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38-792: Pinchot, a close personal friend of Roosevelt, was Chief of the U.S. Forest Service in the Department of Agriculture. Richard A. Ballinger was U.S. Secretary of the Interior , a separate cabinet department. Roosevelt in 1908 selected Taft as his successor in the White House because he thought Taft fully agreed with his main policies. Roosevelt then left the country in early 1909. Roosevelt's friends flooded him with messages hostile to Taft, and Roosevelt returned in 1910 convinced that his protege had betrayed him. The feud helped to define national political alignments between 1910 and 1914, as well as

76-515: A 58-page report that asserts Ballinger's innocence and paints Pinchot as a vindictive publicity-seeker who pitilessly pursued Ballinger even after Ballinger's death. Richard A. Ballinger Richard Achilles Ballinger (July 9, 1858 – June 6, 1922) was mayor of Seattle, Washington , from 1904–1906, Commissioner of the United States General Land Office from 1907–1908 and U.S. Secretary of

114-595: A third of waterpower resources as Roosevelt left office. However, that restoration soon provoked a scandal. In August, in conjunction with the National Irrigation Conference in Spokane, Washington , a United Press reporter published a story about 15,868 acres of land in Montana being sold to large corporations (General Electric, Guggenheim and Amalgamated Copper ). Ballinger at first ignored

152-657: The Louisville Courier-Journal ] and the rest handed down their verdict against Ballinger in 1909 and 1910 and a large element of the public believed that they had spoken justly. Harold L. Ickes , Secretary of the Interior under Franklin Roosevelt , reached a conclusion similar to Pringle's. Ickes published a popular account of his findings in The Saturday Evening Post . After an official investigation, his findings were expanded to

190-478: The 1912 presidential election . The clash had a long-term influence on the conservation movement because it spread misconceptions about a class warfare dimension. Contrary to the stereotype, many businessmen supported conservation programs and many farmers and workers opposed them. Furthermore there was a good deal of overlap in the goals of the Interior Department, the Department of Agriculture, and

228-753: The Chugach National Forest included several of the Cunningham claims. Glavis received a sympathetic response from Alexander Shaw, Overton Price and Pinchot, who helped him to prepare the presentation for Taft. Pinchot now arranged a meeting between President Taft and Glavis. Pinchot and Glavis presented Taft with a 50-page report accusing Ballinger of an improper interest in his handling of coal field claims in Alaska. Glavis claimed (without evidence) that Ballinger while in office helped Cunningham. Glavis said that Ballinger first as commissioner of

266-744: The Forestry Bureau and thus responsible for the Chugach, although also subordinate to the Interior Secretary), President Taft and cooperated with the press. A series of muckraking articles, including Glavis's in the November issue of Collier's Weekly roused the conservationists . An article in Hampton's even accused President Taft of being part of a conspiracy hatched at the 1908 Republican Convention. Ballinger again dismissed

304-458: The Guggenheim family of New York City. The group had staked 33 claims, although Alaska land laws were designed to foster small farmers and prevent monopoly and thus required each claimant to prove that he or she was acting on his or her own behalf, as well as limited each claimant to 160 acres. While land commissioner, Ballinger granted the developer special access to government files. During

342-414: The U.S. Forest Service since it had taken over management of forest reserves from the United States General Land Office (GLO) in 1905. In 1909 he became convinced that Ballinger was reversing the last-minute moves by outgoing President Roosevelt to block big business from gaining control of any major water sources. He said Ballinger intended to "stop the conservation movement". In August, 1909, speaking at

380-479: The U.S. Secretary of the Interior . One of his first acts was to revoke executive protection of lands potentially subject to development of hydroelectric energy pending surveys, restoring them to the public domain for leasing. Progressives feared that hydroelectric monopolies would grab such sites either to control or preclude development and would then dictate energy prices, since 13 companies (including General Electric and Westinghouse ) already controlled more than

418-668: The United States House of Representatives in 1889. He was re-elected to the House five times. He served as chairman of the House Committee on Expenditures in the Fifty-sixth Congress . In the 1900 presidential election , President William McKinley needed a successor to replace his first vice president, Garret Hobart , who died in November 1899. Dolliver was considered by some as a favorite to win

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456-408: The conservation movement in the early 20th century. In March 1909, President William Howard Taft began his administration by replacing Theodore Roosevelt 's Secretary of the Interior , James Rudolph Garfield , with Richard A. Ballinger , a former Mayor of Seattle who had served as Commissioner of the United States General Land Office (GLO) under Secretary Garfield. Ballinger's appointment

494-606: The Army Corps of Engineers. Henry F. Pringle , in his 1939 biography of Taft, portrayed Ballinger as an innocent victim of vindictive Roosevelt loyalists and of yellow journalism that gave their accusations velocity: An examination of thousands of pages of evidence can lead the impartial reader only to the conclusion that Ballinger was the victim of an attack fostered by fanaticism and nurtured by bad journalism. But Pinchot, Glavis, Hapgood [of Collier's Weekly ], Sullivan [also of Collier's ], Marse Henry [Henry Watterson of

532-684: The Convention instead chose James S. Sherman . During Dolliver's service in the Senate, Iowa Republicans were divided between a conservative old guard that had dominated state politics since the Civil War, and a new progressive wing led by Albert B. Cummins , a lawyer and (after 1902) Governor of Iowa. The flash point for this division was Cummins' effort in 1908 to join Dolliver in the Senate by challenging legendary Senator William B. Allison in

570-597: The General Land Office, and then as Secretary of the Interior , had tried to stop investigations of coal claim purchases made by Clarence Cunningham. In 1907, Cunningham had partnered with the Morgan – Guggenheim "Alaska Syndicate" to develop coal interests in Alaska. The GLO had launched an anti-trust investigation, headed by Glavis. Ballinger, then head of the GLO, rejected Glavis's findings and removed him from

608-650: The Guggenheims in Charge of the Department of the Interior? In January 1910, Pinchot sent an open letter to Senator Jonathan P. Dolliver , who read it into the Congressional Record . Pinchot praised Glavis as a "patriot", openly rebuked Taft, and asked for Congressional hearings into the propriety of Ballinger's dealings. Pinchot was promptly fired, but from January to May, the United States House of Representatives held hearings on Ballinger. Ballinger

646-655: The Interior from 1909–1911. Ballinger was born in Boonesboro, Iowa , the son of Richard Henry Ballinger and Mary Elizabeth Norton. In 1884, he graduated from Williams College , where he was a member of the Zeta Psi fraternity. Ballinger passed the bar exam in 1886 and began practicing law in Seattle. He married Julia Albertson Bradley later that year, on October 26. The couple ultimately had two sons, (Edward Bradley Ballinger and Richard Talcott Ballinger). Following

684-538: The Interior Department had waned. After the Republican party lost heavily in the midterm elections that November, Ballinger finally resigned on March 12, 1911. Taft had replaced Pinchot with Henry Graves , who was committed to protecting American forests, and Ballinger helped Taft to secure a new law which allowed Taft to withdraw public lands from private development, thus allowing them to protect as many acres in one term as Roosevelt had in nearly two terms. However,

722-520: The President to ask for Ballinger's resignation, Taft stood by his appointee, and attorney general George Wickersham even backdated to September 11, 1909 a report concerning Glavis' firing. After a Washington insider warned Collier that Ballinger planned to sue his magazine after the planned "whitewash", it hired Louis D. Brandeis as its counsel. Pinchot went public with his differences with Ballinger's approach and his office delivered another report to

760-495: The Republican Party, Dolliver (son of a Methodist minister) said, "Iowa will go Democratic when Hell goes Methodist." In 1888, Dolliver challenged the incumbent congressman for Iowa's 10th congressional district , Adoniram J. Holmes , for the Republican nomination. After 110 ballots in the district nominating convention, Dolliver won. He easily won the general election and began to represent in north-central Iowa in

798-618: The Republican primary. Dolliver had a national reputation as a progressive . However, he supported Allison, who ultimately prevailed in the primary but died shortly thereafter, and was succeeded by Cummins. Dolliver soon reconciled with Cummins, and became increasingly aligned with Cummins in his party's progressive wing. Dolliver died in office on October 15, 1910. He was interred in Oakland Cemetery in Fort Dodge, Iowa. The small town of Dolliver, Iowa , established on

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836-840: The Senator Dolliver, Republican chair of the Committee on Agriculture and Forestry. This prompted Taft to fire Pinchot as well, while Roosevelt was in Africa. During the special committee's hearings, both Glavis and Pinchot testified, and testimony about the backdating by a stenographer prompted Taft to take responsibility for ordering it, though that stenographer and other employees were also fired. Brandeis's questioning made Ballinger's anti-conservationism clear, but did not unearth anything so serious as to warrant criminal charges. Nonetheless, public confidence in Ballinger's leadership of

874-679: The annual meeting of the National Irrigation Congress in Spokane, Washington , he accused Ballinger of siding with private trusts in his handling of water power issues. Meanwhile Louis Glavis ,the chief of the Field Division of the GLO in Portland, Oregon, grew suspicious. He became convinced that Secretary Ballinger had a personal financial interest in obstructing an investigation of the Cunningham case. Glavis sought support from Pinchot, whose jurisdiction over

912-738: The city for his father, Col. Richard Ballinger. After serving as the mayor of Seattle, Ballinger joined the administration of President Theodore Roosevelt and served as commissioner of the United States General Land Office from 1907 until 1908. In 1909, Ballinger helped organize the Alaska–Yukon–Pacific Exposition , a World's Fair to highlight development in the Northwest. In 1909 despite previous promises to retain ex-President Roosevelt's cabinet officers, newly elected President William Howard Taft appointed Ballinger to replace conservationist (and fellow Ohioan) James R. Garfield as

950-503: The controversy and President Taft appeared to want the ordeal to end, maintaining that both Ballinger and Pinchot remained committed to Roosevelt's conservation policies. Ballinger, however, threatened to resign unless Taft consented to a congressional investigation to exonerate him, and in December sent a letter to Washington state's Republican senator Wesley Jones demanding a complete investigation. Although even Charles Taft advised

988-548: The investigation. Taft consulted with Attorney General George Wickersham before issuing a public letter in September, exonerating Ballinger and authorizing the dismissal of Glavis on grounds of insubordination. At the same time, Taft tried to conciliate Pinchot and affirm his administration's pro-conservation stance. Glavis took his case to the press. In November, Collier's Weekly published an article elaborating his allegations, entitled The Whitewashing of Ballinger: Are

1026-469: The scandal-prone Yukon Gold Rush era administration of Thomas J. Humes , Ballinger was elected Seattle's mayor in 1904. With the support of the downtown business elite, he cracked down somewhat (but not heavily) on vice, and opposed labor unions . Ballinger later proved a roadblock to the city's strong municipal ownership movement. He also named Lake Ballinger in Snohomish County north of

1064-593: The series of Ballinger-related scandals, Taft's loyalty to his embattled appointee, and Ballinger's refusal to resign for more than nine additional months—combined with controversy over the Payne–Aldrich tariff —split the Republican Party and helped to turn the tide of the 1912 election against Taft. Ballinger returned to the private practice of law in Seattle, Washington , where he died on June 6, 1922, and

1102-521: The several month gap in 1908 between his employment as land commissioner and interior secretary, Ballinger acted as an agent for the Cunningham/Morgan/Guggenheim development group with the federal government, lobbying then Interior Secretary Jim Garfield . Upon becoming Interior Secretary, Ballinger reassigned General Land Office investigator Louis R. Glavis, and ultimately fired him after he complained to Gifford Pinchot (head of

1140-559: The spot at the 1900 Republican National Convention. However, New York Governor Theodore Roosevelt , renowned for his victory in the Battle of San Juan Hill in the Spanish–American War , soon emerged as the leading candidate for that position. Dolliver stepped aside. The following month (July 1900), Iowa U.S. Senator John H. Gear died while in office. Iowa Governor Leslie M. Shaw selected Dolliver to replace Gear. Dolliver

1178-486: The story, then accused reporters of opposing development in the West. Although that Montana waterpower story proved to be overblown, accusations of favoritism continued to dog Ballinger as Secretary of the Interior. The most serious charges involved coal development in the Chugach National Forest by a Seattle developer and Ballinger crony, Clarence Cunningham, and financed by a corporation associated with J. P. Morgan and

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1216-527: Was admitted to the bar in 1878, and commenced practice in Fort Dodge, Iowa . He served as city solicitor of Fort Dodge from 1880 to 1887. In 1884, as a twenty-six-year-old, Dolliver received national attention for his skills as an orator, when campaigning around the nation on behalf of the Republican presidential candidate James G. Blaine . A famous political quotation is attributed to Dolliver. Referring to his adopted state's traditional allegiance with

1254-490: Was a disappointment to conservationists, who interpreted the replacement of Garfield as a break with Roosevelt administration policies on conservationism. Within weeks of taking office, Ballinger reversed some of Garfield's policies, restoring 3 million acres (12,000 km²) to private use. Gifford Pinchot had been appointed by President William McKinley to head the USDA Division of Forestry in 1898, and had run

1292-474: Was again touted as a potential vice-presidential candidate, this time on the ticket with William Howard Taft . As the convention approached Dolliver indicated that he preferred to remain in the Senate. In response to further pressure (and suggestions of support from the Roosevelt White House), he softened his position by indicating that he would not refuse the position if offered it. However,

1330-529: Was buried at the Lake View Cemetery. His wife Julia Albertson Ballinger (1864-1961) bore their sons Edwin B. Ballinger (1899-) and Richard Talcott Ballinger (1898-1971). Jonathan P. Dolliver Jonathan Prentiss Dolliver (February 6, 1858 – October 15, 1910) was a Republican orator, U.S. Representative , then U.S. Senator from Iowa at the turn of the 20th century. In 1900 and 1908 Republican National Conventions , he

1368-413: Was cleared of any wrongdoing, Nevertheless he was criticized from some quarters with the accusation that he favored private enterprise and the exploitation of natural resources over conservationism. The firing of Pinchot, a close friend of Roosevelt, alienated many progressives within the Republican party and drove a wedge between Taft and Roosevelt himself, leading to the split of the Republican Party in

1406-671: Was promoted as a vice-presidential candidate, but he was never chosen. Dolliver was born in 1858 near Kingwood in Preston County , a Virginia county that would refuse to join the Confederacy and would instead remain in the Union as part of the new state of West Virginia . He attended the public schools and graduated from the West Virginia University at Morgantown in 1876. After studying law, Dolliver

1444-730: Was twice re-elected to the Senate by the Iowa General Assembly . In the Senate, he served as chairman of the Committee on Pacific Railroads in the Fifty-seventh through Fifty-ninth Congresses, Committee on Education and Labor in the Fifty-ninth and Sixtieth Congresses, and the Committee on Agriculture and Forestry in the Sixty-first Congress. In the 1908 presidential election , Dolliver's name

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