Mr. Bryan to Roosevelt

William J. Bryan sends a letter to President Roosevelt denying his affiliation with trusts, declaring that “we are making a fight for the whole people and not for those who have been enjoying privileges and favors at the hands of the government.”

Rock Island, Ill, Sept. 20 -- “I have lived in vain if your accusations have lost me a single friend,” said William J. Bryan in a letter addressed to President Roosevelt, replying to that of the President written Sunday last. Mr. Bryan points to his record and declares that it it sufficient answer to the insinuations of the chief executive that he is in sympathy with or controlled by the trusts. Reverting to the charges against Governor Haskell, Mr. Bryan says that the president, in response to his request, did not deign to suggest a tribunal which could determine those charges, but instead proceeded to pass judgment upon him, and he informs the president that the occupant of that high office cannot deny to the humblest citizen the right to protect his reputation and vindicate his name in the courts. Taking up the president’s assertion that certain trust magnates, fearing prosecution under Mr. Taft, will support the Democratic candidate, Mr. Bryan charges that the president worded his statement in such a way as to demand the support of all the trust magnates “and yet put it on the ground that they are supporting your party for patriotic reasons, rather than for the promotion of a selfish interest. That is ingenious, but it is not sound. The trust magnates are supporting the Republican party, and the bible offers an explanation, ‘the ox knoweth his owner and the ass his master’s crib.’ “ In proof of the fact that he would not be controlled by the trusts, Mr. Bryan says that if elected he will enforce the antitrust laws, “not spasmodically and intermittently, but persistently and consistently. Mr. Bryan, in dealing with the Democratic campaign fund of 1896 as compared with the Republican campaign fund of 1904, charges that the president pays “more attention to the mote than to the beam,” and asserts that in 1904 the Republicans used in one state alone a fund almost as large as the entire sum the Democratic party has in its control. Mr. Bryan further says: “You are the first conspicuous member of your party to attempt an explanation of the party’s opposition to publicity before the election, and the admission which you make will embarrass your party associates. Your position is that the publication before election of the contributions made to your campaign fund would furnish your political opponents an opportunity “to give a false impressions” as to the fitness of the candidates. If the voters differ from you on this questions are they necessarily ignorant and wrong? Must the members of the party organization act as self-appointed guardians of the people and conceal from them what is going on, lest the people be misled as to the purpose and effect of large contributions? Is this your explanation of the action of the Republican leaders in the national convention in voting down a publicity plank? If you will pardon the suggestion, I believe that a better explanation can be found in Holy Writ, for do we not read of men loving darkness rather than light, because their deeds are evil? We are going to give you an opportunity to misrepresent the motives of those who give to our campaign fund, and to arouse all the suspicion you can; we are going to prove to the people that we are making a fight for the whole people and not for those who have been enjoying privileges and favors at the hands of the government, and we expect that the honest sentiment of the country will rebuke the party whose convention refused to endorse any kind of publicity, and whose candidates are not willing that the people should know until after the polls are closed what predatory interests have been active in support of the Republican party.”

“Mr. Bryan to Roosevelt,” Black Virginia: The Richmond Planet, 1894-1909, accessed January 24, 2026, https://blackvirginia.richmond.edu/items/show/723.