The morning journal-courier., 1908-12-11
SCANDAL STORY DENOUNCED
Counsel for Panama Company Gives Full Details of the Pur- chase, Declaring No Amer ican Ever Had Pecu-
 niary Interest in
 the Canal.

ba reached for criminal libel 1 shall try to have them reached" said President Roosevelt to-day, in speak ing about taose Americans who have been guilty of infamous falsehood concerning the acquisition of the property and the construction Of the
 tpanamal canal itself
 IL was to the Committee of One
 Hundred of the Gulf Deep Waterway association headed
 by Governor Dencen of Illinois who were received by the president in tho
 East room of the White house that he had made this declaration
 Governor Deneen presented copy of the resolutions adopted by the as sociation and made Few remarks to which President Roosevelt replied;
 "l have felt that no more import ant service could he rendered to this country than the building of tie Pan. anna canal between the Atlantic and tho Pacific and one thing I am proud of in connection with the building If that canal is that there has not been legitimate cause for the breath of scandal connected with any feature of the proceeding. We have cause to hc ashamed of certain set of Americans in connection with the canal, and that is oi those Americans who have hnen guilty Of infamous falsehood concern. ing the acquisition of the property and the construction of the canal ft- salf If they can be reached for crim- inal libel I shall try to have them reached. II not at any rate all the facts we know ar ever have known are at tho disposal of each any ovorv one of you here. and of any one in congress ar ot all congress if they Uish to sen them
 Cromwclls Statement.
 Nav York. Dec 10 William Ncl
 son Cromwell authorized the follow ing statement to dag.
 My attention has been called to a statement is>dod b> the editor of the Tndianapols News In which ba at tenlpts to reply to the charge made by President Roosevelt that corts4 statements made in the Indianapolis News. both before and since the re- [ ent election and relating to the pur- chGse If the Panama canal by tho United States. were false and untrue.
 The reply of thc editor of the News furnishes another proof of the Justice of tho presidents characteri- cations for in the very journal, under wnose sheets it now takes refuge. namely in tho New York World of October 3. 1908. appears an explicit and unqualified denial by mo of the story in which l said
 "I wish to call attention 10 the fact that upon the first day of the hearings before the committee on interoceapic canals of the senate of the United
 States in February lNo6, 1 voluntarily made an explicit and detailed state ment showing how the s4O,oOoO00 was paid bv tho United States through
 Messrs !. r Morgan & O. as their agents. to the Bank of France at Paris for account of the new Panama Canal t'o.. and also explaining the>subsequent payment of tho full amount to the H. nuidators of the new Panama Canal Co.,. and to tho linudator of the old Panama Canal O., who in turn dis tributed the same to their respective stock and bondhoders, numbering hum dreds of thousands of persons.
 Real Facts Were Available. "Thc testimony taken hy the senate committee is q public record and was available to the editors of the News end the World, and had either of them heen as interested in publishing the truth as they were to create a poIt- ca sensation, they doubtless would have taken the pains to have published the above facts which I quote.
 "T again denounce the statement
 wherever published, or by whomso- ever made that there was syndicate formed by American citizens to pur- chase the Panama canal and to sell II to the United States as absolutely and undualfedly false and untrue. The Nmericanization plan was an entirely different matter. IL was project pro posed by the company to the Rivers and Harhors committee of the house, and to President Mckinley, on Febru- ary 27, 1899, and was formally authorIg- ed by the board of directors october 10 1899. subject to the necessary approval of stockholders. The initial steps were taken by me in October November and' December, 1899 and company formed for the purpose under the laws of New Jersey for carrying out the ln- attractions of my client
 Stockholders Ended Project. While the certificate of incorpora. tIou of the Panama Canal Co, of Amer ica was filed In New Jersey, no capital (Contlnued on Eleventh Pase,l