The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1907-04-03

1 New York, Apr sensation was
created here today. /. he publication of
a letter written in December last and
addressed to Mr.. Sidney Webster of New
York and signed "E. II, Hartman" Fol
lowing is the letter.
Mr.. Sidney Webster. No. East Seven
teenth street, New York
Dear Sir: l am glad to see that you
are in town and hope soon to have an
opportunity of talking matters over with
you.
Il had printed copies of the testimony
sent you, in hopes that you would, after
reading them. give me some idea of where
l stand for l confess that l feel some
what at sea in the whole insurance mat
ter. The trouble originated in my allow
ing myself to be drawn into other peoples
affairs and partly from a desire to help
them and at their request l seemed to
DC 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 December 10,
l am quite sure [ have none, and my be-
ing made at all prominent in the political
situation is entirely due to President
Roosevelt and because of my taking an
active part in the autumn of 1904 at his
request and his taking advantage of con-
ditons then created to further his own
interests. If 1t had been premedtated
| plot 1t could not have been better started
| or carried out.
Sent for Me.
about a week before the election in
| the autumn of 1904, when it looked certain
/ that the state ticket would go democratic
and was as doubtful to Roosevelt himself.
re tho p' s's'es 3nc q 1equcst t.
go TO Washington to confer on the politi-
cal conditions in New York state. l
| complied and he told me he understood
| the campaign could not be successfully
carried ON without sufficient money, and
asked If | would help them in raising
the necessary funds. as the national COM
| mittee under control of Chairman Cortel-
| you had utterly failed of obeying them
and there was large amount due from
! them to the New York state committee.
! II explained to him that / understood
the difficulty here was mainly caused by
| the upstate leaders being unwilling to
/ support Depew for reelection as United
States senator; that If he, Depew, could
! be taken care of in some other way l
though matters could be adjuested and
the different contending elements in the
party brought into alliance again. We
| talked over what could be done for De-
pew and finally he agreed, If he found 1t
necessary, he would appoint him as am
bassador to Paris.
with full belief that he, the President
would keep this agreement l came back
to New York, sent for Treasurer Bliss
who told me that I was their last hope
and that they had exhausted every other
| resource
Call Up Friend.
''In his presence | called up an inti-
mate friend of Senator Depew, told him
! 1t was necessary in order to carry New
York state that 100000 should be raised
at once, and II he would help, / would
subscribe $4,000. After few words over
the telephone the gentleman said he
would let me know, which he did, prob
ably in three or four hours, with the re-
suit that the whole amount, including
my subscription, had been raised.
| THE checks were given to Treasurer
| Bliss, who took them to Chairman Cor
! telyou. If there were many among them
! of life insurance companies or any other
like organization, of course Cortelyou
| must have Informed the President. | do
J not know who the subscribers were other
! than the friend of Depew who was an
| individual. This amount enabled the New
! York state committee to continue its
| work. with the result that at least $4,000
votes were turned in the city of New
York alone. making difference of 100000
| votes in the general result.
There are between 2200 and 2300 dis
tricts in Greater New York. and in a
campaign such as that the expenditure of,
say $50 in each district for campaign
! purposes, not including the watchers on
election day. would take more than $780,
900.
| Some time in December. 1904, on my
way from Virginia to New York 7 stopped
and had short talk with the President.
He then told me that he did not think 1t
necessary to appoint Depew as ambas-
sador to Paris. as agreed; in fact, favored
him for the Senate. | had not expected
that he was the one to decide as to what
would be necessary, but he arrogated that
to himself, and l, of course, could say
nothing further After that used what
influence | could have for Depew to be
returned to the Senate, as l considered
there had been an implied obligation
which should be lived up to.
RooseveIt's Work.
This is the way | was brought to the
| surface in the political matter. as 1 had
never before taken any active part, and
had only done what 1 could as any pri-
vate citizen might, so you see l was
brought forward by Roosevelt in an at
tempt to help him, at his request, the
same as I was in the insurance matter by
Hyde and Ryan by their request for my
help, and in the case Of Ryan / probably
would have dropped the matter after our
first interview had it not been for my
desire to save Belmont from taking a po-
sition for which he could have been criti-
cised by the public press. AS he was the
one Ryan desired me to influence from
/ opposing Morton TO election of chairman
! of the Equ table board, and Belmont aft
erward thanked me for his part. as If
he had voted against Morton in view of
his traction contention with Mr.. Ryan it
would have been misconstrued
"Ryan's success In his manipulations,
traction deals. tobacco commission ma
npulation of the State Trust company
into the Morton Trust company. the Shoe
and Leather bank into the Bank of Com
merce-thus covering up his tracks-has