The Montgomery advertiser., 1907-04-03
HARRIMAN'S LETTER
ACCUSES ROOSEVELT OF ACCEPT-
 ING TRUST AID.

ACCUSES ROOSEVELT OF AcCEPr- 1 ING TRUST AID.
 Declares He and Other CapitaIists at Request of President Contributed | s2OO,OOO to New York | CamJaign.
 | New York, April 2--A sensation
 was created here today by the publi- | cation of a letter written in Decem-
 Der, 1905 and addressed to MT. Sidney | Webster, of New York, and signed "E. | MT. Sidney Webster:
 l No. East 17th St., New York. | Dear Sir--I am glad to see that you are in town and hope soon to have an opportunity of talking mat | ters over with you.
 q had printed copies of the testi- mony sent you, in hopes that you would, after reading them. give me | some idea of where I stand, for I con- l fess that I feel somewhat at sea in l the whole insurance matter. The | trouble originated in my allowing my
 self to be drawn into other peoples | affairs and partly from desire ito | help them and at their request. l seemed to be like the fellow who got | in between the man and his wife in their quarrel.
 "As to my political instincts to which you refer in your letter of De- | cember 13, I am quite sure I have none, and my being made at all prom l inent in the political situation is en- | tirely due to President Roosevelt and l because of my taking an active part | in the autumn of 1904. at his request | and his taking advantage of condi- l tions then created to further his own | interests. If 1t had been a rremedi- | tated plot 1t could not have been bet | ter started or carried out.
 About a week before the election | in the autumn of 1904, when it looked ] certain that the State ticket would go | Democratic and was doubtful as to Roosevelt himself, he, the president, | sent me a request to go to Washing | ton to confer on the political condi- | tions in New York State"
 q complied and he told me he un- | derstood the campaign could not be successfully carried on without suf- | ficient money and asked if I would | help them in raising the necessary | funds, as the national committee, un- | der control of Chairman Cortelyou, | had utterly failed of obtaining them, | and there was a large amount due | from them to the New York State committee.
 q explained to him that under stood the difficulty here was mainly caused by the upstate leaders being unwilling to support Depew for re- election as United States Senator; that | if he, Depew, could be taken care of | in some other way, I thought matters could be adjusted and the different contending elements in the party brought into alliance again. We talk | ed over what could be done for De- | pew, and finally, he agreed, if found | necessary he would appoint him as ambassador to Paris.
 With full belief, that he. the presi- | dent, would keep this agreement. | came back to New York sent for Treas urer Bliss, who told me that was
 their last hope and that they had ex- | hausted every other resource. "In his presence I called up an in | innate friend of Senator Depew, told
 him that it was necessary In order to | carry New York State, that $200,o00
 should be raised at once, and if he
 would help, would subscribe $60,ooo. | After a few words over the telephone,
 the gentleman said he would let me
 know, which he did, probably in three 1 or four hours, with the result that | the whole amount, including my sub
 scription, had been raised.
 "The checks were given to Treasu-
 Ter Bliss, who took them to Chairman l Cortelyou. If there were many Of l them of life insurance companies or any other like organizations, of course l Cortelyou must have informed the | president. do not know who the | subscribers were other than the I friend of Depew who was an individ-
 ual. This amount enabled the New York State committee to continue its
 work with the result that at least 1 50,O00 votes were turned in the city Of New York alone, making difference l of 100, 900 votes in the general result. There are between 2,200 and 2,300 | districts in Greater New York, and In i a campaign such as that the expen- 1 allure of, say $50 in each district for | campaign purposes, not including the | watchers on election day would take
 more than $100,000.
 Some time in December. 1904, on my way from Virginia to New York,
 I stopped and had short talk with | the president. He then told me that he did not think 1t necessary to ap- point Depew as ambassador to Paris' | as agreed, in fact favored him for the | Senate. had not expected that he was the ono (sic) as to what would be necessary but he arrogated that to | himself and I, of course, could say nothing further. After that l used
 what influence I could to have Depew returned to the Senate, as I consider | ed there had been an implied obliga- | tion which should be lived up to. This Is the way I was brought to l the surface in the political matters, as
 had never before taken any active | part and had only done what I could | as any private citizen might, so you | see I was brought forward by Roose- ! welt in an attempt to help him at ms | request the same as l was in the m | surance matter by Hyde and Ryan by | their request for my help; and in the | case of Ryan, I probably would have dropped the matter after our first ln- | terview had it not been for my de- | sire to save Belmont from taking
 position for which he could have been l criticized by the public press.
 "As he was the one Ryan desired
 me to influence from opposing Morton ! for election as chairman of the Eaui- | table board, and Belmont afterward | thanked me for taking his part, as | if he had voted against Morton in l view of his local traction contentious | with Mir. Ryan, 1t would nave been
 misconstrued.
 | Ryan succeeds in his manl2ulations, l traction deals tobacco combination, l manipulation of the State Trust Com ] nany into the Morton Trust Company, l the Shoe and Leather bank into the 1 Rank of Commerce, thus covering up | his tracks--has been done by the | adroit mind of Elihu Root and this | nresent situation has been brought 1 about bv a combination of circumstan- ces which was brought together the l Ryan Root, Roosevelt element. i Where do 1 stand?
 | SincerplV