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Show Lodge Replies to Culberson Gives Facts Regarding- Private Letter of Roosevelt Upon "Which Texan Based His Speech. QUINCY, 111., Oct. 21. Henry Cabot Lodge tonight replied to the opeech of Senator Culberson of Texas In regard to a private letter written by President Roooovelt to Albert Shaw about Fana-mtu Fana-mtu He said: "Nothing could show the desperate and helpless condition of the Democratic campaign more strongly than the publication publi-cation under misleading headlines of the President's letter to Dr. Albert Shaw, which was read at a public meeting meet-ing In New York last night by Senator Sena-tor Culberson of Texas. The letter demonstrates, not that the President was guilty of complicity In the Panama revolution, but that he had absolutely refused to do anything which could by anj' possibility be taken as encouragement encourage-ment to the projects of revolution. Letter An Old One. "The letter, a prlvato one, was written writ-ten October 10, 1903. The revolution occurred November 2, and the letter, written long before the revolution, in all the fullness of private confidence, demonstrates that the President, no matter what his private wishes were, could not and did not take tiny part whatever in fomenting or encouraging the Insurrection. The effort Is made to give the Impression that this letter le something new, Just dragged from dark recesses to throw light on a shadowy transaction. What are the facts? Hero Are the Facts. "Just after the revolution of November Novem-ber 2 and 3 the opposition In the Senate charged that tho administration was guilty of fomenting and encouraging the revolution. Thereupon the President directed di-rected that this letter be given to the press and published. In order to show, as it does show, that he had carefully and scrupulously refrained from fomenting fo-menting Insurrection, and the letter wa3 accordingly given out and published Just a year ago. Not Withheld. "Senator Culberson says that from tho correspondence on the Panama matters sent to the Senate this letter was 'significantly 'sig-nificantly withheld.' Mr. Culberson knows as well as I that the Senate has never asked or could ask for a private letter of the President, and that no President has ever sent or will send Into the Senate copies of his prlvato letters, and this letter was private, personal and unofficial. Moreover, the letter was not' withheld, either, from publicity. Nothing1 to Conceal. "Two months or more after the revolution, revo-lution, and when the debate upon tho Panama treaty was going on In the Sen-nte Sen-nte an officer of the Senate told me that the Democratic Senators were- searching search-ing for a letter which thoy understood had been written to Dr Shaw, which had appeared somewhere and which they understood convicted the President of complicity in fomenting the revolution. revolu-tion. I replied that I knew the letter they meant. Gavo Letter to Gorman. "I went to the White House, got a copy of this letter to Dr. Shaw, and with full permission took It to tho Sen-ale Sen-ale and gavo It to Senator Gorman. A day or two after Senator Gorman asked me If I had any objection to his giving It to Senator Culberson. I rsald not the least; that the letter had been published and they could do what they liked with It. The Panama treaty went to a vote with that letter to Dr. Shaw In the possession of Democratic Senators." |