The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-02-10

idential candidate. and those congressman who were for another.
 If such assertions as those of these papers are made in good faith on knowl- edge of facts, and with any other purpose than to produce a political effect by false pretense, or by reckless statement with out knowledge let those making them produce the specific cases to which they refer If in any such case the accusa- ton is found true. it will have occurred without my knowledge, and I shall deal with it in the precise spirit of my in- struetions to the civil service commission hereinafter referred to.
 Case of Pension Agent
 So far as I know the only other ac- cusations that have been made as to the use of patronage have been in connection with the pension agent in New Hampshire and a collector of internal revenue in Ohio. In the case of the pension officer the senators and congressman could not agree on a nominee, two recommending one man and two another. I decided to send in a man recommended to me by out sders whom I believed to know better than either. The Senate rejected him. His name would have been sent in if there had been no presidential canvass at all at this time.
 As regards collectors of internal reve- nue, some are appointed upon the recom- mendations of senators and some on the Recommendations of congressman. In Ohio the collector of internal revenue whom l have named in the First district was recommended by the congressman of that district. In other words. I followed the same course in Ohio as in other states as regards all these nominations, the only difference being that Ohio is the only state where the bulk of the federal employees have been inclined to be against the presidential candidate from the state. In New York, Pennsylvania, Illinois. In- diana and Wisconsin. so far as I know, an enormous majority of appointees are in each case for the presidential candidate from the state.
 This has not been true in Ohio, and my interference in patronage matters in Ohio has been limited to my insisting, as I should insist anywhere else. that opposition to the purposes, policies, and friends to the administration shall not be considered as a necessary prerequisite to holding the commission of the President.
 Letter To Commission.
 In my letter to the civil service com mission of June 12, 1902 which now holds good and will be enforced, officers are warned not to use their places to con- trol political movements, nor to coerce
 
 public duties for political work, nor to. cause any public scandal by their politi- cal activity; but outside of the classified service they are not otherwise limited in political activity. No officer will be per mitted to violate the above injunction with my knowledge no matter for what candidate he may be working; and I may add that the only officers as to whom any question of violation of this injunction has hitherto arisen have been men who are not working for Mir Taft.
 The above Is a full statement of the facts. No appointment has been made that would not have been made If there had been no Presidential campaign im- pending, and in no case has there been deviation from the course that I would have pursued had none of those who actually are candidates for the nomna- tion been candidates. nor has a single officeholders been removed or threatened with removal or coerced in any way to secure his support for any Presidential candidate. In fact, the only coercion that l have attempted to exercise was to for bid the officeholders from pushing my own renomination. this being done in the following letter sent to the members of my Cabinet on November 19, 1907:
 Letter To Cabinet.
 q have been informed that certain officeholders in your department are pro- posing to go to the national convention as delegates in favor of renomnating me for the presidency, or are proposing to procure my indorsement for such re- nomination by state conventions. This must not be. l wish you to inform such officers as you may find it advisable or necessary to inform in order to carry the spirit of this instruction, that such advo- cacy of my renomination or acceptance of an election as delegate for that pur- pose will be regarded as a serious viola tion of offical propriety and will be dealt with accordingly"
 Yours truly.
 THEODORE ROOSEVELT. Hon. William Dudley Foulke Rich
 mond, Ind