The Montgomery advertiser., 1908-12-11
MIR. CROMWELL WAKES ANGRY Answers Editorials on Panama Canal Deal. DISPOSITION OF THE MONEY Says Americans Were Not Interest
 cd in Transaction. Mir. Cromwell says Money for Pur-. chase of Canal Was Paid to
 Preach Government by
 Morsan & Co:
 
DISPOSITION OF THE MONEY


 Cromwell today authorized the follow ing statement:
 My attention has been called today to A statement issued by the editor of The indianapolis News. in which he att tempts to reply to the charge made by President Roosevelt that certain state ments made in The Indianapolis News both before and since the regent cleo tion, and relating to the purchase of the Panama Canal by the United States. were false and untrue.
 The President said: The News gives currency the charge that the United States bought from American citizens for $40,000,000 property that cost tn ese citizens only Si2,000.OOO. The statement is false, the United States did not pay a cent of the $4O,- 100000 to any American citizen.
 ]" From the statement issued in reply by the editor of The News, quote the following:
 .a-rhe only man who paid any att tention to them (tbat is the criticism referred to, etc.,) was MT. Charles F. Taft, who did deny that he was In any way related to the affair. We had no word. from the President or Mir. Taft. The ,other men. such as Cromwell and Morgan, whos were be- Ieyed to have fun information in re- gard, 70 the musiness. said nothing. - And he attempts to justify the pub licatfon of the false statements ap- bearing in his paper by saying that they we're based largely on statements of The New York World, criticisms which were made over and over again daring the campaign. were utterly ig- nored until today.
 sThe reply of the editor of The News A. of the Presidents charactertzations. For in the very journal under whose sheets it now takes refuge, namely. in The New York World, of October 8, 1908, appeared an explicit and unqual- fled denial by me of the story re- ferrcds toa and In which, is used the foI-. l0wfng language.
 A Lying Fabrication.
 We may expect during a heated political contest all kinds of stories which are not worthy of notice. but this one I wish to denounce in the strongest terms as a lying fabrication without a shadow of truth in 1t. Neither l. nor any one connected with me, directly or indirectly. at any time or in any place, ever bought, sold. dealt of any stocks, bonds or other securi- ties of either tho old Panama Canal Company, or, ever. received for the same q single dollar of the forty mil Hons paid by the United States. T make this the most sweeping state- ment that language can convey.
 As everybody connected with the affair knows, l abstained from receiv- ing the forty millions in my own hands at Washington or New York as the general counsel of the company, and myself arranged for the payment of the Treasury of the United States through the bankers of the Govern rnent into the Bank of France at Pa- ris to the credit of the liquidators of the two companies. There 1t remain- ed subject to the order of the AliQui- dators until distributed by them to the hundreds of thousands of beneftciarles, and not one dollar of 1t ever came to me or any one in. any way connected with me. Of course, do not refer to our regular compensation as counsel.
 T wish to call attention to the fact that upon the first day of the hearings before the committee on inter-oceanic canals of the United States Senate on February 1 I voluntarily made an ex- pIicit and detailed statement, showing how the .$4O.000.000 was paid by the United States through Messrs. J. r. Morgan and Company. as their agents to the bank of France. at Paris, Tor account of the New Panama Canal Company and also explaining the sup sequent payment of the full amount to the liquidators of the New Panama Canal Company and to the liQuidators of the Old Panama Canal Company who in turn. distributed the same to their respective stock and bond hold CTS, numbering hundreds of thousands of persons.
 I further submitted to the Senate Committee with the permission of the Panama government. a detailed state ment of the disposition by the Repub- He of Panama of the $l0.000,000 paid by the United States to Panama ir 1904, accounting for the payment oi the whole amount and showing the In vestments and disposition by the Panama government of every dollar.
 Upon the same public inquiry further stated with reference to thu nronosed Americanization of th' Panama Canal Company in the veal 1899 and the proposed formation of syndicate for that purpose in tha year, that the proposed plan never matured into anything. It was nevel consummated either by subscription ol by assent and 1t is obsolete and and aI impracticable thing--proyed so to be IT has no life or force of being, dt' moi exist and never has existed an' is as dead as a door nail
 The testimony taken by the Senat committe Is a public record and wa available 10 the euitViS oi @hS wv and The World. and had either of then been as interested in publishing tn truth as they were to create politi cal sensation, they doubtless woul' have taken the pains to have publish ed the above facts which l quote.
 False and Untrue.
 "T again denounee the statement wherever published. or by whomsoeve made, that there was a syndicate form ed by American citizens to purchas inc Panama Canal and sell it to thu ITnited states. as absolutely an un eouivocany false and untrue. Tn Americanization plan was an entirel! different matter. It was a preJec Droposed by ahe company to the river and harbors committee of the Hous and to President Mckinley on Feo s7 1899 and was formally authorizes by the Board of Directors, Oct. lI