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VERY BAD MESS Co?ernment Employee Makes Sensational Statement About Tall AND A CERTAIN LETTER Stenographer in Secretary Hallihger's Oflice Declares that President's ^ liOtter Exonerating lialliiiger was Substantially Prepared by Man in I His Ofltce. There was made publ'c In Washington on Saturday afternoon what purports to he a statement of Frederick M. Kerhy, a stenographer in the oflLce of Richard A. Balling-er, Secretary of the Interior, to the effect that he and other stenographers in the department wrote from the dictation of Oscar Rawler, assistant Attorney General for the interior department, a letter w'hich he alleges to have been substantially the foundation for President Taft's letter ex onerating Secretary uaninger rrom the charges of L. It. Glavis. The Kerby statement further alleges that the original drafts of the Lawler letter were burned In a grate In the Interior department, at the suggestion of Don M. Carr, Ballinger'a private secretary. The statement attributed to Kerby says in part, that after the visit of Secretary Ballinger and Lawler to the President's summer residence at Beverly, in the week beginning September 5, Lawler returned to Washington and "took up his quarters in Ballinger's private office, calling in Massey and me for dictation." Kerby says that what Lawler dictated referred to Ballinger as "you" in each case, and the personal pronoun "I" was used throughout. From the context the "I" could be 110 other than Taft himself. "There could be no question," ?ays the Kerby statement, "that Lawler was drafting a letter for ^Taft's signature, reviewing the Glavis charges and exonerating the secretary. It was written in such form that TaCt might have adapted lit bodily. "As I have eaid, the letter was -dictated in Ballinger's private office by I ^awler. Probably half a dozen drafts were made before the final one was accepted. Each time a fresh draft was completed it would be tak?n to Lawler, who would reviso it. For two days Masse y and I did nothing but help rush this work. Lawler frequently consulted E. C. Finney, assistant to Ballinger." The statement goes on to say that the draft was the subject of several conferences, in which participated, the st-ytement sayg, "Ballinger, Lawler, Finney, Commissioner Frederick Dennett, of the land office, Chief of Field Service Schwartz, and, I think, First Assistant Secretary Frank Pierce, and Private Socrotary * Carr." Kerhy is quoted as saying: "Without attempting to forco my own conclusions upon any reader of this statement, I want It to bo remembered that it was the draft of the letter exonerating Ballinger in the charges Glavis bus made against him." Th^o statement says further: "Early in the work Lawler had given Mossey and myself instructions ^ that all rough draft copies discarded In the composition of the final drafts ^ were to he retained by us. "We all understood from the form of the letter that it was to he the basis of Taft's letter covering the <jlavis charges. It was understood by lis that this work was of special Importance. "The 'general arrangement of facts, the order in which they come in the President's letter is pracucaily identical with the arra .jemenfs of facts in the final Lawler draft or to-culhd mamornndum." Korhy is quoted as saying "Certain parts of the T.ift letter T can identify as being in substarce 1 the thoughts of the Lawler letter. For instance, there is the passage I in tho Taft letter, which cer.ainly 1 embodies Lawler's thought: 'The i general responsibility of Cabinet ' positions demands the selection, therefore, of men of the highest character and integrity. " 'Possession of these qualities, as * well as an ability and experience > -which have especially fitted you to direct the affairs of the department of the interior, warranted your ap- ( pointment as Secretary. c "In general, Taft softened Lawler's I draft, and doubtless very materially 1 ^*Vior?cr?H tlirt wnrdinc in that he sub- r ?tituted for certain Lawler phrases, ji phrases of his own, meaning t.he same t thin/g." c When news of the sensational 8 statement issued by Frederick M. t Kerby reached the interior depart- t ment, an emissary was sent by the -e department to Kerby, who was off s duty, to ascertain the verity of the t report. He admitted that the story c was true, and that he had Issued t such a statement. I Kerby reported at the department c for duty next morning and obtained t permission from Private Secretary t LAWLER WROTE LETTER PORTION OF WHICH PRESIDENT TAFT USED AS HIS. | This Is Sliown by a Comparison of the Two betters, Notwithstanding the Denials. Jt Is said iii Washington that O3car Lawler, assistant Attorney General for the interior department, of w.hich Itichard A. Balllnger is the head, did in fact prepare a draft of a letter addressed to Secretary Bai linger and in such form and phrase what it might have been adopted verbatim and signed by the President, as Mr. Taft's exoneration of the Secretary from the charges of L. R. Glavis, and authorizing the dismissal of Glavis from his position of special agent of the interior department. This draft by Mr. Lawler was delivered Saturday afternoon to the Ballinger-Pinchot committee, and ordered spread upon the records of the (investigation.. Careful comparison of the Gawler draft with the letter of t.be President shows that Mr. Taft did in fact adopt practically verbatim two short paragraphs of Mr. Lawler's language. The substances of the two documents is otherwise wide1 I J ii i r>D i in i icii Almost slmultanoously with the publication of the Kerby statement, Attorney General Wickersham sent to the Ballinger-Pinchot investigating committee, then in session, a copy of the Lawler draft, accompanied by a letter to Chairman Nelson, in which Mr. Wichersham declared the document had been overlooked In sendirug the papers requisitioned by tho committee at the request of Attorney Brandeis. When Hal linger emerged from the conference .he showed signs of angry concern, but declared vehemently that there was "nothing to be ashamed of." "With reference to the published affidavit of F. M. Kerby, a stenographer in the office of the Secretary of the Interior, to the effect that the President's letter of September 13, 1 909, exonerating Secretary Ballinger, was substantially prepared for the President's signature by assistant Attorney General Lawler, it was said at the Wtiite House Saturday that there is absolutely no foundation for any such statement. The President dictated his letter personally as the result of his own investigation of tho records, and consideration of documents and papers in his posession at the time, and upon the report to him of the Attorney General." Taffc Owns the Corn. Mr. Taft declares not only that Lawler did prepare such u letter as Kerby said he did, but that he hid so by the President's specific direction. When he received it he found, h* says, that it was not what he wanted to issue, and ho wrote tho letter .himself in tho form in which he desired it, using from Lawler's draft only 011.0 or two general statements. The President 'goes still further and takes up the question of the "hack dating" of Attorney General Wickersham's summary of the Giavis charges, to which Attorney Ixmis 1). Brandeis has drawn attention. Mr. Taft says Uhat the Attorney General's letter was in fact "back dated," and that this was also done by his specific direction. Carr to be off duty Monday. When Mr. Carr was seen Saturday afternoon he said he had nothing to say at the present time, but later, after he had fuller read Uio story, would make reply. <"I made the facts public because 1 had decided that loyalty to Mr. Q 111 n c n H i rl ti inctl fv rl i a 1 n \r o 1 t tr 1 #C4 I 1 1 11 ?> Vs i VI 1 VI 1XWO J Uiwv/J tut; to the country," said Frederick M. ' Korby Saturday night. He added that in view of what he had heard of "snake killing" he assumed he would be dismissed from tho interior department. 1 "If the Secretary of the Interior believes that my statement of facts," he continued, "calls for my seperaiion from the service, It is up to him. I have only stated the facts. He lias said that he wants the publica- } tion of all the facts. I have only made by contribution of what he has failed to make public." * I 1 STUDENT FOUND DEAD, c 4. O. Fleming, of Davidson, Expired ^ Suddenly. fi v 'At Davidson, N. C., Mr. Samuel I ). Fleming, the twenty-year-old son r >f 'Mir. and Mrs. J. O. C. Fleming, of h Laurens, S. C., was found dead in lis bod Thursday night. The cause >f .his death has not been positively iscertained, but it is supposed to lave followed an attack of acute in- e I 1 ~ II. A - 1 I A ii?,t-?nwii. nf wtiiii 10 nis room u ihortly after dinner to take a nap, c laving stood a fatiguing examina- d ion in the morning. He was miss- 1 d from supper and his roommate, 1 leeking to find the cause, entered he room and found him dead. The leabh of young Mr. Fleming is paricularly sad because he was a pros- h lective honor man of the senior 11 ilass of Davidson College, with only 11 wo examinations between him and d lis diploma. ? THE DEATH TOLL Most Be Paid ia the Meter Races at Brightoo Beach, New York. ONE DEAD AND TWO HURT The Frist Fatality Occurred About Midnight Friduy Night.?Another Serious Accident Shortly Afterwards.?Miraculous Iflscapes Ordinary Incidents. 'Ono mail killed and another painfully maimed and three more badly bruised was the record for the tirnt ten hours of tlio 24 .hour race held at tlio Brighton Beach motordrome track Friday night and Saturday. At the end of the tenth .hour the Fiat car led with 4 97 miles to its credit and the Rainier was only one mile behind. The cars, with the Buiek pair in t.ho load, ran without serious mishap until midnight, thus disappointing tlie arguries of those who criticised the starting of the contest on Friday, Uio lsth. Eighteen minutes after midnight the looked-for crash came. The Marion car, drived by Hubert Anderson, tore through the feuce on the turn into the homo stretch and turned turtle. Anderson jumped clear of the wreck, but his mechanician, William Bradley, was so badly mangled that he died an hour later in the emer gency nospuai at uoney island from concussion of tho brain and a fracture of the skull. T.ho second accident happened at two o'clock Saturday morning, when tho Huick car Xo. 2, driven by George Dewitt, crashed through the inner fence on tho turn into the back stretch. The driver escaped unhurr, but the mechanician, Jack Towers, sustained a fracture of the leg and internal injuries. Early Saturday morning the doctors at the emergency hospital, said that Towers was resting easy and would probably recover. At 9.50 the driver, sustained a severe injury to 0110 of his legs and Mechanician John C. McGruder cut on <the shouldor. The physicians say tho Endicott will not bo able to continue in the race. * CKEIGHTON'S APPEAL. Was Not Passed On by the General Conferonoo. The following letter from Rer. C. W. Creigton explains itself: The Associated Press dispatch sent out from Ashovillo, stating that the committee of appeals by a roto of 1.1 to C sustained th? decision of the South Carolina conference which tried the complaints against me in '06 was erroneous. My appeal t? the goueral conference was not heard and, hence, the questions involved in the case were not passed on by the committee of appeal. T.he bishop held that as I had preached since I took tho appeal I had forfeited the rDg.ht to appeal. In this view he succeeded in .having a majority of the committee agree with him. The report of tlio committee was as follows: "Your committee on appeals has had befbre It t.he appeal of C. ii* n l?i. i - a i i- r* i ? s-* * w . ureigmou or uio oouwi uaronna conference, and the appeal was disallowed. Eugene R. Hendrix, "R. A. Meok, President. "Secretary." 'This leaves the Issues involved just where they were four years ago. T hope the papers which published the dispatch sent out from Asheville will also publish the statement that the true facts may appear. C. W. Creig4iton. ? IA)ST HIS FAITH IN WOMEN. I L'ji ion town Merchant Will Not Wed i Just Now. Gannon Thomas, 51 years old, a 1 nerchant of Uniontown, Pa., who { >rocured a license to marry Carrio * lelle Hrown, a widow 4 2 years old. ( eturiKd the license, saying that it vjis worthless mk tho wl/lnw hnri lown after persuading .him to buy ler trouseau and advance her a good- < y sum of money. The courtship covered 12 hours. She said she was toing to the hotel, but instead was peeding to Pittsburg! "I will trust j vomen no more," .he added. "Ono ( had to work for me at Uniontown } an away with $500, but this ono ( las almost broken my heart." j ? ? | Kills (?irl and Self. j: John Going shot and instantly kill- a d his sweetheart, Miss Baton, Sun- 8 ay in Amherst county, Virginia, be- t .inao .hi"> fnniitl the vnnnff womnn riving with his brother. Ho then " urn'e?d the revolver upon himself, lis wounds will probably prove fatal. Perish in Flames. y At Faribault, Minn., Bert Sperry, o is three children, and their grand t nother were burned to death in a i re which destroyed their home Fri c ay. Mrs. Sperry and two children 5 fere saved. v EAGLES ATTACK MEN AUK DESPERATE WHILE FORAGING FOR THEIR YOUNG. Attacks on Lire Stock Are Becoming Frequent in the Northwest and Rirds Are More Numerous. fEagles, now busy gathering food for their young, are creating no end of fear in the Northwest. Scarcely a day passes without reports of attacks upon men, women, children or upon the smaller animals of the farms. It is said more eaglos are LlUbLlllg mining I, HO VI dgh Ul HIV V i?scade and Olympic mountains than ever before and that the reason for their presence is the increased number^ of lambs, pigs, dogs, eats and poultry. Many of the big birds havo been shot, but few farmers will &hoot to kill unless tho giant birds become too bold. 'Maddened eagles attacked and tore the flesh of George Hartman, a hunter. in the vicinity of North Yakima, Wash. A day later a stage driver was attacked as he sat on the seat of his coach and was drivii.g toward Hartford, Wash. His face was badly torn by the bird's talons. Farmers near Hrlnnon declare the thieving eagles are causing thorn great loss among their young stock. A big rooster in Mason county is re. 1 t ? 1. ,, ?n I.? t I 1 ? ? ., n.v.o11 jiu i c^u iu uavu gi y oil imtno it1 a muitii eagle and to hare beaten off the marauder. In all parts of the country eagles are said to be swooping down ami carrying away many ducks and geese. (Fanners in tho vicinity of Blaino report having seen eagles carry off two-days-old laiubs. In one pen the flapping of their wings caused such terror that the sheep rushed from their enclosure and 15 were drowned in a nearby stream. Near Enumclaw, a young eaglet fell from its nest 300 feet into the valley. Children passing tho place were set upon by the old eagles and driven to their homes. T.he birds were routed by the iiring of shotguns as they circled over the houses. In the Cascade mountains on the Pacific slope great inroads are being made on tho pigpens, and near Seattle, Wash., one eaglo was killed while trying to capture a dog in the city pound. * TWO DEAD IN PISTOL DUEL. ? How Over tho Closing of Saloon Ends Faintly. As a result of a duel between Daniei Hanson and his sou, on one hand, and Policemen Hiers and Amnions, nil nthpr flirt <u1,toi* Thiun.i un I Policeman Hiers are dead, a woru in companion of Danson s?r'?ua!y wound-ed and Harry Hanson is it jail, charged with murder. The light was ca -s j i by Policamna Amnions attempting to el Hanson's saloon, which was in operation alter ho u r8. After everything diss aad failed, the policeman start .d to eiuW the elder Danson, when his son Hivd the first shot, shifter.ug Ammons' hand. The policeman c'-en drew his re 'olrer and coir.n.^ica ' sir) ding h fired six shots at Hanson, everyone taking effect. Policeman Hiers, attracted by the reports, came up and was shot through the head by the younger Dan so a. * ? ODD FELLOWS ELECT. Wade Hampton Cobb, of Columbia, Is Next Deputy Grand Master. The grand lodge of South Carolina Independent Order of Odd Fellows adjourned Thursday morninig after a two days session at Spartanburg, t.he most satisfactory and the most largely attended in its long history of seventy seven years, to meet next year in Greenville. The election of officers at the ^ morning session resulted as follows: Errand Master, Wade Hampton Cobb, Columbia; Deputy Grand Master, James G. Long, Jr., Union; Grand Warden, James II. Craig, Anderson; 1 EJrand Secretary, S. F. Killingsworth, ( Columbia; Grand Treasurer, II. En- * lei, Greenville. ( OFFFICER KIIjIAS WATCHER 1 ? t )f a Negro (.'ambling I>oti at Dur- ( bam in Self Defence. j At Durham, N. C., in a gun con- b iict Friday night, Policeman W. A. }obb shot and instantly killed Tom lawk ins, a desperate negro, who >arely missed blov/ing Sergeant Pen- c lergrast's head off with a shotgun ll erore dropping aean rrom coot) a 11 istol shot. The officers wore raiding I gambling den which Hawkins oenis to have been (guarding. When hey appeared two women cried out, 'Policemens is in the house." The a tegroes ran like rats. KoblHMl the PassengersI At Seattle three highwaymen held ip a "pay as you enter" street car N n the South park line of the Seat- u le Electric company Thursday morn- o n? and escaped with money and oth- e r valuables estimated at between 1? >1,500 and $2,000. Their victims o vere twenty male passengers. n GOT TOO HOT And the Band of Robbers Fled From the Citizens and Police. SAFE BLOWERS WORKED ? While Their Leaders Fought Oft* tJie Citizens Who Attempted to Stop Them, Having IUtii Brought to the Scene by the fcx plosion Which Wrnkwl lliv Postollice. A gang of robbers in endeavoring to rob the postofllce at Scottsburg, Intl., on Saturday practically wrecked the building and fired at citizens who had been aroused by the explosion and escaped without, it is hollered, securing any money. Posses wore quickly organized and sent in pursuit. Fire alarm there are sounded by revolver shots and in response to a fusilad? the whole town turned out to find, not a house ablaze, but a band of safe blowers busy with the strong box at the postofiiee and exchanging bullets with men in a hotel across the street. Yells of the robbers and redoubled shots kept the crowd back for a while, but it grew and surrounded the postoflico building, the robbers lost their nerve, dropped their tools ! and lied into the darkness. They had not yet cracked Uie innermost vault. The robbers blew off the door of the safe with nitro-glycerine and the explosion jarred the hotel and awakened the men aslerp there. T.he guests that had revolvers shot from the windows and doors. One of the robbers, evidently the chief, was stationed in the street. He stood his ground and tired rapidly in return, calling to his comrades: "(let the money quick or I'll blow your brains out." As the street began to fill with peoplo it was this man that gave the order for the retreat. * DBAGUKD TO DRATII. Most Horrible Fate That Befell a Bright Young Boy. Anthony Howard, t?ho 13-year-old son of Mr. and Mrs. L. C. Howard of Pink Hill Township, Lenoir county, N. C., met a mo?t horrible death in a runaway Saturday afternoon while riding a mule from the field to the house to get shelter from an ap- < proachlng storm. The lad was ploughing in the field a half mile from the house, and seeing tho storm approaching, ho hastily unhooked the mule from the , plow, t.hrow the trace chains across the mule's withers, mounted and ( started home. The mule shied and threw tlip boy oft. Tho boy's legs became entangled in tho chain, wJiich held him fast. This frightened tho mule and ho ran away, dragging tho entangled boy along the woods road which was full of roots and stumps. Thus dragged along young Howard's head and body were dashed against tho ground, roots and stumps until life was extinct. Ilis skull was crushed in several places and the bones of the I upper part of his body were broken. ( To add to the horror of the situ a- ] tion the young boy's mother, seeing t the mule coming dragging her son. ran ?to render him assistance, but j was powerless to do so and the panic j stricken mule dashed by her and ( leaped the fence, with the boy dang- liiug to the plow eJiains. * i 1 TURKIC >1KN KILLICD. I ? lly the Accidental Kxplosion of a x % Powder lllast. I c At Copper Hill, Tenn., three men . vere killed and considerable damage . ione throughout the vicinity, is the xjcovd of an explosion which occurred at the furnace of Kershaw Irothers, of Atlanta. The dead are: Engineer Greene, Atlanta; Craneman ^ook, Atlanta; Laborer Abe Dillard, Copper 1H11. The accident resulted 1 rom the striking of an unexpected a >last of powder by the teeth of a , ii a team shovel. _ (1 Rods His Life. '' A man about twenty-five years old, ommitted suioide by drinking carolic acid Sunday morning, on the Lorthbound Missouri, Kansas and f, 'exas Railway "flyer," shortly after j, ho train left Temple, Texas. A s) f bor oI oa r nn un uj ?i a n r> / I t . i rrn Mil Vy|^>ni \.uov IT no iv/utivi vn t u V. r?| ody with the name C. J. Smith, Q nd a railroad ticket from San An- tj onio to Kansas City. f( ? ? liovod the Kinit. At Minneapolis Mrs. Sarah J. P. Iobley, aged 70 years and reputed T wealthy, is dead, according to Cor- g ner Seashore, of heart failure cans- I: d by reading of the death of King a Jdward. "King Edward is my Ideal w f a man," she often said to her d eighbors. _ ? u. ^ . | F ma CO IT ALONE BAPTISTS AGAINST MERGING IN MISSION WORK. Northern Baptist** Want Southern 9 Baptists to Help Them Help the I Brother in Black. Home missions furnished one hundred topics for consideration at Friday's session of the Southern Baptist Convention, now in session at Baltimore. The Rev. Dr. Burrows reported that there was a general increase during the past year of $1 14,000 for the home and foreign mission hoards. The board of home missions endorsed strongly the policy of tho Southern Baptist Convention of havng no "entangling alliance" with other Christian bodies that can in any way endanger the Baptist doctrines or practices as Baptists. This utterance referred specifically to the labors of the ooard iii Panama and Cuba, where it was stated that the work was progressing rapidly, but that difficulties in the way of the work of both the Sundayschools and other phases have developed in the trend towards "socalled c.hurch union efforts and the obliteration of denominational lines." "We report." the board adds, that the lives of professing Christians who go to the Canal Zone for money-making are a hindrance instead of a help to the Baptist church. Then, too, the efforts of some Cnristian workers to discredit denominational work in the interests of an undefended Christian union are adding to tlio difficulties of our missions." The report, though not stating specifically, was aimed at the Young Men's Christian Association, according to a statement by the Rev. E. C. Pargan, of Macon. Ga., member of the Cuba and Panama committee. After the session ho said: In Cuba and Panama the Y. M. C. A. stands for undenominational presentation of Christ; the Baptist Church has always, and will always, stand for the Baptist presentation. I do not mean to speak disparagingly of the Y. M. C. A. I only meau that the Baptist Churoh ought not to merge with anybody in work among the missions." An appeal from the Baptists of the North, asking that their brethren of the South aid them in taking care of the negroes, created a stir in the Convention. The matter was referred to a committee and will come up later for discussion. TJie communication came from the American Baptist Home Mission Society, headquarters in New York. It declared that two-thirds of the negro Baptist ministers have had no more than the merest rudiments of a common school education, "and are deplorably deficient in qualification for spiritural edification and leadership." TJie Northern society desires th? co-operation of the Southern Baptists in the management and maintenance of its schools in the South and pro poses the establishment ot a number of summer schools there for the benefit of thy negro Baptist ministry. * BUILT COMET PltOOF CAVE. Callfornian Expects to Bo Earth's Solo Survivor. When 11 alley's comet approaches the earth Stephen Hartor, of Pasalena, Cal., is likely to be the only liuman survivor, according to his iecl a ration. I-larter, who is a gardner, has dug i cave in his back yard, which he las stocked with canned goods and jther provisions and provided with i system of ventilators, controlled iy strings leading to the inner cham>er. There he will hide when the leavenly wanderer conies. Barter believes all life on earth vill be snuffed out by the deadly pises which compose the comet's tail, lo does not propose to bo snuffed nit, and each night ho retires to ?ed in the Inner chamber, the strings ontrolling the vontilatiou hanging loso behind his head. Two Will Go. Adjutant General Boyd was auhorized Friday to send two regilents to the encampment at Chicmanga. The 3d regiment has aleady been designated. It is option1 with the 2d regiment between Anerson and Chicaniauga. The 1st egiment will go to Greenville or partanburg. ^ ^ Fell Between Cars. While returning to Dawson, Ga., *om a Sunday school picnic to Colmhus, J. H. Armstrong was inantlv killed when he fell between le cars when trying to pass from no coach to another. Portions of te body were strewn along the track >r a considerable distance. Married IIis Grandmother. William Pounds, of Heflin, Ala., hursday married Mrs. John T. Buress, who is legally his grandmother, iurgess was Pounds' grandfather, ml was over seventy years of age, hen he married several years ago, ying shortly afterwards. Mrs. >ounds is now twenty-two. i ' i