St. Paul daily globe., 1893-01-24
DENIED BY THOMPSON
The Hoosier EX-President In
terVie wed About Panama
Canal Affairs.
Not Aware Of Any Bribery
T5G
in the American r
Branch. ,I5s
-nsS
Will Gladly Welcome the Pro-
posed Congressional In-,e5
Vestigation.
RN00Tdc Qf TTnd ieooe SUY1.
Records Of Underwriting Syn
dicates Show Enormous
.Is7
Frauds. JUS

New YORK, Jan. 23-The Herald
publishes the following from its corre-
spondent at Terre Haute, Ind: had
two-hours conversation with ey-Secre-
tary of the Navy Thompson, late preSi-
dent of the American Panama Canal
company. He talked freely on the sub
ject of the American branch Of the
Panama company. At the outset he
said:
Il would gladly give you any infOr-
nation in my power that would throw
light on the affairs of the Panama COM
pany, and particularly any light that
might disclose bribery or corruption i'll
any form in the American branch; but
| must say that if there was any bribery
am noe aware Of it, and L do not
think there was III the American
branch. L am at loss to know
where to start in to investigate
this alleged bribery II this country. Mr..
Fellows, of New York, has Just intro
duced resolution of inquiry in con-
gress, and insists that the bribery in
Panama affairs began Oh this side of
the water. Well, if it did, that is news
to me. l don't know who could have
been bribed. don't see the occasion
for any bribery. The only occasion
when the Panama Canal company was
Interested in Congress
was in 1881. when Representative
Crapo, of Massachusetts, had up his
resolution declaring that the c0nStruc-
ton of the Panama canal by foreign
capital and by foreign power was con-
trary to the Monroe doctrine. That
resolution was referred to the foreign
affairs committee.
Now if any one was bribed IL was
| this committee, for this committee
smothtred this resolution after full
and fair discussion lasting some days,
and it was never heard from
| again. If that resolution of Mr..
Crapo's had passed it would have
ended the Panama canal A dozen or
so distinguished gentlemen, some of
whom were Allen Thorndyke. Rice, Ad
miral Momen and James 3. EaGS. had
arguments before the committee to
bring about Just such results. [ was
the only person on the Panama side.
l made al argument in favor or the
canhl, and the committee unanimously
cOncurred i'll my conclusions. | held
that the resolution of Mr. Crapo did not
properly enunciate the Monroe doctrine;
that that doctrine expressly guaranteed
the sovereignty OF Colombia; that the
private corporation, and would not~be
unless the government Of France as
Sumed political jurisdiction OH the
iSthmus. which l strongly opposed
remember declaring that if the French
government attempted to do so it was
the duty of the American government
to drive them from the isthmus and
Showed the Committee
that a section of the charter granted by
the Colombia government expressly
gave the supreme court OF that state the
Jurisdiction to annul and set aside the
Panama concessions in case any foreign
country attempted political control.
This committee of the house helditS
first session Jan. II, 1881, and | made
my first argument Jan. Is. While my
argument covered several days, if l re-
member correctly, had no less than
forty Interruptions from the committee.
| suggested many new interpretations
of the Monroe doctrine that they had
apparently not considered, and that was
the cause Of 50 many inquiries being di-
rected at me. The nine gentlemen who
composed the foreign affairs committee
and decided in favor of the canal were
s. S. Cox New York who was chairman:
Wilson, of West Virginia; Bicknell, of
Indiana; Hill. King. Herndon. Killinger
and Morton. | assume it is an insult to
our Intelligence to declare that these
men were bribed. They are the only
persons whose favor could have been
valuable, unless indeed it was the spe-
cial interocean committee of the house,
which also investigated the matter and
arrived at the same conclusion, At least
one man, King, of Louisiana, was
member of both committees. Cox and
Bicknell have gone to their reward and
no purer or better men ever lived. The
inSinuaJiOn that L bribed Judge Bick-
nell, my warm and dear friend here in
Indiana, is preposterous.
II never heard anything of this
alleged bribery until lately, and never
had any suspicion of 1t, and gladly well
come congressional investigation into
the affairs of
The American Branch
of the canal. All the assistance l may
be able TO give any committee of con-
gresS, | will cheerfully contribute, but
what say to the Heraldis all l could
say to any committee, and that is, that
of any bribery or crooked practices |
know nothing. Every cent of money
expended by US was paid out on requisi-
ton and vouchers drawn on the three
New York banking houses, Seligman 81
Co.. WinSlow, Lanier u Co. and DreXel,
Morgan Il Co.. and their books will show
how every cent was spent and who re-
ceived it. These firms casned all the
requlsitions issued by the American COM
mittee. II was not our concern whether
the Panama company had money OH de-
posit at these banks; the fact is, we did
not know We did not handle the
| money. We merely issued acquisitions.
and these banks paid them and charged
them to the canal. Large sums of the
money spent by us went for dredges,
locomotives and cars. l had 500 cars
| made right here in TerIe Haute alone
and shipped to the isthmus. All these
transactions figure on the books of these
banks. De Lesseps himself stated that
if there was to be any political control
of the canal he would prefer that the
United States should be that power, and
France filed a statement in our state de-
partment disclaiming any such political
intention. With the reason and the fact
in favor of the canal, was there any.
i -slga