Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1908-03-17
DEMANDS RETRACTlON
MR.. BARTHOLDT SENDS LETTER
TO MR.. CARTER.

Demanding that "a retraction be made
in as public manner as was the charge"
Representative Bartholdt of Missouri.
chairman of the House committee on
public buildings and grounds. today sent
spirited communication to Senator
Carter of Montana in which he points
out that the latter. in insnuating that
the public buildings and grounds commit
tee had made purposely misleading re-
port to the House upon the Bieber land
grants, had barked up the wrong tree.
Mr.. Bartholdt. in his letter to the sena-
tor, does not take the trouble to explain
in detail where the senator made his mis-
take or to suggest. in other than pleas
ant way that the mistake could have
been avoided and the reflections upon the
house membership omitted had Senator
Carter looked into the matter little
more carefully. He simply advises MIR
Carter to read House bill 2O410-the public
building bill of the first session of the
Fifty-ninth Congressman House report
5O11-the report upon that bill.
In his speech of last Friday. In which
he severely scored the public buildings
and grounds committee of the House,
Senator Carter commented upon that
committees report on the Bieber grants
as follows:
Mr.. Carriers Comment.
LAS to the bill of 1906, there is no pre-
tense that any consideration was given
to the subject anywhere. l find in the
report which l have just received from
the document room dated June %, 1906.
Fifty ninth Congress, first session, report
No. soil, description of the purpose Of
each section of this bill of 1906, that is,
the bill which contains section Il the
Bieber grant), and this is the reference
made the reDOrI this particular sec
ton:
Section q authorizes the acquisition
of certain triangles in the city of Wash
ington.'
Acquisition by whom? The only rea-
sonable inference is an acquisition by the
government of the United States, be-
cause the bill was passed for the purpose
of enabling the government to purchase
building sites. 1t carried about SO, Co.,
coo for that purpose and the construction
of buildings. and this, in so far as the
records l have been able to trace show. is
the only statement of record in Congress
concerning the purpose of section 2l,
which authorized and directed the Secre-
tary of War to convey this body of prop
erty to a stranger who had neither claim
nor shadow of claim to any part or pOr-
ton OF 1t.
How Mr.. Carter Made His Mistake
AS explained by Mr. Bartholdt today,
senator carter came 10 make TINS state
ment as result of comparing the report
on the bill with the law print of that
measure instead of with the bill itself as
it came from the House committee on
public buildings and grounds. For the
bill was knocked into smithereens in the
committee, and when the Jaw print was
struck off section q in the original re-
port referred. in reality, to section - of
the bill which is as follows:
Section 20 authorized the sale of Ger
tain real estate in the city of Washing
ton, District of Columbia And it is this
section which had to do with the Bieber
grant, whereas section y. to the language
of which Senator Carter took exception,
does authorize the acquisition OF certain
triangles in the city of Washington in
full and complete language, the triangles
in question being on 10th street north of
Columbia road and on the east side of
18th street at the Piney Branch road in
tersection.
view with a Star reporter today, de-
plored the lack of care in examining the
different printed forms of the public build
ing act of 1906. In view of the fact that
this was the only point on which Senator
Carter criticised the public buildings and
grounds committee of the House, Chair
man Bartholdt feels assured that as soon
as the senator has sent for the documents
in question and has examined them in the
light of Mr.. Bartholdt's suggestion that
he will make the retractiOn in question
Withdrawing his reflections and insinua-
lions concerning the public buildings and
grounds committee and Mr.. BarthOldt,
the author of the report