The Bridgeport evening farmer. [volume] (Bridgeport, Conn.) 1866-1917, 1916-11-02
PINCH0T EXPOSES
7. RS SURRENDER
TO TRUST BARONS
New York Lawyer Tells Colonel That He and
George w. Perkins Removed From Progress
sve Platform, After Its Adoption By the Com
mittee, Plank Directed Against Trusts.

New York, Nov. "A surrender
by Roosevelt in 1912 to the influences
of Wall Street quite as ignominious
as his Tennessee Coal and Iron sur
render to Morgan in 1907 is exposed
for the first time to the public in an
open letter addressed to-day to the
Colonel by his former supporter and
Progressive leader Amos r. E. Pin
chot.
The New York lawyer, brother OF
Clifford Pinchot, makes the startling
acusation-and supports it with
wealth of detail written from first
hand knowledge-that Roosevelt in
collision with George w. Perkins
suppressed an antitrust plank draft
ed by the 1912 Progressive resolu-
tons committee, adopted by the Pro-
gressive Convention and actually re-
leased to the press. 1t was recalled,
Mr.. Pinchot says, because the only
alternative left to Roosevelt was to
drive out of the Progressive party
the check books of the Trust Barons.' -
Mr.. Pinchot's letter follows in full:
New York, Nov. 1, 1916.
Colonel Theodore Roosevelt,
Oyster Bay, N. Y.
"Sir:
"In your Academy Of Music speech
at Brooklyn, October %, you charg-
ed the President with negligence,
cowardice and hypocrisy because he
allowed three and half years to go
war; You said, Mr.. Wilson's delay
6nn
has cost us seven years in time and
billions of dollars in money. And
you spoke of him with contempt be-
cause he did not begin building up
the navy as soon as he became Presi-
dent
"When Mr.. Wilson became tPresi-
dent you, Colonel Roosevelt, were not
for building up the navy. On the
contrary, you were q pacifist! Y GU
were running for the presidency on
an out-and-out pacifist platform.
Have you forgotten as well as repu-
dated your platform of 1912?
"'PEACE AND NATIONAL DE-
FENSE' was the title of that ten
line section in the Progressive Plat
form dealing with national defense.
In those ten lines it announced a
clear and unequivocal paciiism wor-
thy of Tolstoi 1t denounced war as
'barbaric.' It deplored it's survival
In civilization. It pledged the. party
to settle international disputes by
peaceful means. It cut your four
battleship program of 1908 in two
almost as pacific as your one battle
ship program Of 1905 and 1906-and
1t provided that the two-battleshir
program that remained should only
continue until an international agree
ment for the limitation of nava
forces could be secured. It did no
mention the army, or the coast de-
fense>. It was a pacifist platform from
A to u. And it was your own plat
form, the platform which you ran OIL
and constantly referred to as YOU
| contract with the people.
This platform omitted nothing yol
urged; contained nothing to which
you objected. For instance, the Reso
lutions Committee on August 6, 1912
adopted section calling for the pros
ecution of industrial monopolies -un
der a strengthened and simplife'
Sherman Law; the convention itsel
adopted this section on August 7, b
| unanimous vote; after it had thu
become an integral part of our plat
form, you and Mr.. George w. Per
| kinS secretly sent a request to tn