The evening times. [volume] (Grand Forks, N.D.) 1906-1914, 1910-01-08

DC any further shakeup of the bureau
Is a question that is today calling for
q great deal of concern within the
bureau.
Presidents Letter
President Taft's letter to Forester
Pinchot informing him of his dismis-
sal, follows:
"The White House, Washington, JAM
Z, 1910.
Sir: The secretary of agriculture
informs me that on the 2Sth of De-
cember your associate forester, Mr..
Price went to him and proposed to re-
sign on the ground that he had been
engaged with Mr.. Shaw, assistant law
officer, instigating the publication in
various newspapers and magazines at
tacking the good name of Secretary
Ballinger and charging the interior
department and the land flee with
corruption. The secretary thereupon
wrote q note to you, under the date
of December %, asking for your
recommendation in the premises. You
did not answer, but on January 4, you
had conversation with him in which
you wished TO make a statement which
should be read in the senate, at the
same time that my message transmit
ting the record in the CLAWS case
reached there, and that you thought
you could induce Senator Dolliver to
introduce the statement for you. The
secretary advised against such a
course but asked you for a recon-
mendation as to accepting Prices
resignation, in order that he might
bring the matter to me, to whom, he
told you, it must ultimately come, be-
cause l had considered the CLAWS
charges and ha dpassed upon them.
Without further conference with
the secretary and before making a
report to him, you succeeded in maxi
ing public. by having it read in the
senate, a letter from you stating that
you had sufficiently disciplined Messrs.
Price and Shaw by reprimanding them
and that your recommendation would
be that no further punishment was
required, and this before that recon-
mendation wa submitted to the sec
retary and me, whose power and duty
1t was to determine upon Prices ad-
missions as to his celnplicity what ac-
tion should be tsllsGm with respect to
his resignation.
"ln order to understand the full
purpose of your letter in which you
admit the completely of Price and
Shaw in the publications of the press.
1t should be said that the gravamen
of the CLAWS charges was that Sec
retary Ballinger and the others were
all affected by corrupt wish to pat
ent thirty-three so-called Cunning
nam claims upon coal lands in Alaska;
that the question whether these claims
were fraudulent or not remained to
be decided upon the evidence after
both the United States and the claim
ants had been heard; that every pat
ent as an executive act is complete
ly within the jurisdiction of the presi-
dent to direct the Withholding of it in
order that he himself may examine the
evidence as to the validity of the
claim.
"These facts understood, the plain
intimations in your letter are, first
that had reached wrong conclu-
sion as to the good faith of Secretary
Ballinger and the officers of the land
office, although YOU and your subordi-
nate had only seen the evidence of
CLAWS, the accuser. and had never
seen or read the evidence of those ac-
cused or the records that they dis
closed which were submitted 10 me:
and secondly. that under these cir
cumstances without the exploitation