Americus times-recorder. [volume] (Americus, Ga.) 1891-current, 1910-06-21
MAY BE HONEST, BUT IN BAD
COMPANY.

One of the best summarizations Of
the BaIlinger case is that published py
Life in call upon President Taft to
relieve the situation at Washington
and rel eve the country, as well-tby
| accepting a resignation from Lis Sec
rotary of the Interior whose usefui-
ness as a public official is generally
conceded to be reduced to minis
mum, every action he takes being sub
ject to a jealous scrutiny and a wide
spread distrust. Life's article is we'll
worth reading. 1t dresses up the, sal
lent features of the case in a manner
that is semi-homorous and yet drives
home the main conviction taht Sect.
Ballinger's connections with Alaskan
exploitation schemes have been sucH
as to preclude a satisfactory public
service. Says Life:
Why has Mr. Ballinger been unable
to command loyal service from some
of his subOrdinates? IS it because they
have been bought away from him? We
do not see it so. AS we see it, the
| 'trs achery" of CLAWS and Kerby and
! the opposition of Pinchot and various
! others who should have been the Sec
retary's ia thful assistants were based
on distrust of the Secretary's motives.
intentions and character, a distrust
| that seems to have been shared by a
majority of observers.
| Now Mr. Ballinger knows something
about lands, land laws, claims and
such things, and in a way, seems 20
be an expert in the business that Taft
set Linn to do. Heaven knows what
sort of Secretary he m ght have
made or what good things he might
have done if he had ever had a Chance.
| But a chance is what he has never
had. He earned almost from the word
| go the sincere distrust of the proph-
| cts of conservation They saw in him
| personified the business interests. bent
on grabbing every last piece of valu-
able public property that previous in
terests had ON tied to grab. Came out
| then the tale of the fabulous value of
the Alaska coal lands. 1t was i'm
mensely important to Alaska and all
tire slope" that title to some of that
coal should vest in some one who
! could mine it and haul it to market
sell it to miners, steamship slen and
ali the other needy. The Guggenheims
among others, wanted some. They had
! invested $4,000 900 in an Alaska COP
! per mine, and We're investing another
Sl5,O00,000 in a railroad lead ne to l.
They had to have coal; naturally they
wanted it. The Guggenheims and J.
p. Morgan & Co. seem to be associated
in this copper mining enterprise. We
| hear of Mr. George w. Perkins. of the
Morgan firm, going to Alaska to look
at properties and also of his ADVISING
with Ballinger about THIS or that Ey-
erybo3y who wanted piece of the
| Alaska pie seems to have advised first
or last with Ballinger. He had the
misfortune to know something about
Alaska properties. He was known as
the sympathetic adviser of various
persons who We're after these proper
lies and among others Of the Cum
bingham claimants who had claims tC
| valuable coal lands. Maybe thei1
ella ms are good. Heaven knows!
When Ballinger began to make mo-
tons to pass them all the honest, earn.
est conseryationists began to yell, and
CLAWS, bent on saving to us impover.
iSh'ed people our Alaskan rights. sped
to Taft with articles of Impeachment
of Ballinger.
There was Mr.. Taft's chance to do =
valuable piece of work, but he b9tchet
the job. In a hurry to go off on a great
speech-making tour that would unite
the grand old party. Ire gave an ex.
pedited Judgment against CLAWS auj
Iordered him dismissed The judgmen
carried no conviction with it and sa..
isfied no one 1t did not help Bal
fingers standing a particle. Folks
merely said: "He has fooled Taft
too. We all lnoW-the rest of The
story, the gist of which s that the gov
eminent machinery that Taft and Bal
linger inherited could not be made e
work for the purposes they put it to
The cQSs developed cousciences. They
would not turn smoothly to do tile job.
that they had been trained in previous
service to believe were contrary Il
the public interests.
1t looks as though Mr.. Taft would
have to part with him. We hope tha
both gentlemen have a sufficient sense
OF humor to m tigate the pathos of
separation that seems inevitable They
Lave had a funny time Of ia mighty
funny time. The trouble has been tha
they have been passing through the
tail of the moral uplifE