The Miller press. [volume] (Miller, S.D.) 190?-current, 1914-07-30
COLONEL BEG|NS7
PREPARE DEFENSE
ENGAGES LAW FIRM TO CONDUCT
HIS CAUSE IN $4,000 LIBEL
SUIT.
ALSO REVIEWS HIS ATTACKS
RooseveIt's Statement on Which Conn.
plant Is DISQUALIFICATION
of Political Leader.

Oyster Bay, N. Y, July 27.-TheoA
dore Roosevelt, after renewing his at.
tack on William Barnes, Republican
state chairman, has begun the work
Of preparing his legal defense in the
$500 libel suit begun against him
by Mr.. Barnes, as a result of the col.
onels recent statement abiding to the
chairman and Charles F. Murphy, lead.
er of Tammany hall.
Calls II BOSS Rule"
In that statement the former presi.
dent attacked so-called boss rule in
state politics AID favored the candi-
dacy of former State Senator Harvey
ID. Hinman for governor.
Col. Roosevelt engaged to defend
him the New York law firm, Bowers
and Sands, which acted for him in the
trial last year of his libel suit against
the Michigan publisher who charged
him with being an ~inebriate.
Colonel Makes Statement.
Colonel Roosevelt said he regarded
the action of Mr.. Barnes as the most
striking proof that could be given that
the bosses recognize in him personal
ly the one enemy that the type of ma
chine government for which they stand
has to fear.
Part. Of Colonel Roosevelt's state
ment on which Mr.. Barnes bases his
complaint, is as follows:
I'm this campaign ! have a duty to
the Progressives Of the nation and a
duty also to the state of New York. In
national politics, insofar as | am able.
| shall endeavor to strive for the sue
cess of the principles embodied in the
Progressive national platform. There
fore shall oppose the policies of the
present administration, which | regard
as deeply injurious alike to the honor
and the interest of the American peo-
pie.
Duty in State.
But in this state the prime duty is
a good citizens movements unior
movement to save the state from the
bipartisan control of Messrs. Barnes
N Murphy, precisely like the gooo
cltlzens' movement last year, when by
union the city was saved from the
domination of Mr.. Murphy. I hone
with all my heart hat all independent
citizens, whether Progressives. Repub-
leans or Democrats in their national
Affiliations, will stand shoulder TO
shoulder for clean non-partizan gov
eminent In the state at large this fall.
I'm New York state we see at it's
worst the development of the state of
bipartisan boss rule. The outcome of
this system is necessarily that invis-
Idle government which the Progress
sive party was in large part founded
TO oppose. 1t is impossible to secure
the economic, social and industrial re.
forms to which we are pledged until
this invisible government of the marty
bosses, working through the alliance
between crooked business and
crooked politics, is rooted out of our
government system. In New York
state the two political machines are
completely dominated, the one by Mr.
Barnes, he other by Mr.. Murphy. The
state government is rotten through
out in almost all of it's departments:
and this is directly due % the domi.
nance in politics of Mr.. Murphy and
his ~sub-bosses, acting through such
entirely subservient agents as Gov
ernors Dix and Glynn, aided and
aoetted when necessary by Mr.. Barnes
the s~ub-bosses of MIR. Barnes.
Calls Two Alike.
"Mr. Murphy and Mr.. Barnes are Of
exactly the same moral and political
type. Not one shadow of good comes
from substituting one for the other in
the control OF u government. Not
N shadow of good comes from per-
petuating a government seesaw with
nrst n OF them and then the other
at the upper end of the plank while
the function OF the people of the state
Is limited to serving as a trestle across
which the plank is laid.
The interests of Mr.. Barnes and
MIR. Murphy are fundamentally identi-
cal, and when the issue between popu-
lar rights and corrupt and machine
ruled government is clearly drawn.
Ooo~ AWAY Will D6 IOuUu
nghtng on the same side openly or
covertly, giving each other such sup
port as can with safety be rendered.
These bosses do not hold public office
themselves. They act through the
holders Of public office whom they con-
troll. Yet they really form the all DOW.
erful invisible government which is
responsible for the maladministration
and corruption in the public offices of
the state"
The Barnes Complaint.
Mr.. Barnes complaint asserts the
references to the plaintiff contained in
the statement were libelous, false and
untrue.
The defendant published said state
ment maliciously, and with intent