Los Angeles herald., 1908-02-10
ROOSEVELT
IS OUT WITH
HOT DENIAL
"USE PATRONAGE TO FAVOR
TAFT? MOI"
PRESIDENT ANSWERS AccusERs'
CHARGE
Printed Statements to the Effect That
White House Had Been Too Active
in Support of Candidate
Replied To
tcontlnued from Page one,

CONTINUED from Page Onel
ago in asserting that / was using the
office to secure my own denomination.
since the present congress as
sembled two months ago l have sent 10
the senate the names of all the oinclalS
have appointed for the entire period
since congress adjourned on the fourth
of March last. that is, for eleven
months.
Excluding army and navy officers
scientific experts, health officers and
those of the revenue cutter service,
have made during this period about
1852 appointments subject TO conllrlil O9
ton by the senate, 1164 being post
masters The appointments in the dip
lomatic and consular services ana IN
the Indian service have been maue
without regard to politics.
an nominating judges have treated
politics as q wholly secondary consld-
Grafton. and instead of relying solely
upon the recommendations OF elther
senators or congressman nave Always
conducted independent inquiries my
self personally through members OF the
bench or bar whom | happen TO Know
or through Attorney General Bonaparte'
Secretary Taft, who was hifnselt d
Judge: Secretary Root, because OF ms
great experience at the bar; or Senator
IA N.
eral. In number of other oinces,
chiefly assistant secretaries or heads
of bureaus here at Washington, but
also governors Of territories or men
holding peculiar positions-and also IN
a few other cases, notably those OF
marshals in certain of tho western
states. but including various officers
also here and there throughout the
union. | have either felt that the posi-
tion was of such a character that the
Initiative in the choice could only with
propriety come from me or from one or
the cabinet officers, or else l have nap
pened personally to know, or 10 know
Of a man of such peculiar quanhcatlohs
that | desired to appoint him on my
own initiative.
Tells of Other Offices
"There remains the great bulk OF
offices, including almost all the post
offices. the collectorships of customs,
the appraiserships, the land ofhoe ana
1T Is. of course out of the question
for me to examine or have knowledge
of such multitude of appointments
and therefore as regards them nor
mally accept suggestions of senators
and congressman, the elected represen-
tatives of the people in the localities
concerned, always reserving to myself
ing mn to the required standard OF
character and capacity, and also reserV-
ing the right TO nominate whomsoeVer
I choose If for anv reason am satls-
fed that / am not receiving from any
senator or congressman good advice, or
if / happen to personally know some
REGULARITY of the man.
When the man has done well in
office, prefer TO reappoint him, and do
SO when I can get the consent of the
senators from his locality; but If they
refuse, the reappointment cannot be
made. Ordinarily, as matter OF con-
venience, the appointment can be pest
settled by consultation beforehand, the
advice of the senator or congressman,
who is elected and has peculiar means
of knowing the wishes of his constit-
uents, being taken.
"But where "A senator treats this not
as a matter of consultation or mutual
agreement, not as matter of conven-
fence. and expediency, but as matter
Of right on his part TO nominate whom
soever he chose, the custom IS neces-
sarily discontinued"
Appoints Democrats
I'm the south Atlantic and gulf
states, which have contained neither
senators nor congressman of my own
Marty. / have been obliged to seek
my advice from various sources. In
these states, 1 have appointed large
number of Democrats, IN certain states
the Democrats appointed outnumDerlnS
the Republicans For my advice on APP
pointing the Republicans, have relied
whenever possible, not upon oftlcehold-
ers at all, but upon men of STANDING
and position who would not take oftlce
and whose integrity / could depend
upon. In all of these states have done
j aFna0 70
Republicans, to put the best men in OIL
flee, and l have every reason to be-
leve that the average of my APP
pontees is very high.
"At present various efforts are be-
ing made to get up boiling delegations
from the southern states, ana the
meetings al which these so-called dele
cations are chosen are usually an
nounced as on-officeholders' conven-
tions. AS reul this means only, so far
as it means anything, that they are
held under the lead of persons VINO
wish to be nut in office, but whose
character and capacity are such that
they have not been regarded as mt 10
be appointed under this administra-
ton. In these cases, be it remembered
that the failure to secure office is not
the result of the political action of the
men in question; on the contrary, their
disaffection is due to their failure to Sc
cure office
Hughes Refused Appointment
1.-THE refusal to appoint a good
Hughes man as collector of customs at
Plattsburg refers to the case of Walter
Witherbee, and the accusation in this
case is particularly comical, because
Mr. Witherbee was an open ana
ayowed Taft man, the clasSmate or
Secretary Taft's brother at Yale, and
both Secretary Taft and his brother
requested his eappointment-the only
New York officeholders, for whom they
made such a request. The congress-
man from his district and the senators
have not agreed about his successor,
and he is still in office.
There remains the allegation as to
the appointment of Taft workers to
postonices in Ohio. In Ohio l have
made So postoffice appointments; q OF
these were reappointed; 81 were new
appointments, the last including the
cases where the incumbent had died,
had been removed for cause or had re-
signed. Generally the appointment was
made exactly as in other states, upon
recommendation of the congressman
from the state.
"In various cases, however as at
Maumee. Bluffton, Greenyille and Leip-
edo tho nominations were upon recon-