 At Marsh 's urging , Powell pushed for Cope to return specimens he had unearthed during his employment under the government surveys . This was an outrage to Cope , who had used his own money while working as a volunteer . In response , Cope went to the editor of the New York Herald and promised a scandalous headline . Since 1885 , Cope had kept an elaborate journal of mistakes and misdeeds that both Marsh and Powell had committed over the years . From scientific errors to publishing mistakes , he had them written down in a journal he kept in the bottom drawer of his Pine Street desk . Cope sought out Marsh 's assistants , who complained of being denied access and credit by their employer and of being chronically underpaid . Reporter William Hosea Ballou ran the first article on January 12 , 1890 , in what would become a series of newspaper debates between Marsh , Powell , and Cope . Cope attacked Marsh for plagiarism and financial mismanagement , and attacked Powell for his geological classification errors and misspending of government @-@ allocated funds . Marsh and Powell published their own side of the story and , in the end , little changed . No congressional hearing was created to investigate Powell 's alleged misallocation of funds , while Cope and Marsh were not held responsible for any mistakes . Indirectly , however , the attacks may have been influential in Marsh 's fall from power in the survey . Due to pressure from Powell over bad press , Marsh was removed from his position for the government surveys . Cope 's relations with the president of the University of Pennsylvania soured , and the entire funding for paleontology in the government surveys was pulled . 
