The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1908-10-06
STANDARDS REPLY.
Oil Attorney Seeks to Disprove Whole
Bribery Story.

cleveland, Oct. 6.-S. H. Tolles, mem
per OF the firm of Kline, Tolles & Golf,
attorneys fcr the Standard Oil COM
pany' has issued the following state
ment giving The Standard Oil side ct
the charges of attempts to bride E.
:. Monnett, formerly attorney general
of Ohio:
The charges that Mr. Monnett had
been offered and had declined a large
sum of money to drop his prosecutions
against the Standard Oil company was
nrst made public by one George Rice,
IN an interview at Marietta, and given
70 the newspapers on March 3, 1899.
The charge at that time received no
credence. Mr.. Monnett himself was at
first reported to have denied the state
| ment, but afterward made general in
tlmatlons that there might be some
truth in them.
THE particulars of the attempt were
carefully concealed by him.
1.-The public press at once began to
demand that he name the guilty per-
son or persons, and on March 20, 1899,
not having done So MeSsrS. Elliott and
Kline, on behalf of the Standard Oil
company, wrote him the following open
| letter:
Letter to MOnnett.
:" New York, March 20, 1899.
Hon. F. S. Monnett. Attorney Cen
| eral of Ohio:
Ion March 4th instant, George Rice
announced to the public press that
! bride of $780, less 100000 commits
sion had been offered you to induce
you to stop or delay proceedings
against the Standard Oil company, now
| pending in the supreme court of Ohio
You are reported to have denied
| entirely at Toledo, the Rice story, but
| by the time you arrived at Columbus
on the evening of the same day you
| concluded that the story was true
and. according in various newspapers
| on the evening of the 5th instant, you
made the statement that the STANDARD
| Oil company, through some friends OF
yours" had offered you 100000 to in
| fluence your action with respect to the
cases pending against it and other
| companies in the supreme court of
Ohio.
Reputable newspapers of the state,
notably the Cleveland Leader, Toledo
| Blade and Ohio State Journal, have
called upon you to disclose the name
| of the friend who thus corruptly ap-
| preached you.
You are reported in the Cleveland
Plain Dealer of the 18th instant, as say
| ing that eff you were to give out the
| name of your friend, half a dozen de-
| partments of the trust would be after
| him at once. and it might be they
I could force or persuade him to keep
his mouth shut.
"'You do not seem to realize that
J the reason given by you for refusing to
disclose the name of your friend" is an
: admission that the company does nos
/ know the name of the party whom you
say it commissioned to offer you $780,
900, and therefore you must have
known that the alleged friend made the
offer to you without the authority or
knowledge of the Standard Oil COM
pany.
In the New York World on the
9Th instant you are reported as saying
| that YOU had written the friend who
tried to bride you that you would not
expose him until public interests de-
manded it,
| I'm another interview in the Gin
| cinnati Commercial Tribune of the 9Th,
you are reported as saying that your
Z, friend had agreed to protect you. The
arrangement for protection therefore
| seems to be mutual.
| $50 far as any connection of the
| Standard Oil company with any at
| tempt to bride you is concerned, it IS
| totally false.
| You have the names, or you claim
! to have, not only of the friend who APP
preached you, but also of the others
| acting with him, because you said in
the public prints that these men We're
telegraphing you from New York.
/ While nothing in your story has
directly connected the Standard GU
company with the attempted bribery.
you have desired the public to assume
such connection. We now demand that
Il you give the name or names of the
person or persons who made such an