The Bennington evening banner. (Bennington, Vt.) 19??-1961, 1914-07-18
CLAIMS WHITMAN
KNEW CONTENTS
OF C.S. W.LETTER
DueIl Gives Lie TO New York
District Attorney
SAYS LETTER WAS 0. X D
Young Attorney Says Prosecutor Was
Willing to Sign Any Attack on
Barnes and Murphy

New York, July 17.-Charles II.
Duell, JT, told tonight what he said
was the full story of his political re-
lations with Charles S. Whitman and
Colonel Roosevelt. As a campaign
document II may be classed as red
hot" MIR. DUEL parts company with
the district attorney and casts his
lot with his older friend and mentor,
the Colonel
He pictures Mr. Whitman as so
eager to get Colonel Roosevelt's en-
to sign anything that the Colonel
should write denouncing William
Barnes, Jr., and Charles F. Murphy.
He says that he wrote, at Mr. Whit
mans request, the draft of the pro-
posed letter to the Non-Partisan
Whitman league inveighing against
MIR. Barnes and M. Murphy.
He says he read the draft to Mr..
Whitman; that Mr.. Whitman read it
himself approved it unqualiiedly
and said he would sign it If Mr..
Roosevelt would agree to support
him. or at least not to attack him.
This is the letter which Mr. Whit
man said, Thursday. he never saw
or heard Of Mr. Duell says he him
self initiated &C. S. w" on the copy
which went to Oyster Bay for identi-
fication purposes.
Mr.. Duell also says that on the al
ternoon of July | o. 2, Mr.. Whitman
and Mr.. Barnes had "a private talk
In the district attorneys apartment
at 81 Madison avenue and that Mr..
Whitman. describing 1t as merely a
friendly talk told Mr.. Duell that Mr..
Barnes had visited him there before.
The young lawyer, who plaintively
says that his attempt, made at Mr.
Whitman's suggestion, to get for Mr..
Whitman the support of all good citi
zens," failed "only because Mr.. Whit
man failed" attributes to the district
attorney full knowledge and approval
of everything that was being done.
lie says MI w nibulih III - tAoNEAN
up the question of Mr.. Roosevelt's
backing. He speaks of many talks
with Mr. Whitman and of more than
sixty telephone conversations-this
to meet what Mr. Duell takes to be a
reputation of him by the man he
professed TO be heding.
When Colonel Roosevelt returned
from Brazil. according to MIR. Duell,
"he told me that Mr.. Whitman must
show his courage and good faith by
saying openly what he said privately
and openly, attacking Mr.. Barnes
and Mr.. Murphy; that il Mr.. Whit
man would genuinely come out as a
moral force and would lead the anti
machine fight this fall, in good faith.
against both bosses by name, he, Mr..
Roosevelt, would support him loyal
""
A little later, says MIR. Doell, Mr..
Whitman proposed to put Mr.. Barnes
out of business at the Saratoga Re
publican convention on August Is or
force a nomination from him by stay
ing away from that convention and
addressing a Whitman Non-Partisan
League mass meeting at Syracuse.
which was to nominate Mr.. Whitman
a few days earlier.
Mr.. Duell says he repeatedly urged
Mr.. Whitman to make a declaration
satisfactory TO Colonel Roosevelt and
that the final result was the &c. $.
w" letter, which was drafted too
late.
He told me precisely what he
wanted to say in that letter" adds
Mr. Duell.