Omaha daily bee., 1908-12-07
Canal DEAL
CONTINUED from First Page.)

their technical character and their useful
ness In the current work OF the canal, 1t
has been found advisable to send to the
istnmus. All of these that pos
sessed any importance as Illustrating any
feature of the transaction have already
been made public There remains a great
mass OF of little or no import
ance which the administration is entirely
willing to have published, but which, be-
cause of their mass and pointlessness, mo-
body has ever cared to publish, Any reput.
able man can have full access TO these doc
mments. If you or Mr.; Swift or Mr.. Booth
Harrington, or Mr.. George Ade-in short,
II any reputable man will come on here he
shall have free access to the documents
and can look over everything for himself.
Congress can have them all printed IL II
wishes, but no congressman has ever so far
Animated any desire that this should be
mass OF documents would be a great ex-
pense and, moreover, an entirely useless
expense. unless, which Is not the case, there
was some object in printing them.
Smith nm Old Offender.
Now, my GEAR Mr.. FoulKe, 1 nave an
swered in deall your questions and the
statements of the News. You are quite well
come TO PRINT my answer, but l mus
frankly aud that 1 don't think any good
will come from doing so. Nj. DelaYan
smith is a conspicuous offender against
the laws or honostey and tIuthfulness, but
he does not stand alone. He occupies, for
Instance, the saTpe evil eminence with such
men as Mr.. Lairan OF the New York sun,
editorials of whose paper you or Others
have from time to time called to my at
tention just as you have called to my at
tention these editorials of the Indianapolis
News. l never see an editorial in any one
of these or similar papers unless for some
reason 1t Is sent to me by you or somebody
else, and of the editorials thus sent me
there Is hardly one which does not contain
some wilful perversion of the truth. For
example, / have just made public the fol-
lowing statement concerning a tissue of ut
terly falsge statements which appeared In
Mr.. Laffan's paper, the Sun:
As the New York sun story entitled
deceive a number of people, the following
statement was made public about 1t:
President Roosevelt's attention he not onIy
called for reports concerning the state.
ments from the Department Of Justice and
communicated with ex-Secretar1 Hitchcock
so as to be sure that tho PRESIDENTS recol-
leet>Ha was not at fault. The story is
false In every particular, from b%eginnine
to end. Not only is there no such report
In the Department OF Justice, and never
has been. but no such report was ever
made, In granting the franchise Of the
Prairie oil and Gas company the president
simply approved the recommendation Of
Mr.. Hitchcock. submitted to him precisely
as all other recommendation were sub,
mitted. Moreover, in every case referring
to the granting Of franchises or the adop-
franchises in Oklahoma and Indian Terri.
tory, the president q approved the recon-
mendation Of Secretary Hitchcock, with the
grant 70 a Dela war; Indian. to whom the
Delaware Indians, in recognition OF eight
years Of service to The tribe. had ted in
clined to accept, and who was ST &c
the usual amount OF land. The 14nt
senator Is as Ridiculous a faisehood as the
rest of the story.
MendRcity for Hire.
The fact is that these particular news.
papers habitually ard continually and as
OF mendacity knowH to man rom t6a sun
preston OF the truth and the suggestion
OF the false, TO the lie direct. Those who
articles are engaged IN the practice OF
mendacity for hire and surely there can
be nc lowe form OF gaining a livelihood.
What Is false OF whether their profit comes
from the circulation OF the falsehoods is
y mater OF small consequence IT is
falsehoods. When any given f~aisehood is
exposed they simply repeat il and circulate
facts il they 'I POSSESSED Sses IN tSsir m IA saS
any. shred Of honesty. II would be worth
while to set them right. But there Is nc
amisunderstandins" on their T nartl Tne oi
state what they either know 20 be untru,
~ Soula oy the slightest inquiry find oui
doubt II they themselves remembe
thelr " ialsehoods for more thar a yer,
pIlei period and / doubt still more whethe
anybody else does. Under these eiroum
stances IL seems hardly worth while n
single out Tor special mention one or tun
given falsehoods or one particular naner
the moral standard OF which is as low n
but no lower than that OF certain othe
papers OF course, now and then. I an
willing TO denounce a given faiseheod. q
for instance, as regards this case OF IN
indianapolis News or the case I hay
quoted OF the New York sun. simplv he
Gauss II appears that some worthy peoni
are misled or puzzled BY the direct Shame
lessness OF the untruth. But ordinarily
do not and cannot pay heed to these false
hoods. II l did ! would not be able to d
my work. Ny plan has been TO 20 aheal
to do the work and let these people an
with abiding confidence to the good sens