The New York herald., 1920-01-10
P|NCHOT ATTACKS
PALMER NEGLECT
IN OIL LAND CASE
Herald Bureau.
No. 1.JO2 III street, n. W.,
Washington, ID. C., Friday.

Charges of neglect of official duty, il
failing to carry 10 the Supreme Court ;
case involving title to 10000 acres or oi
land in Southern California, valued a
500 10000, which is now in the possession
or the Southern Pacific Railroad. are made
fn an open letter addressed today to A
Mitchell Palmer, Attorney General, b,
Clifford Pinchot, president of the Nationa
Conservation Association.
The protest which Mr.. Pinchot makes
because Mr.. Palmer has dropped the pros
ecution of the case is based on the fac'
that, as he claims, the grant to the South
ern Pacific especially included lands con-
tanning oil. The case was decided ad-
versely 10 the government in the lower
courts and Mr.. Palmer has announced
that he would not take up the time OF
his office in carrying the case further,
because ii seemed useless. Mr.. Pinchot
argues that. in view of the value of the
nds'involved, and their Importance to the
government as a supply for the navy, the
Attorney General should not feel that his
duty is performed until he has carried
the case to the final tribunal.
He also calls attention to the fact that
the case involving the 10000 acres is sini-
lar TO the Elk Hills case, involving 10000
acres which was decided in favor or the
government.
Mr.. Pinchot tells Mr.. Palmer that his
Judgment can be no more than the judg-
ment of one man. no matter how learned
in sthe law, and it may be right or wrong.
He thinks this Judgment should not be
relied upon, and the Supreme Court
should be made the final arbiter
1t is interesting to recall, in view of Mr..
Pinchot's attack upon Mr. Palmer. that
he and the Attorney General were rival
candidates for the United States Senator
ship from Pennsylvania. Mr. Pinchot
nosed out Mr.. Palmer for second place,
cd hnt n nf
by large majority. In his letter Mr..
Pinchot says
THE land turned over to the railroad by
your action is admittedly oil land, yet the
grant to the Southern Pacific clearly and
specifically excepted and withheld oil land
from the kinds of public land the railroad
could take.
about 1900 acres are within the petro-
ieum reserves set aside for the protection
OF our navy against the possible exhaus-
ton of commercial oil, and as Secretary
Daniels has repeatedly declared, these re-
serves are absolutely essential to its future
security.
"The larger part of the lands you have
a abandoned lies outside the navy's reserves.
Jf it were saved and operated under the
OIL Leasing bill now in conference before
Congress it would not only bring large
revenues to the government, but would
he a powerful means of limiting and con-
trolling monopoly in oil, and to that extent
would help to hold down the high cost OF
living.
''The decision by Judge Bledsoe in the
case which 7 am urging you to appeal was
made in view of and was undoubtedly in
fluenced by the previous decision Of the
lower court in the Elk Hills case, which
the Supreme Court has since unanimously
reversed. Judge Bledsoe in his opinion,
which is based in part on the theory that
A,.f Do 81 al Dtnd hn-
yond the suspicion of such fraud as the
Supreme Court officially condemns it for
in the Elk Hills case, specifically refers
10 the latter as a parallel case"