The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1910-05-20
OFFICER CALLED
u TO keep ORDER
Hearing in BaIIinger Case Re-
plete With Sensations.

lowed sensation with Kaleidoscope
rapidity at the session of the BALM.
ger-Pinchot investigating committee
Testimony of a startling character was
introduced. The president of the
United States was drawn directly into
the controversy. The lie was passed
between witness and counsel, bitter
clashes between members of the com.
mittee were frequent. The spectators
We're aroused to demonstration OF
disapproval of Oscar Lawler, assistant
attorney general for the interior de-
partment. A policeman was called in.
TO the room TO see that order was pre-
served. A witness was forced to apollo
giZe to the committee for Incorporate
language used by him, and melodrama
of one kind or another was rampant
throughout the day.
Stump speeches from the witness
stand; from attorneys, and from about
the committee table were quite the or
der of the procedure, and so intense
Root was twice stirred to the point
where red faced with anger he
thumped the table vigorously to en-
phasize his questioning OF witness
and his denunciatiOn OF Attorney
Brandeis for undertaking to divert
the investigation into an assault upon
President Taft
Of n1nnrio
Kan, from front seat among the
spectators, followed the proceedings
with an excitement comparable only
to his emotions in the days when he
complained that Kansas was raising
too much hell and too little corn. He
was heard to observe that the investi-
CATION did not seem to be producing
much corn, but that it was raising an
abundance of the original Kansas
product
kerby Contradicts Bailinger.
Frederick NJ. Kerby, the stenOgra.
pher, who revealed the genesis and
production of the now famous LAWYER
memorandum, who was dismissed
from the government service by Sec
rotary Ballinger, and Assistant AttOr-
ney General Oscar Lawler. who pre-
pared the memorandum at President
Taft's request, were the witnesses OF
the day. Kerby told how he came to
give his story to a newspaper asso-
citation, contradicted fatty testimony
given to the committee by Secretary
Ballinger and made new charge
against the secretary, to wit: That
Mr.. Ballinger had planned to depose
f. H. Newell, director of the reclama
ton service. and appoint as his sue
cessor r. H. Thomson. former city
engineer of Seattle. Incidental 10
Kerby's testimony and IN connection
with the Newell-Thomson affair cor
respondence was produced at the call
of the committee showing a certain
degree of intimacy between Secretary
Ballinger and George w. Perkins OF
the j. Pierpont Morgan-Guggenheim
syndicate by Fastening to patent the
Cunningham Alaskan coal claims on
which the syndicate had an option.
This correspondence showed that
Mr.. Ballinger had been Mr.. Perkins
guest at the latter's home in Yonkers,
Y. Y, had undertaken to find an eX-
pert engineer to accompany Mr.. Per-
kins ON trip last summer to inspect
the syndicate's properties in Alaska.
Had recommended Thomson for this
Job and had declined Mr.. Perkins In.
yitation to have his son, Edward Bal
linger. accompany the Perkins Alas
kan expedition as the personal guest
of Mr.. Perkins The declinatiOn was
passed on the grounds that it was
necessary for young Ballinger to spend
the summer in study in order to catch
up in his college work.
Not Qualified for Position.
The correspondence also included a
letter criticising the proposed appoint
ment of Thomson as director OF the
reclamation service on the grounds
that Thomson was not qualified for
the position, as shown by testimony
he had given in a court case.
Assistant Attorney General Lawler
furnished most of the sensations OF
the day. In marked contrast to the
demeanor of young Kerby, Mr.. Law
Ter was spectacular, rhetorical, denun-
ciatory and altogether unable to re-
strain his intense bitterness towards
all who had any part in the fight on
Secretary Baliinger and the interior
department Kerby appeared to be
something of fanatic or ZealOt, fired
with the consciousness of martyrdOm
TO truth and justice, but he made a
good witness and, despite his youth,
acquitted himself with credit under
the most severe kind of fire from such
veteran lawyers as Senators Root,
Sutherland and Nelson and Represen-
tatives DENLY and Olmsted
Honors were easily on his side when
he left the stand after a thorough
grilling.
Lawler, OH the other hand, appeared
as a man under severe fire provoked
beyond all self control. He made
stump speeches to the committee.
hurled inuendoes and direct accuse.
tons right and left, INDUCED in such
AN Incorporate outburst at Attorney
Brandeis that even Secretary Balm
gers friends on the committee ad-
monished him that he was going be-
yond the bounds of prOpriety.
WHILE BURYING HIS DOG