Ladysmith news-budget. [volume] (Ladysmith, Rusk County, Wis.) 1907-1927, 1910-05-27
CHARGES OF HIS sTENooRAPHER
AWKWARD FOR SECRETARY
OF INTERIOR.
WHO WROTE CLAWS LETTER?
kerby's Statement Both Sensational
and Serious - Senator Aldrlch
Saves His Political Face by
Yielding to Frogresslves
on Railway Bill.

onerating Ballinger from the CLAWS
charges and dismissing CLAWS from
the service was prepared in the office
OF the secretary of the interior by
Oscar Lawler and the final draft was
the result of a conference at which
Don c. Carr. secretary to Mr.. Bal
l1nger; Fred bennett, commissioner
of the general land Office; Chief OF
the Field Service. Schwartz; and First
Assistant Secretary of the Interior
Frank Pierce participated. Ballinger
himself read the rough draft of the
letter aloud. 1t was freely criticized
by the others and the final draft was
only adopted after it had been dis
cussed In It's every detail.
Mr.. Kerby also charges that the
rough draft of the letters was burned
in the CRATE in a room of the interior
department and that the suggestion
that they be thus destroyed was made
by Don G. Carr, private secretary to
the secretary of the interior. Mr..
Kerby made a signed statement to
this effect.
$1,000
been endeavoring to secure the orig
inal of the letter which passed be-
tween Secretary Ballinger and the
president and was the basis Of the
letter of the president of September
ID. When the papers were originally
called for by the investigating COM
mittee the president transmitted all
of the papers and for the first time
gave publicity to the Wickersham
opinion. Within the week Attorney
General Wickersham has verified the
statement that this opinion was not
in existence at the time that the pres
ident's letter was prepared but that
it was written some time afterward.
AS a matter of fact 1t was written
about two months after the presi-
dents letter had been made public.
ealiinger's Queer Statement.
In the testimony before the COM
mittee, Secretary of the Interior Bal
linger denied that he had possession
of a copy of the Lawler letter. Ac-
cording to the statement of Frederick
Kerby, Mr. Ballinger not only partici-
pated in the preparation of this let
ter, but there were three carbon
copies of it retained in the interior
department, and Mr.. Kerby himself
put a copy of the letter attached to
the Cunningham record in one of the
files in the interior department. It
remained in the file where he had
placed it until about a month ago,
when he noticed that it had disap-
peared. Some time after he had filed
the letter he stated that Mr.. Carr
came to him and to Mr.. Massey, an
other stenographer, and informed
them that Mr.. Brandeis wanted the
stenographer's notebooks covering the
period of the letter. Mr.. Kerby said
that it was his custom to destroy his
notebooks and he told Carr that he
thought that his books were destroyed
but that Massey kept every notebook
and that he probably had his. Carr
In laughing way said: Well. Mas
sey. think 1t would be a mighty good
idea for you to lose those notebooks"
Mr.. Kerby later found his notebook
containing the original draft of the
letter which Oscar Lawler carried
from Washington to Beverly and
which was used as the basis of the
Taft letter dismissing CLAWS from the
service.
Matter is Serious.
The statement of Kerby, which in eff
feet charges an effort to do away with
public documents, is the most sensa-
tional and serious charge that has
been made in connection with the
whole MISUNDERSTANDING con-
troversy. The whole controversy
hinges about the fact that in the
secretary of the interiors office or
ders were issued to clear list the
fraudulent Cunningham coal claims
and to give them to the Morgan-Gug-
genheim syndicate of Alaska.
In keeping from the public informa-
ton in regard to this whole plan and
in misleading the president with ref
erence to the actual facts, the state
ment of Mr.. Kerby as to what &C.
Cured in the Office has had the eff
feet to convince those who previously
doubted of the truth of the conten-
lions of Mr.. Pinchots friends that the
secretary Of the interiors office was
manipulated in the interests of the
Morgan-Guggenheim syndicate.
Aldrich Forced to Submit.
Following their victory in compelling
the withdrawal of the sections of the
rate bill legaliZing traffic agreement
and railroad mergers the Progressives
compelled the writing of the long-and-
short-haul clause into the pending bill
in the senate.
Although Senator Aldrich was adroit
enough to avoid test vote his defeat
was none the less complete. He made
a mastery retreat, but he left the
field in full control of the Progress
sives.
When the time for final action ar
rived in the senate there were pend
ing several long-and-short-haul amend
ments, proposed by Senators Hepburn,
Dixon and Cummins. Republicans: