The Montgomery advertiser., 1908-09-30
HEARST BOUGHT STOLEN GOODS So Declares John D.
 Archbold. ISSUES SIGNED STATEMENT Oil Magnate Tells of Theft of
 Letters. Former Senator McLaurin Also Issues signed Statement. Condemns the Bloody Shirt, sad De-
 fends Standard oil.


 of the discussion of the so-calied Standard oil correspondence, made public recently by William R. Hearst. was entered upon late today when John D. Archbold. yice-President of the standard oil Company. made statement to the Associated Press, set ting forth details of the alleged theft of correspondence from his files.
 Former United States Senator John Lowndes McLaurin of South Carolina also entered the field with a signed statement declaring his attitude in the matter of the correspondence be- tween himself and MT. Archboid.
 Mir. Archbold said:
 Tn response to many inquiries as to the theft of letters from nay files, the following may be made known:
 Over three years ago, a report reached me that certain of my letters had been offered for sale to newspa- pers of this city, ostensibiy stolen iet-. ters. Examination showed that some letters were missing and that they could only have been taken by some one not only familiar with the office details, but highly trusted. The par ty on whom suspicion fell stoutly dee nied all guilt. A little later. however. man who represented himself as act ing between the thief and those to whom the letters had been sold. pro-
 
 consideration. His story was that the idea of the theft had been conceiv- ed by his brother, who had at one time been in the company's employ, and that this brother had induced the empioye already suspected. to accom- piish the theft.
 According to the gso-between's or some of them, to two men. who purchased them on behalf of Mir. Hearst.s newspaper, The Journal Not only had stolen letters been thus traded for. but the thief was induced to carry of one or more letter copying books, many of whose papes he claims were photograp aphed: other pages being question were. the go-between said, returned after forty-eight hours. It is impossible to say how many were stolen and sold in this way. The thieves worked zat their leisure. It is not thought necessary to say more at present or to mention names. Cor roboration of the go-betweens story of three years ago lay in his return of some of the correspondence at the time. The production of stolen letters by Mir. Hearst is further corroboration now. Obviously, among such a coterie, authenticity of their output is not to be lightly accepted. The opportuni- tteB TOT IdlbiuCdLlOHt SuppTe6SlnK or context and distortions of passages are many"
 McLaurin's Statement.
 MT. McLaurin, who has just reached New York, gave out signed statement as follows:
 An effort has been made to create political sensation by the publica- tion of certain correspondence between Mir. John D. Archbold, Vice-President of the Standard oil Company, and my self. For that correspondence. I have no apologies to make. At the time the letters were written, I had the honor to enjoy, and am proud still to possess. the friendship of Mir. Arch bold. for whom I have the highest re- gard. At the time the letters were written. I was engaged in bitter struggle in which was involved not only my own political future. but the economic and political principles for which I stood, and which, stated briefly, meant the emancipation of the South from the ignorant prejudice of BouTbonism and the bloody shirt into the freedom of an enlightened seif-in- terest and the progress of an inteli gent industrialism.
 Tn support of these principles and the hope of this progress. saw then no impropriety in enlisting, If practi- cable. the assistance of the most pro- gresslvely administered and the most intelligently oficered corporation that human intelligence has yet produced. Nor has the enoromous body of stat utory crime since created or the hypo- critical affectation of morality assumed by some of our Legislatures and Con Rress in any wise changed my point of view or quickened my conscience of expediency. as seems to have been the case with some of my former col leagues and associates.
 The constituencies that they repre- sent do not hesitate to take Mir. Car negie's trust produced and tariff pro- tected money for their churches and libraries. or to accept Mir. Rockefeller's largess for the education of the negro whom they have disfranchised.
 'If political campaigns are to be run without money and political progress Is to be achieved without financial ex- pendfture 1t is high time that both parties should be apprised of the ar rival of that Utopian era, but until that period has arrived. can see no reason why I, when battling for what conceived to be the right, should re- fuse to seek or decline to accept the support. whether financial or personal, of which I stood in need.
 Men may die. but right principles persist and in the end they will tri- umph.
 ThrOttteu by OuE0rchy.
 T believe that the South and espe- cially the State of South Carolina, is today throttled in its natural progress and Its intelligent exercise of the right of self government by an oligarchy which keeps alive the prejudices of past generation through the perpetua- tion of injustice and the fertilizing of corruption and I shall welcome the day when the educational propaganda which can only be spread by the use of money, whether it be Standard oil money or any other money save that derived from the governmental sale of whiskey. will enable the people to see moro clearly their own best interests and cast out these leaders whose hypo- critical morality and i'll disguised self ishness is responsible for the fact that in the South illiteracy is greater and the increase of population and wealth shower than in any other great sec- tion Of the Union.
 .sIt ia the fashion of present dav un.