Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1905-06-21
And b. end. his letter by the follo~,ns

~ NV 1ONCO1lA4 IL OONI
And he ends his letter by the following
Bowen's Statement.
II the newspaper representatives were
influenced by me, I was justified In trying
to influence them, because Mr.. Loomis was
dishonest while minister at Caracas. and
as assistant secretary Of state was guilty
Of abrogating the agreements President
Roosevelt and Mr.. Hay authorised me to
make with the Venezuelan government: and
because be deceived. and seemed likely to
continue to deceive the government and
people of the United States
1t Is disingenuouS for Mr.. Bowen re-
peatedly to use such language. and at the
same time to insist that he has made no
charges against Mr.. Loomis. Moreover, 1t
Is quite impossible that Mr. Bowen can
believe that the telegram signed by Mr..
LOOMS, as acting secretary Of state, which
he calls q protocol. really proves that Mr..
LOOMS was guilty OF abrogating the agree
ments President Roosevelt and Mr.. Hay
had authorized me to make with the Ven
ezuelan government Mr.. Bowen's state
ment is shown to be absolutely untrue by
the statement of the solicitor of the De-
partment of State Mr.. Penfield. But his
own statement bears within itself its own
refutation on this point. He shows in this
statement that he at once answered this
cable of Mr.. Loomis by cable to Mr.. Hay,
who would thus have had his attention spe-
officially called to the Loomis protocol
even If he had not known of 1t before, and
even IL he had been so neglectful OF his
duty as not to inquire what cables had
been sent in the matter with which he
was dealing
t.As a matter of fact the Loomis cable
In question was sent by direction of Mr..
Hay with the assistance of Mr.. Penfield,
and was signed by Mr.. Loomis, simply be-
cause on the day that 1t was sent 1t hap
pened that Mr.. Hay was confined to his
house and could not get down to the State
Department. It is on its face an absurdity
10 suppose that Mr.. Hay, who returned to
his duties in the State Department within q
day or two. and who was repeatedly going
over this whole Venezuelan matter, and
cabling to Bowen about-it and receiving ca
bles from him in return, could have been
ignorant If such cable had been sent by
Loomis during his (Mr. Hays absence Mr..
Bowen's allegation on this point is In real
ity charge against Mr.. Hay rather than
against Mr. Loomis.
Mr.. Bowen furnished his charges against
Mr.. Loomis and some of the documents in
reference thereto, to representatives of New
York newspapers. The names of the repre-
sentattves of the newspapers to whom he
furnished this information were John Grant
Dater and Nicholas Biddle. Mr.. Dater tes-
titles as follows:
Dater's Testimony.
Secretary Taft-That you subsequent
ly saw Mr.. Bowen, and that in the course
Of the conversation, Mr.. Bowen possibly
without your invitation. confirmed the
statements that you had heretofore heard
rumored with respect to Mr. Loomis and
his relation to the Asphalt Company.
Mr.. Dater-Yes, sir; and other mat
tiers.
Secretary Taft-That Mr. Bowen was
very full of the subject?
Mr.. Dater-AbSolutely.
Secretary Taft-And talked about It
with great deal of earnestness?
Mr.. Dater-He certainly did.
Secretary Taft-And he expressed the
hope that some day his side of the story
would be printed?
Mr. Dater-Yes, sir.
Secretary Taft-Mr. Bowen showed you
no letter?
Mr.. Dater-No. sir; he showed me no
letter.
Secretary Taft-Did he show YOU a COPY
of the letter which he sent to me?
Mr.. Dater-He did not I did not know
that he had communicated with you. 1 I'M
derstood 1t was with Secretary Hay.
Secretary Taft-Or any OF the docu-
ments upon which he based his claim of
Mr.. LOOMS guilt?
Mr.. Dater-r do not think I could an
swer that directly. / would rather not an
'"The testimony of Mr.. Biddle is as fol-
lows:
Secretary Taft-In one Of those arti-
cles you wrote appeared statement con-
corning letter written by Mr.. Loomis as
sorting an interest in the Mercado claim
which was published in the Herald
Mr.. Biddle-Yes. sir.
Secretary Taft-Did you get that from
Mr.. Bowen?
"'Mr. BiddIeI did
:" Secretary Taft-You requested 1t from
him. or did he hand It to you in the course
Mr.. Bfddle-I spoke to Mr. Bowen
about the charges in a general way and
he told me he would give such information
as he had and set me right on the entire
thing, and he would show me certain let
tiers that he had forwarded to the State De-
partment.
!" Secretary Taft-And they included this
Mercado letter-the letter of Meyers to
LOOMS?
Mr.. Biddle-Yes. SIR
Secretary Taft suppose you saw the
same letters that Bowen gave me-one was
the Mercado claim: second. the Mayors let
ter. and the third has slipped my mind.
There was letter to Mr.. Hay written by
Bowen.
60 Mr.. Biddle--I saw that at different
times.
Secretary Taft-Just run your eve over
these letters Getters of Mr. Bowen to
Secretary Taft. dated April 2. 1905 inclos-
Ing copies Of papers which had been in Mr.
Hays hands, as follows: Telegram to Mr..
Hay from Mr.. Bowen. dated February 90
1905; telegram to Bowen from Mr.. Hay
dated February "a. 1905; telegram to Mr..
nay IToIH MT. BOWEN CateQ FEBRUARY %,
1905. Letter to Mr.. Hay from Mr.. Bowen
dated February Is. 1905. Letter to Mr. w
w. Russell from F. B. Loomis, dated Au-
gust Is. 1900. Letter to Mr.. Loomis from
- Mayors. dated July 8. 1909
Mr.. BiddleI have seen all of these
and it seems to me there was some addi-
tional letter.
Knew He Was Correspondent.
Secretary Taft-Did Mr. Bowen know
that you were a correspondent?
Z" Mr.. Biddle-Yes. sir. I first met Mr..
Bowen at the time Of the blockade in
Venezuela, and obtained information from
him at that time. He knew who I was of
course, and l went to him as the Herald
man. l told him what 1 had heard, and he
was frank about giving me further infor-
nation.
!" Secretary Taft-Did he express a de-
sire. one way or the other, to have the
truth known2
Mr.. Biddle-1e told me q great many
times that he thought he was in a very
unfortunate position; that being the
United States minister he could not go for
ward and be quoted when anything oc-
CURED, SO as to set himself right. He
thought the instructions that he was re-
ceiving from the department were very