Los Angeles herald., 1908-10-01
HASKELL WRITES
CAUSTlC LETTER TO
PRES. ROOSEVELT
,Contlnued from Pars onel

Continued from Pare one)
court. Yes, sir; I welcome your hear
ing.
Call to your assistance all the pow
er that your high office commands, |
present your case in any form you like. |
/ am ready to meet it and before the |
conclusion the people of America will |
be disgusted that they ever. elected |
you president of the United States.
"Mr. Roosevelt, I have said that
you were responsible for the granting |
OF the franchise to the Prairie OIL and
Gas company before statehood, there
by creating vested rights In that COM
pany that our state power cannot in
terrupt.
you have tried in your last state
ment to evade the issue. You have
tried TO give yohr readers wrong i'm
preston. In the office of the interior
department the records will speak as
between US.
II say that you granted that fran
chise I say that you did 1t at the
solicitation of Senator Depew and
others and that within q few days
thereafter, chiedy by subscriptions OF
Standard Oil men, according to Mr..
Hartman, the sum of $260,000 In cash
was added to yeLr campaign fund.
And Challenges Him
'T challenge YOU TO publish the rec
ords of the interior department on the
subject of this franchise and mark you
now, Mr.. Roosevelt, you must not
garble the recor Is nor suppress any of
them.
1.-THE public shall know the truth. 1t
may nave been sufficient four years ago
for you to wipe out the truthful state
ment made by judge Parker by simply
calling him a lar. but that was four
years ago, and your controversy now is
NIB vii anNNnf a hl11ff
in exchange for receipt, in full settle-
ment.
I'm any character of statement you
make, that / have at any time during
my entire life, had any connection
whatever or of any character with the
Standard Oil company or any OF Its
subsidiary companies, l am ready 10
refute such statement.
"It is still fresh in the minds of the
people of our state, labor unions, farm
ers unions, and other advocates of hon
est and humane government, that the
sixteen objections that you raised to
our constitution struck at the very
vitals of honest government.
One of Many Objections
your threat was to turn our consti-
tuition because 1t contained a provision
for jury trials in contempt cases is only
one of the many things that you crit1- |
cised. and 1 thank God to this day that
I had the courage to challenge you, at
the time, to turn down our constitution |
on that ground If you dared to do SO.
"You said that your opinion of our
constitution would not look well IN
print. Mr.. Hartman and J. P. Nor
gan said the same thing, but Samuel
Gompers said the constitution OF OK
lahoma was the best ever written.
'I expected you to agree with Mr.. |
Morgan and Mr.. Hartman, and of |
course was not surprised.
''MoralIy you challenge me, Mr..
Roosevelt. 1 should not undertake to
make a comparison between you and
me. I do not get drunk on any occa-
sion and never did in my life, but still
have your letter OF last winter which |
l shall be glad to publish with your
permission, advocating your idea OF |
Interstate commerce of whisky into pro- |
hitition territory.
Would Freeze Hearts
"It was your answer to my appeal
for assistance and would freeze the |
heart of any honest public official seek |
ing to administer the laws of this state |
as the people by their vote had made |
the law.
''Ar Roosevelt, let us not leave these
Standard Oil company questions with
out inviting from you the information
that we really need. You made rul-
ing that 1890 acres of land was the lin
it that any person or corporation d.
rectly or indirectly could obtain under
lease for oil properties in the Indian
territory and renewed the lease OF 6oO,- /
900 acres of Usage land to the Indian
Territory Illuminating Oil company,
and you know that the agent of the |
Standard Oil company owned a ma
jority of the stock.
why did you give them a monopoly |
in Usage -,ation oil lands?
again, Mr.. Barnsdale, the we'll |
known representative of the Standard |
Oil company, has leased, as l am ad-
vised by Mr.. Shea of Bartlesville, a !
little over 100000 acres of Indian allot- |
ments in the Indian territory and I
am advised that on account of the con-
troversy brought to your personal at
tention that you know of those eX-
cessive lease holdings. Why did you
do this?
"You criticise my directing the dis
missal of the suit against the Prairie |
Oil and Gas company, which could not |
have been successfully maintained by |
the state. Tell me, please, what your
reason was for directing the dismissal
of the suit against the Atchison, To- |
peka & Santa Fe, prosecuted by Jud- |
son Harmon, when the facts disclosed |
a member of your cabinent paul Nor
toni was being uncovered as the prime
offender?
Answer this, WILL you?
'Mr. Roosevelt, you cry out for pur-
ity. You say you did not, four years
ago, know where the corporation fund
was coming from to secure your cleo
ton until the testimony of two years |
ago disclosed the bargains and sales
between Mr.. Cortelyou and the cor |
rupt interests of Wall street
"You have known that fact for two
years and Mr. Cortelyou is still a
member of your cabinet.
Now, Mr.. Roosevelt, while you are
rejecting on the questions, will you
justify yourself in giving faith or credit
to any statement that has come to you
from your political associate, Mr..
Hearst, whom two years ago you
branded as the man chiefly responsible
for the assassination of our late presi- |
dent?
"If, at your next cabinet meeting
you decide to try me under any Of your
present, past or future charges, before
your cablnet--sitting as a jury to try |
an honest mani challenge Mr.. Cor |
telyou for cause"