BALLINGER SPARED FROM REPLYING
Ballinger Spared from Replying ANNOUNCEMENT by Secretary Ballinger that he intends to compel personal loyalty in his department with a club if necessary was a feature of the congressional...
...Then, looking his inquisitor squarely in the face, he asked defiantly : "Does that satisfy your question...
...Moore had talked with Mr...
...Did not you give as an explanation and reason for your going to Secretary Garfield to talk about Cunningham claims after you ceased to be commissioner the fact that it was a matter of importance," persisted Mr...
...Ballinger was on the stand three days and the end is not yet, as he has not been examined as to his relations with Pin-chot...
...So also was the further shielding of cabinet officers by the committee...
...Garfield...
...I asked for this investigation and want a searching one, but I think I am entitled to be free from the imputation the gentleman put in his questions...
...At the time this matter came up it was generally considered that it was worth the claims to have to get them, and therefore the matter was not of that transcendent importance which you would have appear...
...Brandeis had charged, in effect, that the President had exempted from the civil service requirements certain appointments as special agents and that Ballinger had then turned these over to Hitchcock for political "pie...
...He is here by sufferance of the committee and not by any other right...
...Senator Fletcher: "Counsel is trying this case for the whole country and not simply for this table or for congress...
...Brandeis, calmly and smiling, "the committee is more desirous of light than heat...
...I have said heretofore that we sent to the president all the facts and withheld nothing...
...Repeatedly the majority members of the committee interposed to spare the witness from embarrassing replies...
...His tone plainly exasperated the Secretary, who answered with emphasis: "I did regard it as a matter of importance—yes, I considered it a matter of more than ordinary detailed importance...
...He denounced bitterly the action of Glavis in taking his charges to the President over the heads of his superiors, and it was in the course of this testimony that he served notice, as he declared, that he proposed to weed out of his department all who might appear hereafter to be remiss in personal loyalty...
...Thus Mr...
...Gentlemen of the committee, I appeal to you for protection from the insolence of this man, who is trying to cross-examine me...
...That question implies an insult, that we made a selection to suit our convenience," replied the secretary, hotly...
...He proved an exceedingly adroit witness, minimizing the importance of the incidents referred to in the charges brought against him, and claiming little or no recollection of them...
...Ballinger refused to answer on this point and appealed to the committee, which sustained him by a vote of 6 to 5, in which Representatives McCall and Madison, Republicans, voted to i equiro a reply...
...Ballinger added: "I think you exaggerate the importance of the matter...
...He reiterated the charge that he was the victim of a "conspiracy", denounced the press for joining in the work of exposure, and said the public mind was running mad with suspicion...
...Ballinger Criticizes Forestry MR...
...Reading a letter of Commissioner Dennett concerning the Cunningham claims, Mr...
...One of his charges was thru the bureau had wantonly wasted over $700,000 in administering the Menominee Indian reservation in Wisconsin under a cooperative agreement with the Indian office...
...Brandeis asked Ballinger if Glavis at any time had an opportunity to see the answers he and his assistants had prepared for the president in answer to the Glavis charges...
...Says Alaska Claims Unimportant SECRETARY BALLINGER ridiculed the importance placed upon the Alaska coal fields...
...He declined, however, to specify any prospective victims...
...At that time," he continued, with rapidly increasing heat, "there was no hysteria throughout the country regarding the value of the coal lands of Alaska being away up in the billions...
...There were not at that time fanciful notions regarding the wonderful and marvelous value of the mineral wealth of Alaska, which, if distributed throughout the United States, would be practically a fortune to every citizen of this country...
...Nothing like the degree of importance which you would attempt to give it," retorted the witness...
...Jones Enters Denial ONE reflection by witness on former Special Agent Jones brought the latter to his feet in the audience with a ringing denial and a demand that witnesses be summoned to substantiate the charges made...
...Committee Protects Ballinger IN LINE with its decision of the week before, by which it refused to call for papers that would establish the date of the Wickersham report to the President on the Glavis charges, the committee Thursday voted to relieve Ballinger from angering the question why certain appointments in the Interior Department had been turned over to Frank Hitchcock, Postmaster General and patronage dispenser of the administration...
...Hesitating a moment and with evident emotion, Mr...
...Ballinger denied that in appearing in behalf of the Cale bill for remedial legislation for Alaskan claimants he had in mind the Cunningham, claims, but when confronted with a telegram he had sent two days before that time to Miles C. Moore regarding them, he reluctantly admitted his mistake...
...Thus this interesting colloquy, following a protest by Senator Sutherland may be taken as a sample: Chairman Nelson: "It may help the senators to understand that counsel (Brandeis) is trying this case for the other table (the press table) and not this one...
...BALLINGER was unsparing in his ciitieisms of the Forest Service, which he declared had been conducted with oppression and injustice...
...He also said that since the retirement of Forester Pinchot, Secretary Wilson has made great changeo in the service, one of which has been the throwing of four million acres out of forest reservations and opening them to settlement...
...Brandeis...
...I think," replied Mr...
...Brandeis asked the secretary whether he then considered that matter one of importance...
...Garfield about, because I thought Gov...
...Ballinger Spared from Replying ANNOUNCEMENT by Secretary Ballinger that he intends to compel personal loyalty in his department with a club if necessary was a feature of the congressional conservation hearing last week...
...I considered it of enough importance to speak to Mr...
...Clashes between witness and counsel were many and repeatedly Ballinger appealed to the committee for protection from his inquisitor, although he is an experienced lawyer himself and declares he has no fear if but the truth were told...
Vol. 2 • May 1910 • No. 19
