The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1908-09-25

The presidents eagerness to assail
the motives and purposes of Bryan,
and his lofty assumption of virtue In
discussion of political controversies, re-
mind one inevitably of the Scotch
poets address to the Rigidly Right
eous. He seems to have nothing to do
these parlous days but mark and tell
his neighbors faults and follies; end
what makes II worse. he isn't the least
hit particular as TO his facts so long
as he can show his own righteousness
and the neighbours wickedness.-
To read the Roosevelt letter. on Has
kelI and Bryan, stranger would think.
some saint had broken into the Repub
lican party as spokesman for a half
forgotten candidate who was tongue
tied He had begun the day before
with an assault on Haskell based on
charges made by Hearst, whom he
himself had denounced as unworthy of
belief-charges which had never been
i'm vain 10 have heard in court. A
Standard oil attorney had prevented
Haskell from getting hearing in this
case, and yet the president made it
the basis of an accusation of corrup-
tion and bribery.
When called upon for proof. the ac-
cuser incontinently dropped this charge.
shifted his ground and attacked Has
kell on his record as governor. Every
specification OF his second accusation
was known to the people OF oklahoma
on his election except the one case V hich
came up this fall, where he stopped in
junction proceedings by the states at
tornev general against the Prairie State
oil company. a Standard Oil concern.
The attorney general wanted to stop
Haskell refused 20 countenance the
proceeding. because the company owned
and was operated under a. government
charter, granted in territorial days by
Roosevelts secretary of the interior.
and with privileges enough to make the
injunction proceeding a futile effort.
a
parallel between Haskell's case and
Forakers. and. incidentally. he dances
on Foraker's political coffin once more
with a glee hardly comparing with his
great Office. However. that is only an
incident. In Foraker's case documen-
tary evidence, confessedly true, showed
the payment of money 10 Foraker by
the oil trust for legal services; whether
II was a corrupt deal or not is yet open
TO discussion, but ii had the effect of
driving the Ohio senator from the cam
paign and giving Roosevelt and Hitch
cock a long-sought opportunity to re-
tsliate against him for opposing the
administration and Taft before the
Chicago convention.
In Haskell's case. the president does
not pretend 20 offer any evidence but
his personal opinion based on his own
construction of the governors action
in legal action properly within his
Jurisdiction: 10 this he adds his con-
struction of the governors veto of
some state legislation. and an article
In The Outlook on Haskell's relation
10 the oklahoma university So far
as The Outlook is concerned. a quota
tion from IL would be as honestly nom
partisan as an extract from a New
York Tribune editorial or a quotation
from the speeches of T. Roosevelt
Not one line of evidence. documen-
tary or otherwise. is. offered to show
that Governor Haskell has. sustained
corrupt relations with the Standard Oil
or any other corporation. yet the pres
ident declares the governors '.unfitness
for any public position OF trust or for
association with any men anxious to
make an appeal on a moral issue TO the
American people. has been abundantly
shown"
That sort of logic is dishonest enough
in all conscience. but II is aggravated
by the lofty assumption of a peculiar