Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1911-12-01
ROOSEVELT ACCUSED.
Responsible Witness Says Former
President was Party to 1907 Panic.

Resp onsible Witness Says Former
President was Party to 1907 Panic.
: Wharton Barker, a retired banker
of Philadelphia, sprung a sensation on
the senate comnittee on interstate
commerce last Tuesday when he al
legged that a New York f1nancier told
him in 1904 that the financial interests
would support Theodore Roosevelt for
president because the latter had made
a bargain" with them ION the railroad
question"
Mr.. Barker's statement came in the
midst Of a vigorous attack on the
money trust" in which he alleged al
so that President Roosevelt had been
given the details Of the impending
panic of 1907 several months before
it happened, but took no action to pre-
vent It. He declared that the Aldrich
currency plan was the handiwork, not
of former Senator Aldrich, but of a
Mr.. Warburg of the banking firm Of
Kuhn, Loeb & Co., Of New York, and
that a fund of $1,000,000 had been
started to insure its adoption.
Three or four weeks before the
election in 1904" said Mr.. Barker, I
was walking down Broadway when
met one Of the most distinguished mo-
ney kings in New York, man now
dead. He said to me: We are going
to elect Roosevelt I expressed sur
prise and asked If he had given up the
support of Parker. He said yes; that
they had frightened Roosevelt so he
had made bargain with them"
Mr.. Barker said the financial giant,
whom he declined to name, told him
that Roosevelt had made a bargain
on the railroad question" Mr.. Bar
ker continued:
HE is to holler all he wants to-
he told me, but by and by railroad
bill will be brought in by recommen-
dation Of the president cutting off re-
bates and free passes, which suits US
who own the railroads, permitting the
railroads to make pooling arrange
ments and providing for maximum
rates."
The railroad man added, said Mr..
\ 1Barker,-that under the latter author
ity it would be possible to add from
$500, 100000 to $40O,OOO,000 to the to-
tai freight charges paid by the Amer
lean public.
81 told him I didn't believe Roose-
velt had made any such agreement"
said Mr.. Barker, but when the an
nual message of 1905 went to con-
gress he recommended most Of those
things. I wrote to President Roose-
Welt and told him what I heard and
that had thought the man lied, but
now I must believe he had not. 1t was
the only letter Of mine Mr.. Roosevelt
ever failed to answer"
Members Of the committee asked
Mr.. Barker to give the name Of the
financial man who had told him that
Roosevelt was to be elected.
II cannot do It," said Mr.. Barker,
"but subsequently somebody was al
legged to have stolen some correspond
ence between Mr.. Hartman and the
president telling of $250,O0O put up for
election expenses in the city Of New
York"
Referring to the panic Of 1907, Mr.
Barker said a man who was present
at a conference at J. P. Morgan's
house in May came to him in Phila-
delphia and wanted him to use his in
fuence with President Roosevelt to
stop a plan that had been mapped
out, he alleged, by the financial lead
ers. The man was a captain In the
Rough Riders, he said, and had used
his own influence with the president,
but without avail.
The plan," said Mr.. Barker, CON
templated the curtailment of loans,
the withdrawal of credits, the putting
away of money by those interested
where they could get 1t when they
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 COM
panies."
Mr.. Barker said that in October,
when the financial upheayal reached
it's crisis. he urged President Roose-
velt to distribute the $145,O0O,000 Of
cash on hand in the treasury among
the banks of Chicago, Philadelphia,
Boston and other large cities.
He wanted to do It," he said, but
he called in Mr.. Knox and Mr.. Cortel-
you and Mr. Root, and instead of de-
posting in the outside cities, he
plunged the whole amount into Wall
Street. 1t broke the country, but 1t
saved the gamblers"
Mr.. Barker, whose banking house
at one time was fiscal agent for the
Russian government, declared that
the great money oligarchy" of New
York controlled all lines Of finance.
industry and transportation and that
no design to break up the trust
would strike at the root Of the trou-
BILE.
Few people appreciate" he said,
"how by control Of the money OF trust
companies, savings banks and nation
al and state banks, this money trust
has throttled individual enterprise"
Mr.. Barker urged a central bank
of the United States, to be controlled
by directors chosen from arbitrary
districts covering the whole country.
That would take the people out Of
the clutches of Wall Street and
put them in possession of their own
rights" he said.
William L. Royan of Richmond,
Va, also appeared before the COM
mittee and declared the decree to
dissolve the American Tobacco COM
pany, was a roaring farce" He also
asserted that the Sherman antitrust
law, if strictly interpreted, was un-
constitutional and needed amendment.
| ,3Tr The farce comedy that fails to