BRANDEIS SPRINGS SENSATION
Brandeis Springs Sensation ''IS IT not a fact that this state- ment of the Attorney Gentral, Which purports to have been made September 11, 1909, bearing date September 11, 1909, was, as a matter...
...Brooks had declared...
...When this opinion was finally published in December, surprise was expressed by many that an opinion of such length and force had not before been made public or even referred to by anyone at any stage of the fierce controversy that had then raged over Ballinger for four months...
...The letter of the President exonerating Ballinger did not have the quieting effect expected, but led rather to increasing controversy and to a demand for the facts...
...He said Pinchot declared Ballinger was seeking to undo the work of Garfield...
...When Was Opinion Written...
...It is probable that this phase of the correspondence will again be brought up before the investigation is finally closed...
...In his opinion dated September 11 the Attorney General says: "The suggestion that it was unlawful for Mr...
...Smith Sides With Ballinger GEORGE OTIS SMITH, director of the Geological Survey, who occupied the stand practically all of Saturday, testified to the strained relations existing between the Forest Service and the Department of the Interior...
...Brandeis, attorney for L. R. Glavis, charged by implication that the Wickersham -opinion on the Glavis charges, dated September 11, 1909, Was not written until November or December and was dated ahead in order to bolster up the postiion of Secretary Ballinger and the administration after the country had become aflame over the Glavis charges...
...The suggestion is based on section 190, United States Revised Statutes, which enacts," etc...
...Brandeis Springs Sensation ''IS IT not a fact that this state- ment of the Attorney Gentral, Which purports to have been made September 11, 1909, bearing date September 11, 1909, was, as a matter of fact, not dated for more than two months after that time...
...Conservation, he said, meant to him not only opposition to waste of expendible resources like coal, but to the non-use of non-expendible resources like water powers...
...Then it was rumored that the President's letter had been based upon an opinion written by Attorney General Wickersham after an investigation of the Glavis charges...
...Brandeis to resume cross examination of witnesses after Secretary Ballinger shall have testified...
...It looked strange, not to say suspicious...
...This was the startling question and the significant reply at Friday's hearing in the congressional investigation at Washington of the conservation controversy...
...Ballinger to have any professional relation with these claimants because of his previous incumbency of the office of Commissioner of the Land Office is, in my opinion, unsound...
...It was the sensation of the week...
...He was opposed to the leasing system and favored the sale of resources to relieve the government of the increasing complexities of supervision...
...Finney: "I do not know when it was written, Mr...
...Nothing significant was brought out in his testimony unless it be his statement that he was removed from his office as register at Juneau because of his practice in drawing up legal papers outside of office hours...
...Smith also described the stormy scenes at the Spokane congress and read several letters he had written and which contained many facetious references to the congress...
...A feature of the direct examination was an indication that the "defense" will attempt to show that a conspiracy existed between Forester Pinchot and certain of his subordinates to bring about the removal of Secretary Ballinger...
...He declared that on September 18, 1909, Acting Forester Price told him, "if we don't get him (Ballinger) one way we will another...
...In order to expedite the investigation the committee voted to hold a three-day session this week...
...Declaring that the development of Alaska had been retarded by the "cold storage" policy of the government, he said the American people nevertheless seemed to feel that the coal there is worth more nearly a dollar a ton in the ground than a half cent, as Mr...
...No action has yet been taken on the question of permitting Mr...
...By this question, Mr...
...He declared that the publicity bureau of the Reclamation Service had early lined up with Pinchot and said the forestry had made up the issues for the Spokane congress, chosen the orators and primed the newspapers...
...What is considered remarkable, if not significant, in this connection is the fact that in all the correspondence over the Glavis-Ballinger controversy leading up to the Attorney General's opinion in December is that no reference is made by Ballinger himself, by Assistant Secretary Pierce, by Commissioner Dennett, by Chief of Field Service Schwartz or by the President, that Glavis had charged Secretary Ballinger with a violation of Section 190...
...Smith told of an in erview with Pinchot over a published statement by the Survey, in which Pinchot roundly scored him (Smith) for what seemed a change of attitude relative to conservation and disloyalty to his former chief, Secretary Garfield...
...In his letter of November 13 Glavis says: "There was at that time and now is in force a statute of the United States which says: "It shall net be lawful for any person appointed after the 1st day of June, 1872, as an officer, clerk, or employee in any of the departments to act as counsel, attorney, or agent for prosecuting any claim against the United States which was pending in either of said departments while he was such an officer, clerk, or employee, nor in any manner, nor by any means, to aid in the prosecution of any such claim within two years next after he shall have ceased to be such officer, clerk, or employee...
...John W. Dudley, who was summoned from Alaska to testify relative to offers to write a story on the Alaska situation, was on the stand but a short time...
...It will be recalled that when one E. T. Perkins was in the government service he drew $500 a month from the Harriman road for lecturing on the advantages of settlement along that line and when he was dismissed by his superiors Secretary Ballinger reproved such dismissal...
...To many people, the two incidents were illuminative of the Ballinger policy...
...But the startling thing in the opinion was a reply to the charge of Glavis that Ballinger had violated Section 190 of the revised statutes when on resigning as commissioner of the general land office he became counsel for a large number of Alaska coal claimants...
...This charge had not been made by Glavis before he published his letter in Collier's Weekly of November 13...
...THE Wickersham opinion was made public in December when Congress had decided on an investigation of the controversy...
...Mr...
Vol. 2 • April 1910 • No. 17
