Omaha daily bee., 1910-09-02
Roosevelt on Mendacious Journalism
The outlook.

Aloohs
Il merely scientifically and descriptively,
and because no other terms express the
facts with the necessary precision. In the
article in which the Evening Post" comes
to the defense OF those in present control
of the republican party in New York
state. whom Il has affected to oppose In
the past. the Evening POST through
through whatever editor personally per-
sonay wrote the article. practiced every
known form OF mendacity.
Probably the Evening Post regards the
decalogue as outworn: but II It will turn
to 1t and will read the eighth and ninth
commandments. 1t will see that bearing
false witness is condemned as strongly as
theft itself. To take but one instance out
of the many In this article. the Evening
Post" says: ut was Roosevelt who asked
Hartman to come to the White House
secretly, who took his money TO buy votes
in New York, and who afterwards wrote
10 My Dear Sherman-yes the same Sher-
man-reviling the capitalist to whom he
had previously written, saying: You and
1 are practical men, Not ony is every
important statement in this sentence false.
but the writer who wrote I knew II was
false. As far as 1 was concerned, every
man visied the white House openly, and
Mr. Hartman among the others. took
no money from Mr.. Hartman secretly or
openly to buy votes or for any other pur-
pose. Whoever wrote the article in the
Evening POST in question knew that this
was tho foulest and basest lie when he
wrote the sentence, for he quotes the same
letter in which had written TO Mr.. Har-
riman as follows what 1 have to say
to you can be said TO you as well after
election as before, but would like to see
you some time before write my message"
I am quoting without the letter before me
but the quotation is substantially, II not
verbally, accurate. That statement in
this letter TO Hartman is OF course on its
face absolutely incompatible with any
thought that was asking him for cam
paign funds for It il of course out OF the
question that could tell him equally well
what / had to say after election II 1t re-
ferred in any possible way to getting money
before election This Is so clear that any
pretense Of Misunderstanding is proof posi-
tive Of the basest dishonesty in whoever
wrote the article in question. AS a matter
OF fact, when Mr.. Hartman called It was
to complain that the National Committee
would not turn over for the use OF the
state campaign In which he was interested
funds to run that campaign, and to ask
me to tell Cortelyou to kive him aid for
the state campaign. Mr.. Cortelyou 10 IA
maliar with the facts. In other words the
statement Of the Evening POST os not
only false and malicious. is not only in
direct contradiction Of the facts, but Is
such that it could only have been made by
a man who, knowing the facts, deliberately
intended to pervert them. Such an act
10, al
worst act ever performed by a corrupt
member OF a legislature or city official,
and stamps the writer with the same moral
brand that stamps the briketaker.
1 have Eeen only telegraphic abstract
Of the article, apparently. containing quo
tations from it. Practically every state
ment made in these quotations is a false
hood.
To but one more shall 1 allude. The ar
ticle speaks OF my having attacked cor
porations, and, referring directly TO my
Ohio speeches, of my having Sought to
inflame the mob and make mischief" In
those speeches the prime stand / took was
against mob violence shown by the labor
people who are engaged In controversy
with corporation. Ny statement was in
effect that the first duty of the state and
he first dnuty of the officials was to put
down disorder and to put down mob vio
lence. and that after such action had been
taken, then it was the duty Of the Of
ficals to investigate the corporation, and
II 1t had done wrong to make It pay the
penalty Of its wrongs and to provide
against the wrongdoing in the future. It
is but another instance OF the peculiar base
ness, the peculiar moral oboqulty. OF the
Evening Post" that it should pervert the
truth in SO shameless fashion.
THEODORE ROOSEVELT.
Cheyenne, Wyoming August 81. 1910.
(Such an article as that to which Mr..
Roosevelt refers is not primarily the con-
Germ Of the man assailed; it is primarily
the concern OF decent citizens all over the
country; It's harm to the individual in this
case can be disregarded; but its harm to
good government is just as real. and, so
far as 1t extends, just as deep as the worst
act of the corruptionist.-The Editors)
the machine. with a demand that the victim
be pulled higher so that she might see him.
Now that this woman has been arrested
perhaps she will realize that curiosity may