New-York tribune., 1912-04-29
T. R. GAVE OUT LETTERS
Record Shows He Made Public
Private Correspondence.
IFrnm The Trihnnc Rnrtan.

Washington, April eS-Mr. Roosevelt :
record In making public private CORE
spondenCe was made the subject Of the
following statement from the Taft bureau
tonight:
In bis speech at Worcester Mass. on Fri
day night ex-President Roosevelt, among
ether things. said:
MI Taft. without my permission. has
quoted entire letters from me. written in
answer TO letters Of his which were marked
cor fdential"
This complaint is a squea on the part
of an alleged valiant fighter. Evidently Nj.
Roosevelt has most CONVEX iently forgotten
the Henry VI. Whitneey, Bel'amy storcr aud
l.. II. Hartman incidents. where he hims II
not only gave out one letter. but reafns
Of letters, in an endeavor 70 ovcrwhelm his
opponents, the differenC. being. however.
that MIR. Roosevelt had 10 use an unusual
amount of space to explain his own letters
az the same time.
The Whitney incident was probably one
OF the worst on record of its kind. Henry
NJ. Whitney, Of Boston. later Democrat tic
candidate for Lieutenant Governor OF Mas
sachusetts. called at the White House ana
engaged Mr.. Roosevelt IN conversation on
The subject of Canadian reciprocity. Upon
returning home he repeated his understand
ing Of his conversation with Mr. RouSeve:
The President lid not undertake 10 deny
Mr Whitnev'S statement Until a few weeks
later. when group of prominent shoe man
ufacturers called at the White House TO
interest Mr. Roosevelt In free hides and
he then denounced Whitney guilty OF
deliberate misrepresentation" and made
his charge public.
Mr. Whitney promptly replied to MIR.
Roosevelt on November Il. 1896 President
Roosevelt replied the following day. No
vemher Is. 1905. and Immediately made pub
lie both his reply and Mr.. Whitney's re-
spectfW request.
I'm the Bellamy Storcr case. in 1906. Mr.
Storer sent confidential pamphlet TO vari-
Gus public officials, following his separati tion
from the diplomatic service. In which he,
by letters from and 10 President Roosevelt
Mrs. Storer and himself showed the animus
which actuated Mr.. Roosevelt in his re-
moval. Mr.. Storer denied cmphstically
that he ever gave these letters out TO the
newspapers. II Is known that sources close
10 Mr. Roosevelt published them and Mr.
Storer accepted the inspiration of their pub
lication as coming from Roosevelt himself
The Hartman campaign contribution con
trovcrSy. which arose over the fact that
Mr.. ltnrriman. at the request OF Mr.. Roose
Welt himself, had collected 2 campaign fund
OF $4,000 10 he used in New York alone 10
olect Mr Roosevelt. came to light In April
1901. A letter written by Mr.. Hartman
reached the newspapers I'm way not salts
factorily explained. hut not through Mr.
liarrman's assistance. and was published
despite Mr.. Harrim8n's earnest protest
Mr.. Roosevelt not only put Mr. Hartman
in the-Ananias club. but did II bv publish
ing four letters from Hartman to himself.
besides giving excerpts from several more.
Thus IT Is definitely established by the
actual records that Mr. Roosevelt not only
mat came into his possession whenever he
deemed II necessary for his purposes. but
not infrequentIy ne juggled them. and. In
Inc case of whitney. al least. he answered
respectful letter from free American
ciuzen py denying him square deal.