The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1906-05-15
PRESIDENTS SIDE
answers 1Illaaa n 0 Letter
10 Senator AIlISOa
no PACT WITH o. MOcaATs


igr says Ile t'aaerstsef rhat W.. thanaIes
Va tse Brmsrrat,e tsu,ssaVy 3 tRe
President. saa Tha, wha, Ne aaia ID
iIIm wss ESar,IJ mi Ne isaa saif
ts gtrsrs me ellison ~tmeudmeat.
lie Ssys. N No Way changed Ire aeop.
NJ the s'ours Re,tc~ Provision ~ the
Hepburn Bu ana Therefore iie 40.
eepsea n NJ Resercaes stade 10 tAe
charge That fe Iisd Stranded as False.
wAsEtSaTnN. May iA-Mors chapters
were added to-day 20 the controversy
growing out Of tho allegations by Senator
Tillman that President Roosevelt had
sought 10 make q compact with Demo-
cratic Senators TO pass the rate bill and had
reflected Upon the good faith Of Senators
Foraker, Spooner aud Knox. In a letter
sent by the President this evening 20 Sem
ator Allison a new question Of vcraoity 10
raised. MFR. Roosevelt asserts that he did
not ask ex-senator william f. Chandler
10 act as his emisssry in conducting nego-
tiaions with the Democrats, hut that he
understood that Mr.. Chandler was tbs
Democratic emissary to the President.
Mr.. Chandler claimed just tho contrary
in the statement which he made to tn,
press last night.
In his letter 10 Senator Allison the Presi-
dent makes no statement in regard to the
charge Of ex-senator Chandler that Mr..
Roosevelt had said that Senators Knox,
Spooner and Foraker were trying to inIure
OF defeat the rate bill by ingenious con-
stitutional arguments. He Ii evidently
content TO let that phase OF the question
rest with his statement, made 70 the Senate
ON Saturday through Senator Lodgs. tbs
President . intimate friend shat the chargs
was a deliberate and unqualified FALSE
hood
Mr., Roosevelt in his letter tells Senator
Allison of the part played by Senators
Tillman and Bailey in the rate hill negotia-
tiOn, AMI II COTTOUJTtteu ny httOTi0y~
General Moody, who asserts that he in
sisted from the first in his talks with TILL
man and Bailey that the President was
not committed to any particular form OF
language In mlking amendments to ths
rate bin, and lnferentially the President
was perfectly c1nsistent in accepting thu
so-oalled Allison amendments which formed
the basis for the rate bill compromise,
.-.,.t- H. - NLnt 1.
the Senate.
The President holds that what he said
to ex-senator Chandler about his views
OH the rate bill VAS exa city what he had
said to Senators, newspaper men and
others, and il Is plain from the Presidents
statements that he means that Mr., Chandler
did not enjoy a monopoly of his ideas az to
how the rate. bill should be amended. The
whole inference from these statements
Ia that Mr.. Chandler was hea ring nothing
OF a confidential char RI otter that had not
been told to any Others who had talked
with the President on the subject.
The Presidents position, as given by
himself, was that the Hepburn rate bill
recognized the Jurisdiction Of the courts
without attempting to define it, and while
he believed that IL such definition were
regarded as necessary Il should be made
along certain lines, he found that IL was i'm
possible for the Senate TO get together on
any proposition that would exactly deins
the restrictions 10 be placed on the courts
in considering appeals from the rate fixing
orders Of the Interstate Commeros Com
mission.
At this stage Of the negotiations Senators
Allison and Cullom presented the so-oalled
Allison amendment which the President
regarded as merely expressing what the
advocates Of the rate bill had always want
ed. In the President o opinion, as given
by himself, the Allison amendment in no
way changed the scope Of the court review
provision Of the Hepburn bin, and In this
the President was supported by Secretary
Of State Root. Secretary Of War Taft and
Attorney General Moody, the foremost
lawyers Of the Cabinet. Backed by the
Judgment Of these three eminent legal
experts. the President, according to his own
statement, accepted the Allison amend
ment.
Throughout the Presidents letter to
Senator Allison there is an obvious in
~sistenoe that the conferences between
the President n ex-senator Chandler;
and between Attorney General Moody
and Senators Bailey and Tillnan, were
In no sense TO be regarded as in the nature
Of negotiations looking to a cabal between
the Administration and Democratic leaders
In the Senate to secure the passage OF rate
hgielation along lines desired by the Presi-
dent.
The question raised by the Presidents
statement IL simply this; Did the Presi-
dent try to overcome a majority Of his