The St. Louis Republic., 1903-02-08
AAMJE PRODUCES
GROYSENOR'S LETTER
Defends Himself Against What He
Calls Misrepresentation
of Congressman.
WAS PARTY TO NO FRAUD.
His Connection With ''B0Ok of the
Presidents" Was Based on Be
lief He Was Working for Re
sponsible Public Man.
REPUBLIC SPECIAL.

REPCBILC SPECIAL.
New York, Feb THE Evening Post last
night published another chapter on Con-
gresham Grosvenor and his book. THE
Book of the Presidents in which Gros-
venor is made to fatty contradict his own
statement that he was not Interested in Sc
curing subscribers for the work With this
iastallmeut also appear facsimiles of
checks made payable TO Mr.. Grosvenor, one
for sl,0G0 from J. Pierpont Morgan and an
other for 500 from Secretary of the Treas
ury Leslie NJ Shaw. The Post says:
Of q ohio 5enFa G bie 10
. Book of the Presidents are brought out in
a statement of ii. d. Ealnje. who mas been
u solicitor for the work and who feels that
| he has been put into false position. ln
support Of his case. Mr.. Hamje produces an
lnuubltably genuine letter by Ny. Cr0S-
Nenor which completely disproves Mr. GroS-
venor's assertion that in the letters ne
wrote 10 possible subscribers he took pains
to state distinctly, that he had no Pc
Until the publishing venture was exposed
General Cirosvenor sharing the re-
Ssipts and pressing for even more money
Then, when the story was made public,
General GrOsveror promptly Shifted all the
blame 10 his wicked partner.
1t also appears that Elder. the publisher,
authorized his agents to exhibit to skeptical
people facsimiles Of checks with which j.
Pleipont Morgan. Secretary l.: NJ. Shaw OF
the Treasury and othe. well-kn9wn .Ii9 men men
Of the Presidents" Mr. Morgan's check
was for sl,Ooo Secretary shaws for Sl0o
HAMJES STATEMENT.
Mr.. Hamjes name has been mentioned in
all accounts of the case. To a reporter he
has related the story of his connection with
the business His object in speaking. he
says, is not to attack or to throw dis
credit upon either General GrosvenCr or A.
T. T. Elder. MIR. Hamje wishes simply to
vindicate his character from what he re-
CARDS as unjust reflections. In his state
ment MIR. Hamje says:
Il satisfied myself that the book was as
represented; that some thousand copies
were actually printed at Trows and ready
| for binding; and that General Grosvenor
was actively interested in the enterprise.
There seemed to me no possibility OF i'm
propriety in taking up business which
WIS stamped by the approval Of such Il
Well-known member of ConsresS. 1 saw
plenty of evidence that General Grosvenor
and trying to get his friends to help.
1t is unnecessary TO heap up details.
Here, however is a letter concerning the
genuneness of which there pan be no doubt
80, 1902, and addressed to a prominent New
York banker "a fac-simile of this letter
Is prlnted.) This document shows exactly
what General Grosvenor was doing for U.s."
The letter reads:
Athens o. Aug. 30. I9o2.-To Mr.. New
ager of The Book of the Presidents.'
all the Presidents which appear in this pubiica-
ton. | feel pride in the success of this work.
your name on the subscription lists. along with
many t pPSOf if
limited to Loo copies.
he Is aGthorzed 70 reeee youf sG sqn
PAYABLE to my order and IL you prefer to do bust
will comply with this request II Y9a5s GgnSTNop truly
ELDERS VIEW OF IT.
Besides this" continued Mr. Hamje
'Mr. Elder showed me what believed to
be letters and kilograms from General
Grosvenor urging activity. Mr.. Elder would
say in substance: Now, this is fine book:
his name. as he has used it, he feels and
feel We can do good things There's
money in it for him and for US. Put the
matter strongly to all the people YOU talk
with and you can be sure the General Will
stand back of you. He's in this deal for
business. and We will all work toge ther.
It's q rare chance for every Ole of us
General Grosvenor says N his public
statement that not many copies of the let
ter he wrote were actually sent cut. That
could be phrased little more strongly and
he got from General Grcsvenor. as un-
derstand the case. package OF 500 envel-
tute letter. 1 know that Mr.. Elder signed
some of these and asked hin. II it. was
This is all straight. General GrosveIor
is too busy to sign ibis whole lot of letters
himself. and he has authorized ME to sign
That is all 1 know os this pc, son. had
not the least reason to suppose that ElGer
was not fully BY Gsntrn Sres
seemed much In line with the one knew
Grosvenor had written and signed himself.
The only difference was that the later let
ters were more emphatic on certain points.
CHECKS TO GROSvENOR-
BACKED by these letters, 1 went about
the work. I followed instructions to use
General Grosvenor's name. and it was not
though they might not be particularly In
terested in the book. they were glad to
subscribe out OF regard for General Gros
venor, or in recognition Of his public serv-
Il told the subscribers to make the checks
payable to General GroSvenor, and they
them direct to General Grosvenor as they
chose. The receipt of such checks as were
sent to him he acknowledged. The checks
that received turned over to Mr.. Elder.
Some of the newspapers say he indorsed
them in General Grosvenor's name and col
lected the money. : II the hank paid Mr.. FL
der money on checks drawn payable to Cen
eral Grosvenor the officers of the bank
must have been satisfied that General Gros-
Venor had gwen Mr. Etoer some KIND OF
power Of attorney.
RECEIVED CHECKS RECENTLY.
ITO show you that up to within a recent
date, General Grosvenor has continued to
accept checks mailed direct to him. know
that during the week ending January 81
General Grosvenor received four such
checks. two for $500 and two for 81 so and
the receipt OF one. I know. was acknowl-
edged by the General. There never was
any question in my mind that the General
was warmly Interested with us.
1.-THE reason why no books were delivered
to subscribers was that Mr.. Elder wanted
to accumulate a large number of orders
and then. for the sake of economy. have the
binding done in quantity. 1 was always In
structed to say that the book was to be de-
livered about July. If any one asked why
payment was wanted in advance. my in
struction was that the General NEEDED the
money In order to bring out the work. and
these kilograms and letters OF which have
spoken indicated that he certainly did need
money.
I'm short my whole connection with
The Book Of the Presidents. was based on
my belief that I was working for one Of
the most prominent and responsible of our
public men,.