The Montgomery advertiser., 1907-04-03
Says President Begged
 For Money. STRENUOUS ONE MAKES HOTTEST KIND OF REPORT Puts Great Railroad King in Bel fanny Storefs Class. Man Who Ousted stuyvesant Fish says TAat Executive Promised To Ap- point Depew Minister To
 Paris For Contribution
 To Campaign

washington, April 2.-President Roosevelt today emphatically denied the statement contained in a letter published this mArning purporting to have been written by E. H. Hartman to Sidney Webster of New York, in the latter part of December. 1905.
 In MT. Harriman's letter the state ment is made that at the request of President Roosevelt. he. Hartman. as- sisted in raising a fund of s25o,ooo to be used in carrying New York for the Republican party at the election which was then approaching.
 This statement the President char acterizes as "a deliberate and wilful untruth--by right 1t should be char acterized by even a shorter and more ugly word. I never requested MT. : Hartman to raise dollar for the Presidential campaign of 1904"
 The Presidents denial was contained In brief statement and copies of letters written to Representativ Sher- man of New York. The letters are dated october 8 and Octobr IF, 1906, respectively.
 The President after furnishing the letters to the press dictated the fol- lowing statement.
 After writing these letters to Con- gressman sherman, the President was assured that Mir. Hartman had not made the statements which MT. Sher- man credited him with making. Inas- much as the same statements appear In the major part in the letter of MT. Hartman now published, the Presf- dent deems 1t proper that the letters he sent to Congressman sherman last October shall now themselvs be made public.
 "In the first letter reference is made to a conversation between MT. Har- riman and Mir. Sherman which was reported to the President, in which MT. Hartman is said to have given as a reason for his personal dislike of the President, partly the latter's determination to have the railroads supervised and partly the alleged fact that after promising Mir. Hartman to appoint Senator Depew ambassador to France he, the President, failed to do 1t, and" continues the President, T understood you to say that he alleged that I made this promise at a time when he had come down to see me in Washington. when I requested him to raise two hundred and fifty thousand dollars for the Republican Presiden- tial campaign which was then on.'
 Tt appears from the conversation repeated to the President that MT. sherman had gone to MT. Hartman to ask him for contribution for the campaign. The President says that Hartman also (more than once, he thinks), urged him to promise to make MT. Depew ambassador because this would help Governor O'Dell by pleas ffna In
 wouldn't Appoint Depew.
 'The President said ne informed Mir. Hartman that he did not believe 1t would be possible to appoint MT. De- pew and furthermore expressed his surprise at his CHarriman's) saying that the men representing the big fi- nancial interests of New York wished the appointment made inasmuch as as a number of them had written asking that the place be given to MT. Hyde MT. Hartman on learuing Mr. Hyde was a candidate. hastily said that he did not wish to be understood as an- tagonizing him and would be quite willing to support him.
 "The President says that although he understood that he (Harriman). still preferred MT. Depew, he left 4 strong impression that he would be almost as well satisfied with hyde Some correspondence is then given DGLWGen Ln6 FTGSlucnL anu MT. man, from which it appears that on october 10, the President said to Mir. Hartman that in view of the trouble over the State ticket in New York he would like to have a few words with him. Later on October If is a letter to MT. Hartman in which the President says that a suggestion has come to him in a roundabout way that MT. Hartman did not think 1t wise to come in the closing weeks of the cam paign-
 The President told MT. Hartman if he thought there was any danger of his visit causing trouble to give 1t up. sherman, says:
 You will see that this letter is ab- solutely incompatible with any theory that I was asking MT. Hartman to come to see me in my own interest"
 The President encloses another let ter from MT. Hartman in his commu- nication to MT. sherman, which, he says, shows that Hartman did not have n his mind any idea of my asking him to collect money"
 Unable to Agree.
 Then follows some correspondence between MT. Hartman and the Presi- dent, touching, among other things, on the question of railroad matters and what the President might have to say to Congress on the subject of the In- terstate Commerce Commission. The President said he was unable to agree with MT. Harriman's views on the mat ter and left hts message to Congress unchanged as regards the interstate commerce law.
 "So much for what MT. Hartman said about me personally" says the Presi- dent in concluding his first letter to MT. sherman. Far more important the President regards the additional re- marks which Mir Sherman said MT. Hartman made to him when he asked him if he thought 1t was we'll to see Hearstism and the like" triumphant over the Republican party. You" says the President, Inform me that he told you that he did not care in the