The Montgomery advertiser., 1907-04-03

the allusion I made to the fact that l would like to see him before I wrote my message to discuss certain govern ment matters not connected with the campaign. His letter, which is of Nov ember 30th., runs as follows: Dear MT. President:
 ::I just have he'd telephone talk with Mir Loeb and requested him to give you message from me. "T drew his attention to the last paragraph of your letter to me of October 18th, last and explained that of course I did not want to make trip to Washington unless it should be necessary that the only matter I knew of and about which I had any apprehension and which might be re- ferred in your coming message to con- gress, is that regarding the interstate commerce commission, and what the attitude of the railroads should be to- ward it.
 Railroad Legislation.
 'l have communications from many conservative men in the West asking me to take the matter up. they having that which I have not, information as to what you propose to say in your m mes- sage on that subject and I am very apprehensive about it.
 MT. Loeb stated he believed that that part of the message could be sent to me and I hope that he will do so. l sincerely believe 1t would be best for all interests that no reference be made to the subject and in any event, If referred to in such a way as not to bring about increased agitation It Is as you well know, the conserva- tive element and the one on which we all rely which Is the most seldom heard from.
 Your sincerely"
 This letter to me was crossed by one from me, which reads as follows:
 Strictly personal.
 November 30, 1904
 My Dear MT. Hartman --Mr Loeb tells me that you called me up today on the telephone and recalled my letter to you October IA. in which l spoke to you of desire to see you before sending in my message as I wanted to goove rwith you certain gov ernmental matters. and you added that you had heard that had referred to the Interstate Commerce Commis- sion; that you regretted this and wished I had left it out.
 Tn writing to you, I had in view. especially certain matter connected with currency legislation and had not thought on discussing railroad matters with you. However. if it had occurr- ed to me I should have been delighted lo uo So, put II you IcAltHUSE you were down here, both you and I were so interested in certain of the New York political developments that I hardly, if at all touched on governmental matters.
 "As regards what I have said in my message about the Interstate Commerce Commission, while 1 say l should have been delighted to go over 1t with you, I also must frankly say hot poip
 "Certain revelations connected with investigation of the beef trust caused me to write the paragraph in question. I went with extreme care over the in formation in possession of the Inter- state Commerce Commission and of the bureau of corporations before writing 1t. I then went over the written paragraph again and again with Paul Morton, who is, of all my cabinet, the man most familiar with railroad matters of course, and with Root, Knox, Taft and Moody. It is a matter I had been carefully consider ing for two years and had been grad ually, though reluctantly, coming to the conclusion that 1t Is unwise and unsafe for me to leave the question or rebates where it is now, and to fail to give the Interstate Commerce Con- mission additional power of an eff fective kind in regulating these rates. Didn't Consider Question. "Let me repeat that I did not have | this question in mind when l asked you to come down, but that should most gladly have talked it over with | vou. if it had occurred to me to do so 1 but as a matter of fact as you will re- member, when you did come down to see me you and I were both so en- gagged in the New York political sit nation that we talked of little else;