Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1918-05-23
SAYS LAFOLLETTE
TALK PATRIOTIC
Reports of 1t Garbled and
Erroneous, Senator's
Counsel Argues

Washington.-The charge of the
Minnesota Public Safety Commits
sion that Senator La Follette's speech
eight months ago was seditious and
disloyal was declared baseless by the
senator, through his counsel. before
the Senate privileges and elections
committee, which is investigating the
charges.
Gilbert e. Roe, the senator's at
torney and his former law partner,
asserted the speech was highly pa
triotic and came clearly within the
rights of the senator to make. He
said the press reports and the tran
script furnished by the Minnesota
commission were garbled.
1T is no doubt true that the senti-
ments expressed in the speech are
displeasing to many persons and
many interests" he added, but the
charge that it contains anything dis
loyal or seditious or anything that a
United States senator, or for that
matter any citizen, might not prop
erly say is grotesquely absurd"
Among the statements in the
speech the accuracy of which has
been questioned was one declaring
that Secretary Bryan had warned
President Wilson that the Lusitania,
before sailing on her last trip, car
that passengers should not be al
lowed to sail on her. A brief sub
mitted by Mr.. Roe reiterated it and
said if its accuracy is questioned,
the Senator would be glad to sub
NIT detailed proof of the facts"
Says Reports Were At Fault
The brief also says:
The resolution of the Public
Safety Commission, which is the
basis of this investigation, does not
contain any charge or suggestion
that any statement in the speech is
Inaccurate in point of fact. Senator
La Toilette has affirmed in this rec
ord that he believed all statements
in the speech to be true at the time
he made them and that he still be-
lieves them to be true.
1T is true that all the newspapers
of the country served by the Asso-
ciated Press the day after the speech
entirely misquoted Senator La Fol-
lette, as proved by the record, and
made him say the very opposite of
what he really said concerning our
grievances against Germany which
led to the war. 1t is true that this
falsehood has been repeated and
multiplied during all the months that
have since elapsed and has been cum
nlngly USED TO procure votes Oh con-
demnation from various individuals
and bodies throughout the country.
Through all this, Senator La Toilette
has remained silent"
(Note by the Associated Press-The
record of the Senate committee
shows that the La Toilette case has
been under consideration eight
months and that the Associated
Press account of the st. Paul speech,
so far as the record shows, has never
been challenged before.)
Not Improper Talk of War
TT is only by distorting the i'm
promptu retorts of Senator La Fol-
lette to Interruptions from the audi
ence," continues the brief, into a
complete discussion of the intricate
causes of the war that anything can
be found in the speech to which the
most jealous partisans of the admin
istration can object. But under any
construction possible to put upon 1t,
it does not even approach to an i'm
proper discussion of the war;"
No senator, the brief says. has
lever been attacked and assailed by
a war party and a war-mad press as
Senator La Toilette had been at
tackled even prior to the St Paul
speech"
The hearing will be continued.
After submitting his brief Mr.. Roe
began reading the speech, stopping
to discuss parts of it which have
been the subject of attack.