U.S. lawyer and William Howard Taft's secretary of the interior who became the center of a controversy over conservation policy, was born at Boonesboro, Ia., on July 9, 1858.
Background
He was graduated from Williams College in 1884, studied law, and settled in Seattle, Wash., where he became an expert in mining law and prospered greatly. From 1904 to 1906 he was mayor of Seattle and then served as commissioner of the general land office in 1907-1908. In 1909 President Taft named him secretary of the interior.
Education
He was graduated from Williams College in 1884, studied law, and settled in Seattle, Wash., where he became an expert in mining law and prospered greatly.
Career
Ballinger was an efficient head of the department and an honorable man, but the appointment was a mistake. The Interior Department had charge of public lands and their conservation, and Ballinger was not sympathetic to the strict conservation policies established by Theodore Roosevelt, to which Taft was committed. Trouble developed in 1909 when a minor official in the Interior Department, Louis R. Glavis, charged that Ballinger was unfairly permitting the validation of large claims to rich coal lands in Alaska by a syndicate in league with the Morgan-Guggenheim interests. The case was taken up by Chief Forester Gifford Pinchot, who accused Ballinger of being an enemy of conservation.
Taft sided with Ballinger and when Pinchot forced a showdown, President Taft had to dismiss him. A Congressional investigation also cleared Ballinger of all charges, but conservationists and progressives tended to support Pinchot. Roosevelt, for example, felt that Taft had repudiated his conservation policy both by appointing Ballinger and by removing Pinchot. Eventually, in March 1911, Ballinger resigned and returned to his law practice.
The affair had little effect on conservation policy in the long run, but it was a major reason for the breakup of the Republican Party in 1912, when Theodore Roosevelt ran as a Progressive. It also effectively ended Ballinger's public career.