The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-12-07
President EmphaticaIIy Says
 That Newspaper Editor Lied
PANAMA CANAL DISCUSSION
An Editorial In the Indianapolis News Print Again and Add More
 Ananias CIubmen.

Hot Springs, Va, December 6.-The following correspondence passing be- tween President Roosevelt and William Dudley Foulke has been made public by the latter:
 Hot Springs, Va. Nov 2s, 1908. "The President
 "sir--The Indianapolis News, not only during the campaign, but even after it's close, has been repeatedly and continu- ally making serious charges against your administration as well as against Mir. Taft, in connection with the Pana- ma purchase, as for example, the fol- lowing
 "'The Panama matter.
 "'The campaign is over and the peo- pie will have to vote tomorrow without any official knowledge concerning the Panama canal deal. It has been charged that the United States bought from American citizens for $40, 900 prop erty that cost those citizens only S12,- 900, 900. MT. Taft was Secretary of War at the time the negotiation was closed. There is no doubt that the government paid $40 900 ,000 for the property. But who got the money? We are not to know. The administration and MT. Taft do not think it right that the people should know. The Presidents brother in-law is involved in the scandal, but he has nothing to say. The candidate s brother has been charged with being a member of the syndicate. He has. it is true, daniea It. But he refuses to ap- peal to the evidence, all of which Is in the possession of the administration and wholly inaccessible to outsiders. For weeks this scandal has been before the people. The records are in Wash ington, and they are public records, but the people are not to see them till after election If them
 "Even after election this has been continued, it having been said that MT. Taft's weakness In Indiana Che ran many thousands ahead of any other re- publican candidate) was due in great measure to this alleged scandal What are the facts in regard to it? If the statements of the News are true, our people ought to know it, if not true, they ought to have some Just means of estimating what credit should be given in other matters to journal which thus disseminates falsehoods. Yours,
 "WILLIAM DUDLEY FOULKE.'
 Roosevelts Letter.
 White House, Washington, Dec. l, 1908.
 My Dear MT. Foulke-I have re- ceNed your letter of the 29th ultimo, and have read 1t in connection with your previous letters inclosing quota tlons from the Indianapolis News, a paper edited by Mir. Delavan Smith. AS Mr. Smith certainly knew that all the statements he made were false both as to this Panama matter, and as to the other matters of which you enclose me clippings, and inasmuch. therefore, as the exposure of the falsity will not affect his future statements, I am not very clear what good will result from such exposure. But inasmuch as you evidently earnestly desire some an swer to be made, and inasmuch IS you say that some reputable people appear to believe the falsehoods of the News and MT. Smith, and inasmuch as you seem to think that his falsehoods as regards the Panama matter are the most prominent, I will answer them.
 "rhe News states in one of its issues that probably some of the documents dealing with the matter have been de- stroyed This Is false. Not one has been destroyed. It states that the last documents were sent over in June of this year, the object of this particular falsehood being, apparently, to connect the alter in some way with the nomi- nation of MT. Taft. As matter of fact the last papers that we have received l.; ta fV, May of 1904 and they have been acces- slble to every human being who cared to look at them ever since, and are ac- cessible now. Any reputable man with in or without Congress, republican or democrat has now and always has had the opportunity to examine any of these documents. You quote the News as stating that the people have no of ficial knowledge concerning the Pana- ma canal deal The fact is that the people have had the ,most minute of ficial knowledge; that every important step in the transaction and every im- portant document has been made pub lie in communications to Congress and through the daily press, and the whole alter has been threshed over in all it's details again and again and again. The News gives currency to the charge that the United States bought from Ameri- can citizens for $4O,0Oo.00O property that cost the citizens only $12,000,- 00O' The statement is false. The United States did not pay a cent of the $40, ,OO0, 900 to any American citizen. The News says that there is no doubt that the government paid s40,000, 900 for the property and continues, but who got the money? We are not to know. The administration and MT. Taft do not think 1t right that the people should know Really this is so ludIcrous as to make one feel little impatient as having to answer 1t. The fact has been officially published again and again that the government paid s40,- 900 ,00O, and that it paid this $40.000- 900 direct to the French government getting the receipt of the liquida tor appointed by the French government to receive the same. The United States government has not the slightest Knowledge as to the particular individ-