Omaha daily bee., 1910-02-15
Documents from Land Office Files
Found in Claws Effects.
AVS STORY IS A TRAME-UP."
DenunciatiOn of Alleged Trick Brings
Applause from Spectators.
AGAINST BALLINGER
witness Makes Specific statement of
Alleged Acts of WronsdOInE on
Part of the Sec-
retnry.

WASHINGTON, Feb. 14-The BalIinger- /,
Pinchot congressional inquiry began to
brstle with interest today, when John j.
Vertrees, counsel for Secretary Ballinger,
undertook the cross examination Of Louis
r. CLAWS, principal witness for the prose
cution."
The climax Of the day was reached late
In the afternoon session, when Mr. Yer
trees announced that a box belonging to
Mr.. CLAWS and left in the grand jury room
at Seattle had been broken open few
days ago and that number OF letters
missing from the files of the land office
in Seattle, copies OF which have recently
been published in a weekly paper, were
found therein.
CLAWS angrily declared that II any let
ters had been found in his belongings a
"frameup" had been prepared against
HIM His denuncation of federal Off
cials who would stoop to such a trick to
secure the favor OF their superior called
out demonstration Of applause from the
spectators which caused Chairman Nelson
to announce that repetition Of the out
burst would result in the room being
cleared.
Gallery with CLAWS.
Throughout the hearing the sympathies
of the spectators, a great majority of
whom are women, have clearly been with
CLAWS and they have laughed with satis-
faction as he has made points against
his questioners, who in the past were
members of the cmmittee and today were
counsel for Mr. Ballinger.
Mr.. Vertrees announced that c. A.
Christensen, Claws successor as chief of
field division, would be called to testify
in evidence a letter from christensen
giving the details of the alleged discovery
and the committee got into a long wrangle
as to whether or not 1t should be received
in evidence at this time. The matter was
put over for consideration tomorrow In
executive session. {-.e t
No Charges OF Corruption.
At the morning session Mr.. vertrees drew
from the witness the fact that he made no
charges of corruption against anyone in the
land office or the Department of the In
terror. CLAWS declared that II he had
found evidence of corruption he would have
taken the matter to grand jury instead
of to the president He said he thought
the facts warranted the opinion that Mr..
Balllnger and Mr.. bennett had acted i'm
properly and he had charged them with
official misconduct
Through process OF elimination the wit
ness cleared all of the other officials Of
any willful wrongdoing He asserted he
was fully convinced that the facts he had
offered In evidence had warranted the
judgment that neither Secretary Ballinger
or Land Commissioner bennett was fit to
hold an office OF public trust.
AS to Assistant Secretary Of the Interior
Pierce, CLAWS declared he had rendered an
erroneous Interpretation of the coal land
law OF May 1908, and that this decision.
while not an act of wrongdoing, indicated
that he was not fit to I'll the office he
now holds. bennett, Glavis declared. was
nothing more than tool for Ballinger
and would do anything Ballinger said"
Charges Against BaIItnEeP.
At the afternoon session CLAWS, in re-
sponse to question by Mr.. Vertrees,
| summed up the specific acts of wrong
doing, which he charges against Secretary
Ballinger. His statement was long one,
but was listened TO with intense interest
and really for the first time gave defl-
mite statement Of the prosecutions case.
! He said:
"The first action / would cite is the ap-
! pearance of Mr.. Ballnger In the Wilson
coal cases While that was a long time
ago and people may have looked at things
differently his action or participation in
the drawing up OF an escrow agreement to
turn over claims that should not have been
! proved up and have not been proved up
as a matter of fact was criminal. But the
statute of limitations have run and the
evidence is not quite clear
Another thing was Mr.. Balinger's ex-
presslons in the summer Of 1907 to Special
Agent Jones, when he knew there had been
violations of the coal land laws; his state
ment that he was going to Washington
to see what congress could do 10 help
the claimants get patents
| Ills next action was this: After giving
me the full right and instructions to make
a complete Investigation OF all the coal
cases. he personally took up an old report
by Special Agent Love a few days after
and deliberately ordered the Cunningham
claims to proceed to patent.
Secretary as Lobbyist.
Another evidence that Mr.. Ballinger was
not trying to protect the peoples rights
was his appearance before the public lands
committee OF the house In favor OF the
Gale bill, which carried out the state.
ment Ballinger made to Jones that he
would do what he could to obtain legts-
lation which would have enabled these
fraudulent claimants 10 get patents. Ii
the Gale law had passed It would have
validated the claims.
"The next step Mr.. Ballinger took wai
his unprofesslonal action in deliberately
going around and representig the otheI
side after having been commissioner OF the
land office and having full knowledge
OF the character OF the investigation We
had made.
HIS next action consisted In asking
In the fall Of 1908 when he was In politics
arranging for campaign contributions h
hold off any Investigation OF the coal cases
"In July. 1909, when saw Mr.. Ballinger
at his office In Seattle, and told him we
had been ordered 10 proceed TO an imme-
diate hearing, he knew the weakness Of
our case. The greatest weakness was the