The Montgomery advertiser., 1908-09-24
Says the President Is
 Untruthful. REPUBS POSTED OIL
 COMPANY ON OKLAHOMA Franchises Were Granted When
 State Was Helpless. People Were Helpless to Relieve Them selves and Federal Court stood Ready to Force Action Tsk-
 en by Governor.

Guthrie. Ok. Sept. 2s.-fsov.rra- eharies N. Haskell tonight issued a statement to the Associated Press fn reply to President Roosevelt's Ietter tc William J. Bryan dealing with So,,- specific charges against Mr. HaskaIl namely, that he is subservient to standard Oil: that he vetoed a child Iaoor bill: that he dealt extensiyeIy fn Creek Indian lands. and that he had aIloWed politics to dominate him in the removal of members of the faculty Of the State University and the an pointment of others to succeed them.
 Governor Haskell took up the four charges as dwelt upon by President Roosevelt in turn, dealing with each in characteristic manner.
 The Prairie oil & Gas Co. charges Governor Haskell declared to be an joke on Roosevelt's stupidity assert- ing that he had done nothing which would confer upon the Standard OH subsidiary company more authority than 1t already possessed under a franchise granted 1t by Secretary Hitch cock.
 s"I assert that 1t Is fair for me sn assume" says the Governor. that if my case was to be dignihed by an all day cabinet meeting that beyond question MT. Hearst and his campaign associate, President Roosevelt left no stone unturned to blacken my char acter. That being true they certainly | rak ed Ohio fore and aft eoncerning | the Ohio Standard oil cases of 1899 and finding absolutely nothing reflect. | ing on me. the President tried Co I waive his charge pf last Monday aside | by saying he will make no aIlnsion to that He drops this subject be- cause his original statement was un- truthful and he must know from what he knows and tried to find in Ohio that I spoke the truth when said that "a. never in all my life had any tnteres in connection with nor service witX that company.
 short word for Roosevelt.
 .I say the President knows now tFat my statement is true and regret enAl he tries to brush 1t aside without oo- ing me candid justice. were to adopt the character of language so commonly used by the President; should spell it in fewer letters than falsehood. .r
 ..Mr. Roosevelt. I hope to speak ih Ohio soon May 1st, l hope to diVioe the time with some partisan or yours or Prince William, who VIII deteha your action in this instance.
 president Roosevelt comes to Okias homa ana finds a substitute for has Ohio failure, does he. in the case or the state against the Prairie OH and Gas Company, which he complains compelled to be dismissed?
 "Yes. I did have 1t dismissed. Al know that the Prairie Company is Standard oil offspring and don't For. eet the President claims to have known this also, and I charge that the political allies, Hearst and RooseveiI, both know that acted properly.
 First the Prairie oil Company got It's franchise in our State not from Nfa Fxf the Interior, long before statenood De- gan and had it's main line built and operating and Congress- in our stnte- hood bill was careful to declare tnat our new State when organized must respect all such vested rights and ex- isting franchises. That was all | u.a. and the Federal Courts stood ready to call me down if I violated the Roose- welt territorial franchises.
 Republicans Are Resp0nsthie.
 Now, Mir. President. why did your Secretary of the Interior grant what you knew to be Standard oii PlPs line franchise in our then helpless Ter rItory and fasten 1t in our new state by a permanent statehood bill?
 'wIIl Mir. Hearst or the President please answer2
 "I will also remind the President that the company tried to enlarge US rights so as to include a gas as well as an oil privilege. This defeated. ana even laAt April, Mr. President, vour Secretary of the Interior tried to helt the standard oil gas privileges against my protest by actually grant ing them a franchise to lay an inter State gas line also. notified the Sec retary that with statehood your days of giving valuable franchises in our State had passed and I would resist laying the pipe line 'only after you yielded and cancelled your unlawful act.
 "I again assert that my act in that case was not only required by what Federal authority had been unable to do. but that the public interest of our own people, based on conditions grow Ing out of your original special favor to the Standard oil Company in grant ing that franchise required me to pus- sue that policy in the case you critt- else.
 MeddIer In state Affairs.
 ''The President comes to the local affairs of our state and assails me for vetoing a child labor bill True. l did so simply because the bill went too far and included things not desired by our people. Union labor represen- tattves approved my veto. I hope the President will survive this veto of local bill and permit us to run our local affairs.
 .srhe President complains that we removed certain professors from our state university. our three state normal schools. and preparatory schools in violation of civil service rules. That is. the President in his usual impetu- osIty and reckless disregard of others misstates the facts.
 Less than one-fifth of the faculties are changed. All changes were for good cause other than politics and done