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The Commoner.
VOliUMB 8, NUMBER 43
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nection with your provlous letters inclosing quo
tations from the Indianapolis i-Jows, a" paper
edited by Mr. Dolavan Smith. As Mr. Smith
certainly knew that all the statements ho made
wero falso, both as to this Panama matter and
as to the other matters of which you enclose
mo clippings, and inasmuch, therefore, as the
exposure of the falsity will not affect his future
statements, I am not very clear whether good
will result from such exposure. But inasmuch
as you evidently desire some answer to be made
and inasmuch as you say that some reputable
people appear to believe the falsehoods of the
News and Mr. Smith, and inasmuch as you seem
to think that his falsehoods as regards the
Panama matter are tho most prominent, I will
answer them.
"Tho News states in one of its Issues that
some of the documents delivered with tho mat
ter probably have been destroyed. This is false.
Not one has been destroyed. It states that the
last documents were sent over in June of this
year, the object of this particular falsehood
being, apparently, to connect the matter in some
way with the nomination of Mr. Taft.
PAPERS ALL ACCESSIBLE
"As a matter of fact the last papers that
we have received of any kind were sent over
to us In May of 1904, and they have been ac
cessible to every human being who cared to
look at them ever since and are accessible now.
Any reputable man within or without congress,
republican or democrat, has now and always
has had the opportunity to examine any of
these documents. You quote the News as stat
ing: the 'people have no official knowledge con
- corning tho Panama canal deal.' The fact is
that the people have had thd most minute offi
cial knowledge," overy Important step in the
transaction and every Important" document has
been mado" public in communications to con
gress and through the daily press and the whole
matter has been threshed over In all its details
again and again. The News gives currency to
the charge that the United States bought from
American citizens for $40, 000,000 property
that cost these citizens only $12,000,000.' The
statement is false. The United States did not
pay a cent of the $40,000,000 to any American
citizen. The News' says there is no doubt that
the government paid forty millions for the
property and continues: 'But who got the mon
ey1? Wo are not to know. The administration
and Mr. Taft do not think it right that the
people should know.'
"Really this is so ludicrous as to make
one feel a little Impatient at having to answer.
The fact has been officially published again and
again that the government paid $40000,000 and
that It paid this $40,000,000 direct to tho
French government, getting the receipt1 'of the
liquidator appointed by the French government
to receive the same.
SLANDERS FRENCH GOVERNMENT
"The United States government has not the
slightest knowledge as to the particular indl
v viduals, among whom the French government
distributed the sum. This was the business of
the French government. The mere supposition
that any American received from the French
government a 'rake-off' is too absurd to be dis
cussed. It is an abominable falsehood, and it i3
slander, not against the administration govern
ment, but against the French government.
"The News continues by saying that the
'president's brother-in-law is involved in the
scandal, but he has nothing to say.' The presi
dent's brother-in-law was involved in no scandal.
Mr. Delavan Smith and the other people who
repeated this falsehood lied about the presi
dent's brother-in-law, but why the fact that Mr. .
tSmith lied should be held to involve Mr. Rob
inson in a 'scandal' Is difficult to understand.
The scandal affects no one but Mr. Smith, and
his conduct has not merely been scandalous,
but Infamous. Mr. Robinson had not the slight
est connection of any kind, sort or description
at any time or nnder any circumstances with
the Panama matter. Neither did Mr. Charles
Taft.
"The News says that Mr. Taft was a 'mem
ber of the syndicate.' So far as I know, there
w no syndicate. There certainly was no syndi
cate" in, the United States that, to my knowledge,
had any dealings with the government, directly
Qr Indirectly, and inasmuch as there was no .
syndicate, Mr. Taft naturally could not belong
, to it. The News demands that 'Mr. Taft appeal
to the evidence,' by which it means what it calls
'the records;' that is, the mass of papers which
re stored In the war department, save such as,
Dtfcause of their technical character- and their
usefulness in the current work of the canal, it
has been found advisable to send to the isthmus.
DOCUMENTS MADE PUBLIC
"All of these documents that possessed any
importance as illustrating any feature of the
transaction have already been made public.
There remains a mass of documents of little or
no importance which the administration is en
tirely willing to have published, but which, be
cause of their mass and pointlessness, nobody
has ever cared to publish. Any reputable man
can have full access to these documents. If
you, or Mr. Swift, or Mr. Booth Tarkington, or
Mr. -George Ade in short, any reputable man
will come on here, he shall have free access to
the documents and can look over everything
for himself. Congress can have them all print
ed if it wishes, but no congressman has ever so
far intimated any desire that this should be
done; I suppose, because to print such a mass
of documents would be a great expense and
moreover an entirely useless expense, unless,
which is not the case, there was some object
in" printing them.
"Now, my dear Mr. Foulke, I have an
swered in detail your questions and the state
ments of the News. You are quite welcome to
print my answer, but I must frankly add that
I don't think any good will come from doing
so. Mr. Delavan Smith is a conspicuous offend
er against the laws of honesty and truthfulness,
but he does not stand alone. He occupies, for
instance, the same evil eminence with such men
as Mr. Laffan of the New York Sun, editorials
of whose papers you or others have from time
to time called to my attention, just as you have
called to my attention these editorials of the
Indianapolis News. I never see an editorial in
any one of these or other papers unless for
some reason it Is sent to me by you or some
body else, and of the editorials thus sent me
there Is hardly one which does not contain some
wilful perversion of the truth.
, CALLED TISSUES OF FALSEHOODS
"For example, I have just made public
the following statement concerning a tissue of
utterly false statements which ' appeared' in Mr.
Laffan's paper, the Sun:
" 'As the New York Sun story, entitled
"Roosevelt and the Prairie Oil," has seemed to
deceive a, number of people, the following state
ment was made public about it: As soon as the
story was brought to President Roosevelt's at-1
tention, he not only called for reports concern
ing the statements from the department of
justice and the department of the interior, but'
also communicated with ex-Secretary Hitchcock
so as to be sure that the, president's recollection
was not at fault. The story is falso in every
particular from beginning to end. Not only is
there no such report in the department of jus
tice, and never has been, but no such report
was ever prepared. In granting the franchise
of, the Prairie Oil and Gas company, the presi
dent simply approved the recommendation of
Mr: Hitchcock, submitted to him precisely as
all other recommendations are submitted. More
over, in every case referring to the granting of
franchises or the adoption of regulations as re
gards oil and gas franchises in Oklahoma and
the Indian territory, the president approved the
recommendation of Secretary Hitchcock, with
the exception of one small and unimportant
grant to a Delaware Indian to whom the Dela
ware Indians, in recognition of eight years of
service to the tribe, had voted in council a fee
of $50,000, which he had declined to accept
and who was given twice the usual amount of
land. The statement about the alleged promise
to a western senator is as ridiculous a false
hood as the rest of the story.'
"The fact is that these particular newspa
pers habitually and continuously, and as a mat
ter of business, practice every form of menda
city known to man, from the suppression of
the truth and the suggestion of the false,, to the
lie direct. Those who write or procure others
to write these articles are engaged in the nrac
tice of mendacity for. hire and surely there can
he no lower form of gaining a livelihood
Whether they are paid by outsiders to say what
is false or whether their profit comes from the
circulation of the. falsehoods, is a matter of
small consequence. It is utterly ininossibln to
answer all of their falsehoods. When anv e?vn
falsehood is exposed they simply reSeat it InS
circulate another. If thov wp ?0foii .
the facts, if .they possessed 7 the mae tn
their -pan. They state what they either, know
to be untrue or could by the slightest innuirv
find out to be untrue. l iry
"I doubt if they themselves remember their
own falsehoods for more than a very brief
period and I doubt still more whether anybody
else does. Under tho circumstances it seemq
hardly worth while to single out for special
mention one or two given falsehoods, or ono
particular paper, the moral standard of which
is as low, but no lower, than that of certain
other papers. Of course now and then I am
willing to denounce a given falsehood, as for
instance, as regards this case of the Indianapolis
News, or the case I have quoted of the Now
York Sun, simply because it appears that some
worthy people aTe misled or puzzled by tho
direct shamelessness of the untruth. But
ordinarily I do not and can not pay heed to
these falsehoods. If I did I would not be ablo
to do my work. My plan has been to go ahead,
to do the work and let these people and thos
like them yell and then to trust with abiding
confidence to the good sense of the American
people in the assured conviction that the yells
will die out, the falsehoods be forgotten and
the work remain.
"Therefore, as far as I am concerned, I
would rather make no answer whatever in this
case. But I have much confidence in your
judgment, and if you feel that these men should
be exposed, why, you are welcome to publish
this letter. There is no higher and more hon
orable calling than that of the men connected
with an upright, fearless and truthful news
paper; no calling in which a man. can render
greater service to his fellow countrymen. Tho
best and ablest editors and writers in the daily
press render a service to the community which
can hardly be paralled by the service rendered
by the best and ablest men in public life, or the
men in business. But the converse of this
proposition' Is true. Tho most corrupt finan
ciers and the most corrupt politicians are no
greater menace to this country than the news
papermen of the type I have above discussed.
Whether they belong to the yellow press or the
purchased press, whatever may be the stim
ulating cause of their slanderous mendacity,
whatever the cloak: it may wear, matters but
little. In any event they represent one of the
potent forces for evil in the community.
, "Yours yery truly,
"THEODORE ROOSEVELT.
"Willlanf Dudley Foulke, Ridhmorid, Ind."
EDITOR LAFFAN MAKES REPLY
New York, December 6. Mr. Laffan re
plies to the president's letter as follows
"The editor of the Sun presents his com
pliments to Mr. Roosevelt and acknowledges his
active sensibility in respect to the attention
which Mr. Roosevelt has been good enough to
pay him in his letter to William Dudley Foulke
of Indiana. Notwithstanding tho directness of
his challenge, the editor of the Sun declines a
controversy with Mr. Roosevelt. He is by no
means indifferent to the implied compliment
discernible in Mr. Roosevelt's tirade, but Mr.
Roosevelt has shown in his frequent collisions
with various persons of distinction that he has
an overwhelming advantage over any respect
able antagonist in .his (Mr. Roosevelt's) com
plete freedom from any sense of personal obli
gation in respdet of the truth.
"The editor of the Sun is fully alive to the
extremity of the inconvenience which attaches
to a personal controversy with a man Who has
shown himself capable of suppression and per
version of individual correspondence, an act
which in ordinary life would, in the cognizance
of any club or association of officials and re
specting gentlemen, entail his prompt expulsion.
"In saying theso things, we can not dis
guise our chagrin and humiliation that the per
son who is addressed Is also the president of
the United States.
"It is curious that Mr. Foulke is a pre
ferred repository of theso confidences of tho
president. It was to him that Mr. Roosevelt
wrote his memorable letter denying that he was
using the federal patronage to aid Mr. Taft's
candidacy, a letter which at once took its place
among the most valued incunabula of veracity."
DELAVAN SMITH EXPLAINS
Cleveland, Ohio, December 6. Delavan
Smith, here today on his way to New York was
shown a copy of President Roosevelt's letter,
and made tho following reply:
"The president's comments on the Panama
editorial are based on statements made" by
prominent New York papers, not the New York
Sun, which the Indianapolis News printed at
. (Continued on Page 9)
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