The Hawaiian star. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu]) 1893-1912, 1909-02-03

000
The following brief abstract of Till
mans main defense is from the Wash
/ ington Star:
II was perhaps disingenuous; but
moments thought will convince any
| honest-minded man that-as | hau not
! signed any papers, had not paid any
money, had not taken anybody's re-
ceipt, the usual process by which one
undertakes" to buy land-I was
speaking accurately and not falsely.
/ Can l be justly charged with false
hood when if l had told the Senate
of the entire transaction it would have
made no difference whatever, while |
would have been charged with intru-
ding my private affairs into a public
discussion? Just what law did
break? What wrong did do, or con-
template?
MY official activity is shown to
have taken form in the Senate before
l knew anything about Reeder and
Watkins attitude or expectations,
and l was in no way influenced by
them.
THE man who announces to Con-
gress that he, Theodore Roosevelt,
assumed the right to permit the steel
trust to absorb it's greatest rival con-
trary to law would doubtless not he
state to help his dear friend Harri-
man in holding 100000 acres of the
public domain because Ben Tillman
has contemplated and wanted to buy
LAO.
For the first time in the history
OF this government, as far as I have
been able to learn, a member of this
body has been brought to the bar of
public opinion, before the Senate it.
self, to be judged under Indictment
by no less a person than the Presi-
dent of the United States.
1.-The Presidents sleuths, set to do
the dirty work of spying on a Senator
when that Senator had exposed a
fraud which was being perpetrated on
the public, reported to him on July
q. | had nothing whatever to do
with the change in the law which the
President complains in regard to the
secret service. So the Presidents ami
mus is not against me on the same
ground for which he has attacked
Messrs. Tawney, Smith and Others in
ice, engendered by hatred because of
my course in the Senate during the
last seven years"
WASHINGTON, d. c., January IL
Declaring that the President had been
actuated by motive of malice and re-
venge in attacking his course in con-
nection with the Coos Bay (Oregon)
land grant, Benjamin Ryan Tillman,
senior senator from South Carolina,
long known as Honest Ben" in the
Senate and throughout the country,
today made his defense to the charges
of President Roosevelt that he was in
volved in a scheme to grab public
lands in the west.
THRONGS CROWD TO HEAR HIM.
The scene was dramatic in the ex-
IRENE. Thousands crowded the public
and private galleries, and more thou
sands thronged in the corridors on the
outside, straining ears to catch a
chance word as it fioated through the
crack made by the opening and shut
ting of two swinging doors.
Every senator in the city was in his
seat. Around the edges of the cham
Der, on the floor, were massed mem
bers of the House of Representatives,
Senate employees and every other per-
son who have the privilege of the
floor.
Though far from a condition of
health, the senator from South Caro-
lima, whose ringing voice has so Of
ten aroused the Senate to anger and
to laughter, put up a bold front. not
withstanding that his hand shook a
little before he entered the chamber,
he announced he was not at all ner-
vous and was determined to vindicate
himself before the American people
and show the President in his true
light.
WOULD TRY TO KEEP CALM.
81 shall try to be calm and as mild
as possible" he said, a few minutes
before he took his seat But may
be carried away by the force of my
feelings and say things have not pre-
pared. But l have no fear, for have
nothing to conceal"
Much interest was manifested in Mr..
Tillman. When he entered the cham
Der his coming was announced by
many EXPLANATIONS of "There he Isl"
accompanied by vigorous craning OF
necks and pointing of fingers.