St. Tammany farmer. [volume] (Covington, La.) 1874-current, 1908-10-03
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BRYAN'S ANSWER.
Roosevelt Given an Op-
portunity to Explain
Some Things.
Says the Trusts are All
Supporting and Work
ing to Elect Taft.

The following is an extract from
Mr.. Bryan's letter to President Roose-
welt:
Milwaukee, Wis, Sept. 26, 1908.
Hon. Theodore Roosevelt, President
of United States, Washington, D. c.:
Dear Sir-While I have not yet re-
ceived and shall not until l reach home
next week, | have read a copy of your
answer in the press and beg leave to
submit the following reply:
"'Mr. Haskell, having voluntarily re-
signed from the committee, that he
might be more free to prosecute these
who have brought charges against him.
| need not discuss the question of his
guilt or innocence, further than to say
that the public service which he has
rendered and the vote of confidence
which he has received from the people
OF his State ought to protect him from
condemnation until the charges can be
examined in court, where partisanship
does not bias and where campaign ex-
lgencies do not compel prejudgment.
l would not deem it necessary to ad-
dress you further but for the fact that
ou seize upon the charges and at
tempt to make political capital ont of
them. You even charge that my con-
nection with Mr.. Haskell's selection
as member of the resolutions COM
mittee and as treasurer of the COM
mittee raises question as to my sin
cerity as an opponent of trusts and
monopolies. AS an individual and as
the candidate of my party l resent the
charge and repel the insinuation.
have been in public life for eighteen
years, and | have been sufficiently
conspicuous to make my conduct a
matter of public interest, | have
passed through two presidential cam
paigns in which party feeling ran high
and epithet was exhausted. | have no
hesitation in saying that you cannot
find an act, a word or a thought of
mine to justify your partisan charge.
II had never been informed of any
charge that had been made against
Mr.. Haskell connecting him with the
Standard Oil Company, or with any
other trust. | had known him as a
leader in the Constitutional Conven-
ton of Oklahoma, and had known him
as one of the men principally response
BILE for the excellent Constitution
which has since been adopted-and
adopted by majority of over 100, 600,
70, 900 of which was furnished by Re-
publicans. I had known of his election
to the Governorship of that great
young State by a majority of some
80, 1000.
Il had known that the Constitution
was adopted and that Gov. Haskell
was elected in spite of the efforts of
your administration and in spite of the
speeches made in Oklahoma by Mr..
Taft.
'You say that it was a matter of
common notoriety that Mr.. Haskell
was connected with the Standard Oil
Company. have a right to assume
that if so serious an objection had eX-
listed to Mr.. Haskell's election, and
had been a matter of common noto-
riety, as you say, Judge Taft would
have felt it his conscientious duty to
warn the people when he spoke in
! Oklahoma. If he did not have the
knowledge, why can it be assumed
that | had it? And if he had it, how
can you excuse his failure to commu-
nicate the information to the people
of Oklahoma? If you feel it your pa
triotic duty to denounce Mr.. Haskell,
| when he is only a member Of the ma
tional organization, how much more
would Mr.. Taft have felt it his duty
to denounce Mr.. Haskell when he was
aspiring to be the Chief Executive OF
a. great State?
g could have had no knowledge OF
the suit to which you refer when he
was appointed chairman of the resO-
lutions committee of the Democratic
| National Convention, before the suit
was begun, while he was at Denver,
/ and as a matter of fact did not know
| ANYTHING of the nature of the suit
until after he was made treasurer OF
the National Committee, and no fair
minded person can decide on the mer-
it's of your charge without an exam
nation of the provisions of the ena-
bling act passed by a Republican Con.
gress, and the provisions of the license
Of franchise issued to the oil company
by your administration.
"I need hardly refer to the newly
found evidence upon which you lay st
1 much stress, viz: the article in The
Outloak Of September 5. My atten-
| ton was never called to that article
until [ read the published copy of youl
letter, and while | have great respect
| for the Outlook, and | suppose have
for the writer (although you do moi
give his name), | would hardly fee
justified in deciding as promptly az
i you do on an exparte statement, with
out investigation.
"You present an Indictment agains
our platform declarations on tht
trust question, but you do not refel
to all of the planks and do not dea
Justly with those to which you do re
fer. Our platform declares in favo
of the vigorous enforcement of tn,
criminal law against guilty trust mag
mates and officials. Your platform
does not contain any such demand
Will you say that your platform i
better than ours in that respect? Oh
platform demands that corporation