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The Commoner.
JUNE 30, 1905
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MR. ROOSEVELT greatly surprised the coun
try in the dismissal of Herbert W. Bowen,
United States minister to Venezuela, in the en
dorsement of Francis B. Lopmis, assistant secre
tary of state, and in the "almost hysterical en
dorsement" as it is referred to by one newspaper
correspondent of Secretary of the Navy Morton.
Though Mr. Roosevelt has been given to surpris
ing his friends it is plain that he outdid himself
in his public statements with respect to the
Bowen-Loomis case,. Concerning the Morton en
dorsement Walter 'Wellman, Washington corres
pondent for the Chicago Record-Herald, says:
"President Roosevelt virtually places wings upon
the broad shoulders of the young man who is now
both secretary of the navy in this city and chair
man of the board of directors of the Equitable
Life Assurance society in New York." The Kan
sas City ' Journal, a republican paper, referring
to the dismissal of Bowen, prints in red letters
at the top of its first page the words: "Strange
that Minister Bowen did not profit by the fate of
General Bristow."
IT WILL be remembered that Minister Bowen
, preferred charges against Assistant Secre
tary of State Loomis. The charges related to
certain acts of Mr. Loomis while he was acting
as minister to Venezuela. After an investigation
made by Secretary of War Taft the secretary, re-,
ported, saying that there was nothing dishonorable
in the Loomis transactions, but that he was "in
discreet." Mr. Taft said that Mr. Loomis was
not justified in becoming personally interested '
iu any of the schemes, but he held that Loomis
had been "most cruelly slandered," and pointed
out that Mr. Loomis' bitter experience in this
case makes it necessary to point out the moral that
a minister cannot afford in the country to which
he is accredited to make personal investments.
PRESIDENT ROOSEVELT approved the Taft
report, and ordered Bowen's dismissal. He
stated that he would have accepted his resigna
tion, but for the fact that Mr. Bowen said that
he could not afford to resign because resignation
would imply an admission of misconduct. Mr.
Roosevelt bitterly arraigned Minister Bowen, de
claring that his conduct is "especially reprehen
sible." The president seen.3 to be particularly
aggrieved because Mr. Bowen asked one of his
witnesses to enter the employ of a certain com
pany for the purpose, as the president puts it in
plain words, "of stealing documents which he
hoped might incriminate Mr. Loomis." The pres
ident says that Mr. Bowen has "evidently for
many' months, indeed for the last two years, de
voted himself to hunting for scandal and gossip,"
until it became a monomania and caused him
"to show complete disloyalty to the country he
represented."
MR. ROOSEVELT devotes a considerable por
tion of his statement to an effort to show
that Mr. Bowen sought to reflect on Secretary of
State. Hay in some of his letters. And it would
seem that he also brought Bowen to account on
a sort oMese majeste charge by emphasizing the
fact that in a letter to Secretary Taft Mr. Bowen
addressed the secretary of war as "My dear Bill."
He seems to be thoroughly incensed because Mr.
Bowen furnished his charges against Mr. Loomis,
and some of .the documents thereto, to representa
tives of a New York newspaper, and says that
the testimony shows that newspaper correspond
ents were shown many official letters bearing
on the con -oversy. Mr. Bowen is charged by
the president as having "instigated and request
ed and actually secured the publication of an
attack upon the assistant secretary of state, and
furnished to the press copies of documents be
lieved to reflect upon the assistant secretary of
state, which documents were already before the
secretary of. state for investigation." He says
that these attacks by Bowen upon his official
chief were made "In a furtive and underhand
manner," and .that "such conduct is inexcusable
and shows Mr. Bowen'c entire unfitness to re
main in the diplomatic service without regard
to whether the charges he has made against Mr.
Loomis are true or false."
BUT MR. ROOSEVELT gives Mr. Loomis a
. clean bill, and says that Secretary Taft's
Investigation shows these charges to be false.
The president further charges Mr. Bowen with
having sought to secure from the cable operator
at La Guayra incriminating telegrams against
Mr. Loomis. The president says: "Mr.
Bowen has been a long time in the consular and
diplomatic service. During much of that time
he has done good work, and until recently I had
hoped to promote him. If 1 could condone his
misconduct in this case 1 would gladly do so, but
his usefulness in the diplomatic service is at an
end. I do not desire to punish him. Save for the
great risk to the service which would be Involved
in his retention I would be willing to let his con
duct go unpunished, save by a severe admonition,
but I feel that it is impossible to retain him with
out exposing the interests of the government
to a risk so great that it can not justifiably bo
incurred."
MR. BOWEN Is evidently determined not to
tamely submit to the president's castiga
tion. On June 2L he made public a statement
replying to Mr. Roosevelt's letter of dismissal..
Bowen declares that "the Venezuela scandal con-'
stitutes a national disgrace." He says that soon
after he called the matter to the attention of
the department of state he received a cable offer
from Washington of diplomatic promotion that
would remove him from Caracas. He declares
that he regarded the offer as an attempt to bribe
him, veiled under the offer of a higher position
and inspired by Mr. Loomis, and he insists that
the recent departmental inquiry should not pre
vent "an open, impartial, fearless and thorough
investigation into all the facts."
MR. BOWEN says that when he went to
Venezuela in 1901 as Loomis' successor
he heard many rumors seriously affecting Loomis'
integrity. It was charged that Loomis while
minister used his public position to fill his private
purse by obtaining interests in concessions and
various claims against the Venezuela government.
He was also charged with having been in the
pay of the Bermudez Asphalt company, and to
have made use of his position to give color to the
belief that the United States government was on
the side of that company in its controversy with
Venezuela. He says that he forwarded certain
important documents left in the legation by his
predecessor to the state department and that
he received a letter from Secretary Hay ac
knowledging receipt of these documents and
saying, "I have been greatly surprised and pained
in reading the documents you sent me."
BOWEN DENIES that he had any part in in
stigating these charges. He says that he is
not responsible for Mr. Loomis' "unsavory
reputation in Caracas" nor for the circulation of
scandalous reports about him. He says he be
lieves Mr. Loomis to be a dishonest man and
transmitted to the state department the docu
ments which in Mr. Bowen's opinion established
Mr. Loomis' dishonesty simply because he con
sidered that to be his duty to the United States
government. He denies that he attempted to
steal or otherwise improperly procure any infor
mation. He says that he made use of confidential
agents and consular officers only in Venezuela
for the accumulation of the facts, and that the
state department on at least two occasions provid
ed money vith which to procure secret infor
mation. MR. BOWEN gives the text of an interesting
letter which was among the papers he
found in the legation archives. This tetter is
signed by Assistant Secretary of State Loomis,
then minister to Venezuela, and is addressed to
W. R. Russel and says: "Dear Sir: In reference
to the presentation of Mr. Mercado's claim, which
I bought, I want to state that the only terms of
settlement which I accept other than a full cash
payment of about 30,400 bolivars in gold are the
following: I will accept 20,000 bolivars in gold,
and 10.400 bolivars in salt bonds at the rate of
82 per cent, ou 5 per cent below the quoted mar
ket rate, provided it does not go bolow 80 per
cent. Very truly, "V. U. LOOMIS."
-
MR. BOWEN draws particular attention to the
words, "which I bought," in thin letter.
Ho also gives the text of a letter from Charlo
R. Mayers, and addressed to Francis B. Loomis,
which letter refers to services rendered by Mr.
Loomis in securing and contracting for furnish
ing a loan to Venezuela. Mr. Bowen conclude
his statement in these words: "Mr. Loomis c'x
plains that if this contract, which was to give a
million and a quarter, had gone through he in
tended to resign. The conduct of this man who,
as American minister was willing to participate
in such transactions as the foregoing, is con
sidered by his official superior as merely 'India
creot' and he is retained In the public service.
My personal feeling and fortune are of light in
terest to the public. But It does concern the
whole country that Its diplomatic representatives
abroad should be men of clean character and
unsullied reputation, and every Amorlcan citizen
should be especially concerned when a man, who
as minister to a foreign state, has been the cause
of grave scandals affecting his personal integrity
and the honor of his government, is promoted to
the high ofllce of first assistant secretary of state
and controls very important negotiations with the
very government at whose capital he caused the
scandals and gained a tainted reputatlou."
AS AN ILLUSTRATION of the best "defense"
that can be made for Loomis an editorial
appearing in the Lincoln (Nebraska) Journal, a
republican paper, is interesting. While the Jour
ual says that everybody is gratified because the
"charges of actual wrong-doing, specific or im
plied, have been shown to bo without fact," it Is
unfortunate that "they woro not shown to bo
without foundation." This republican paper
says': "In short, Mr. Loomis had paved the way
to the commonest variety of political graft. For
'participating in enterprises In furthering which
he might, and did find, his position useful.' August
W. Machen stands convicted of crime, Congress
man Littauer of New York is besmirched, two
United States senators are under Indictment, and
numberless state and county and city officials
are in prison or in disgrace. The practice of
using a public ofllce as a sort of Inside track for
the promotion of Its private money making enter
prises has thrown the United States senate under
suspicion, and has been the mainspring of all
the corrupt political machines with which the
country has been cursed. It is evident that the
country needs a race of office holders who will per
form their duties from a sense of honor and
patriotism, content with their salaries and an
approving conscience for their reward. It is to
be hoped that the insistence upon this ideal
which Secretary Taft demands of our diplomatic
representatives may be extended to all public
officers at home and abroad. If any are incon-.
venienced at this, on account of their inability
to live on their legal salaries, it is entirely pos
sible that good men can be found to take their
places whose wants are simpler and expenses
less. At all events, some such reform is essential
to making public office a public trust, and not a
private snap. The case of Mr. Loomis Is a fortu
nate illustration of our need to be warned in this
respect." At last acounts Mr. Loomis had not
been required to sever his connection with the
state department.
"
. . ... . .
TV TR, ROOS; JELT'S statement with respect to
iVl Secret, irof the Navy Morton, like his let
ter diBmissInlJpMinister Bowen, has attracted
widespread aWention. Some of the correspond
ence between Attorney General Moody and Messrs.
Harmon and Judson, the attorneys charged to in
vestigate the Santa Fe rebate affair, is printed.
Harmon and Judson reported that the Santa Fe
had persistently violated the law and recommend
ed that the railroad company and Its principal
officers and agents, perhaps including some subor
dinate officers and agents, be arraigned for con
tempt of court in making and carrying out the
rebate agreements referred to. Attorney General
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