The Bennington evening banner. (Bennington, Vt.) 19??-1961, 1909-02-20

According TO the threats and after the |
New York World had held these con /
ferences with these blaekmailers the |
stories did in fact appear in that pa
per and We're copied by other papers |
throughout the country do not |
state nor do believe. that the World !
was a party 10 these attempts to
blaekmail me, but do say that it was
dealing with the same gang that was
attempting TO blackmail me; that II
knew that / had laid the Matchmaking
scheme before the District Attorney
of New York, and that ON the very eve
of the publication OF the story it not
only had my explicit denial and denun-
citation Of the stories, but received dir |
ect personal notice from me in its ed |
itorial rooms that the stories were
false in every respect; that they had
been concocted and used in an attempt
to extort money from me. and also of
the character. of the parties furnishing
the stories; that the matter was in the
hands of the district attorney, and that
offered it opportunity of ascertaining
the truth before publication.
1T cannot be said, therefore that
the Indictment OF the New York World
and the Indianapolis News is an in
dicment of the press of the United
States, as they would like to make it
appear in order to obtain the support
of the general press of the codntry. 1t
would indeed be an indictment of the
press of the country if it would sustain
such newspaper practices as have
stated, but | know very well that the
press of the United States is too hon
orable to initiate or sustain such
course.
There never existed the slightest
foundation upon which to base any Of
the allegations contained in the stories
published in the World, there never
was any purchase of securities of the
French companies by any American
syndicate or myself; there never was
any such syndicate and there never
were any such profits or gains. The
whole story is lying connection On
the contrary, every dollar was paid dir
ectly by the United States to the
French companies, in the bank of
France, as is shown by the official re
eeipts of the liquidators of both com
panies, on file in the United States
treasury
Every step connected with the sale
by the New Panama Canal company of
its property in the United States has
been matter of official public record
in France; the division and dstribu-
ton of every dollar of the S4O,OOO,OOO
was made under the authorization Of
the courts of France; the records ex-
list of the payments of this money to
some 90, 600 individuals, and each in
diyidual receipt for the sums received
is on file in the court and bank records
in France All this the grand jury
carefully inquired into with the result
just announced.
Il am in favor of afree press-an un-
muzzled press. recognize to the full
est the proprlety and wisdom of main
tanning the liberty of the press, but
also believe that the great majority
of editors of newspapers in this coun-
try are opposed to the publication and
dissemination of false statements rath-
er than true ones; are opposed to all
sorts of blackmail by the authors of
such statements, are opposed to the
utilization of the press in disregard of
facts and of the infamous origin of the
statements, with notice of their fall
sity and with knowledge that the black
mailing criminals were under inyes-
tigation.
Il believe that editors and newspa-
per men as a class mean to be honest
in writing their editorial criticisms
and their news articles, and always
prefer the truth rather than falsity in
respect to any public matter; and
am sure that the newspapers of the
country will distinguish the fragrant
case set forth in these indictments
from legitimate publications and will
lndorse the straightforward and manly
action of President Roosevelt, denoun-
cling in his message to congress the
action of these great newspapers in
bringing into disrepute the greatest
undertaking of all ages and unjustly
assailing those who have devoted their
best efforts, In a patriotic spirit, des
pising sordid considerations, to make
the Panama Canal a glory to the Amer
lean nation the world over and will
recognize the especial reasons fol
bringing these newspapers TO the ban
of criminal Justice"