The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1911-11-29
SAYS ROOSEVELT MADE DEAL WITH
 THE RAILROADS
Wharton Barker Declares Wall Street Supported Ex-Presi- dent in 1904, Follow
 Bargain
QUOTES A DEAD FINANClER
Who Said Subsequent Legisla- ton Roosevelt Urged Added Nearly $4OO,0O0,OO0 to Freight Charges

Washington, Nov. 29-Wharton Bar ker, g. retired banker of Philadelphia, sprung sensation on the Senate com mittee on Interstate Commerce yes terday when he alleged that a New York financier told him in 1904 that the financial interests would support Theodore Roosevelt for President be- cause the latter had made a bargain" with them lon the railroad question:"
 MT. Barker's statement came in the midst of g. vigorous attack on the Money Trust, in which he alst al- legged that President Roosevelt was aware of the impending panic of 1907 several months before it happened, but took no action to prevent it. He de clared that the Aldrich currency plan was the handiwork not of former Sen-
 ator Aldrich but of Mr. Warburg of
 the banking firm of Kuhn, Loeb &
 Co. of New York, and that a fund of
 $1, 900, 600 had been started to insure
 its adoption.
 Three or four weeks before the
 election in 1904" said MT. Barker, "I
 met one of the most distinguished
 financiers in New York, now dead. He
 said to me: We are going to elect
 Roosevelt I expressed surprise, and
 asked if he had given up the support
 of Parker. He said, 'Yes'-that they had made a bargain with them.' Members of the committee looked somewhat incredulous, and MT. Barker added:
 ''I wish MT. Roosevelt were here.' 'I wish he were,' said Senator Townsend; ''it would be interesting" Mr. Barker said that the financ1er yxy11OYo 11a dan1tnad further told him that Roosevelt had made a bargain on the railroad question: MT. Barker continued:
 "He is to holler all he wants to- he told me. "eBy and by railroad bill will be brought in by recommendation of the President cutting off rebates and free passes, which suits us, who own the railroads, permitting the railroads to make pooling arrangements, and pro- vidilng for maximum rates.'" The railroad man added, MT. Barker said. that under the latter authority 1t would be possible to add from $3O0.- 0OO, 900 to $4OO, 1000, 900 to the total freight charges paid by the American public.
 q told him I didn't believe Roose- volt had made any such agreement said MT. Barker, ''but when the annual message of 1905 was sent to Congress he recommended most of those things. I wrote to President Roosevelt and told him what I heard, and that l
 had thought the man lied, but now I
 must believe he had not. It was the
 only letter of mine MT. Roosevelt ever
 failed to answer
 Members of the committee asked MT.
 Barker to give the name of the finan- cier who had told him that Roosevelt was to be elected.
 HARTMAN MENTIONED "I cannot do it,'' said MT. Barker, "but subsequently, somebody was al- leged to have stolen some correspond ence between MT. Hartman and the President, telling of $250yO00 put up for election expenses in the city of New York;
 Referring to the panic of 1907, MT. Barker said a man who was present at 8 conference at J. F. Morgan's s house in May came to him in Phila- delphia and wanted him to use his in- huence with President Roosevelt to stop a plan that had been mapped out, he alleged, by the financial leaders. The man was a captain in the Rough Riders, he said, and had used his own | influence with the President, but with out avail.
 "The plan,' said MT. Barker, econ templated the curtailment of loans. the | withdrawal of credits, the putting away of money by those interested
 where, they could get it when they l needed it to stop the panic, and the enforcement of the various State laws regarding. the holding of cash reserves | by the banks-and trust companies | Mr. Barker said that in October | its crisis, he urged President Roosevelt to distribute the $145,000, ,000 of cash on hand in the treasury among the banks 1 of Chicago, Philadelphia, Boston, and | other large cities.
 "He wanted to do it," he said, "bu. ! he called in Mr. Knox and MT. Cortel- you and MT. Root, and instead of de- posting in the outside cities, he | plunged the whole amount into Wall Street. 1t broke the country but ii | saved the gamblers" | MT. Barker, whose banking house al
 one time was fiscal agent for the Rus sian government, declared that those | who backed the Aldrich monetary plan | had begun a propaganda" in which ii was proposed to spend $1 ,000, 900 to ef- 1 feet the indorsernent of the proposed | currency legislation. l Yesterday a banker in Philadelphia started to collect that city's share of
 the money-s1Oo, ,oO0." he added. l He declared that the great money | oligarchy" of New York controlled all lines of finance, industry, and trans 1 portation, and that no legislation de-
 signed to break up the trusts would
 strike at the root of the trouble.
 "Few people appreciate how, by con- | trol of the money of trust companies | savings banks, and National and State
 banks, this money trust has throttle6 | individual enterprise he said. He urged a law that would compel Ma tioral banks to hold their legal re- serve in cash instead of having the power to re-deposit part of it in the banks of New York.
 Nothing but those immense re. serves, varying from $250,000,000 tc
 S350, 100000. makes New York the money power 1t is,' said MT. Barker | insisting that the Aldrich currency plan would strengthen this financia force by enabling the banks to ust public credit for their own ends.