Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1912-04-26
COLONEL MAKES STATEMENT
ON INT. HARVESTER CASE
In Which He Tells of His Connection with
1t, and Says That the Talk About
The Suppression of the
Report IsN0nsense.

/ oyster Fay. April g5.E@The tell
about the Suppression Of the report
| is nonsense said Col. Roosevelt, to-
night, in a statement setting forth his
connection with the International Har-
vester co. case. Col. Roosevelt
asserted that at a meeting with his
cabinet at which Mr., Taft was pres
emf ii was decided that the bureau
OF corporations be instructed to com
plete lis investigation of the Harves-
ter Co, before any suit was institute
ed following the usual course of pro-
cedure in such cases Mr.. Taft, he
added, concurred in this decision.
During the remainder of his admin
istration, a period of a year and a
half Col Roosevelt said, the commits
sioner of corporations was unable e
complete his Investigation. He said
that in the three years of the pres
ent administration Mr. Taft could at
any time have ordered the attorney
general to bring suit against the Har-
vester Co. or could have requested the
commissioner of corporations to hasten
/
took no action except that now talk
EN- five days before the Massachusetts
primary
"CoI. Roosevelt also said that when
the Northern Securities suit was
brought against the Morgan interests
in 1904, he was expecting to run for
President, but that when the Har-
vester Co matter came up in 1907 he
knew he would not be candidate the
following year. so that If the action
taken in this case did secure the good
wiz eof any of the Morgan interests
for anybody, it secured their good
will for Mr.. TAFT
Col Roosevelt spent most of the
afternoon in preparing his statement.
Il have just begun TO fight" he
said. earlier in the day. lie received
reports. this afternoon. of President
Tafts criticism of him in his speech
at Springfield. Mass, but declined 10
comment upon it, saying that he would
make his reply in his speeches in Mas
sachusetts.
Oyster Bay, n Y, April 25.-.'As re-
CARDS the Harvester Trust matter. the
following statement sent to me by Mr..
Bonaparte. my attorney general at the
time, and by Mr.. Herbert Knox Smith,
then and now commissioner Of corpora
tons. explain themselves.
Mr. Bonaparte wrote;
When l became attorney general 1
found a number of complaints on fife
about the Harvester Trust. aud some of
these were SO serious and specific that
/ directed an investigation. appointing
b. D. Townsend, then assistant United
States attorney in one of the Dakotas,
as special counsel for the subject He
worked very slowly and while VIC were
awaiting his report / received informa-
ton from other quarters and also aM
elaborate brief and argument Submitted
by Cravatl, if ! remember right in de-
fence of the trust and made up my mind
that a SUIT ought TO he instituted for its
dissolution / then learned from Herbert
Knox Smith that he as engaged IN an
investigation of the affairs of the Har-
vester Trust directed by the Senate UNI
der a resolution, 1 think. by Senator
Hansbrough of either North or South Da-
kota Smith said that the institution OF
suit against the trust would PUT a
stop to his investigation and 1 reported
the situation of affairs at cabinet
meeting. After a fun. but harmonious
discussion, it was decided, / think on the
advice of Secretaries Dix and Taft that
inasmuch as either house had right I'M
der the law creating the bureau of cor
porations to direct an Investigation by
that bureau. this investigation of Smith 5
must be considered as one conducted by
the Senate itself, and it would be appro-
pirate for the department Of justice "a
ySait it's conclusion before proceeding
With the suit
''You never gave me any instructions
of any kind about the suit / have an
indistinet recollection that you asked me
to see somebody who wished to talk with
me about it or on behalf of the trust,
and think it probable this was Crayath,
as know he gave me his brief and other
papers.
"'0f course you had nothing to do with
preventing the institution of the suit OK
cept insofar as you acquieseed in the
view taken by the cabinet to the effect
that in consequence of the provisions OF
the bureau of corporations act delay was
demanded by comfy towards the Sen
ate
Mr. Smith writes me in two COM
munications. In the first he recites that
on Aug. "A, 1907, he met me at New
York, where he said that Mr.. Perkins
protested against any suit (Which he,
Mr.. Perkins then understood to be
pending) being brought against the
Harvester Trust while the investiga-
tion by the bureau was still pending;
that on Aug. 26, he called on me ait
Oyster Bay and advocated my carry
ing out the policy of seeing that the
bureaus investigation was finished be-
fore any suit was started, on the
ground that the investigation would
BE- far more effective for reform than
any suit: that the suit being "a civil
and not criminal proceeding, no stat
ute OF limitations applied and con-
sequently haste WAS not essential and,
finally, that if the corporation was a
substantial offender the suit would