The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1909-01-11
TnLMAN'S DIGNIFIED REPLY TO ROOSEVELT
 IN SENATE TO-DAY
Invites Comparison of Private Life and Public
 Works With That of Roosevelt.
Denies He Made Any Improper Use of His Official Po sition-Arraigns the President for His Discourtesy to the Senate in Many Cases.
Special from United Press.)

IO Ix4C RC1AdUC ILL M4lAAy
 Special from United Press)
 Washington, Jan. u.-When the Sen ate was called to order at noon the corridors were so damned that those who had business on the upper floors had to fight their way through. The :. lines of people, extended from the gal iery doors down to the corridors on the main Senate floor below and there the police made a stand and refused to let .,the late crowd up the starr ways.
 Senator Tillman took his seat short ly before noon and was greeted with a cordial burst of applause. When vice. President Fairbanks called the Senate to order. MT. Culberson. the Democrat ic floor leader, asked that the prellm- inaries be omitted and MT. Tlllman at once took the floor. He stated that ! the Senate in his case. virtually sat as a. court and requested that Presl- dent Roosevelt's letter to Senator Hale be printed in the record. The re- quest was granted. MT. Tillman began in a. calm tone and devoid of all ner- vousness.
 The first applause came when he said the President ''is an adept at ad- yertising" There was more applause when he said he was mot aware these darts of mine have quivered in the executive hide, ,'-whereupon the Vice President lightly tapped his gavel There was both laughter and applause when. he said that the pitchfork had not gone out of business.
 Washington, Jan. 1.-The unpreced- ented spectacle of Senator of the United States defending his honor be- fore his colleagues against an attack by the President: was presented here to-day. Arising to a question of per- sonal privilegeand addressing an audi ence that filled the Senate floor and packed the galleries, Senator Benjamin R. Tillman replied to President Roose- velt's charges that he had used his ofncial position for his private benefit or that he had made a false statement to his fellow members regarding west ern land transactions. He accused the President of personal malice. misrepre-s scntation, faIsifying, hitting below the belt" contempt of the Senate, and per version of authority in using the secret service.
 Incidentally, he gave official utter ance to the charge he made informally to a United Press representative on Saturday that important papers bear ing on the case at issue had been stol- en from his desk in his room at the capital. fprobably by some of the secret service sleuths. He also arraigned the President for permitting the so- called steel trust to absorb the Ten nessee Coal & Iron Company and for helping his dear friend Hartman to hold two million acres of the public domain because Senator Tillman want edat to buy 1,144 acres"
 The Senator demanded the most uvsn1ai iy,er iy,ry I,ie o%e invited comparison of his private life and public work with that of Theodore Roosevelt or any other man."
 He admitted that he was perhaps disingenuous" in the statement to the Senate declaring that he had not bought or undertaken to buy'' any of the lands in question. The question, he declared hinged on the meaning of the word undertaken" as he used it. He had not paid any money nor had he taken anyone's receipt "the usual processes by which one 'undertakes' to buy land" 'I have not attempted to deceive anybody" he declared with emphasis. T have not told any false hoods; I have not broken any law; I have not been guilty of any immoral conduct. had the right to purchase the land if could.''
 Replying to the Presidents charge that he had made improper use of his | fail to see any sense or reason in this. attitude. had not become a party to any litigation; I was not interested except as an individual wanting to purchase and as a Senator desiring to enable others to- have the opportunity to do so. Of course, the President is sure that I have done something very d7precable and outrageous; he hates me and would destroy me if he could"
 For the first time in his Senatorial career, MT. Tillman read his entire speech. There was intense silence as he arose and throughout the reading he was given the closest attention by his colleagues, many of whom had ex- pressed the hope that ne would be able to convince the Senate and the country of his innocence.
 For the first time in the history of this government" he began, "A mem- ber of. this body has been brought to the bar. of public opinion, before the Senate itself, to be judged under in dictment by no less person than the President of the United States. The manner of the doing of it, and the enmity and zeal displayed by the Chief Executive are worthy of consideration.
 .The papers were sent to Senator Hale as acting chairman of the Com mittee on Appropriations. The Presi- dent gave the communication to the press before the committee had seen the papers and examined into the mat ter.
 .It is we'll understood that the Presi- dent is an adept at advertising, and that he has used the Power with moro skill than any mar in American poli- tics. He realizes the importance of getting in the first blow though it was below the belt and might well convict him of cowardice. But he cared nothing either for courtesy, cus- tom or decency, thus treating the com mittee and the Senate with that con- tempt which has been his wont.
 Another possible reason TOT ms great haste was that he sought to dis tract attention from the action of the House in laying part of his message on the table, by making sensational ac- cusations against man who has had long service in the Senate. I could nave made my statement to the Senate ana 70 the country just as effectually on Saturday but realizing that the great Influence and power of the Chief Executive was being exerted to the limit of his ability to blacken my name and destroy my character, and that his words and the exhibits which he sent would be given the widest pub HcifV wh1fa m etc