The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1910-04-30
CLAWS CALLED
WILLFUL LIAR
BY BALLINGER
Secretary as Witness Denies All
Wrong Doing in Connection
s With Coal Claims
Voice Breaks When He Starts
to Read Letter Referring to
His Aged Mother

: Z 5. denying he had been guilty Of any
.7yronEdoing, Richard A Ballinger, sec
retaTg OF tile interior, made d bitter at
3ack upon his critics while a witness
Before the Balunger-P inchot investi-
gafon@committee today, and charac-
ierized many Of the sworn statements
GOT his principal accuser. /. r. CLAWS. as
z.'willfuI and deliberate lies"
Ballinger defended his conduct in
onneGtioa with the Cunningham coal
eases and. stated he would take the
..salpe. action today as he did when at
life head OF. the land Office II he had
& same record before him.
TRAVELLING EXPENSES
:#l6aving the land Office Bal
lin rersiee Jared his only connection with
Z -}hez Cunningham cases was in bringing
asst from. seattle an affidavit Of Clar-
e6ce cunningham and presenting it to
SeGre targ l.. Garfield- For this service,
l9a sa3d< HE. had received $500 or $3.50,
.4sJlll cll@= 1ll regarded. as travelling eX-
.>iat. ns6sS. .IIe:.said when he became sec
l.e.taisyI Of: tile interior he refused to
: -;nsTss.gaTl on tile. claims in any way.
e; Att0fI IS. Ksortrees for Ballinger still
+ lgFs TO @5.X 5Il5in q. Ballinger on the sub
fe54 r. 5lf5-lt i;eE* power sites before At
Ia fIi ~ I5raIIC4aiS@. counsel for CLAWS,
ilI.St 50T5ies. Pepper for Pinchot begin
196'SS eN nina tQigs,..- =. ~ @-ss
ia .i5 l}jys5I@ .iseso ils ted ills career up to
be- TIME sl5ecar1e commissioners of
II ezeeIIer55I q nd office-0n the. solicita-
7il Iegose1.e IT, Secretary Garfield
$ irat or plies He read kilograms
la<.>l "a .rep6iDed from Garfield and
.I}o0seAself after he had replied mega
ST lNs Is a,@sjl question of Senator Piles
..Sts5at@ life. 80 eIt the post of commits
s. Diners Of ti75s Hand office. Reading from
i3E = fs0oseyelt Telegram he said:
*..-I as: XQliT# daty to help men. You
All d5C5aTfieJd VIII. lift an immense bur
en- from I1H- shoulders:
IS evsastae t,= Bailinger said, that he
decide .to# accept the post" Nertrees
= sk 6ll#.13ie- stiffness. whether his rela
& IRONS 18th Garfield then were friendly.
f5ien ~ but never intimate"
zfAN fsAS. STX: CLAIMANTS
E-ertrssu-s asked BafIinger whether he
knew anger the Cunningham Alaskan
so % l-ClaIrn ANTS @at the time he became
commissioner. - He said lie was not
q ware TGaC lie knew any Of them at
:.tllat5 time. but had since. discovered
+ iat lie knew about six of them. whom
.ii nam ed5s.:-..
:. .:.I9i yol.. have any interest in Alas
/. lla n. lalld s2'3 asked Nertrees.
-..,sI *Ililf .30 sinterest in Alaskan or any
other. lands whatsoever, either directly
: cor ird{rectlg, retorted Baliinger
sIat- professional relations did you
81. YOUR law firm have at that time with
on,f recall that we represented
i. any. WITH: the possible exception Of
= Watson Aiiep, a lumberman, who Ia 1
some interest in Nome in placer gold
I'll gging.,'
.. a.'rhat was all
@:** Now. wait. I want to qualify that
statement. I did represent the Pioneer
Z mining company. which 1 organized in
! 1lsO4 or 1905. Its. interests were in and
?: @aof5t Nome and it was composed
- largely of Scandinavians."
= %.BalHnger then told of having come
..:e,=t a washington and Of an interview he
: 3lad% at the White House with Roose-
.J-eft.<. Raising his voice, Ballinger said:
=: t.The president said to me as he
greeted ne: I have no apologies to
>.-aiake, Ballinger. I'm glad you are
;@rbere Any man who could clean up
!. Seattle as you did can clean up that
" land office
-. Vertrees asked BaIlinger about a
conference he had with CLAWS in De-
cember. 1907. He referred Ballinger
TO Claws testimony before the COM
mittee that they had talked about sew
eral specific groups of Alaska coal
claims"
MILLFUL LIE, HE SAYS
That's a willful and deliberate lie
exclaimed Ballinger. He said they had
discussed the situation in general, but
that he knew nothing about any
groups.
Eertrees called the witness atten-
ton to the matter of the clear list
ing Of the Cunningham entries by his
order as commissioner in January, 1908.
BaHinger said that Chief of Field
Division Schwartz had gone over the
report on the claims of II. K. Love
made August .. 1907. and decided that
the Claims were entitled to patent
there being no protest in the record.
i want to say right here said Bal
finger, that if ! were passing over the
same claims today with the same record
before me. I would say they were en-
titled to be clear listed"
He was emphatic on this point and
- reiterated it several times.
Did you represent any of the Cum
ningham clafmants?" asked Vertrees.
Il never had any professional or le-
gal business with the men listed as
Cunningham entrymen,' responded Bal
s: finger.
did you ever interfere with CLAWS
Investigations into those claims p
asked Vertrees.
Not in the slightest degree. at any
time" replied -Rallinger. CLAWS wa,
never hampered, but was pampered al
the way through
DIFFERENCE OF OPINION
-. Bauinger was questioned as to hi,
difference with Secretary Garfield il
1907 about coal lands The witness ex
planned he had favored the sale system
as opposed to a. leasing system.
He said Garfield disapproved of hi,
report, but subsequently Presiden
Roosevelt called him to: the Whit.
House and asked him to explain wha.
his differences with Garfield were Al
3. 2 result Of that interview he had writ
ten letter to the president embodyin,
his views. When he saw the presiden
subsequently, the latter said to him:
20, I have embodied your recommends
tion in my annual message. bit L CUES
when Garfield and Pinchot see it the,
will go through the roof. But 1 CUES
the roof is Strong enough to hold 'em
THE assiduous attempts of certain
malicious persons to circulate through
out the country reports that I carrie,
-. away from the land ONCE information
which could use to the detriment o
the United States government have no
the slightest foundation" added Bal
Ginger All information could hav,
been. used in perfect fairness in an,
FfgTr r4Cfr 81 70 81