The Bourbon news., 1904-09-30
AGAINST UNION LABOR.
Letter Purported to Have Been
Written by the President.
Roosevelt Pronounces 1t An Absurd
and Impudent Forgery and Steps
Will Be Taken to Punish
the Forgers.


tor Fairbanks and his party arrived
here they found the republican leaders
much exercised over the publication
in the Miners Magazine, published at
Denver by the Western Federation of
Miners, of what purported to be a de-
nunciation of labor unions by Presi-
dent Roosevelt and denial of it's au-
thenticity by the president. The presi-
dents contradiction was sent to for
mer Senator Lee Mantle in response
to telegram Of inquiry from him and
was as follows:
white House, Washington, Sept. 26.
Your telegram received. The letter
you refer to purporting to be addressed
by me to Michael Donnelly and print
ed in the Miners Magazine Of Septem-
Der %, is, of course, an absurd and
impudent forgery. l have written no
such letter nor any letter even resem-
bling it to Mr. Donnelly nor any one
else. | have written Mr.. Donnelly re-
questing to know if he has received
any such letter and requesting him, if
so, to at once lay it before the district
attorney of Chicago to find out wheth-
er it is possible to discover and punish
the forgers. (SignedD Theodore
Roosevelt"
The letter in which the president
was represented to have made his at
tack on union labor was addressed to
Michael Donnelly, of Chicago, presi-
dent of the Butchers and Meat Cut
ters' union. The document is given in
full, with President Roosevelt's name
attached, but without date, and it is
stated that it was written in response
to an appeal by Donnelly to him to in
terfere for the settlement of the late
butchers strike. Following are some
extracts from it:
Il stand ready to do as my illuStri-
Gus predecessor, Grover Cleveland,
did, and assert the power of this ma
tion against all local nullifiers. Last
summer l felt impelled to write let
ter calling upon my countrymen to
put down lynching. But labor union
terrorism and crime are as great a
national menace as lynch law.
'Let me tell you that the first duty
of the officers of the law, whether they
be sheriff, constable, municipal officers,
mayors, governors or the president,
himself, is to maintain public order
and put down the mob with an iron
hand"
After advising Donnelly to put a
stop to the strike the president is rep
resented as saying: "In any case, be
assured 1 will keep my hands off un-
less your folly brings you into collision
with the laws of the United States,
when my hand will go on in way
you will not like So far as I am con.
cerned you have barked up the wrong
tree. l am not to be either wheedled
or frightened into meddling with what
is none of my business"
Denver, Col, Sept. 2S.-Secretary w.
D. Haywood, of the Western Fedora.
tion of Miners, said Tuesday night
that the reputed letter of President
Roosevelt to President Donnelly was
copied from the Wisconsin Toiler
So far as the letter of President
Roosevelt having been forgery, Sec
retary Haywood says he was not
aware of it. The Miners Magazine is
published under the direction of the
federation and both President Moyei
and Secretary Haywood take an active
part in it's direction.
New York, Sept. 29.-The letter al
legged to have been received by Mich
ael ]. Donnelly, the leader of the meat
strike. purporting to be one sent by
President Roosevelt, was copied from
an editorial in the New York Evening
Post of August 1.
The Evening Post says:
"The letter appeared as an editorial
in the Evening Post of August 1, and
was explicitly stated to be a letter
which the president might have writ
ten with advantage to himself and the
country
'In other words it was confessedly
an imaginary letter. written for the
sake of bringing out certain truths i'll
regard to the meat strike.
1--WE had no thought, of course, Of
being able to make even presentable
imitation of the presidents literary
style, and as the article was, at the
time, commented on and reproduced
somewhat extensively in the press, we
never dreamed of its ever coming to
figure as Campaign forgery.
Chicago River Tunnels to Be Changed.