some on his own initiative, some by my direction.  Late one evening I was informed that two representatives of the Steel Corporation wished to see me early the following morning, the precise object not being named.  Next morning, while at breakfast, I was informed that Messrs. Frick and Gary were waiting at the office.  I at once went over, and, as the Attorney-General, Mr. Bonaparte, had not yet arrived from Baltimore, where he had been passing the night, I sent a message asking the Secretary of State, Mr. Root, who was also a lawyer, to join us, which he did.  Before the close of the interview and in the presence of the three gentlemen named, I dictated a note to Mr. Bonaparte, setting forth exactly what Messrs. Frick and Gary had proposed, and exactly what I had answered—­so that there might be no possibility of misunderstanding.  This note was published in a Senate Document while I was still President.  It runs as follows: 

THE WHITE HOUSE, Washington, November 4, 1907.

My dear Mr. Attorney-General: 

Judge E. H. Gary and Mr. H. C. Frick, on behalf of the Steel Corporation, have just called upon me.  They state that there is a certain business firm (the name of which I have not been told, but which is of real importance in New York business circles), which will undoubtedly fail this week if help is not given.  Among its assets are a majority of the securities of the Tennessee Coal Company.  Application has been urgently made to the Steel Corporation to purchase this stock as the only means of avoiding a failure.  Judge Gary and Mr. Frick informed me that as a mere business transaction they do not care to purchase the stock; that under ordinary circumstances they would not consider purchasing the stock, because but little benefit will come to the Steel Corporation from the purchase; that they are aware that the purchase will be used as a handle for attack upon them on the ground that they are striving to secure a monopoly of the business and prevent competition—­not that this would represent what could honestly be said, but what might recklessly and untruthfully be said.

They further informed me that, as a matter of fact, the policy of the company has been to decline to acquire more than sixty per cent of the steel properties, and that this purpose has been persevered in for several years past, with the object of preventing these accusations, and, as a matter of fact, their proportion of steel properties has slightly decreased, so that it is below this sixty per cent, and the acquisition of the property in question will not raise it above sixty per cent.  But they feel that it is immensely to their interest, as to the interest of every responsible business man, to try to prevent a panic and general industrial smash-up at this time, and that they are willing to go into this transaction, which they would not otherwise go into, because it seems the opinion of those best fitted to express judgment in New York that it will be an