has evidently con-
sidered the whole case, including the
want of authority for the issue of the
Garfield certificates, it is worse than
ridiculous to say that he has been i'm
posed on by anybody. And when Mr.
Garfield gives it as his deliberate opin-
ion that Attorney General Wickersham
and President Taft "did not have the
proper facts before them when they
reached opinions adverse TO the legality
of the TGarfeld1 reclamation certiti-
Gates" he makes pitiable exhibition
Of himself 1t would be far more to
the purpose if he could show proper
authority in the law for the issue of
those certificates than to say that the
facts before them. Garfield as an
authority on law has never been heard
Of while both Taft and Wickersham
have long stood high rs expounders Of
the law.
The investigation in which this Pin
chot and Garfield testimony is brought
out is exceedingly valuable as demon
strating the disregard Of law habitual
with leading officials in the Roosevelt
administration, and the firmness with
which they hold to the view that their
acts must not be held to conformity
with law. Their resentment at the idea
that officials such as they were must
net within the law and not outside
Of it, is one of the most singular phe
nnmnnn of the times