The daily silver state. [volume] (Winnemucca, Nev.) 1903-1907, 1907-05-08

Inc 1ollowlng is the full text of the
letter written by President Roosevelt
in reply to the censure heaped upon
him for his classification of Mover,
Haywood and Pettibone as undesir-
able citizens:
Dear Sir-I have received your
letter of the 10Th inst, in which you
inclose the draft of formal letter
which is to follow. / have been mott
fled that several delegations bearing
similar requests are on the way lrither.
In the letter you, on behalf of the
Cook County Meyer Haywood confer
ence, protested against certain Ian
guage / used in a recent letter, which
you assert to be designated to influ-
ence the course Of justice, in the case
of the trial for the murder of Messrs.
Meyer and Haywood. | entirely agree
with you that it is improper to try to
influence the course of justice, whether
by threats or any similar manner. For
this reason / have regretted most deep
ly the action of such organizations as
your own in undertaking to accom-
plish this very result in the very case
of which you speak. For instance,
your letter is headed: "Cook County
Moyer Haywood Pettibone Confer
ence,o with these headlines: tDeath
cannot, will not and shall not claim
our brothers. This shows that you
and your associates are not demand
ing fair trial or working for fair
trial, but are announcing in advance
that the verdict shall be only one way,
and that you will not tolerate any
other verdict. Such action is fragrant
in its impropriety, and l join heartily
in condemning it.
But it is a simple absurdity to sup
pose that because any man is on trial
for a given offense he is therefore free
from all criticisms upon his general
conduct and manner of life. In my
letter to which you object / referred
to certain prominent financier, Mr..
Hartman. on the one hand, and to
Messrs. Meyer, Haywood and Debs on
the other as being equally undesirable
citizens. 1t is as foolish to assert that
this was designed to influence the
suits that have been brought against
Mr.. Hartman. / neither expressed
nor indicated any opinion as to wheth-
er Messrs. Meyer and Haywood were
guilty of the murder of Governor
Steunenberg If they are guilty they
certainly ought to be punished. If
they are not guilty they certainly
ought not to be punished.
But no possible outcome, either CT
the trial or the suits, can affect my
Judgment as to the undesirability of
the type of citizenship of those whom
! mentioned. Messrs. Meyer, Haywood
and Debs stand as representatives of
those men who have done as much TO
discredit the labor movement as the
= worst speculative fnanciers or most
unscrupulous employers of labor and
debauchers of legislatures have done
to discredit honest capitalists and fair
dealing business men.
They stand as the representatives or
these men, who by their public utter
ances and manifesto, by the utterane-
es of the papers they control and IN
spire. and by the words and deeds or
those in sympathy with them, habit
ually appear as guilty of incitement
to. or apology for, bloodshed and vio'
lence.
If this does not constitute undesir-
able citizenship, there certainly would
never be any undesirable citizens. The
Men whom I denounce represent the
men who have abandoned that legiti-
mate movement for the uplifting OF
labor, with which | have most hearty
sympathy; they have adopted prac-
tices which / have the mosted.k pieh
tices whic cut them off from those who