The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1908-09-24
Governor Takes Roosevelt to
Task Severely
JUST|HES HIS ACTIONS
Roosevelt's Charges Are Analysed In
Every Detail and All the Gov
ernors Acts Are Explained
Very Completely.

Guthrie. Okla, September 23-Gov.
Charles N. Haskell tonight issued a state
! ment to the Associated Press in reply to
President Roosevelt's letter to William
j. Bryan dealing with four specific
charges against Mr.. Haskell, namely,
that he is subservient to Standard Oil;
that he vetoed d child labor bill; that he
dealt extensively in Creek Indian lands,
and that ne had allowed politics to DOM
mate him in the removal of members of
the faculty of the State university, and
the appointment of others to succeed
them.
Governor Haskell took up the four
charges as dwet upon by President
Roosevelt in turn, dealing with each in
a characteristic manner.
The Prairie Oil and Gas company
charges Governor Haskell declared to
be joke on Roosevet's stupidity, assert
ing that he had done nothing which would
confer upon the Standard OIL subsidiary
company more authority than it already
possessed under franchise granted it by
Secretary Hitchcock.
Il assert that it is fair for me to as
sumo that if my case was to be dignl-
fled by an all-day cabinet meeting that
| beyond question Mr.. Hearst and his cam
! paign associate, President Roosevelt, left
no stone unturned to blacken my char
acter. That being true, they certainly
! raked Ohio fore and aft concerning
! the Ohio STANDARD Oil cases of 1899, and
| finding absolutely nothing rejecting on
| fria IN hic
charge of last Monday aside by saying
he will make no allusion to that He
drops this subject because his original
statement was untruthful, and he must
know from what he knows and tried to
| find in Ohio that / spoke the truth when
4 l said that never in ali my life had any
| interest in connection with that COM
| pany
| II say the President knows that my
| statement Is true, and [ regret that he
! tries to brush it aside without doing me
| candid justice. Were l to adopt the char
| acter of language so commonly used by
| the President l would spell it in fewer
| letter than falsehood.'
| Mr.. Roosevelt, | hope to speak in Ohio
| soon. May |? | hope to divide the time
| with some partisan of yours or Prince
| William, who will defend your action in
/, this instance.
| Flnoing SupStltute.
President Roosevelt comes to Okla
| homa and finds a substitute for his Ohio
| failure does he in the case of the state
against the Prairie Oil and Gas company
| which he complains l compelled to be dis
| missed?
Yes. l did have it dismissed. We all
| know that the Prairie company is a
| Standard Oil offspring and don't forget
| the President claims to have known this
fdAFa finl
| allies, Hearst and Roosevelt, both knew
! that | acted properly.
First, the Prairie Oil company got its
| franchise in our state not from me, but
| from Roosevelt's secretary of the inter-
ior, long before statehood began and had
its main line built and operating and
| congress In our statehood bill was care
full to declare that our new state when
| organized must respect all such vested
rights and existing franchises. That was
! all / did and the federal courts stood
| ready to call me down If l violated the
Roosevelt territorial franchises.
Now, Mr.. President, why did your
secretary of the interior grant what
you knew to be Standard Oil pipe linS
| franchise in our then helpless territory
| and fasten 1t in our new state by a per-
| manent statehood bill? VIII Mr. Hearst
or the President please answer? I will
also remind the President that the COM
| pany trleu TO enlarge us TlSnlS SO as
| to include a gas as well as oil
privilege. This l defeated and even last
April Mr.. President, your secretary of
the interior tried to help the Standard
OH gas privileges against my protest by
| actually granting them a franchise to lay
an interstate gas line also I notified
the secretary 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 yield
ed and cancelled your unlawful act
Act Was Required.
II 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 my
own people, based on conditions grow
ing out of yur original special favor to
the Standard Oil company in granting
that franchise. required me to pursue
that policy in the case you criticise.
"The President comes to the local af-
fairs of our state and assails me for
vetoing a child labor bill.
True, did so, simply because the
bill went too far and included things
not desired by our people Union labor
representatives approved my veto. T.
hope the President will survive this
veto of a local bill and permit us to
run our local affairs.
"The President complains that we re-
moved certain professors from our
state university, our three state nor
NAL schools. and preparatry school in
violation of civil service rules That
is, the President in his usual impet-
uosity 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 by boards of re-
gents and not by the governor. The
President complains that there are sew
eral suits pending against me to re-
claim Creek Indian lands. The Pres
ident should have gone further and