The Mena weekly star., 1910-05-19
THE BALL|NGER ROW
PRESIDENTS LETTER OF IN. DoRsEMENT WRITTEN BY SUB
 ORDINATE, SAYS sTENoe- MIR. TAFT ISSUES A STATEMENT
The President Says First Draft of Let. ter Exonersting the Secretary and Authorizing Dismissal of oIavis Was Written by Oscar Lawler.

Washington, May 17.-Frederick M. Keiby, one of Secretary Ballinger's stenographers, voluntarily charged that President Taft's letter exonerat. lnS Secretary Ballinger was in sub stance the same as a memorandum prepared in the secretary's office, and under his supervision, by Oscar Law. Ter, as the attorney general for the in. terior department. Soon after thia charge had been made public the Law. Ter memorandum itself was introduced before the Ballinger-P Pinchot investi. gating committee.
 It is in the form of a letter from President Taft to Secretary Ballinger. A comparison of the two letters showed that two unimportant para. graphs of the Taft letters were almost identical with the Lawler document, and there were other points of simi- larity such as might have arisen through the use by the president of the Lawler memorandum as partial basis for his own communication
 Burned the Rough Drafts.
 The youthful stenographer in Secre. tary Ballinger's office, who took the dictation of the Lawler letter, charges further that all rough drafts of the let. ter, after the document had assumed Its final form, were burned in an office in the department of the interior at the suggestion of MT. Ballinger's secre- tary. Stenographer Kerby adds that Don c. Carr. Mir. Ballinger's secretary suggested also that 1t would be a good idea to lose certain notebooks con. taining stenographic minutes which might be called for in the congres. sional investigation.
 President Gave Out Statement.
 President Taft was out on the Chevy Chase golf links when he heard of the charge of Stenographer Kerby The White house got into communica. tion with him over the telephone, and shortly afterward this statement was issued:
 With reference to the published af fidavit of Mir. F. M. Kerby, stenog rapher in the office of the secretary of the interior, to the effect that the presidents letter of September 13 1909, exonerating Secretary Ballinger was substantially prepared for the presidents signature by Assistant At torney General Lawler, it was said al the White house that there Is abso lutely no foundation for any such state ment. The president dictated his let ter personally as the result of his own investigation of the record and con. sideration of the documents and pa pers In his possession at the time, and upon the report to him of the attorney general"
 MT. Taft Says It is True.
 A letter which President Taft late last evening sent to Senator Knute Nelson, chairman of the Ballinger Pinchot Investigating committee, says that the first draft of his letter exon. erating Ballinger and authorizing the dismissal of Glavis, was written by Oscar Lawler, assistant attorney gen eral, in the office of Secretary Ballin- ger The president says he told Law Ter to prepare it "as if he were presi. dent"
 The presidents statement proves the truth of the general facts told by F. M. Kerby, stenographer in the office of the secretary of the interior, though, of course, 1t does not cover the details In view of the presidents statement Kerby's story Is valuable now only as showing the instruction was sought to be carried out.