The Richmond Virginian. (Richmond, Va.) 1910-1920, 1917-08-05

1 am perfectly willing to leave the
public to decide whether the lam
guage above is "abuse" or attack"
on DR.. Cannon.
1t is certainly very kind OF you to
accept the guardianship of Mr.. Hep
burn and myself. You say in your
letter of August 8:
/ do not mean to charge you
with purposely nisrepresenting
facts. but your statement shows
that you have allowed your blind
devotion to Dr. Cannon to cause
you to indulge in vain imagin-
ings. YOU like Mr.. Hepburn,
have allowed DR.. Cannon's in
fiuence over you not only to warp
your judgment, but to impair
your memory.
Following this you say that I will
he amazed from the accompanying
statement OF Senator Mathews. which
statement did not appear.
Senator Mathews made the follow
ing statement to me regarding your
connection with the s. Q. g. virginian
letter. When Mr.. Mathews asked me
why The Eirginian was not printing
your speeches and communications
In your favor. told him II II were
true that you allowed the letter sent
to you by The Virginian to be pub
lished in the News Leader. knowing
that said letter would be of great In
jury to The Virginian and possibly
cause It's failure. l could not see how
you could claim any support from the
paper. Mr. Sfathews told me that he
did not believe the report and would
investigate it. within A few days af-
terward he told me that he had seen
you and that you had explained to
him the matter as fol;ows;
You received letter: It was lying
on your desk when reporter from
the News Leader came In during
your absence. read the letter and re-
quested your stenographer to let him
have It for publication, to which she
declined, but did let him copy the
letter and take copy with the UNI
derstanding that he would not pub
lish the letter without your consent,
and that the letter was published
without your consent.
DIR. Cannon's charge. in regard to
this letter was. that II found its way
from your office to the office OF the
News Leader" In reply to this you
wrote on July 20. for publication
that the charge made. referring to
DIR. Cannon. that you gave out for
publication the distress letter from
The Eirginian was absolutely false.
claim that you knew the facts and
that you were not FAIR in changing
DR.. Cannon's statement so that you
could brand It AZ false. It was at
this point that I decided to write you
and withdraw my support.
Mr.. David Hepburn was support
ing you until July 4. 1917. at which
time, he claims that you made a Sc
we're attack on DR.. Cannon. You now
say that You. like Mr.. Hepburn
have allowed DR.. Cannon's influence
over you not only TO warp your judg.
ment. but to impair your memory
You must. at least. give Mr.. Hepburn
and myself credit for holding our
judgment from warping ana our mem.
cries from being impaired for some
time at least. wish to state. posi-
lively. that ( have never discussed
with DIR. Cannon in any way. anything
that occurred at the syorrolk meetint
or has he ever In any way tried b,
word or act to influence me agains
supporting you.
am sorry, more for the cause thar
for any personal reasons. that there
should have been any friction between
the temperance forces of the state
and you must admit that I have done
all could to steer you ami YOU
friends from personal attacks, for po
lithcal reasons against DR. Cannon
However. you may attribute this =
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