The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1908-12-16
Teddy Brands Two Prominet Ed.
itos as Mendacious Liars.
PANAMA CANAL DEAL
Makes Roosevelt Very Mad, and He
Hands Around the Lie Right and
Left But He Does Not Throw Any
Light on the Matter Under Dis.
cuSSiOn,
White House.,
Washington, Dec. /, 1908.

My Dear Mr.. Foulke: / have re
ceived your letter of the 18th ultim
and have read it in connection will
your previous letters enclosing
quotations from the indianapolis
News, a paper edited by Mr.. Delavar
Smith. The News states in n OF
its issues that probably some of the
documents dealing with the matter
have been destroyed. This is false,
Not one has been destroyed. Il
states that the last documents were
sent over in June Of this year, the
object of this particular falsehood
being, apparently, to connect the
matter in some way with the nomi-
nation of Mr.. Taft. AS a matter of
fact, the last papers that we have
received of any kind were sent over
to us in May of 1904, and they have
been accessible to every human be-
ing who cared to look at them eve
since, and are %accessib e now. ,
You quote the News as stating
that "the people have no official
knowledge concerning the Panama
Canal deal" The fact is that the
people have had the most minute
official knowledge; that every i'm
portant step in the transaction and
every important document have been
made public in communications to
Congress and through the daily
press, and the whole matter has been
threshed over in all it's details again
and again and again.
The fact has been officially pub
lished again and again that the
Government paid s40.00O.000,0 900,
and that it paid this s40,000,O0O d.
rect to the French Government, get
ting the receipts of the l%iquidator
appointed by the French Government
to receive the same. The United
States Government has not the
slightest knowledge as to the partic-
ular individuals among whom the
French Government distributed the
sum. This was the business of the
French Government. The mere sup-
position that any American received
from the French Government a
rake off" is too absurd to be dis
cussed.
1t is an abominable ~falsehood, and
1t is a SANDER, not against the Amer
lean Government, but against the
French Government.
The Presidents brother-in-law was
involved in no scandal. LAT. Deli
van Smith and the other people who
repeated this falsehood lied about
the Presidents brother-in-law; but
why the fact that Mr.. Smith lied
should be held to involve Mr.. Robin
son in a scandal" is difficult to
understand. 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 Charles Taft. '
= .
So far as I 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, inlsmuch as there
was no syndicate, Mr.. Taft naturall'
could not belong to 1t. The News
demands that Mr.. TAFT appeal to
the eviience BY which 1t mrans
what it calls the records" y
All of these documents that pos
sessed any Importance rs illustrat-
ing any feature of the transactions
have already been made public
There remains a great mass OF docu
ments of little or no Importance
which the Administration Is entire
ly willing to have published. bu;
which because Of their mass and
pointlessness, nobody has cv"r c'reJ
to publish. Any reputable mai cal
have full access to these do"u'
Mr.. Delavan Smith Is a conspicu
Gus offender against the laws G
honesty and trut ,~fuln"es, bit h'
does not stand alone He occupies
for instance, he sane evil eminc1c'
with such men as Mr.. Laffan. OF tn
New York Sun, editorials of who's
paper you or others have from tim
to time called to my attention. JUS
as YOU have called to my attention
these editorials Of the 1nd!anapoll
News. Of the editorials thus sen
me there is hardly n which doe
not contain some wilful p~erversiol
O. the truth.
mt. Roosevelt quotes for an ex
ample his re :ent Statement. IN repl
to a New York Sun story. cattle
Roosevelt and Prairie OIL" and tne
continues:)
The fact is that these particula
newspapers habitua'ly and continu
ally and as a matter of bushes
m'ire very form of mendacit
known to man from the s~uppressio
of the truth and the suggestion
the false to the lie direct. Tho:
who write or procure others to writ
thas. articles are engaged in tn
practice of mendacity for hire, an
surely there can be no lower form
gaining a livelihood, Whether thu