The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1907-1939, 1909-11-22
Richmond Man Reads an Ac-
count of His Personal EpistIe
In Charles Taft's Cincinnati
Newspaper.
Mr.. FOUlkE ALLEGES
REPORT is GARBLED
He Has Had Reply From Chief
Executive, But Refuses to
Make 1t, or His Own Letter,
Public Property.

recently wrote a personal letter to
President Taft. explaining to him the
political situation in Indiana and. it is
understood, stated in quite plain Ian
guage that Indiana people were not
particularly enthusiastic over the rec
ord the president had made up to the
present time. Mr.. Foulke received a
personal letter from the president, IN
reply. the exact nature of which is not
known. as Mr.. Foulke refuses to d.
vuige its contents, or the contents of
the letter he wrote to the president. He
says that it is up to- the president to
make these letters public. and he hopes
the president will see fit to take such
action.
1t is peculiar fact that the frs. &C.
count of the correspondence between
President Taft and Mr.. Foulke. which
account Mr.. Foulke says is overdrlwn
and inaccurate. was printed in the
Cincinnati Times-Star, which paper is
owned by the presidents big brother
Times-Star Account.
This is the account published by the
Times-Star:
THE Hon. William Dudley Foulke,
OF Indiana, one of our leading letter
writer's, recently took his trusty type
writer in hand and indited a mournful
epistle to the President of these Unit
ed States. He had a sad part to per-
form, but he did not shrink from it.
William Howard Taft had disappoint-
ed him some. and it was his melan-
choly duty to proclaim the fact.
He told the president few things
He told him that the people We're max
ing comparisons between the Taft and
the Roosevelt administrations. The
latter was about 99.6 per cent pure and
the former-well, the former wasn't
getting a good rating from the pure
food experts. Out in Indiana, said
Col. Foulke. they were talking about
Taft. He used to have some friends
there, but the species. as far as Indiana
was concerned. is extinct 1t grieved
him to say all this. but as a friend of
the president. sad and disappointed
himself, he deemed it his duty to tell
him the truth. let the chips fall where
they might. Take that Winona
speech of the presidents for example
Why. honest, wasn't it simply awful?
Where did he think he'd get on that
line of conversation? Wasn't Taft
drifting right on to oblivion and the
republican party to perdition? And.
moreover, why didn't he beat the ever
lasting stuffing out of Aldrich and
Cannon, instead of doing business with
them?
TAFT Holds Grip on Smile.
Thus the Foulke lamentation ran:
Despite the horrors of the situation
as pictured. President Taft didn't for a
moment lose his grip on that famous
smile which has taken the place of the
Roosevelt teeth among the parapher-
nanalia of American cartoonists. While
he was feeling good about it he just
called in a stenographer and dictated a
reply.
"As to Winona, he had nothing to re-
gret or retract. Some of the newspa-
pers hadn't reported him accurately, it
is true. They had misrepresented. ig-
norantly or maliciously, and for that
the president couldn't be held respon-
sible. But as to what he did say-why
he was entirely unrepentant and not at
all dismayed and he was prepared fur
thermore to stand by every word of it.
AS ia the future, he had no fears. and
not nearly so great a concern as some
of his friends might think he had. He
was sorry he had disappointed some of
these friends. Mr.. Foulke among the
number, but he believed that he was
doing what was right and what the
people expect of him.
Would Carry Out Promises.
When elected he had promised to
accomplish certain things and he be-
lieved that the promise ought to be
carried out il possible. To carry it
out he had to deal with the represent
atives of the people These repre-
were elected to leadership
by the people, and those leaders ia
turn had selected their own leaders in
the house and in the senate 1t was
his duty to deal with these leaders. and
II Cannon and Aldrich happened to
occupy those positions of leadership
at that time, it wasn't his fault, and
there was nothing for him to do but to
with them. For three years
more. If he lived, President Taft ex-
pected to be president Of the United
States, he wrote to Mr. Foulke. And
for three years more he purposed to be
President of the United States and do
his duty as he sees 1t, not at all un-
OF the criticisms that may be
leveled at him, or Of the mutilAted
feelings Of his Indiana friends. but