The Roswell daily record. [volume] (Roswell, N.M.) 1903-current, 1907-02-26
A REPLY TO ATTORNEY
GENERAL REDS LETTER

terday from Attorney General Reid
and published in the Daily Record,
County Treasurer Smith Lea has
written the following letter, which
the Record is permitted to copy:
Roswell, N. NJ, Feb. 26, 1907.
Capt. w. C. Reid, Santa Fe, N. NJ.
My Dear Sir Yours of the 23rd
inst. received. have also seen a CO
py of it published in the Roswell Rec
ord. AS 1 read it 1 was surprised,
mortified and then out of humor.
am sorry that you used language
one sentence in your letter which
cannot let pass unnoticed, and in re-
plying to that, l will comment on
some of the other.
First: l will say that after seeing
the way you distort the meaning of
and mis-quote that interview, from
now on l will be more charitable to-
wards newspaper correspondents who
make mistakes.
Second: If 1 had been allowed to
read that interview, and accorded
the privilege of correcting and eras-
ing to suit myself, there would have
been but little left for publication,
nor did l know that l was being in
terviewed for publication, nor that
such an article was going to be pub
lished, until / saw it in the Record.
al oS
sorry to see it as l was.
But in your letter you say, 81
know exactly where you received the
information which you give out as
the consensus of opinion here" Far
ther on you say. but when you re-
turn to Roswell, and while being in
terviewed. attempt to convey the i'm
preston that the people on this side
Of the Territory generally believe
such statements to be true. it seems
to me to be time to protest.
q herewith enclose a copy of that
interview, and ask you to read it
again carefully. You cannot find any
where in it, where it claims that to
be "the consensus of opinion there
or that 1.-The people of that side of
the Territory generally believed such
statement to fbe true" On the CON
trary, you will find this statement ::
This is merely the talk of the poll
ticians at Santa Fe, and l only give
their argument to show the way they
talk about RoswelPs young men who
are in such high positions at Santa
Fe." Farther On you will see where
it says, There are no outside politi-
been stopped" Do you see any con
sensus of opinion" Or general belief
of the people on that side of the Ter
ritory in those statements?
Now as to the sentence to which
[ take exceptions, you say, las to the
second cnarge-that l have been en-
gagged in preventing a reduction OF
ranroad rates, l not only deny this,
but deny that anyone ever told you
that l was so doing" In reply to
that l wish to say that there is moth
ing in that interview accusing you
of anything of the kind. 1t merely
quoted them as saying that you had
worked to reduce one, but mad not
worked to reduce the other. While
there is nothing in that article accus
ing you of anything of the kind, since
you say, 81 not only deny this, but
deny that anyone ever told you that
was so doing" In reply to that
will say, l believe you deliberately
lied when you made that statement
for | was told while in Santa Fe, that
you were working to prevent the pas
sage of the bill which Mr. Hudspeth
introduced to reduce the railroad
| fares, Or rates they charge per mile
for passengers. | believed it then
and l believe it now. And if you say
that 1 was not told while in Santa
Fe that you had been working to pre-
vent the passage of the bill which
Mr.. Huuspeth introduced to reduce
the railroad fares or rates they charge
the passengers per mile. say most
positively that YOU LIE.
Il deem this entitled to a public
answer" therefore will hand a copy
of this to the Roswell Record and re
quest them to publish it. Very res
| peotfuHy, J. S. LEA.