"The deuce they were," said Roosevelt; "I supposed they made their contributions to Tammany."
"Of course," Platt returned, "they contributed to Tammany, but they gave us just half as much as they did Tammany. If they hadn't expected fair treatment from us they would have given it all to Tammany."
"I told Platt they would get fair treatment from us," Roosevelt said, in telling the story, "but if they expected immunity from taxation they were going to be left."
At that time the Whitney-Ryan combination owned the New York street railways and so were going to be hard hit by the franchise tax. Mr. Roosevelt added that the franchise tax bill went through and created quite a scandal in high finance at that time. "Everybody was talking about it," he said, "and all the big financiers knew about it. So I never could have any sympathy with the view that Harriman or the Standard Oil people—if they really contributed to my campaign fund—or any other interest of that sort gave any money for campaign purposes under a misapprehension. They knew from my deeds as well as my words that they could not buy immunity from me, and that the best they could expect was a square deal. I said one time to Bacon, 'Bob, why is it that Morgan and all his crowd are against me? Don't they know that they would get justice from me?' Bacon smiled, hesitated, and then said, 'Yes, I suppose they do.'"
In the Progressive campaign Mr. Nelson violated
