The evening times. [volume] (Grand Forks, N.D.) 1906-1914, 1908-12-15
President Sends Message to
Senate Relating to Panama
Canal Purchase
SAYS PULITZER AND WORLD
ARE BOTH UNWORTHY Of BELIEF
Dismisses the Indianapolis News Ed.
tor on the Ground That He Played
the Baby Act and Hid Behind the
Worlds Statements.

''0SaAAoSohs DSS. 4O."I 1CS1uSut
Roosevelt today sent to the senate
statement concerning the purchase of
the Panama canal property by tho
United States, denouncing In strong
language the charges that there was
anything wrong in the acquisition by
United States of the canal property.
These stories," he continued.
were first brought to my attention
as published in paper in Indian
apolis called The News, editod by
Delevan Smith. The stories were
scurrilous and libelous in character
I'D fa'so in every essential particu.
lar. Smith shelters himself behind
tne excuse that ne merely accepted
the statements which had appeared in
a paper published in New York, The
World, owned by Mr.. Joseph Pulitzer.
1t is idle to say that the known char
acter of Pulitzer and his newspaper
are such that statements in that pa-
per will be believed by nobody. I'm
fortunately, thousands of persons are
Ill Informed in this respect and be-
lieve the statements they see in print
even though they appear In news
paper published by Pulitzer"
After pointing cut the mistakes and
the alleged Misrepresentation on the
part of the authors of the stories, the
president continues:
"The real offender is Joseph
Pulitzer editor and proprietor of The
World. While the criminal offense of
which Pulitzer has been guilty is in
form libel upon individuals, the
great injury done is in blackening the
good name of the American people.
1t should not be left to private citi-
.zens to- sue Pulitzer for libel. He
should be prosecuted for libel by the
governmental authorities. 1t Is there
fore a high national duty to bring to
justice this villifier of the American
people, this man who wantonly and
wickedly and without one shadow of
justification seeks to blacken the
character of reputable private citizens
and to convict the government of his
own country in the eyes of the civil
lied world, of wrong doing of the
basest and foulest kind when he has
not one shadow of justification Of any
sort or description for the charge he
has made. The attorney general has
under consideration the form in which
lAc pIOCSSulllSS against FullCZ6r Shall
be brought"
The president refers to the various
papers which he transmits with his
message. In explaining the method of
concluding the purchase the presi-
dent takes upon himself the RESPONSE
bility for all that was done to carry
out the will OF congress. The action
of the government, he says, was
wholly uninfluenced by any question
OF who were or were not stockholders
either in the new or the old company.
Our concern" he says, was to get
the canal property which was owned
by French company and to see that
the title was clear. Our transactions
were carried on openly and published
in DETAIL" The president says that
the United States did not have any
thing to do with the distribution of a
dollar of the money paid out except
in following out the instructions of
the French court. and that under the
circumstances there was not the
slightest need for Cromwell to give
any information, but that Cromwell of
his own accord submitted a full list
of the stockholders of the new Pana-
ma Canal company of France on
January Is, 1900, numbering over
5000, and list OF all the stock
holders who were present at the spe-
cial meeting of the company held Feb.
%, 1902.