Richard Achilles Ballinger

Born: 9 July, 1858 in Boonesboro, IA Died: 6 June, 1922 in Seattle, WA

Graduated from Williams College in 1884 and passed the bar exam in 1886.

U.S. Secretary of the Interior (1909–11).

Ballinger was mayor of Seattle (1904–1906) and commissioner of the General Land Office (1907–1909). In 1909, President William Howard Taft appointed him Secretary of the Interior. While Secretary, he was accused of having interfered with investigation into the legality of certain private coal-land claims in Alaska. After a series of articles in Collier’s Weekly that roused the conservationists an investigation was demanded. A congressional committee exonerated Ballinger, but the questioning of committee counsel Louis D. Brandeis made the Secretary’s anticonservationism clear.

Ballinger resigned in March, 1911. The incident split the Republican party and helped turn the election of 1912 against Taft.

Sec. of Interior under Taft. Opened up Wyoming, Montana, and Alaska for commercial development, much to the dismay of Rooseveltians.