New-York tribune., 1910-07-28
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR.
A BAD PRECEDENT.
Editor of The Tribune.

| To the Editor of The Tribune.
Sir: According to the present purpose OF
the committee charged with the investiga-
| ton of the Department of the Interior and
the Forest Service. the members will meet
| in st. Paul early in September, and will,
presumably, vote the questions raised
| during the investigation, chief of which is
whether or not Secretary BalIinger has
| been guilty Of malfeasance. There is. how
ever, grave question as to the proprety of
| members of the Senate voting on this
! question. Senators are charged with a re-
| sponsibility wholly distinct from that of
members of the House. Their Office is ju-
| dicial well as legislative. According to
| the Constitution, The Senate shall have
the sole power to try all impeachments."
Entirely apart from the probable findings
| OF the Balinger- -Pinchot- committee it is
at least possible that the House members
OF the committee might unanimously find
Judge Ballinger guilty of conduct which
demanded his impeachment. while the Sem
ate members were unanimous in their
opinion that he was not. A peculiar situa-
ton would then confront the House, which
would find itself under the necessity of
preparing an indictment and bringing i'm
peacl1Inent proceedings before d tribunal of
NIllCil olN dIl WHO Hdu SSdIl1llSO
the facts, stood committed to the innocence
nf the accused official Question has been
raised, and apparently with good ground
as to whether members of the Senate can
properly serve as members of a committee
charged with the duty of investigating the
conduct of an official of such rank that a
finding of guilty would properly result i'll
impeachment proceedings. 1t is. of course,
fr11n hat oil feda lS 70
impeachment, but according to custom, at
least. such proceedings are employed only
in the case of the higher officials of the
executive and judicial branches of the
government. In the case of a Cabinet Off
Ger. and especially under circumstances
like the present, where the President is
convinced of the propriety of the acts of
his adviser, impeachment proceedings
would be the natural, almost the inevita-
ble result of d finding by the House MEM
bers of guilty of the charges preferred"
In the case OF the investigation recently
concluded there. is nothing whatever to in
dcate that majority of the members of
either house will find the official under in
vestiSation guilty even of anything i'm
proper, to say nothing Of conduct warrant
ing Impeachment. But had the charges SO
Tecklessly preferred against the Secretary
Of the Interior been proven, that would not
be the case. And, in any event, the proba-
bic, or even the assured, outcome of this
investigation does not meet the objection
that members Of the Senate cannot par
ticipate in such an investigation without
the impairment of that judicial function
which is perhaps. the most important i'm
posed by the Constitution upon the upper
house of Congress.
The investigation ordered in the case of
Attorney General Wickersham's opinion
regarding the disposal of the friar lands
involves no such anomaly. That investiga>
ton is to be conducted solely by members
Of the House, whose duty 1t would become,
in the remote possibility of the discovery
of improper conduct to prepare the indict-
ment and institute impeachment proceed
ings. But In the case of such investi-
cation by q joint committee of the two
houses there is certainly a possibility that
conditions may some day De found which
will involve serious embarrassment to Sen
ators who foresee that, following their
findings as members of such a committee,
they are likely to be called upon to act in
a purely judicial capacity. II.
New York, July u, 1910.