Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1908-12-07
"Infamous" Mr.. Smith.

ment. but against the french govern
ment.
Infamous" Mr.. Smith.
1.-The News continues. saying that the
Presidents brother-in-law is involved in
the scandal. but he has nothing to say
The Presidents brother-in-law was in
volved in no scandal. Mr. Delavan Smith
and the other people who repeated the
falsehood lied about the President S
brother-in-law; but why the fact that Mr..
Smith lied should be held to involve Mr..
Robinson in a scandal is difficult to I'M
derstand.
THE scandal affects no one but Mr..
Smith; and his conduct. has been not
merely scandalous but Infamous. Mr..
Robinson had not the slightest connection
of any kind. sort Or description at any
time or under any circumstances with
the Panama matter. Neither did Mr..
Charles Taft.
''The News says that Mr.. Taft was a
member of the syndicate. So far as l
know. there was no syndicate; there
certainly was no syndicate in the United
States that to my knowledge had any
dealings with the government. directly or
indirectly; and inasmuch as there was no
syndicate, Mr.. Taft naturally could not
belong to it.
The News demands that Mr.. Taft ap-
peal to the evidence, by which it means
what it calls the records-that is, the mass
of papers which are stored in the War De-
partment, save such as. because of their
technical character and their usefulness In
the current work of the canal. it has been
found advisable to send to the isthmus.
"All Of these documents that possessed
any Importance as illustrating any fea-
ture of the transactions have already been
made public. There remains a great mass
of documents Of little or no Importance
which the administration is entirely will
ing to have published, but which, because
of their mass and pointlessnesS, nobody
has ever cared to publish. Any reputable
man can have full access to these dOcu-
ments
IF you or Mr. Swift or Mr.. Booth Tark-
ington or Mr.. George Ade-in short, if 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 if it
wishes; but no congressman has ever so
far fntimated any desire that this should
be done; suppose, because to print such
a mass of documents would be a great
expense, and moreover, an entirely useless
expense, unless. which is not the case,
there was some object in printing them.
Now, my dear Mr.. Foulke, / have an
swered in detail your questions and the
statements of the News. You are quite
welcome to print my answer; but 1 must
frankly add that l don't think any good
will come from doing SO.
MIR. Delavan Smith is a conspicuous Of
fender against the laws of honesty and
truthfulness; but he does not stand alone.
He occupies, for instance. the same evil
eminence with such men as Mr.. Laffan of
the New York Sun, editorials of whose
paper you or others have from time to
time called to my attention. just as you
have called to my attention these edi-
torials Of the Indianapolis News.
Mr.. Laffan Gets His.
Il never see an editorial in any one of
these or similar papers unless for some
reason it is sent to me by you or by
some one else and of the editorials thus
sent me, there is hardly one which does
not contain some willful and deliberate
perversion Of the truth.
For example, l have just made public
the following statement concerning It's
sue of utterly false statements which APP
peared in Mr.. Laffans paper. the Sun:
AS the New York Sun story entitled
Roosevelt and Prairie OIL has seemed
to deceive a number Of people. the fol-
lowing statement was made public
about it: 8
AS soon as the story was brought to
President Roosevelt's attention he not
only called for reports concerning the
statements from the Department of JUS
tice and the Department of the Interior,
but also communicated with ex-Secretary
Hitchcock. SO as to be sure that the
Presidents recollection was not at fault
The story is false in every particular,
from beginning 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 SIM
ply approved the recommendation of Sec
rotary Hitchcock, submitted to him pre-
cisely as all other recommendations were
submitted.
Moreover in every case referring to
the granting of franchises or the adoption
of regulations as regards oil and gas
franchises in Oklahoma and Indian Ter
ritory, the President approved the recon-
mendations of Secretary Hitchcock. with
the exception Of one small and unimport-
ant grant to a Delaware Indian. to whom
the Delaware Indians. in recognition of
eight years Of service to the tribe. had
voted in council fee of $4,000. which
he had declined to accept. and who was
given twice the usual amount of land.
The statement about the alleged promise
to a western senator is as ridiculous a
falsehood as the rest of the story.
"Liars" for Business Reasons.
1.-The fact is that those particular news
papers habitually. and continually, and
as matter of business. practice every