The Evening statesman. [volume] (Walla Walla, Wash.) 1903-1910, 1910-01-08

appointed by the president of the
senate and six to be elected by the
house.
Taft's Letter to Pinchot.
President Taft's letter to Forester
PinchOt informing him of his dismissal
follows:
1.-The White House, Washington,
January Z, 1910.
"Sir:-The secretary of agriculture
informs me that on the 28th of Dec
ember your associate forester, MT.
Price, went to him and proposed to re-
sign on the ground that he had been
engaged with Mr.. Shaw. assistant law
officer, in instigating the publication in
various newspapers and magazines at
lacking the good name, Of Secretary
Ballinger and charging the interior de-
partment and the land office with cor
ruption. The secretary thereupon
wrote a note to you, under date OF
December 30, asking for your recon-
mendatiOn in the premises. You did
not answer but on January you had
a conversation with him in which you
said you wished to make a statement
which should be read in the senate at
the same time that my message trans
hitting the record in the CLAWS
case reached there, and that you
thought you could induce Senator
Dolliver to introduce the statement for
you.
Disreqarded Superior's Advice.
The secretary advised against
such course; but asked you Tor a re-
commentator as to accepting Prices
resignation, in order that he might
bring the matter to me, to whom, he
told you, it must ultimately come.
because l had considered the CLAWS
charges and had passed upon them.
Without further conference with
the secretary, and before making
report to him, you succeeded in max
ing public, by having it read in the
senate a letter from you stating that
you had sufficiently disciplined Messrs.
Price and Shaw by reprimanding them.
and that your recommendation would
be that no further punishment was
required, and this, before that recon-
mendation was submitted to the Sec
rotary and me. whose power and duty
it was to determine upon Prices ad-
missions as to his completely and what
action should be taken with respect to
his resignation.
Refers to CLAWS Charges.
In order to understand the full
purpose of your letter, in which you
admit the completely of Price and
Shaw in the publications in the press,
it should be said that the gravemen
of the CLAWS charges was that Secre-
tary Ballinger and the others were all
affected by corrupt wish to patent 33
so-called Cunningham claims upon
coal lands in Alaska that the question
whether these claims were fraudulent
or not remained to be decided upon
the evidence after both the United
States and the claimants had been
heard; that every patent as an eXecu-
tive act is completely within the juris-
diction of the president to direct the
Withholding of it in order that he him
self may examine the evidence as to
the validity of the claim.
s'These facts understood the plain
intimations in your letter are, first.
that ! had reached a wrong conclusion
as to the good faith of Secretary Bal
linger and the officers of the land
Office, although you and your subord-
mates had only seen the evidence Of
CLAWS. the accuser, and had never
seen or read the evidence of those ac-
cused or the records that they disclos
ed which were submitted to me; and
second, that, under these circumstance
es, without the exploitation by MeSsrs.
Shaw and Price in the daily, weekly
and monthly press of the charges Of
CLAWS, the administration, including
the president and the officers of the
interior department and land Office,
would have allowed certain fraudulent
claims to be patented on coal lands in
Alaska, although the matter had
been specifically brought to the atten-
ton of the president by the CLAWS
charges.
Would Influence Public Mind.
You solicited the opportunity to
make such a declaration in congress
for the purpose Of offsetting. If pos
sible, in the public mind, the presf- |
dents decision in the CLAWS case, sup
ported by the opinion of the attorney
general. after a full examination by
both, of the evidence adduced by the |
accused and the evidence on behalf of
the accused, while the latter evidence