Your TR Source
President Roosevelt is pleased that Seth Low has gotten into touch with Reuben D. Silliman, and is glad to hear what the proposals are.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1908-06-10
President Roosevelt supports putting both planks Seth Low mentioned into the party platform, but does not know if it is possible. He will ask the Bureau of Corporations to carry out the investigation Low recommended.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1908-04-29
President Roosevelt would regret postponement of the bill and thinks Congress should pass the bill in this session.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1908-04-21
President Roosevelt believes that passing the corporations bill along the Stetson-Morawetz line “would be worse than passing nothing.” While granting improper favors to both the corporations and the labor men might be beneficial for the moment, long term it would be politically ruinous and be a huge setback in the movement for corporation control. He asks Seth Low to get Frank B. Kellogg of Minnesota to fight hard for the bill.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1908-04-09
President Roosevelt addresses the current state of legislation in Congress regarding federal oversight of combinations. He informs Seth Low that he would be forced to veto certain measures brought forth by Congressmen who have been speaking with Victor Morawetz, who is counsel for J. P. Morgan. If necessary, Roosevelt will make his views clear in a message to Congress. Although some of the proposed work could be done by the courts, Roosevelt cites the work of the Interstate Commerce Commission as an illustration of why supervisory power should lie with the executive branch.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1908-04-01
President Roosevelt tells Seth Low that he wishes to strengthen the power of the executive branch to handle business matters like those that Low refers to, as he does not wish to allow the “chaos and inefficiency” of using the courts to administer such a law.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1908-03-28
President Roosevelt tells Seth Low that he approves of a rider, assuming it is not meant to touch on the matter of boycotts. He will look forward to seeing Low on Tuesday, if Low wishes.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1908-03-16
President Roosevelt looks forward to receiving The Journal of Latrobe. He liked Seth Low’s article on national control of interstate railways. Roosevelt is glad he does not have to take a stand on fusion, even though Low presents a strong case. However, Roosevelt will inevitably have to look into the matter, a prospect that makes him melancholic.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1907-11-15
President Roosevelt writes to Seth Low that he believes the Sherman law should be modified to permit business combination when the combination is not against the interests of the people. Roosevelt thanks Low for his comments about Roosevelt’s speeches and for his thoughts on the present situation.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1907-10-30
Although retiring New York postmaster William R. Willcox thinks highly of Edward M. Morgan, President Roosevelt ponders whether they can find a better man for the job.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1907-07-11
President Roosevelt responds to concerns expressed to Seth Low about candidates for a judgeship. Roosevelt is considering three Republicans for the position. Regarding at least one of the candidates, if the man who wrote Low were a Democrat, Roosevelt says he would be “whooping with ecstasy over his manifest virtues.” Roosevelt only consulted Booker T. Washington in Alabama when he was appointing a Democrat to a judgeship.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1907-03-18
President Roosevelt notifies Seth Low that he is appointed a trustee of the Foundation for the Promotion of Industrial Peace, representing the general public.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1907-03-14
President Roosevelt asks Seth Low if he can attend the army and navy reception and supper on Thursday, February 7, and lunch with him the next day.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1907-01-28
President Roosevelt tells former Mayor Low that the idea he has suggested has already been raised by Secretary of Commerce and Labor Oscar S. Straus and National Civic Federation founder John Mitchell. Roosevelt doubts the possibility of applying the semi-official gift from the Nobel Foundation and applying it to a private enterprise like the Civic Federation. He hopes a plan can be worked out, but notes that neither his name nor Alfred Nobel’s name should be “swallowed up in any private movement.”
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1906-12-20
President Roosevelt informs Seth Low that he has sent the note to Secretary of War William H. Taft, but he hopes there “won’t be any need for the services of anybody.”
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1906-10-02
It was not President Roosevelt’s understanding that the organization would be managed as a magazine matter, and thinks that “if a magazine chooses to advocate it, that is all right; but it should not be managed in connection with a magazine.” He tells Seth Low that he believes the organization can do real good “provided it did not try to accomplish everything and start off with too great a splurge.” He likes Low’s idea about the Philippines tariff, and asks that he keep in touch with Secretary of War William H. Taft about the matter.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1906-07-23
President Roosevelt wishes he could make an exception about the naval cadetship as Seth Low wished, but if he did he would have to make similar exceptions for many other people as well. He agrees with the final point of Low’s letter that the powers of the national government are “being steadily strengthened,” and that must be done in order to combat “lawlessness of great corporations, which has developed because of the division of power between the states and the federal government.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1906-07-12
President Roosevelt tells Seth Low that he has come to the conclusion that it would be both inadvisable and impossible for him to deviate from his action, and that moreover he believes the action he took was wise. He does not see how the action of the Chamber of Commerce relates to his own action.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1906-04-28
President Roosevelt has received Seth Low’s letter, and will take it into account.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1906-04-24
President Roosevelt wishes he could put a stop to the strike by arbitration, but believes that making a proposal that fails not only does not do any good, but actively harms the cause. Public opinion, upon which Roosevelt has to rely, is more likely to be with him when the strike is actually happening, rather than before it begins.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1906-03-28