Arizona republican., 1910-01-08

further punishment should be required recompendation would be that no and this, before that recommendation was submitted to the secretary and to me whose power and duty it was to determine upon Prices admission as to his complicity what action should be taken in respect to his resignation.
 In order to understand the full pur- port of your letter, in which you ad- init the complicity of Price and Shaw | in the publications. it should be said I that the gravamen of the Glavis charges was that MT. Ballinger and ! others were affected by a corrupt wish | to patent thirty three so-called Cum l ningham claims upon coal lands in Alaska: that the question whether the claims were fraudulent remained to be decided upon the evidence after both tthe United States and the claimants had been heard; that every-petent as an executive act is completely within the jurisdiction of the president who may direct its withholding. in order that he himself may examine the evil dence, as to the validity of the 1 claim
 These facts understood, the plain intimations of your letter are: First that I had reached wrong conclusion as to the good faith of Mir. Ballinger and the officers of the land office although you and your subor- dinates had only seen the evidence of Glavis. the accuser; had never seen or heard the evidence of those ac- cused or the records they disclosed which were submitted to me.
 Second. that under the circum- stances. without exploitation by Shaw and Price in the daily. weekly and monthly press, the charges of Glavis. that the administration. including the president, and officers of the interior department. and the land offece, would have allowed certain fraudulent claims to be patented on coal land in Alaska although the matter had been spe- officially brought to the attention of the president by the Glavis charges.
 You solicited an opportunity to make a declaration in congress, for the purpose of off-setting, if possible, in the public mind. the presidents de- cision in the Glavis case. supported by the opinion of the attorney general after a full examination by both of the evidence adduced by the accuser and the evidence in behalf of the &C., cused while the latter evidence, you and your subordinates had never seen. You did this against the advice of the secretary of agriculture, without noti- flying him that you intended to do so and without conferring with me at all.
 Your letter was in effect, an inn proper appeal to congress and to the public, an excuse in advance for the guilt of your subordinates before I could act, and against my decision in the Glavis case before the whole evil Gence on what that was based, could be considered
 'I should be glad to regard what has happened only as a personal re- flection, so I could pass it over and take no official cognizance of it. But other and higher considerations must govern. When the people of the United States elected me president. they placed me in an office of< the highest dignity and charged me with the duty of maintaining that dignity and a proper respect for the office. on the part of the subordinates. More over. if I were to pass over this mat ter in silence it would be most demor- alizing to the discipline in the exec utive branch of the government.
 By your own conduct you have destroyed your usefulness as a help full subordinate of the government, and therefore, it became my duty to direct the secretary of agriculture to remove you from your office as for ester.
 "very sincerely yours.
 WILLIAM H. TAFT" Hon. Clifford Pinchot,
 Forester"