Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1903-10-20
AT THE WHITE HOUSE
No Serious Reflection on Con-
troller TraCeWell.
SOME RUMORS DENIED
NO FRICTION WITH THE SECRE-
TARY OF TREASURY.
Mystery in Regard to che Bonaparte-
Conrad Report - Today's Cabinet
Meeting-President Will Vote.

NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS. Will Vote.
An emphatic statement may be made
from high authority that the Bonaparte-
Conrad report to the President on the
1ulloch charges does not seriously re-
fleet upon r. j. Tracewell controller of
the treasury and that the President has
not the least idea of considering the re-
port with the object of deciding whether
he will dismiss Mr.. Tracewell. The con-
troller Of the treasury is not to be asked
to resign and is not to be dismissed, and
the report will not place him in an awk-
ward light before the public That the
report does criticiSe Mr.. Tracewell is
not denied. but the nature of the eriti-
cism is now understood not to be ser-
Gus, and the President has not been
placed where he will be compelled to fol-
low the report or regard the wishes of
his cabinet members to the contrary. The
report, which has been so much dis
cusSed and probably so greatly eNaGger-
ated, will be made public before a great
while.
The definite fact, however. that the
Bonaparte-Conrad report does not con-
tain sufficient criticism of Mr.. Tracewell.
backed by facts to cause the President
to consider his dismissal, will be Of
with satisfaction by the friends of the
Indiana man, who had begun to get
themselves in position to make a fight
for him if necessary, believing that he
had been attacked by men who did not
fully know him or his methods.
1t is pointed out today as evidence that
the report does not reflect halmfully upon
Mr. TraceWell that Messrs Bonaparte and
Conrad did not feel it necessary to take Mr..
Tracewells side of the TullOch charges
and at no time went to him or the Treasury
Department for an explanation or state
nent. Mr.. Tracewel it is stated. does
not know either of the special counsel. and
has never talked with either. His friends
had begun to think 1t queer that they had
attempted to place him in a harmful light
when they had not even considered his side
of the post office accounts of 1899, about
which much has been said in the last
few months. The matter will now be more
fully understood by them.
Mystery About the Report
There has been so much mystery about
the Bonaparte-Conrad report that the plain
truth that 1t is not a highly sensational
and dangerous document will clear the
atmosphere a great deal. The contents of
the report have been carefuuy preserved by
the administration, but in its reading by
different cabinet officers portions of it
have leaked out and these portions have
passed from one person to another until
the whole thing has been magnified. AS a
result, and in many instances the talk was
from people who ought to know their
ground the President has been represented
as on the verge of a split with two or
three members Of his cabinet and as being
placed in a position of turning down the re-
port Of his own appointees or dismissing
from the public service man who is re-
garded by his friends as thoroughly
honest
Most of this, as stated. comes from an
excessive mystery, necessitating the ac-
rnl
to them from sources not within the
cabinet, but believed to possess correct in
formation.
The President has not been apprised that
any of his cabinet officers have resented
the report made by Messrs. Bonaparte and
Conrad as being the work of outsiders. 1t
is at least certain that they have not COM
planned to him personally, or suggested
that they were not pleased Naturally,
cabinet officers who may have had any
thing to say of this kind would not have
gone to the President with their views at
this juncture, and If they talked at all It
would be with friends On the outside.
Secretary Shaw Out West.
Secretary Shaw. whose department IS
more or less concerned in the report on
the Tulloch charges, is in the west on
campaign tour, and he will not take up
the report with the President until he re-
turns in November. Postmaster General
Payne whose department is most directly
concerned will take the matter up with
the President whenever the latter desires
to go into it. That point. it is said, has
not yet been reached. Mr.. Payne IS said
to feel a friendly interest in Postmaster
Merritt, whose fortunes, like those of Mr..
Tracewell, are to an extent involved in the
Bonaparte-Conrad report. The President
intends to first finish the work involved in
fl,n nf
shortly be made public. With all the mat
ters of this report disposed of in a proper
way the President will have time to look
into the Bonaparte-Conrad report, which
he will certainly do.
The Cabinet Meeting.
The cabinet meeting today was a short
one. five of the nine cabinet advisers being
present. These were Secretaries Hay,
Moody, Hitchcock, Cortelyou and Postmas-
ter General Payne. While there were some
depa artmental matters of minor importance
considered. the cabinet spent the most of
the time discussing the verdict in the Cana
dian boundary question
Will Vote at Oyster Bay.
DESPITE the unimportance of the elections
I'm New York state in November President
Roosevelt will go home to vote. He will
leave Washington the night before
the election, and after depositing his ballot
return at once to Washington, reaching
here that night. A judge of the court of
appeals is to be elected. and so are mcm-
bers of the New York, assembly. The Presi-
dent. however, regards it the duty of every
intelligent and patriotic citizen to cast his
ballot in any election. Without such activ.
ity and care on the part of the good clti-
Zens of the country the power in elections
passes to those who are Indifferent to the
outcome Secretary Loeb. who also votes
in New York state and possibly several of
the White House force, will go to Oyster
Bay with the President.
Commutations of Sentences.
The President has commuted to expire
the sentences of Marion Mar
SHALL Cyrus Raines and Burton Harper,
coal miners, who were convicted in West
Virginia of resisting a United States dep
uty marshal. They were sentenced on June
H. 19O3 Marshal and Harper to imprison-
Inent for eight months, and Raines to inn