The Birmingham age-herald., 1910-09-17
Matter Will Be Left to Other Members of Cabinet
 At Meeting
BALL|NGER'S POSITION
 HAS BECOME UNTENABLE
It Is Believed By Some That BalIfnser Would Have Resigned Voluntarily If the Committee of InvestI-
 gatiOn Had Reported

Washington, September 16-Whether
 Richard A. Ballinger's resignation as
 Secretary of the Interior will follow im- mediately upon the meeting of the cabi-
 net September 26, to attend which he is
 now en route from Seattle, or whether
 he will retain his position indefinitely at least until after the delivery to Congress of the reports of the committee which in- vestigated his stewardship of the pub
 lie domain, depends now upon the atti-
 tude of his cabinet associates
 MT Ballinger is coming to Washington,
 his friends here insist. wholly uncon- scious of any act on his part, either of commission omission, for which he
 should be condemned. and has determined
 to force his chief and his official col
 leagues to be in effect his judges. If
 they concur in the view at present at
 tributed to MT. Taft that the accuses. = sc-
 retary shall be sustained as an innocent
 prosecuted man, he will retain his posi-
 ton; if they fail to so back him up he will resign forthwith. That this is Mir
 Ballingers present position was learned
 here today upon authority hardly to be
 questioned.
 At the first meeting of the cabinet aft
 CT the summer recess. Secretary of War Dickinson, the democratic member will not have returned from the Philippines.
 and will. therefore, be saved the embar-
 rassment of participating in what is re-
 garded as largely problem of republic an policy.
 The meeting is expected to last three
 days, and the President expects to clear up a number of important matters; but it will surprise no one here if the Balhnger
 case occupies a large part of the time. Rumors have been constant and de-
 cidedly definite here during the past few days to the effect that Mir. Ballinger' s
 resignation would be one of the first de-
 velopments of the cabinet meeting. but
 his friends. including his associates in the | interior department. have refused to be- | lieve that he would retire under fire, | and have pointed to his off-repeated de1 claration to the contrary, and to the re- cent statement attributed to him, that he would resign only at the specific re- quest of the President. Some of these. | however, today admitted themselves and
 the Secretary to be alive to the fact that
 the turmoil and uncertainty into which the protracted controversy has plunged | the department must be abated soon un- less this important branch of the public | service is to become hopelessly demor- alized
 | Nobody here doubts that a majority all but one-of the republican members | of the so-called Ballinger-Pinchot inves- | tigation committee, will sustain Secre-
 tary Ballnger in their report to Con- grcss.
 | It was said here today by a close | friend of the Secretary that had the ma- | jority of the committee been ready to rel port at the Minneapolis meeting he
 would then have rendered his resignationl
 to the President and urged it's acceptance|
 cn the ground that the dissensions tol
 which he has been a party were detri-
 mental to the public interest When theI
 committee failed at Minneapolis to takel
 action as a whole. 1t became apparentl | that no decision could be looked for prac-l | tically for seevral months.
 | This situation is said to have con-I
 vinced MT. Ballinger that his position inl spite of the continued support of the| | President has become untenable. | Secretary Balinger left Seattle yesterI il day and will reach Washington severaH | days in advance of the cabinet sessiont | His purpose in thus expediting his return| | to counsel with his immediate subordi-I mates and to gain their assistance in pre-I pairing for his demand upon the cabineq | for a showdown.