The evening times. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1895-1902, 1900-10-29
The Burchard of 1900.

The Burchard of 1900.
The disastrous break made by Senator
Scott of West Virginia at the Roosevelt
dinner in New York on Friday last has
created a panic in the Republican
camp The orator himself, and Odell,
Greene, Bliss, and others who Joined with
him in demanding suppression Of his dan
gerous remarks, just after they had been
made, all now deny that Scott ever uttered
the words which he arrogantly ordered
that newspaper man" not to put down IN
his notes.
Sometimes denials go with the public,
but this is not one of the instances. When
the fact leaked out that a truthful report
of the dinner and what had been said at 1t
had been placed on the wires the whole IN
fiuence OF the Republican National Com
mittee and of the Platt machine was used
to stop the story before it could reach the
country at large. Scott's remarks were not
then denied, but it was represented to the
press associations that they had been made
in private conversation and hence were
privileged.
der was sent out to kill SCOTS part Of the
proceedings; but it started too late to
overtake the origina. report east OF and
including Chicago. Inklings of sensation
came to the ears Of remoter night editors
and they queried New York newspaper Of
fees and succeeded in getting hold OF the
truth by means of special dispatches BY
Saturday night the story was under active
discussion in ali parts of the county, in
spite of the pull and money that had been
wasted in efforts to squelch it
In the painful circumstances perhaps
MI Scott should not be too severely criti-
cised for his nat denial The American
public will listen to it with more amuse-
ment than credence; but he is in a tight
place and so are his dinner companions
and the trust party generally. They, too,
judged by Hanna standards OF good poll
ties and sound business met mods, are
bound to help the West Virginia Burch-
ard out if they can 1t is venerable
maxim much respected in Republican cir
cIes that "a lie well stuck to is better
than the TRUTH
IN the present instance. the sentiments
attributed TO Mr. Rockefeller's man are
so VIGOROUSLY held by him and by his
political and trust associates that he
would naturally and almost ineFitabiy
voice them in a congenial and cornwall
company presumed by him to be uncon-
taminated by the presence CT any news
paper man 1t was only upon discover
ing that such an obnoxious character was
in the room that Scott realized his ap-
paIling mistake, and became excited and
abusive.
After all, the affair is a small matter.
1t has not added to the sum of human
| knowledge concerning the Identification
| of the criminal trusts with the political
| organization of which Hanna is the visi-
| BILE head and Mckinley the executive Of
! fcer- Everybody knew already that the
money to run the Hanna campaign came
from the trusts; that, during the past
| four years, the trusts have owned and
| operated the National Executive and Leg
islature and soon hope to capture the
Supreme Court. SCOTS performance
| though interesting as corroboratiye tes-
| timony, was quite unnecessary.
| Let him be comforted with the thought
that the episode has brought him fame
and made his existence known to mil
! lions of citizens who never heard of him
before. It has also added his portrait
| eternalIy to the valuable Burchard col
lection In the composition OF the pic
tire he should not be represented as car
rying little Ratchet" Perhaps Orpheus
in the background, in the act CT strikin g
| would better satisfy artistic and histori-
cal requirements.