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Show 'SMS ROOSEVELT iViADE A BARGiN fflTH RAILROADS WASHINGTON, Nov. 28. Wharton Barker, a retired -t- banker of Philadelphia, sprung a sensation on the senate -f committeo on Interstate com- I mercc today when ho alleged that a Now York financier told -t- him in 1904 that the financial Interests would support Theo- 1 -f doro Roosevelt for President, because the latter "had made 4- a bargain" with them "on the I railroad question." H Mr. Barker's statement came In tho midst of a vigorous attack upon the "money trust" In which ho alleged also that Presldeut Roosevelt had been given the details of the impending im-pending panic of 1007 several months before it happened, but took no action ac-tion to prevent it He declared tho Aldrlch currency plan was the handwork, hand-work, not of former Senntor Aldrlch, but of Mr. Wharburton, of the banking bank-ing firm of Kuhn, Loeb & Co- of New York, and that a fund of $1,000,00 had been started to Insure its adoption ad-option "Three or four weeks before the election of 1904," Mr. Barker said, "I was walking down Broadway when I mot ono of the most distinguished money kings of New York, a man now dead. He said to me: " 'We aro going to elect Roosevelt Roose-velt I expressed surprise and asked if he had given up the support of Parker He said yes, that they had frightened Roosevelt so ho had made a bargain with them," Wlched Roosevelt Was Present. Members of the committee looked somewhat incredulous and Mr. Barker Bar-ker added: "I wish Mr. Roosevelt wore here." "I -wish he were," Senator Town-send Town-send said, "It would be Interesting." Mr. Barker said tho financial giant, whom ho declined to name, told him that Roosevelt 'had made a bargain on the railroad question." Mr. Barker continued: "He Is to holler all he wants' to," he told me, "but by and by a railroad rail-road bill will ho brought In by recommendation rec-ommendation of the President cutting cut-ting off rebates and frco passes, which suits us, who own tho railroads, rail-roads, permitting the railroads to make pooling arrangements, and providing pro-viding for maximum rates." Would Add to Freight Charges. The railroad man added, Mr. Barker Bar-ker said, that under that authority It would be possible to add $300,000,-000 $300,000,-000 to $400,000,000 to the total freight charges paid by the American public pub-lic "I told him T did not believe Roosevelt Roos-evelt had made any such agreement," Mr Barker said, "but when the annual an-nual messaso of 1905 went to con-gress, con-gress, he recommended most of those things. I wrote to President Roosevelt Roose-velt and told him "what I heard and that I had thought the man lied, but now I must believe he had not. It was tho only lettor of mine Mr. Roosevelt ever failed to answer." Members of the committee asked Mr Barker to give the name of the financial man who told him that Roosevelt was to be elected. "I cannot do it," Mr. Barker said, "but subsequently somebody was alleged al-leged to have stolen some corres pondence between Mr. Harriman and the President, telling of $250,000 put up for election expenses in the city of New York." Recalls Panic of 1907. Referring to the panic of 1907, Mr Barker said a man who was present at a conference at J P. Morgan's house in May, came to him in Philadelphia Phil-adelphia and wanted him to uso "his influence with President Roosevelt to stop a plan that had been mapped out, he alleged by the financial leaders. lead-ers. The man was a captain In the Rough Riders, ho said, and had used his own influence with the President but without avail. "The plan," Mr. Barker said, "con templated tho curtailment of loans, the withdrawal of credits, the putting away of money by those Interested where they could get it when they needed it to stop the panic, and tho enforcement of the various state laws regarding the holding of cash reserves by the banks and trust companies." com-panies." Mr. Barker said that in October, when the financinl upheaval reached its crisis, he urged President Roosevelt Roose-velt to distribute the $145,000,000 of cash on hand in the treasury among the banks of Chicaco, Philadelphia, Boston and othor large cities. Saved the Gamblers. "He wanted to do it," he said, 'but ho called in Mr. Knox and Mr. Cor-lelyou Cor-lelyou and Mr. Root, and instead of depositing It in the outside cities, he plunged tho whole amount Into Wall street. It broke the country, but it saved the gamblers." Tho Philadelphia man. whose hanking hank-ing house at one time was fiscal agent for the Russian government, declared that those who backed the Aldrlch monetary plan had a "propaganda" in which It was proposed to spend $1,000,000 to secure the endorsement of the proposed currency legisla Hon. "Yesterday a banker in Philadelphia Philadel-phia started to collect that city's share of the money, $100,000," ho said He declared that tho "great money oligarchy" in New York controlled transportation, and that no legislation legisla-tion designed to break up tho trusts would strike at tho root of the trou-.blo trou-.blo "Few people appreciate how, by control of the money of trust companies, com-panies, savings banks and national and state banks, this money trust has throttled individual enterprise," he said. He urced a law that -would compel national banks to hold their legal roservo in cash, Instead of having the power to re-deposit it in the banks of New York. "Nothing but those immense reserves, re-serves, varying from $250,000,000 to $350,000,000, makes New York the money power It Is," said Mr. Barker, Insisting that the Aldrlch currency plan would strengthen this financial force by ennbllng the banks to use public credits for their own ends. Senator Cummins expressed the opinion that the plan did not sanction sanc-tion the use of public credit, or place any obligations upon the government. Mr. Barker urged a central bank of the United States to bo controlled by V directors chosen for arbitrary districts dis-tricts covering the whole country. "That would take the people out of tho clutches of Wall street and put them In possession of their own rights," ho said. Nonsense Says Roosevelt. NEW YORK. Nov. 28. Col. Theodore Theo-dore Roosevelt, while attending tonight to-night the performance by the Irish players of '-The Play Boy of tho Western West-ern World," was shown a synopsis of Wharton Baker's testimony given In Washington today before tho senate committee on interstate commerce He read the statement carefully and then said "I would as soon discuss a pipe dream with a patient out of Bedlam as discuss such nonsense." Col Roosevelt would not add to this statement, only repeating It later, with repeated emphasis when pressed by other questioners for an additional expression. |