Los Angeles herald., 1910-09-14
Six Members of Committee AS
Sert Verdict Against Sec
retary Not Valid
MEETING LACKS A QUORUM
StandpatterS Bitterly ASSaiI the
Democratic C-RepubIiCan
Findings in Case
TAssociate Press1

members of the Ballinger inVeStigat-
| ing committee met here today and
| issued statement condemning the
action of the four Democratic mem
! bers and one Republican insurgent,
who delivered a report at Minneapolis
last Wednesday, demanding the re-
| tirement of Secretary Ballinger.
! Those present today were Senators
| Nelson, Sutherland and Root and
| Congressman Mccall, Olmstead and
DENLY. They declared the action of
/ what they termed the minority at
/ Minneapolis to have been according
! to the worst methods of ward poll
| tics"
! The evidence in the Ballinger case
was discussed. but in the absence of
! quorum, they stated, no action on
the case itself was possible. 1t was
reported that Senator Nelson had au-
thority to act for Senator Flint, who
is a member of the committee, who
is in Europe. This could not be con-
! firmed but in any event no attempt
was made to use the alleged proxy.
| Adjournment was taken subject to
call of the chairman, Senator Nelson.
AS the minority declined to at
tend today's conference and took their
adjournment at Minneapolis until the
next meeting of congress- it is prob
able Senator Nelson will not call an
other meeting until the return of Sen
ator Flint, who as the seventh mem
| Der would make a quorum.
ISSUE STATEMENT
Following is the statement issued:
"The hearings of the committee after
proceeding for months were ended in
the closing days of the last session of
| congress. There was no opportunity
and no attempt on the part of any
body to have the committee meet for
purposes of consultation on the evil
dence or to report its findings to con-
gress prior to the adjournment of the
session. Under the circumstances,
that course was manifestly impossible.
THE committee is the creature of a
I special act of congress, which fixed
| the number of its members at twelve,
six senator's appointed by the vice
| president and six representatives elect
ed by the house. The act carefully
| the committee and contained a man
! date that it should report it's findings
| and conclusions to this congress.
1.-THE day of the meeting found the
membership widely scattered and
seven of the twelve members present.
! The other members were detained by
brief but peremptory duties. Senator
| Root was in England and Senator
| Flint on the sea.
ION reassembling two days later
eight members were present and two
more were reported on the way. The
eighth member to appear happened to
be a Democrat and the members of
that party found themselves in tenn
porary control and promptly proceed
| ed to turn the circumstances to what
seemed to them party advantage.
CLAIM NO CONSULTATION
IN advance of any consultation
whatever on the evidence, which never
| had been weighed and discussed in
| committee, they demanded the passage
| of resolutions of the most sweeping
character, formally finding Secretary
Ballinger guilty, not merely of charges
| that had been made, but of charges
! that had only been implied, and of
| things which never have been charged,
| but which persons appearing at the
| hearing had alleged against him.
"Others members of the committee
present protested against such pro-
! ceedings, which would dispose of the
case in the absence of four of the
twelve members, making it possible for
! a minority of the committee to find
| the committee verdict, and this, too,
without any consultation or discussion.
But the partisan political end to be
gained by the Democratic minority
! became all the more urgent in proper
/
other members of the committee were
approaching Minneapolis. The minor
ity refused even to take a recess, and
the other members, protesting against
the evident determination to take a
| snap judgment by a minority in the
absence of a third of the whole tri-
bunal and declining to bear any re-
sponsibility for thus converting the
I investigator, into a travesty and for
a violation of the fundamental prin-
ciples which should govern the pro-
| ceedings withdrew from the meeting
and thus deprived the Democrats of
their temporary control of the COM
mittee
ASSERT VERDICT INVALID
"The meeting being left without a
| quorum, any attempted decision OF the
case would have no more validity than
would have like action of a similar
number of men collected at random IN
! the streets, but the spectacle was pre-
sented of five men out of a tribunal
of twelve, created by the congress of
the United States, assuming to act as
! the tribunal itself.
| "TheSe five men continued their pro-
ceedings to the end, according to the
worst methods of wagd politics and,
after pretending to adopt a report of
eighty-nine pages which they brought
| NNN-N@
which was never the subject of con-
sideration or discussion or even read
in committee, they gave 1t to the news
papers, although the law required it
! to be rendered to congress; and they
completed their perversion Of the pur-
pose of the meeting by adjourning to
! December so as to foreclose if pos
! sible, any action or consideration or
! discussion of evidence by the commit
! tee in the meantime, and by solemn
vote they graciously extended to the
majority the leave to file minority
report.
ut does not need to be said that
! such action in both form and sub
| stance is wholly lawless, and it leaves
II entirely unnecessary to ask what
sort of Justice any public servant could
look for whose character was on trial
! in such a proceeding in the excitement
of a political campaign. IF there is
anv relation between lawless methods
! and the character of the results which
! they accomplish, this so-called verdict
| condemns its authors rather than the
official under investigation.
Every effort was made to induce
the minority members to agree to a
meeting on some early date at Min
neapolis or Chicago, as might suit their