The White Pine news. [volume] (Ely, Nev.) 1906-1910, 1907-05-29
ROOSEVELT IS
FLAYED BY man
He CRITICIZED
DIR. WILLIAM }. LONG, NATURAL
IST, MAKES PUBLIC con
TENTS OF LETTER.
Issue NOW ONE OF MEN
Stinging Rebuke for Alleged Harsh
Judgment Of BOOk-Deelares
Matter True TO Nature.
,pN AssocInted Press.l

STAMFORD, Conn, May 2S.-Dr,
William j. Long today made public a
letter sent by him 10 President Roose-
welt. The letter says in part:
ITO His Excellency, Theodore
Roosevelt, President of the United
States.
Dear Sir-The issue between you
and me is no longer one of animals,
but of men. 1t is not chiefly a matter
of natural history, but of truth and
personal honor. In recent maga-
zine article you deliberately attacked
me as well as my book. You have
used the enormous influence of your
official position to discredit me as a
man, to injure my reputation and in
cidentally to make a poor man even
poorer by the destroying, II possible,
the sale and influence of his work.
In my book I have given the re-
suit of long years of watching ami
mails in the wilderness, with no other
object than to study their habits and,
SO far as man can, to understand the
mystery of their domestic life. In my
preface | have stated, and | now re-
peat the statement, that every Incl
dent | have recorded from my own
observation is true as far as an hon
est, educated man car see ana under
stand the truth.
In your recent attack this is what
you chiefly deny. | have spoken the
truth, and you accuse me of deliba-
rate falsehood and misrepresentation
As president of the United States you
have gone out of your way publicity
to injure the private citizen who was
attending strictly to his own bust
ness; as a man you have accused of
falsehood another man whose ideals
of truth and honor are quite as high
as your own. This is the whole issue
between us. | meet IL squarely and
so must you. If have spoken false
ly, If in my book or words of mine |
have Intentionally deceived any child
or man regarding animal life, D prom
Use publicly to retract every such
word aud never to write another ami
NAL hook.
"On the other hand, If | show to
any disinterested person that you
have accused me falsely, you must
publicly withdraw your accusation
and apologize. AS a man and as pre-
sident, no other honorable course Is
open to you. You base your recent
charges chiefly on the matter OF a
big white wolf killing young Carl
bou by bite in the chest, described
by me in Northern Trails.
You declare the thing to be a
mathematical impossibility, and de-
clare by no possibility could a wolf
perform the feat
a fInR hH lynn
his own observation and from the
testimony of Indians that wolves do
sometimes kill in this way, and then
quotes the signed and witnessed
statement of S. K Hapidan, an edu-
horse which a wolf had killed by
tearing it's chest. In addition to this,
DR.. Long says he himself had seen
deer which had been slain in this
manner by wolf. and further recites
that an Indian, Matty Mitchell of
Bonny Bay, New Foundland, declares
that the big, white wolf frequently
kills caribou in this manner
Continuing, DR.. Long says:
These are the facts underlying the
incident which you declare to be i'm
possible and false. If this testimony
is not enough, ] will fill it up to full
scripture measure.
You cannot at this stage, Mr..
Roosevelt, take refuge behind the
presidential office and maintain 81
lence You have forfeited your right
to that silence by breaking 1t by
coming out in publication to attack
private citizen. If your talk OF a
square deal is not all sham, If your
frequent moral preaching is not hy-
pocrisy, | call upon you, as president,
as a man, to come out and admit the
error and injustice of your charge in
the same open and public way In
which you made it.