The Wisconsin tobacco reporter. (Edgerton, Wis.) 1877-1950, 1912-09-06
COL, ROOSEVELT IN
HIS OWN DEfEN
Letter to Senator Moses E.
Clapp Is Given Out.
Saws that Present Attack or John D.
ArchboId and Senator Penrose Is
Solely Upon Late Cor
neiius NJ. Bliss.

which ne gave TO senator MOSES u.
Clapp, chairman of the senate CAM
paign investigating committee, before
which John D. Archbold and Senator
Penrose charged that Mr. Roosevelt
had been party to the soliciting and
accepting Of Standard Oil campaign
contributions in 1904.
Mr.. Roosevelt almost at the open
inc gives the lie in these words:
Colonel Charges FaIsehood.
GAS regards the statements Of Mr..
Penrose and Mr. Archbold that with
my consent or knowledge Mr. Bliss
asked the Standard Oil people for
100000 or any other sum, or received
such sum from them, it is an unquali-
fed falsehoOd."
Farther on Colonel Roosevelt com
pares Senator Penrose to a grating
policeman, and adds, His language is
precisely the language that might be
used by Matchmaking police officer in
a big city in advising the keeper of
a law-breaking liquor saloon or a gam
bling house to contribute literally, be-
cause otherwise he might incur hos
tility in certain quarters If this
language were proved against the po-
liceman he would be removed from
the police force"
Full Publicity Promised.
Mr.. Roosevelt promises that there
shall be full publicity of contributions
in his primary last spring.
81 wish to emphasize the fact" he
continues, that the testimony of Mr..
Archbold and Mr.. Penrose in this mat
ter is an attack on Mr. Bliss, who is
dead, and is also, Unwittingly, the Sc
verest possible reflection on them
selves; but it is in no sense any attack
on me except insofar as they assert
that the dead man said that I knew
of his request for money from them.
81 do not believe that Mr. Bliss
said this any more than l believe their
accusation that Mr.. Bliss deliberately
tried to blackmail the Standard Oil
company But please keep in mind
that this is an assault on Mr.. Bliss
and not on me-
After a sweeping denial of knowl-
edge or consent to any of the steps
in the transactions as set forth by
the two witnesses, he pays a glow
ing tribute to the memory Of Mr..
Bliss, but adds that, of course, he
could not say whether Mr.. Bliss had
! asked for or had received the money
Quotes Od Bliss Interview.
Futher to prove that his skirts are
entirely clean in the matter, although
the skirts of others might net be so
clean, Mr.. Roosevelt quotes from what
purported to be an interview with
Cornelius n. Bliss, published in the
New York Herald of Dec. "A, 1911. In
this Mr.. Bliss is quoted as correcting
Edward H. Harriman's assertion that
in 1904 he received word of the des-
perate state in New York from Mr.
Roosevelt. Mr.. Bliss said that he con-
veyed that information to the rail
road man. He discusses the situa-
tioa and the steps taken to raise the
| 100000. At the conclusion of the in
| terview there are these questions
quoted in the Roosevelt letter which
apparently farther involve Mr.. Bliss:
Then the president had nothing to
do with the raising of the money!"
Answer: mot once in the confer
ence of the committee was there any
suggestion that he was doing it. The
only thing that Mr.. Roosevelt had to
do with such matters was to issue or
| ders that money was not to be accept
| ed from this or that person. His or
ders were ignored, as 1t was rec
| ognized that this was something about
which he must not interfere and
| brooked no interference"
| Cortelyou Correspondence Cited.
The letter to Senator Clapp, which
| is about $1,000 words long, goes ex-
| haustively into his correspondence
with Chairman Cortelyou of Oct. 26
and q, in which it is ordered that
! the 100000 from the Standard Oil
| company be returned at once, al
! though the sum is not mentioned, all
of which was just after the time that
! Alton B. Parker had first made his
| charge that the Republican nominee
and his chairman were obtaining
money from the great corporations in
! an effective way