Waterbury evening Democrat., 1908-12-15
MESSAGE ON PANAMA
 CANAL. President Replies to < Charges. fLAYS MR. PULITZER, "Stories a String of Infamous
 Libe|s." EVERYTHING PUT ON RECORD. Documents Relating to Purchase
 Sent 10 Congress-.
PLAYS MR. PULITZER.
EVERYTHING PUT ON RECORD.
Documents Relating to Purchase
 Sent 10 Congress.
10 the Senate and House of Repre- SpntativpS.

10 the Senate and House of Repre-
 sentatives:
 In view of the constant reiteration of the assertion that there was some corrupt action by or on behalf of the United States government in connec ton with the acquisition of the title of the French company to the Pana- ma canal and of the repetition of the story that q syndicate of American citizens owned either one or both of the Panama companies, I deem it wise to submit to the congress all the in formation l have on the subject. These stories were first brought to my attention as published in q paper in Indianapolis. called the News, edited by Mir Delavan Smith. The stories were scurrilOuS and libelous in char acter and false in every essential par ticular Mr. Smith shelters himself
  cepted the statements which had ap- peared in a paper published in New York, the World, owned by MT. Joseph Pulitzer. It Is idle to say that the his newspaper are such that the state ments in that paper will be believed by nobody. Unfortunately thousands of persons are ill informed in this respect and believe the statements they see in print even though they appear in a newspaper published by Mir Pulitzer. A member of the congress has actual ly introduced resolution in reference to these charges. I therefore lay all the facts before you.
 The story repeated at various times by the World and by it's followers in the newspaper press is substantially as follows
 That there was corruption by or on behalf of the government of the United Sates in the transaction by which the Panama canal property was acquired from it's French owners that there were improper dealings of some kind between agents of the govern ment and outside persons. represent ing or acting for an American syndi- cate, who had gotten possession of the French company; that among these persons who it is alleged made huge profits were Mir. Charles P. Taft. q brother of Mir William II. Taft, then candidate for the presidency, and Mir. Douglas Robinson. my brother-in-law: that Mir. Cromwell, the counsel for the Panama Canal company in the ne gotatiOns, was in some way impli- cGted with the United States govern mental authorities in these improper transactions: that the government has concealed the true facts and has de stroyed or procured or agreed to the destruction of certain documents: that Mir. w. H. Taft 7as secretary of war at the time tn by an agree ment between the United States gov ernment and the beneficiaries of the deal all traces thereof were wiped out" by transferring all the archives and secrets" to the American gov ernment, just before the bolding of the convention last June at which Mir. Taft was nominated.
 "Stories Utterly Baseless."
 These statements sometimes appear. sd in the editorials, sometimes in the news columns, sometir es in the shape of contributions fro 'vduals either unknown or know of bad char. acter. They are " partic uar from beginning ell The wick edness of the islanders is only sur passed by their fatuity So utterly baSelesS are the stories that apparent ly they represenl in part merely mate rial collected for campaign purposes and in part stories originally concoct- ed with view of possible blackmail. The inventor of the story about Mir. Charles F. Taft, for instance. evident ly supposed that at some period of the Panama purchase Mir. w II. Taft was secretary of war. whereas in reality Mir w. H. Taft never became secre- tsry of war until long after the whole transaction in question had been closed. The inventor of the story about MT Douglas Robinson had not taken the trouble to find out the fact that MT. Robinson had not had the slightest connection, directly or indirectly, of any kind or sort with any phase of the Panama transaction from beginning to end The men who attacked Mr. Root in the matter had not taken the trouble tu read the public documents which would have informed them that MT. Roct had nothing to do with the pur- chase, which was entirely arranged through the department of justice un- der the then attorney general, Mir Knox.
 Pulitzer Denounced. Now, these stories, as a matter of fact need no investigation whatever