The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1915-12-08
MESSAGE GIVEN TO
 PRESS ON NOV. 30

Washington, Dec. 8.-The White House realized last night that Presf- dent Wilson's message had been in the possession of Wall sstreet spec 1 Presidents private secretary, MT. Tu- rl1ulty. probably will make an investi- gation.
 r AS a result of the scandal, it is probable the President will decide that the entire system of distributing g the message must be changed in the future.
 Under the present system the Pres | ident'S message is handed to the 1 Washington representatives of news paper press associations just as soon as it is prepared. Each pres asso- | it is prepared Each press asso- citation is given enough copies to sup ply it's papers throughout the coun- try.
 The President may decide that hereafter no copy of the message shall leave the hands of his confidential
 men until he has actually reached the ] Capitol and started co read the doc ument.
 l President Wilson on Nov. 30 pat the finishing 4ouches to the docu- ment and at Il o'clock in the morning the Public Printer was called to the l White House and given the copy.
 At 6 o'clock the Public Printer re- turned to the White House with the finished copies. A few minutes after 1 6J representatives of the press asso- citations signed forms, made for the occasion, promising to divu1ge to no one the contents of the document and to safeguard against publication till the President had actually spoken the first words
 That was one week ago last night. Within, three days rumors began to be circulated that the document had fallen into hands which were not sup posed to have it.
 It is understood that Ambassadors 1 and Ministers of the warning powers were taken in on the Teak" at least to the degree of giving them informa- ton concerning those sections bearing upon the European situation It is assumed that the information was re- l layed back to them from some of | their Wall Street friends. Senators and, Representatives ex- pressed great surprise and iindi ignatfon when informed thaA President Will sons first message to the Sixty fourth l Congress had been hawked about Wall Street for days.
 s'I am not surprised at anything Wall Street is inclined to do,'' said ] Senator Ashurst of Arizona <5' That is ! just one of the least of it's disgrace fuI performances. Such a scandal is most deplorab1e, and everything g possible should be done to prevent a 1 recurrence.''
 Senator William Alden smith of Michigan, said:
 sI cannot conceive of thing like that taking place. When Senators | and Representatives are not privileged to see such messages before they are delivered. certainly nobody else should ! livery, measure should be taken to guard againstia repetition of it'' Senator Jones of Washington said: | "A message that is likely to affect l stocks and speculative securities, cer- tain1y should not be permitted to reach l in advance a few persons who could misuse it. The person of persons re- sponsible Tor it should be punished. .'
 Representative Keating@ of Colorado said:
 The only way to guard against such an accident is to keep 5Presiden- tial messages absolutely confidential 19fltil they are given to everybody. For example, several members informed me that they knew in a general way something of the contents of the message