The watchman and southron. [volume] (Sumter, S.C.) 1881-1930, 1910-06-18
SCORES MIR. WICKERSHAN.
Golfers Weekly Asserts That He De-
ceivcd the Senate


United States"
Out of the mass of relevations in
the last few days of the Ballinger in
vestigation, out of the 5000 pages Of
printed testimony, follow this short
and simple sequence-and if any stu
dent Of American history remembers
anything to match it let us know:
"Glavis was an obscure young Gov
ernment employee; he addressed a
formal communication to the Presi-
dent of the United States, charging
that his superior, Mr.. Ballinger, was
eXpediting' the transfer of valuable
lands to the Guggenheims. Taft read
the charges He consulted Ballinger
and Wickersham. Then he Tipped
CLAWS off like a fly from his sleeve;
to Ballinger he gave that ponderous,
sweeping letter of eXculpation and in
dorsement, intended to be a perma-
nent seal of sanctity, to refute all
present charges against Ballnger and
mako future ones impOssibIe-such
document as a man hands down to
his grandchildren. (This was on
September 13-bear the day in mind.
for in disentangling the truth from
this mass of suppression and evasion
exact dates are importantly
"Then Taft went his august way
among the people, on that two
months journey of defense and glori-
fication Of Aldrich, Tawney and the
tariff BY every la" ,he Ballinger
episode was finished, ettled, closed.
CLAWS ought to have cra'. ed off to his
quiet corner in obseurjty but the in
justice done him rpani him power
full friends; his side OF he case was
presented to the public: the wheels
that would finally GRIND out the truth
were slowly beginning to revolve; the
people refused to accept the presi-
dents word; finally Congress met, and
on day in December the Senate
passed a resolution calling upon the
President to furnish these things
Any reports, statements, papers
or documents upon which he acted
in reaching his conclusions
g." Now, this requisition from the
senate laid heavy and embarrassing
duty upon the Acknowledgement of
the United States, for it was he upon
whom the President had relied for a
review Of the charges against CLAWS.
The President, when, on September
13, he wrote the letter exculpating
Balllnger did have before him some
reports, statements, papers and doc
uments,' which he acted upon in
reaching his conclusions But, look
ing backward after three months,
Ballinger and Wickersham felt that
these reports and documents would
not bear public scrutiny. One of
them-the most important indeed
they were not willing to let the Senate
or the public see, for it was the origi
nal draft of Taft's own letter, but
written by the hand of Ballinger's
friend and subordinate, Lawler, writ
ten by the one man against whom
CLAWS had made specific charges;
aside from this. such reports, state
ments, papers or documents as the
President had acted upon in reach
ing his conclusions were obscure and
fragmentary, and would not, in the
eyes of the Senate or the public, justi-
fy those conclusions"
Right here came the temptation
to the grosser forms of moral turpi-
tude; it is not an uncommon stu
alton: every man in the course of a
lifetime may find himself confronted
with it, They could have been frank
and candid: could have sent to the
Senate what documents they had and
barred their heads to such censure as
might follow-probably it would not
have been severe. But they did not.
What they did was this: Wicker
sham sat down at his desk: he wrote
document which makes 80 printed
pages Git took him three weeks to do
it; it took up all the CLAWS charges
and met them, and it ended with the
statement that CLAWS charges (mark
the present tense-Glavis, when
Wickersham wrote these words had
been dismissed three months) are so
unjust and unfounded as to merit his
immediate separation from the SER
vice.
Having finished this document.
Wlckersham searched backward
through his calendar for the appro-
PIRATE date, and wrote at the top:
September II, 1909
Then he signed it George W.