Watertown leader. [volume] (Watertown, Jefferson County, Wis.) 1909-1911, 1910-01-07
bALLINGER IS
ACQUITTED BY
WICKERSHAM
ORIGINAL CHARGES WERE MADE
ONLY IN DESIRE FOR PER
SONAL ADVANCEMENT
DISMISSAL WAS WARRANTED.
Intervention of Forestry Bureau in Gun
bingham Claims Case Entirely
Unnecessary.
TAFT GIVES PAPERS TO SENATE.

WASHINGTON, d. c., Jan. Ode
nouncing l.. r. CLAWS as megaloma-
MAC and analyzing various correspond
ence and many of his acts in relation to
the charges of misconduct against Sec
rotary Ballinger and other officials OF
the department of the interior in dealing
with the so-called Cunningham group of
coal land claims in Alaska, in report to
the President, submitted to the Senate
today. Attorney General Wickerham
declares that Mr.. CLAWS statements are
entirely disproved. 1t was upon this
report that President Taft dismissed
Mr.. CLAWS from the public service.
CLAWS actions" Attorney General
Wickersham says. appear to have been
founded upon a wholly exaggerated sense
of his own Importance and desire for
personal advancement rather than on
any genuine desire to protect the inter
estS Of the government and TINS species
Of megalOmania has finally led him TO
submit to you charges of improper mo-
tives and conduct against his official
superiors which IN my opinlan, are SO
unjust and unfounded as to merit his
immediate separation from the service.
Ballinger Was Careful.
In his conclusions Mr.. Wickersham
SAYS: $50 far from taking action to favor
the Cunningham claimants, the record
clearly shows that Secretary Ballinger
was scrupulously careful not i'll any re-
spect to act upon those claims, Tor the
reason that during the summer OF l@oS,
while he was IL no manner connected
with the government, he had been con-
suited by some Of the claimants with re-
spect to the issuance of patents, ana nae
called upon Secretary Garfield for the
purpose of ascertaining the attitude OF
the latter's department thereon. Neither
~ o.tIn If hIS
written or spoken expressions We're ia
yorable to these claimants. The utmost
he did was to instruct the land office to
promptly investigate and dispose of ali
pending cases.
The government, says Mr.. Wicker
sham, had an abundance OF time to m
vestigate these claims, the attention OF
the land Office being specifically direct
ed to them in August, 1907. They We're
put in Mr. CLAWS hands, together with
the investigation Of all other Alaska coal
! land locations and entries in January.
1908 All the essential facts relating to
the claims. he says, seem to have been
ascertained by Mr.. CLAWS in the spring
of 1908. According to Mr.. Wickersham,
CLAWS was furnished with al the assist
ance required to make the Investigations
and had upward of two years TO com
plete them.
"All efforts TO induce him to bring his
1nVeStlSatlOn 10 cOncllslUji, the at
tOrney general says in commenting upon
the course pursued by Mr.. CLAWS, were
met only with requests for further assist
ance, coupled with criticism of his SUI
perior officers AS well as of other special
agents who had been connected with the
cases.
Fraud Claim Disproved.
Mr. CLAWS claim that he prevented
the government from being defrauded,
Mr. Wickersham says, is absolutely dis
proved by the record.
THE intervention of the forestry bu-
reau procured by Glavis,' the attorney
general continues, is shown by the rec
ord to have been entirely unnecessary"
The attorney general cites some of Mr..
CLAWS letters to show that CLAWS eX-
pected Ballinger to be displaced and
| hoped as result Of other official changes
to be made chief of the government field
service