West Virginia argus. [volume] (Kingwood, W. Va.) 1877-1946, 1907-04-11
Did The President Ask Hartman 10
Contribute 10 Campaign
FLYING MACHINE EXPERIMENTS
Aerial Navigation to Be Given Another
Trial-war to Be waged
Against Rats
o. Resalat correspondenl.

MI. hartman S alleged contribu-
tons to the campaign fund OF 1904
is a part Of a wide spread scheme
for discrediting the administration
with the public in order TO divert at
tention from themselves. 1t is sim
ply drawing a red herring across the
trail to confuse the scent. Nobody
particularly cares whether Mr.. Har-
riman contributed s5o,o to the
campaign fund as he says he did, or
not. After the way he had looted
the Alton railroad, he was well able
to contribute a million If he wanted
to. But that he came TO Washing
ton at the solicitation of the Prcsi-
dent, and contributed the money at
the solicitation of the President,
nobody for a moment believes.
There would be very little hesita-
ton In the minds of most people in
accepting President Roosevelt's word
before that of Mr.. Hartman, and
the mere fact of whether he ever
made the contribution at all ought
to be easily established from his own
check book or the records Of the
Republican campaign committee.
Secretary Cortelyou, who was then
chairman of the committee, says
that no such contribution passed
through his hands, and Cornelius n.
Bliss, who is notoriously a taciturn,
unapproachable old person., refuses
to discuss the matter at all. 1t would
be a good thing, however, for the
reputation of the party If the mem
bers of the committee would for
once come IL into the open and
admit whether or not they received
the money. Conclusive proof that
the contribution as well as the
method of it was a fiction would do
more thPn anything else 10 stop the
campaign of elimination that the
railroads are now waging against
the government simply because they
fear the government is going to
make them act fairly by the ship
ping public. This is not a party
matter, and the bitterest party man
can afford to look at it fairly. If il
were the Democratic party that was
in power the anne campaign of In.
vestigation would be waged against
the railroads, perhaps an even more
severe campaign. And In that case
the railroads would be just as ready
to attack the investigators. The
fight that is now OF is no party mat
ter. 1t is u of public policy and
the people at large will be wise If
they see it in that light.
= .
One of the most interesting ex-
periments in the world is likely to
be tried in Washington IN the near
future. It is no less than the re-
vival of the Langley flying machine
experiments by the man who built
the original machine. OF course,
this will create a smile among a
good many skeptical people, but
there is more than a fair chance that
the machine will fly after all, and
the Smithsonian officials are work
ing quietly to give it a chance. c..
NJ. Manley is the engineer who built
the original engine for the great
aereodrome, lie built a s. horse
power engine weighing much less
than five pounds TO the horse power,
after the contract had been declined
by all the best builders of Europe.
lie was Prof Langley's mechanical
expert, and was the nan who made
the two abor,iye trials Of the ma
chine.
Engineer Manley is just as firm
in his faith as ever, and il is pro-
posed 70 get the machine out, give
il a thorough grooming, and another
trial. Most people do not know
that the machine was never really
launched, and consequently never
had a fair chance 90 Try TO fy. Two
smaller models that Prof Langley
built did fy perfectly, and the big
machine is an exs.t reproduction Of
them cxcep: 100 size. When 10 was
tried on two occasions there we're
unforeseen bitches that caught the
mechanism on the launching ways,
so that q was wrecked before il ever
got into The air. Mr.. Manlcy IS
convinced that if nee properly set
frcc.It win DO al The smaller ma.
chimes did, and H another trial
can b. secured for lt. there s
poss b..ty .hat America may after
all be- able 90 give France the laugh
and carry of The palm oi serIaln8gI-
cation for VIII CD Santos Dlmont is
nov making such a heroic effort.
The germ cassers of ,hc depart