The Bemidji Daily Pioneer

CHARLES P. TAFT
MAKES ANSWER
Replies to Panama Canal
Insinuations.
MAY TAKE LEGAL ACTION
Agrees to Demand to "Let in the
Light," but Declares That When
Evidence Is All in an Apology Will
Be in Order—New York World, Discussing President's Recent Letter,
Says His Statements Are Untrue.

Cincinnati, Dec. 9.—The Cincinnati
Times-Star, of which Charles P. Taft
is editor and proprietor, publishes the following reply to the article on the
Panama canal which appeared in the
Indianapolis News and New York
World:

"The New York World, the paper
which was responsible for most of
the talk about the 'Panama scandal'
during the recent campaign, says:

"'Whether Douglas Robinson, who
is Mr. Roosevelt's brother-in-law, or
any of Mr. Taft's brothers associated
himself with Mr. Cromwell in Panama exploitation or shared in these
profits is incidental to the main issue
of letting in the light.'"

"This statement is intentionally
misleading. The Panama story was
used in the campaign for political
reasons solely.
The one thing that
gave its political value in the eyes of
those who used it was the fact that
the story, as printed, carried the
names of a brother of the Republican
candidate for the presidency and of a
brother-in-law of the president. The
inference was plain enough. It was
that Theodore Roosevelt and William
H. Taft had used their influence as
high officials of the United States government to help near relatives in
Looting the Treasury
at Washington. That was the meat of
the story. If the names of Douglas
Robinson and Charles P. Taft had not
been included in it, flimsy and absurd
as it was, the lying yarn would never
have been used by the World, the Indianapolis News and other papers
which for one reason or another wanted to defeat Mr. Taft and discredit
Mr. Roosevelt.

"The World is trying to dodge the
issue. It wants to be relieved of the
responsibility of trying to drag the
names of Mr. Robinson and Mr. Taft
into its made to order mess of scandal and slime.

"Both the World and the Indianapolis News are crying 'let in the light.'
We thoroughly agree with them. But
after a little time has passed, after
the most desperate efforts of the cornered World and News have produced
all the evidence they can, an apology
will be in order from those newspapers.

"In the meantime Mr. Taft reserves
the right to take legal steps, which
possibly have been made more desirable by the events and insinuations of
the past forty-eight hours."

REGARDING CANAL PURCHASE
New York World Declares Roosevelt's
Statements Untrue.

New York, Dec. 9.—The New York
World, to which Delavan Smith, editor of the Indianapolis News, referred in his reply to President Roosevelt's attack upon him as the authority for
the article on the Panama canal
which appeared in his paper and
called forth the president's letter,
says:

"In view of President Roosevelt's
deliberate misstatements of fact in
his scandalous personal attack upon
Mr. Delavan Smith, editor of the Indianapolis News, the World calls upon
the congress of the United States to
make immediately a full and impartial investigation of the entire Panama canal scandal

"The investigation of 1906 by the
senate committee of the interoceanic
canals was blocked by the refusal of
William Nelson Cromwell to answer
the most pertinent questions of Senator Morgan of Alabama. Since that
time nothing has been done because,
after Senator Morgan's death, there
was no successor to carry on his
great work of revealing the truth
about Panama corruption."

The World then quotes from President Roosevelt's letter denying the
charges and continues:

"To the best of the World's knowledge and belief each and all of these
statements made by Mr. Roosevelt are
untrue and Mr. Roosevelt must have
known they were untrue when he
made them.