The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1910-01-08
CLIFFORD PIhCHOT DISMISSED
FROM GOVERNMENT SERVICE
BY ORDER OF PRESIDENT TAFT
CONTINUED FROM PAGE u

White House kept Washington in a polit-
ical ferment all day
The cabinet was in special session dur
| ing practically the entire afternoon, fol-
lowing the regular session of the morn
ing. Secretary Ballinger, cognizant of
the action that was about to be taken,
remained away from the afternoon sit
ting. 1t was with the end OF this spe-
cial session tonight that the President
gave out the letter he had written to
Mr.. Pinchot notifying him that his USE
fulness as a public servant under the
present administration was at an end
Secretary Wilson, Pinchot's immediate
superior, it appears was one of the
| foresters chief accusers. He told Pres
ident Taft that he had advised Mr.. Pin
chot not to send the letter to Senator
Dolliver; that Pinchot had told him he
| had such letter in mind and could
| induce Senator Dolliver' to read it on
| the very day that President Taft's spe-
cial message transmitting the Attorney
| Generals exoneration of Secretary Bal
linger was to be presented to tho Sen
| ate.
1t was this story of Pinchots ap-
parently calculated INSTRUMENTATION that
aroused the President to keenest resent
ment
Mr. Taft accuses Pinchot of having
taken his stand against Secretary Bal
nnger wholly upon the evidence adduced
by L. R. CLAWS and without regard for
the evidence on the other side on file
in the interior department. The letter
directing Secretary Wilson to dismiss the
forester forthwith was carefully framed
during the afternoon sitting of the cab
met and was revised several times be-
fore finally being made public. 1t is the
Presidents own statement of the case.
Taffs Letter.
President Taft's letter to Clifford
Pinchot. informing him of his dismissal,
follows:
THE White House,
Washington, January 7, 1910.
"Sir-The Secretary of Agricultre in
forms me that on the 2sth of December
your associate forester, Mr.. Price, went
to him and proposed to resign on the
ground that he had been engaged with
M. Shaw, assistant law officer, in in
vestigating the publication in various
newspapers and magazines of articles
attacking the good name of Secretary
Ballinger, and charging the interior de-
partment and the land office with cor
ruption.
1.-The secretary thereupon wrote a
note to you, under date of December 20.
asking for your Recommendation in the
premises. You did not answer, but on
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 transmitting the record In the
CLAWS case reached there, and that you
thought you could induce Senator Dol
liver to introduce the statement for
you.
THE secretary advised against such
q course, but asked you for a recon-
1,A To-. nj
resignation in order that he might
bring the matter to me, to VIII ON. he
told you, 1t must ultimately come. be-
cause 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 making pub
lie, by having 1T read in the Senate,
letter from you, stating that you had
sufficiently disciplined Messrs. Price and
Shaw by reprimanding them, and tha
your recommendation would be that no
further punishment was required, and
this before that recommendation was
submitted to the secretary and me.
whose power and duty 1t was to de-
terinine upon Prices admissions as to
his completely, what action should be
taken with respect to his resignation.
Purport Of Letter.
"In order to understand the full pur-
port of your letter. in which you ad-
nit the completely of Price and Shaw
In the publications of the press, 1t
should be said that the gravan1en of
the CLAWS charges was that Secretary
Ballinger and the other officers were
all affected by corrupt wish to patent
SO so-oalled Cunnin CHAM claims upon
coal lands in Alaska; that the question
whether these claims were fraudulent
or not remained to be decided before
the evidence of both the United States
and the claimants had been heard; that
every patent as a Legislative act is
completely within the jurisdiction OF
the President to direct the Withholding
of it in order that he himself may ex-
anime the evidence as to the validity
of the claim.
ssrhese facts understood under the plain
intimations in your letter are, first, that
had reached a wrong conclusion as 10
the GOOD faith of Secretary Ballinger
and the officers of the land office, al
| though you and your subordinates had
only seen the evidence Of CLAWS, the
| accuser. and had never seen or read the
| evidence of those accused, or the rec
| ords that they disclosed, which were
| submitted to me; and second, that under
| these circumstances, without the ex-
ploitation by Messrs. Shaw and Price In
| the daily, weekly and monthly press OF
| the charges of CLAWS, the administra-
ton. including the President and the Of
| flcers 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.
Solicited Opportunity.
you solicited the opportunity to make
| such a declaration in Congress for the
| purpose of off-setting, If possible. In the
| public mind, the Presidents decision In
| the CLAWS case supported by the opin-
ion of tho Attorney General after a full
examination by both Of the evidence ad-
| duced by the accuser. and the evidence
| on behalf of the accused, while the
latter evidence you and your subordinates
had never seen.
you did this against the advice Of
the Secretary of Agriculture, without ad-
yisinR with him and without advising
| with me. Your letter was In effect an I'M
proper appeal to Congress and the pub
lie to excuse in advance the guilt of
your subordinates before could act
and against my decision in the CLAWS
case before the whole evidence on which
that was based could be considered.
IT should be glad to regard what has
happened only as q personal reflection,
| 30 that could pass II over and take no
official cognizance of 1t. But other and
higher considerations must goven me.
When the people Of the United States
elected me President they placed me in
| an office of the highest dignity and