RECIPROCITY WITH CUBA THE COLLOQUY WHICH UNDID ME

(Hearings Before Committee on Ways and Means, Fifty-Seventh Congress, First Session, Wed., January 29, 1902, Page 572)

MR. RICHARDSON: You have read the report of the Secretary of War?

DR. WILEY: Yes, Sir.

MR. RICHARDSON: And the recommendation of the President?

DR. WILEY: Yes, Sir.

MR. RICHARDSON: And General Wood?

DR. WILEY: I have not read that, but I have heard of it. I have read the other two, however.

MR. RICHARDSON: You do not agree with them in the recommendations in respect to the treatment of Cuba on this question?

DR. WILEY: I do not.

MR. RICHARDSON: I ask you this, doctor, for this reason: Do you contemplate remaining in the Agricultural Department? Is that your ideal (Laughter.)

You need not answer if you do not wish. I ask simply because I have heard that you did not.

THE CHAIRMAN: You need not answer that question, doctor.

MR. RICHARDSON: Not unless he wishes to.

MR. HOPKINS: I do not think that is proper.

MR. RICHARDSON: I do not want him to answer it unless he is willing to do so.

MR. ROBERTSON: That has not anything to do with the case.

MR. RICHARDSON: The object of my question is just this, Mr. Chairman, as I am frank to state, and he need not answer it if he does not wish to do so: I have understood that the doctor contemplated leaving the Agricultural Department and going into the sugar-beet industry. Whether that is true or not I do not know.

DR. WILEY: It is the very first I have heard of it. (Laughter.) Mr. Chairman, it is the first intimation of the kind I have ever had. I thought the gentleman implied that I would be removed because I did not agree with the Secretary or the President. (Laughter.)

As I left the committee room, a famous artist, Mr, Augustus C. Heaton, who had been in attendance, handed me the following rhyme:

"A chemist both learned and witty

Came before a sugar committee,

And O such statistics and learned linguistics

He poured upon Recipro-city."

As it turned out it was no laughing matter.

The result of my testimony was what I had anticipated. President Roosevelt was furiously angry. He sent at once for Secretary Wilson and ordered him to dismiss immediately that man Wiley. The Secretary pleaded for my life, explaining that I did not go up there willingly, but had earnestly tried to have my subpoena recalled. The President relented and said to let it go this time, but to tell Wiley never to do Such a thing again. The result was that I never was a favorite at the White House as long as Roosevelt was president. I was not surprised, therefore, to find that he took the lead in so limiting the activities of the Bureau of Chemistry as to deprive the Chief of that Bureau from performing the functions placed upon him under the law.

CHAPTER 8