Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1910-05-20
.LAWLER EPISODE BRINGS BAL
LlNeER-PiNcHoT CASE DIRECT
TO THE PRESIDENT.
REMARKABLE DEVELOPMENTS
IN YEAR OF CONTROVERSY
Review of Quarrel That May Wreck
Success of Tafts Entire Administra-
tion-GIavis Charges First Brought
Attention to Subject - Roosevelt
Policies Reversed.

| Washington, May 2o.-The light with
which the Ballinger-Glavis controversy
| has been flooded thru the revelations
made by Frederick NJ. Kerby, Secretary
Ballinger's stenographer, brings this
case to it's most critical point. Some Of
| the presidents war,nest friends fear
| that the Ballinger case will blast his
| whole administration.
! The controversy has reached the
stage where. the defense of the secre-
tary Of the interior is about to be closed
and witnesses called in rebuttal. One
Of these will certainly be Kerby, a
youth who has suddenly leaped into
prominence by reason of his disclos-
ures.
With the production of the Lawler
| memorandum, the admission of At
torney- General Wickersham that he
antedated his report of last fall to
President Taft so as to make it corre-
spond in date with the presidents let
| ter of Sept. 10 exonerated Ballinger and
the publication of the Kerby mem oran-
dunn, politicians in both parties here
are rubbing their eyes and wondering
how many more surprises are to be de-
veloped.
lie controversy between lIlIIOTQ flu-
chot and Richard A. Ballinger over
conservation" has now been in pro-
| gress over year. Under the surface
of things it became acute the moment.
Secretary Ballinger began changing
policies regarding public lands in a way
! which Forester Pinchot regarded as
| subversive of the Roosevelt ideals of
OBSERVATION-DISCLOSURES which the former
! president publicly admitted before the
| conference Of governors held at the
! White House in 1908 had been inspired
by Mr.. Pinchot.
Pinchot Made an Open Attack.
simultaneously with the publication
| of sensational story from Helena,
Mont, alleging that Secretary Balllnger
had allowed Waterpower sites in Mon
tana to be cornered by a waterpower
trust, the first note of open warfare
with Ballinger was sounded by Pin
| chot in an address before the irrigation
congress at Spokane on Aug. 10, 1909.
From that moment it became apparent
that there would be war to the knife
between Ballinger and Pinchot. 1t was
| freely predicted in Washington that one
of the two must go. Neither would re-
sign; each considered that resignation
under fire would be equivalent to an
admission that he was wrong in his in
depreciation of the meaning, scope and
| purposes of conservation. Field Agent
CLAWS and the Cunningham claims
have figured largely in the popular dis
cussion Of the controversy, but, serious
as we're rhe saccusations made by
| CLAWS, they were only an incident in
the great drama in which two admins
trations and their agents were the Of
| hcial actors.
| Between the Pinchot-Garfield forces
on one hand and the followers of Bal
linger on the other the issue was clear
~ drawn. His opponents charge that
Mr.. Ballinger has so interpreted the
laws that the natural resources Of the
country are in danger of being per-
! mitted to fall into the hands of mon
opolictic corporations instead of being
reserved for the use of the public. MI.
Ballinger retorts that Garfield and
Pinchot were in favor Of "loose" con-
struction of the laws governing the use
and disposition of public lands, while
he himself stood for Strict construc-
ton of those laws.
To Reverse Roosevelt Polieies
| The prosecution holds. that Under the
present administration from it's very
beginning there has been purpose to
reverse the Roosevelt policies" on con-
servation, They claim that this has
| been done by indirection as much as by
direction. and that under the present
| regime those in high authority have
| imbued their subordinates with the idea
| that the Roosevelt policies were mere
nonsense and We're to be relgated to
the rear. 1t was charged that the In
dian office, the geological survey and
general land office, under Secretary
Ballinger, were gradually being trans
formed as to policies, but that the
| "taint" had not yet reached the forestry
service and the reclamation service,
where Pinchot and his followers were
in control and loyal to the Pinchot-
Roosevelt ideas.
Split Over Waterpowsr Sites.
One of the main things upon which
Balliner and Pinchot disagreed was the;
n6 iNfoviOr