The Washington herald., 1907-04-07
HINTED OF PLOT TO GATH
What President Said to George Al
fred Townsend in 1905.
Named Hartman as Author of a
scheme TO Take Possession of
Presidential Campaign.
Editor The Washington Herald:

Editor The Washington Herald.
The Presidents move upon The State
bosses is not TO be charged 10 excitement.
but to the momentum of knowledge and
experiment. He cares nothing for him
self, but for his gains for the people, and
the State has that parental care which
writes a VIII.
He has carried every point, advanced
the Jurisprudence Of the nation to a code,
and knows that his opponents is in Giant
Despair Must he lie down in the four
teen months more and see such gyp-
sizes as Peurose. Dick, Foraker. Scott
and Elkins destroy his archives and prog
ress? What does "a man Of his wide rule
and intellectual compass and national fol-
lowing care for the picayune heirs Of rail-
road fortunes exhorting him through ill
gotten newspapers? The President is en-
tlrely without a disinterested press. He
must be his own editor. and he will be
President Jackson. in a like emergency.
sent for Francis P. Blair and established
a press In Washington.
Last November a year 1905. I said 10
the PRESIDENT can quote myseIf-that
some Of his high appointees (mysteriously
to me- had recommended Penrose, Of
Pennsylvania, in 1904 to be the chairman
of the Republican National Committee. I
referred 10 Mr., Francis B. LOOMS. pre-
viously Assistant Secretary OF State. and
a Foraker protege with offices.
I observed to the President that could
not understand why Penrose should be
considered for that administrative place
Of master Of the national campaign.
Let IL be remembered that before this.
only a few weeks. Taft had gone 10 Ohio
and attacked the democratic
machine and cleaned It out.
The President. with a heightened inter
est, asked If 1 was not aware of the plot
to take possession of his Presidential
campaign and pervert it. He named Har-
riman as the author of the scheme. at the
head of a rich mems combinatiOn-bank
ers. mOnopolists, &c Then I saw the con
nect'on between Hartman and Penrose.
The President was TO be sold out In the
national committee and made TO conpro-
mise upon his regulation Of trusts and
railroads. Penrose. unfit TO conduct any
part Of great campaign except the de-
ceit. might have. next to him, the very
henchman of Foraker, cOld-blOoded cool.
and austere, who had recommended Pen
foSN 70 itiV rum oTaheE incentive. fIhlS
person was retired from public life by
Taft's report upon him while Taft was
Secretary of State pro tenn
Now, observe that the next Presidential
campaign is near. The dubious Senator
Scott, Elkins' colleague, wanted the chair
manship- Cortelyou. who saved the Presi-
dent from being sold out in 1904. had to
resign 10 become Secretary Of the Treas
ury.
Again, the convention Of 1908 was to be
worked" and the Presidents policy neg
atived. or nugatived.
The great master of affairs in the White
House got his cue from Harriman's letter
10 the Old Man OF the Sea, Sidney Web
ster, and charged upon the rich mems
gang. 1t was done just as Boss" Foraker
had abandoned his negroes at the Capital
10 go TO Ohio and be the Intellectual Gaia
line of the Senate, start job for Knox.
or some other hoo-boo and be described
for the thousandth time as the .'bravest
of the brave.
Brave IN envy of every Ohio eminence
brave at the head of the Buckeye State
lobby and the Cincinnati hoodlums. brave
against all the weak Presidents and men
in buckram, but not more than a conner
head snake before the big stick of a per-
son whose censure 1 may have earned.
GEORGE ALFRED TOWNSEND.