ITEMS OF INTEREST December 17, 1910 Issue

ITEMS OF INTEREST

Three reports from the members of the joint committee to investigate the merits of the Ballinger-Pirchot controversy have been presented to Congress. The majority report absolves Secretary Ballinger from the charges made against him by Gifford Pirchot and Louis Glavis; the minority report declares that Mr. Ballinger "has not been true to the trust reposed in him as secretary of the interior; that he is not deserving of public confidence and that he should be requested by the proper authority to resign his office as secretary of the interior"; a third report is practically in accordance with that of the minority members and in conclusion says: "He has not shown himself to be that character of friend to the policy of conservation of our natural resources that the man should be who occupies the important post of secretary of the interior in our Government, and should not be retained in that office."

Secretary of War Dickinson, in his report to Congress, referring to the fitness of the Filipino people for self-government, says: "There are very many highly educated Filipinos—many men of talent, ability, and brilliancy—but the percentage, in comparison with those who are wholly untrained in an understanding of, and the exercise of, political rights under a republican form of government, is so small, and under the best and most rapid development possible under existing conditions will for a long period continue so small, that it is a delusion, if the present policy of control of the islands by the American people shall continue, to encourage the Filipino people in the hope that the administration of the islands will be turned over to them within the time of the present generation."

The estimates of appropriations required for every branch of the federal Government during the fiscal year ending June 30, 1912, aggregate $748,414,861, and are distributed as follows: War department, $205,257,546; interior department, $189,151,875; treasury department, $141,599,997; agriculture, a $19,681,066; navy department, $128,942,158; commerce and labor, $16,276,970; District of Columbia, $13,602,786; legislative, $13,426,806; justice, $10,063,576; state, $4,875,576; independent offices, including interstate commerce commission, $2,638,695; post office department proper, $1,697,490; executive, $990,170; territorial governments, $202,150.

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