The Wenatchee daily world. [volume] (Wenatchee, Wash.) 1905-1971, 1910-12-15
did WHAT PUBLIC
EXPECTED
Pinchot Talks of Ballinger
withdrawing" Follow
ing His Retirement.

| luC maturity report OI the bdIiluS6l-
Pinchot Investigating committee and
calling upon congress to place itself
upon record, Clifford Pinchot, former
chief forester of the United States.
today discussed the recent so-called
embarrassing" of the secretary of
the interior. Pinchot in the course
of his statement characterized Judge
| Ballinger as 1.-The most dangerous
enemy conservation had" and Incl
dentally referred to the clean bill
given Senator William Lorimer of
Illinois by an investigating commit
! tee.
A brief on the Cunningham claims
on which Clifford Pinchot has been
assiduously working for more than
a month, will soon be submitted to
| President Taft. Pinchot. who has
been in seclusion at Milford. Pa,
while at his work. arrived here today
to attend the session of the National
| Conservation association. 1t is un-
derstoOd that he has completed the
brief.
Pinchot declared that the major
ity report" of the Ballinger investi-
eating committee supported the poll
cies that Ballinger had opposed and
! justified his own ideas. The former
chief forester issued the following
statement:
The majority report excited no
interest and no surprise as it was
known from the beginning what the
| tenor of the report would be. Fore
casts and polls of the committee of
the actual result were printed in the
newspapers few hours after the
appointment of the committee.
The standpat majority did the
easy thing. 1t takes more moral
courage to assume the responsibility
of deciding against a man high in
office than to decide for him. The
whitewashing Of Senator William
Lorimer is a good example of this -
THE people long ago decided that
Judge Madison and the minority of
the committee were right. Interest
now centers in the question of what
action congress will take. Time, eff
fort and money have been spent on
an investigation and as yet no final
result has been obtained.
when the court appoints a mas
ter in chancery the master takes the
testimony to find the facts, and the
court is bound to consider the mas
ter's report and finally decide the
questions involved. In this case
congress is the court 1t named a
committee to take testimony and
cannot fairly avoid the responsible
| ity of ruling on the committees re-
port"
| Il am not concerned FIR my own
reputation or future in this matter
| Irrespective of whether congress ia
vors Ballinger or condemns him, it
| is evident that the people want their
representatives 20 make a record of
their own on the question. The con-
stituents of the men favoring the
! investigation are entitled to know
which of the three committee reports
congress approves.
Standpat Stand.
|
"Certainly the standpatters, be-
| lieving in the Ballinger kind of con-
seryation, are entitled to the chance
of going on record to that effect.
/ have one observation to make. After
the standpat majority of the COM
mittee had said what it had to say
! in defense of Ballinger, it proceeds
| to vigorously support the coal land
policy Ballinger had attacked. They
took the identical position that
Price, CLAWS, Garfield and myself
| had defended from the start No
stronger testimony to the essential
soundness and justice of this policy
could be given than the emphatic
support of the very men who have
done what they could to revive pub
| lie respect for the most dangerous
enemy the conservation policies ever
have had.
The question of whether Balm
| ger was an unfaithful public servant
| is of no consequence compared with
the question of saving the coal in
Alaska and the water power every
where. If the resources are saved
the men against whom the majority
of the committee decided will, no
matter what the majority says If
the resources are lost, the people
lose. That is what the fight is about.
when the fight began the Alaska
coal was about to be lost to the peo-
ME and the mower sites had baou
opened for entry; the conservative
policy Of the last administration
was reversed. Today the fight for
the resources is as likely to be won
as it was likely to have been lost be-
fore"