The Birmingham age-herald., 1912-04-26

icus and Opelika, Ala, but before any arrived the blaze was under control. The baseball game between the Columbus and Albany teams of the South Atlantic league was postponed and the ball play CTS aided the local fire fighters in sub duing the flames
 
 partment, and in the Attorney Generals office. In this Harvester trust case acted precisely as I acted In all the other cases and as under like circum- stances I should always act, and any other action would have been grossly improper.
 "In this case the Attorney General brought the papers out for discussion and final settlement at cabinet meeting. MT Taft was one of the members of the cabinet on the occasion.
 Was Full Discussion
 "rhere was a full discussion of the matter in which every member of the cabinet who was a lawyer took part, and one or two members who were not law yers. It was unanimously agreed that as the investigation was being conducted by the commissioner of corporations, un- der a resolution of the Senate. the aues- ton of bringing a suit should not be decided until the investigation was fin- ished. I assume full responsibility for thls decision, but the entire cabinet, in- cluding Mr Taft, heartily concurred in 1t.
 ''rhe talk about the suppression of the report is nonsense. The bureau of corporations has never made a report on the subject. The letter of Commissioner Smith to me- protesting against action by the department of justice, followed ex- actly the same course as was followed with all such letters that I received. It went to the department of justice, a copy, I presume, being retained in the bureau of corporations. I had no idea, and as a matter of fact, never gave a thought to whether either or both de- partnents would or would not at any time publish it, and until this matter came up was ignorant whether or not 1t had ever been published. I presume the usual custom was observed in each department.
 He Sums Up
 "Let me sum up:
 '1. took precisely the action in the Harvester trust case that I took In all similar cases.
 "2 I was entirely responsible for the action taken, but it was taken with the full approval of the entire cabinet in- cluding MT. Taft, who was then a mem Der of the cabinet
 .a3 There remained at the time less than a year and a half of my administration. During this time, for the reasons given by MT. Smith, he was not able to finish the report ordered by the Senate. Dur ing this period, as Mir Smith writes me, the only instructions I gave him in re- gard to the report were orders intended to facilitate it's preparation and ppblica- tion.
 '4. Over three years have elapsed since Mr Taft became President. During this entire time the letter of MT. Smith has been in the office of the Attorney Gen. eral and Mir Taft cannot have forgotten the debate about 1t in the cabinet meet ing when he was a member of the cab met and in which he took part. During these three years MT. Taft could at any time have ordered the Attorney General to proceed against the Harvester trust without regard to the report. or have requested the commissioner of corpora tions either to hurry up the report or to give him the reasons why it was inn possible to hurry it up.
 Did Not Suppress Report
 "5. Not only did I not suppress any papers connected with the case, but left every paper on file either in the department of justice or in the bureau of corporations. and if anything wrong had been done, either in the way of omis- sion or commission, the administration had three years and two months in which to correct the wrong.
 "6 MT. Taft has been over three years in the White House. During that period he has had ample time either to pub fish the facts or to take action against the Harvester trust He has taken no action, except that now taken, five days before the Massachusetts primary. ''7 This matter was brought up in the Senate on the motion of Senator John ston, who, as a member of both commit tees to investigate MT. Lorimer, has been his earnest supporter and advocate. The circumstances under which 1t was passed and responded to give ground for the belief that the pre-arranged purpose was to show that for some improper reason I had favored the Harvester trust, and the Morgan interests. When under my administration the Northern Securities suit was brought against MT. Morgan, l was expecting to run, and as a matter of fact, did run for President in 1904. When this Harvester trust matter came up, it was certain that l was not going to run, and Mir Taft expected to run and I expected that he would run in 1908. The action that took against MT. Mor- gan was taken when I personally was to pay for any consequences resulting from Mr Morgan's i'll will. If the action taken In the Harvester trust did secure the good will of that trust or any of the Morgan interests, for anybody, it secured their good will for Mir. Taft
 But. as a matter of fact, in neither