The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1930-10-29
z EXECUTIVES
SLIPPED UP ON
INTERIOR OFFICE
Defense of WiIbur's Oil
Policy Recalls That of
BaIIinger by Taft.
HARDING BACKED FALL
Senate Investigation May
Result in Volcano to
Wreck G. 0. P.
BY RAYMOND CLAPPER
United Press staff Correspondent

WASHINGTON, oct. 29.-Once
more a President Of the United
States has rushed past danger sig
nails to take up defense Of that
graveyard OF Presidents, the interior
department.
Defying the fate which befell two
Of his predecessors in this role, Mr..
Hoover has mustered all Of the 10y
atty in his nature to vindicate his
old Stanford schoolmate, Ray Ly-
man Wilbur, interior secretary,
charged by a subordinate with Civ
ing oil companies a free hand in
government oil shale land in Colo
RADIO.
Seldom have newspaper CORE
spondents seen President Hoover SO
stirred as when he declared that the
charges against Wilbur we're "reck-
less. baseless and infamous fabrica-
tons" and that they were being
exploited by political opponents IN
a. way to do damage to the govern
ment service.
May Prove fOlcduo
Whether the affair has been
ended by President Hoover's
emphatic exoneration, or whether 1t
viii seethe up into another such
volcano as rocked two previous ad-
ministrations which sought to de-
fend the interior department may
depend upon how seriously congress
takes these charges.
Chairman Nye of the senate pub
lie lands committee has indicated he
will press for an investigation at the
coming session. This was referred
to last night by Kelley, who said:
I'm view Of the Presidents atti-
tude, a thorough investigation by
the senate public lands committee
is, in my opinion, imperatively nee
essary."
President Taft fought for Int
rior Secretary Ballinger. Theodore
Roosevelt came back from Africa,
woke up the opposition, and the
Taft administration was wrecked.
Ten years later, President Hard
ing defended Interior Secretary
Fall in the Teapot Dome affair.
Onlv his sudden death prevented
him from living through the humil-
iation of seeing his trusted friend
adiudged by the United States SUI
preme court a "faithless public
officer"
There are striking parallels so far
netween the Kelley and Ballinger
cases.
Ralph S. Kelley was chief of the
field division of the general land
Office when he recently made the
oil shale charges.
The Case of Ballinger
Louis r. CLAWS, in the same post,
charged his superior, Secretary Of
Interior Ballinger, with permitting
coal interests to obtain government
coal lands in Alaska, by much the
same processes Kelley alleges were
used by the oil interests in the shale
fields.
Clifford Pinchot, now Republican
candidate for Governor of PennSyl-
vania and then chief forester of the
United States forest service, a hold
over Roosevelt appointee, support
ed CLAWS.
Taft exonerated Ballinger and
dismissed CLAWS.
Later there was a congressional
investigation, such as Senator Nye
now proposes. 1t disclosed Taft
had directed George w. Wicker
sham. then encouragement and
now head of the Presidents law en-
forcement commission, to prepare a
summary, as Attorney = General
Mitchell has done in the Kelley case.
History May Be Repeated
The President stated Wicker
sham's report was the basis of his
statement of exoneration, but the
congressional investigation testi-
mony was that the Taft eXoneration
actually had been prepared by a
subordinate of Ballinger and that
the Wickersham summary had been
drafted later and had been pre-
dated at the Presidents request.
This disclosure, creating a nation
wide sensation at the time, was
forced out incidentally by Louis D.
Brandeis. now on the supreme court,
but at that time counsel for CLAWS.
1t was this work which in part
brought Brandeis to the attention of
Woodrow Wilson few years later
for appointment to the high court.
A majority of the committee eX-
onerated Ballinger, but the Repub-
hcans lost control of the house in
the 1911 elections and with i'm
parchment charges threatened, Bal
linger resigned one day before the
new ugreSs met.