The Topeka state journal., 1908-12-07


American government. but against the
French government. The News con-
tinues saying that the president 5
brother-in-Iaw is involved in the scan
dal. but he has nothing to say. The
presidents brother-in-law was IN
voIved in no scandal. -Delavan Smith
and the other people who repeated this
falsehood lied about the presidents
brother-in-iaw; but why the fact that
Mr., Smith lied should be held to in
voIxe Mr. Robinson in scandal is
difficult to understand. The scandal
AFFECTS no one but Mr.. Smith and his
conduct has been not merely scandal
Gus but infamous.
Records Are Open.
Mr.. Robinson had not the slightest
connection of any kind, sort or descrip-
tion at any time or under any circum-
stances with the Panama matter.
Neither did Charles Taft. The News
says that Mr.. Taft was a member OF
the syndicate. So far as 1 know there
was no syndicate, certainly no syndi-
cate in the United States that to my
knowledge had any dealing with the
government directly or indirectly and
inasmueh as there was no syndica u
Mr.. Taft naturally did not belong to it.
The News demands that Mr.. Taft ap-
peal to evidence by which it means
what it calls the records'-that is the
mass of papers which are stored in the
war department save such as, because
of their technical character and their
usefulness in the current work of the
canal it has been found advisable to
send to the isthmus. All of these docu-
ments that possessed any Importance
as illustrating any feature of the trans
action have alreadu been made public.
There remains a. great mass of docu-
ments of little or no Importance which
the administration is entirely willing I'd
have published but which. because of
their mass and pointlessness. nobody
has ever cared to publish Any rePuta-
BILE man can have full access to these
documents If you or Mr.. Swift or
Booth Harrington or George Ade-in
short. if any reputable man will come
on here he shall have free access to the
documents and can look over every
thing for himself Congress can have
them all printed if it wishes; but no
congressman has, ever so far intimated
arll-. desire that this should be done; 1
suppose because to print such a mass
of documents would be a great expense,
and moreover an entirely useless ex-
pense. unless which is not the case,
there was some object in printing them
Now. my dear Mr.. Foulke. I have
answered in detail your questions and
the statements of the News. You are
quite welcome to print my answer. but
/ must frankly add that 1 don't think
any good will come from doing so.
Delavan Smith is a conspicuous offend-
er against the laws of honesty and
truthfulness. but he does not stand
alone He occupies, for instance, the
same evil eminence with such men as
MIR. Laffan of the New York Sun, the
editorials of which paper you or 9TH
ers have from time to time called to
my attention. just as you have called
to nv attention these editorials of the
indianapolis News. I never see an ed
itorfal in any one of these or similar
papers unless for some reason it is sent
to me by you or by some one else, and
of the editorials thus sent me there is
hardly one which does not contain some
wilful and deliberate perversion of the
truth For example, have just made
public the following statement concern
ing a tissue of utterly false statements
which appeared in Mr.. L-affan's paper,
the Sun.
Reply to the ''Sun."
'fAs the New York Sun story entitled
'Roosefelt and Prairie or has seemed
to deceive a number of people the fol-
lowing statement was made public
about It:
'As soon as the story was brought
to President Roosevet's attention he
not only called for reports concerning
the statements from the department of
Justice and department of the Interior
but also communicated with ex-Secre-
tary Hitchcock, so as to be sure that
the presidents recollection was not at