New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1900-10-28
GRASPING AT A STRAW.
EFFORTS TO DIsToRT REMARKS OF sen
AToR SCOTT. OF WEST VIRGINIA.

| CARRIED sentences Of a private conversation De-
| tween Senator Scott and Charles S. Fairchild at
! the dinner in honor OF Governor Roosevelt are to
De the star campaign issue used by the discouraged
and hysterical Bryan managers for the last week
of the campaign. Dispatches were, sent yesterday
afternoon by Mr.. Stone and Congressman Richard
son to all the State and county ohairmen IN the
close States 70 Senator scott's alleged speech
\ to the exclusion of everything else. Ex-Governor
Stone and Richard Croker were jubilant over the
] new issue yesterday Mr.. Croker is generaIly
| regarded as knowing how 1t came about that Sena-
| tor Scott grossly mtsqpoted. Only one re-
porter was allowed in the dining room In ParloF
! DIR of the Fifth Avenue Hotel on Friday night.
! He agreed TO give the happenings OF the evening
to the other reporters from time to time Ihls re-
porter is close personal friend of Richard croker
and Tuesday last received two 81 900 bills which
| he showed to a Tribune reporter, and at the
| time remarked that 1t Democratic Club
money" To other newspaper men he freely ac-
knowledged that it was Mr.. Cookers money and
had been handed to him by Mr.. Croker to bet on
the size of the Republican plurality above the
Bronx. On Wednesday the reporter said that he
had placed the money, and that his commission
would be $780, He is sufficiently intimate terms
with Mr. Croker to have received from the latter
a familiar nickname. by which he is invariably
called by the Tammany chief.
Senator Scott is quoted by this reporter say
ing:
Right here want to say I believe in trusts
put in its pipe lines to all the small towns where
oil Is produced and IL it were for the Standard
be there to-day.
Then, seeing the reporter for the first time. he
added; IF that newspaper man puts that down
will make trouble for him"
Ut GOT OUT" SAID THE REPORTER.
A Tribune reporter. with copy of the remarks
attributed to Senator Scott saw Benjamin B.
Oden jr, chairman of the Republican State Com
mittee. after his return to the Fifth Avenue Hotel
from the Garden meeting Friday night The
Tribune reporter was accompanied by the reporter
who wrote the alleged remarks. and who few
minutes before had sent them TO his office. The
Tribune reporter told Mr.. odell what had been
written by the other newspaper man.
Turning the author of the distorted report Mr..
Odel said. Did you send such stuff that out?'
at got out" replied the reporter stammering.
Did you send it out?' asked Mr.. Oder again.
mo, I did not,' the
Thirty minutes later the reporter who had been
asked go to Mr. Odelrs room. produced his origi-
nal typewriter copy of the sto.y and read it over
in the presence of Mr.. Scott Mr.. Odell. and three
other newspaper men. Mr.. Scott vigorously denied
at that time about 11:30 that he had made any
such remarks. whereupon the reporter Immediately
to a telephone downstairs and ordered the
story KILLED. BY that time manifold copies had
reached various newspaper offices, and the sub
stance of the story about the dinner had been
the wire distant cities. When the
porter returned to Mr.. OdelTs room he looked
good deal happier than when he went out. What
porters.
81 told the manager of the bureau that I had
no business to send out such story, and he said
that the story had been killed the reply.
1t for this reason that the story was not
printed in most of the newspapers.
Colonel Diehl, manager of The Associated Press.
said yesterday that Senator Scott's alleged
marks came in through the New-York City News
Association along with other news of the Roose'
welt dinner and was already the wires when it
I,,,l1o tha yUhl
wrote 1t asking that the reference to the Standard
Oil Company be killed" AS the sentences in
question not reported in shorthand 1t had
been decided, following custom, to throw them
out on the request OF the writer.
On Friday night the reporter in question told
his associates that he had destroyed his notes on
the Roosevelt dinner. Yesterday he said that they
were locked up in his safe at home
WHAT THE SENATOR SAID.
After the close of the meeting in the Garden
Friday night Senator Scott and asked:
Senator. you quoted IN report of the talk
at the dinner tonight saying that you in
favor of trusts, and that the Standard Oil Company
is a good thing. Is that substantially correct
statement
mo, it is not" said the Senator, without the
slightest hesitation. 81 said that the Standard Oil
Company had been a good thing for the farmers
back from the railroads in West Virginia upon
whose land oil had been found. because. as 1 ex-
planned. the STANDARD Oil Company pipes to
these remote places. and the land at became
immensely valuable Mr.. Fairchild. who at my
elbow, asked if the OIL in the Standards
pipes did not at pass from control of the pro-
ducers, and 1 said that it did, and that that was
just where the injustice of the operations of the
Standard Oil Company in"
DO you believe in trusts, you reported to
have said?" Mr.. Scott was asked.
Il do not, and 1 opposed to all corporations
with monopostic tendencies. The entire conversa-
ton at the dinner tonight was carried in a
jocuar mood 1 am astonished that any news
paper should have put any sensational or
wrong construction what said"
Did you threaten the reporter as aleged?" he
was asked
NO" said Mr.. Scott the whole story is absurd"
DENIED BY MR.. ODELL.
Then The Tribune reporter saw BENJAMIN r
Odell. jr., chairman Of the Republican State Com
mttee. of the guests at the dinner
r Did Senator Scott say he was in favor of
trusts?" asked the reporter.
NO" answered Mr.. OdeIL Senator Scott and
Senator Frye joking about natural gas in
West Virginia and Mr. Scott said that some of the
people of West Virginia had been directly benefited
by the willingness of the Standard Oil Company TO
buy their oil at good prices am surprised that
Mr.. Scotts remarks at different periods made in
an Enthusiastically jOcose vein should bave baen
twisted to make him say he was in favor of trusts
I'll venture to say that not person In the room
We're no speeches made the dinner as Roosevelt
being absent 1t was another case of Hamlet with
Hamlet left out Consequently, everything that
was said there was in the nature of personal con-
versation This will enable chartably disposed peo-
pie to say that the reporter misrepOrted a private
conversation accidentally overheard Those not so
whole statement az the complete and unvarnished
lie that 1t is am one of the latter. 1t was this
ter alleged to have been signed by me, which was
an absolute forgery"
THREATENED TO GET EVEN.
Il heard what Senator Scott said declared ex