Show I 1 LAWYERS SUMMING UP THE AWE T TESTIMONY DAY DEVOTED Joint Congressional Commit Committee tee Hears What Brandeis and Pepper Think of Secretary of the Interior ALSO WHAT VERTREES KNOWS ABOUT PINCHOT Defense Much More Vigorous Than the Prosecution and Glavis and Kerby Were De Denounced Denounced Denounced in Scathing Terms TWO CONNOLLY LETTERS ASHINGTON May 27 With WASHINGTON rj 7 W the attorneys on one side scoring Secretary Ballinger Balinger as a man unfit to be he at the head of the interior department and with the leading at attorney attorney attorney torney on the other side defending him and denouncing his accusers whom he termed the C Pinchot group the chot investigating committee listened to arguments by counsel today The arguments probably will willbe willbe be he concluded tomorrow Attorneys Brandeis and Pepper told the committee they had produced evi evidence evidence evidence dence which they said established that Ballinger was not vigilant and reso res resolute resolute lute in resisting the aggressiveness of special Interests and that his course had been characterized by a lack or ot fidelity to the public interest Int Attorney Vertrees reply was that Mr Ballinger was as a much of a conserva conservationist conservationist conservationist as anyone in a proper sense but he did not belong to the Pinchot brand of degree conserva conservationists conservationists who have gone to seed on conservation The lawyers for the prosecution finished their speeches but Mr Ver Vertrees Vertrees Vertrees trees was hardly launched on his argument argument argument ment when tha the committee adjourned He will conclude tomorrow Brandeis and Pepper will make short arguments in rebuttal It was his constant yielding under pressure that Brandeis thought most unfitted Ballinger to carry forward the broad policies of conservation Pepper advanced as the reason Ballinger should be supplanted as secretary was that during his regime there had been no administration worth the name but buta a series of acts unwise in themselves referable to no principle of action and the cause of embarrassment to the President and of injury to the public Vertrees Vigorous Defense Vertrees said Ballinger was to be commended for the Garfield policies he had reversed and contrast contrasted ed former Secretary Garfield with Mr Ballinger Ballin er He said the former fonner thought he had the right rI ht to do what he was not specifically prohibited by law from doing while Mr Ballinger always was guided by law In his official acts Defending Mr Ballingers action in restoring water power rights with withdrawn withdrawn withdrawn drawn during the last days of Gar fields administration and In subsequently subsequently subsequently them Vertrees said Ballinger had merely carried out the wishes of the President and that he was fortified in ill his construction of ot Continued on Page Three LAWYERS SUMMING SU 1 f UP THE TESTIMONY Continued From Page Pase One Oue the law by the opinion of the law of officers officers officers of the government When the ambitions of PInchot and GarfIeld were shattered Mr ir Vertrees said then revenge took the place of o good Intention and they endeavored to drive down the man that was doing the thing thin he thought right Vertrees Indulged in a scathing de denunciation of Glavis and Kerby re ferring to the latter as that creature Kerby Kerb He said PInchot had testified he know nothing himself to substantiate ate charges he preferred against Mr BallInger It remained for this hireling of the Gifford Pinchot group roup to insinuate and Intimate what they did aid not dare to charge and could not prove exclaimed Vertrees shaking a bony finger er at Brandeis Glavis lawyer smiled In reply Last of or the Evidence Senator Root who departed for The Hague peace tribunal last week was the only member of the chot enot Investigating committee absent when toda s session began The com room was crowded and as usual most of the spectators were women None one of the principals Involved in the controversy was wad present Before Mr Brandeis began his argument ment meat Attorney Pepper counsel for Mr Ir Pinchot submitted a lengthy affidavit of E A Braniff who was Wa in charge of the forestry work done on the Menominee inee lace Wis Indian reservation where it had been charged by the defense that the forestry had been wasteful Braniff was present and ready to testify in refutation of the charges but It was decided to dispose of the matter by printing affidavit in the record Two Tiro Letters Rend Read Chairman Nelson Kelson read a letter which he be said he had received from C P Con Connolly Conn nolly n of Colliers Weekly Week The Con Connolly Connolly Connolly nolly letter referred to the tile testimony cf of Assistant Attorney General Lawler that on thed ck of the steamer lic he had trampled down women and children in an attempt to get to a lifeboat Connolly wrote that he was never on n the th Republic or any other transAtlantic steamer No incident of my career has given the slightest foundation or the remotest warrant for this unjust statement wrote Connolly Connoll Mr James then read a letter from James B Connolly a writer of sea stories declaring that he evidently was the man to whom Lawler referred but that the charges against him had been absolutely disproved and that the steward who had started the story had fled fied to China and he had been unable to prosecute him because libel was not an extraditable offense Attorney Brandeis offered In evidence a letter which he said Ballinger had ad dressed to Secretary Garfield at West Mentor 0 O on September 13 11 1908 mak malt ing an appointment regarding a mat ter now pending in the Indian bureau also one in the government land office Mr Ballinger wrote that he was at present involved in the la bor of assisting Judge Tafts Tats candi dacy Mr Brandeis then began his argument argument argument ment before the committee |