Your TR Source
President Roosevelt is glad Jacob A. Riis is going after the priest, because slander should be “met sharply.” He looks forward to reading the article on playgrounds that Riis is sending.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1908-04-21
President Roosevelt tells Jacob A. Riis that if he gets the chance he will invite Agnes Donaldson to the White House, although he may not have a chance to do so. Roosevelt is amused that Riis is in favor of a statement Roosevelt made recommending that mothers let children run their own play, as it was something Roosevelt had previously heard from Riis.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1908-03-31
President Roosevelt promises that he will look into the matter that Jacob A. Riis mentioned, and will try to see that justice is done. He enjoyed seeing Riis recently.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1908-02-12
President Roosevelt has received Jacob A. Riis’s letter and read his article. He will see him soon.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1908-01-14
President Roosevelt will write to Arthur von Briesen at once. Roosevelt will be glad to receive Marcella Sembrich and if she came during the season, he would show her social attention. He was glad to see Jacob A. Riis on Saturday and looks forward to seeing him and his wife.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1908-01-06
President Roosevelt was glad to hear from Jacob A. Riis and looks forward to seeing him soon.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1907-12-26
After reading Jacob Riis’ writings, President Roosevelt feels obligated to act in a way so that Riis will not “regret your championship of me.”
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1907-04-22
President Roosevelt informs Jacob A. Riis that Archibald B. Roosevelt is recovering. The family was anxious and his illness was difficult for Edith Kermit Carow Roosevelt.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1907-03-12
President Roosevelt tells Jacob A. Riis it was nice to hear from him and to come see him as soon as he gets East.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1907-01-31
President Roosevelt hopes that after Secretary of State Elihu Root’s speech, the friends of Roosevelt and Jacob A. Riis see that it was right for Roosevelt to speak through Root.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1906-11-05
President Roosevelt asks Jacob A. Riis for information about the Roosevelt Boys Club in San Francisco. He comments on public opinion regarding the spelling affair.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1906-09-26
President Roosevelt was pleased to hear from Jacob A. Riis, and was glad to hear about the Sea Breeze Hospital. He wishes Riis a pleasant trip, and hopes to see him when he returns.
(Riis was involved with raising funds for the construction of a hospital providing children with access to sea air, which was thought to be good for people suffering from tuberculosis.)
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1906-07-03
President Roosevelt would be pleased for Jacob A. Riis to speak about him, but unsure how to answer some of Riis’s requests for information. Roosevelt responds to the criticism that he interferes with Congress by saying that if he did not, there would not be a host of positive bills that he has signed into law. He struggles with considering “exactly what anyone would consider the chief points of what [he] had done,” and eventually says he stands for the sort of “substantive achievement” his cabinet officers have succeeded in bringing about, and for trying to do justice to the American people. He will send Riis a copy of a volume of his speeches for reference, if Riis does not already have one.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1906-06-26
President Roosevelt was delighted to receive Jacob A. Riis’s letter and tells him to come visit either in Washington, D.C., or at Oyster Bay.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1906-05-14
President Roosevelt approves of the speech of George Wood Wingate that Jacob A. Riis shared with him, and comments that Wingate “is a fine old fellow and is doing excellent work.” Roosevelt thinks it was funny how quickly the opposition to the railroad rate bill went away.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1906-05-23
President Roosevelt is glad that Jacob A. Riis liked his recent speech. Roosevelt says that he “is no more to be frightened out of a sane and courageous radicalism by the creatures who yell that it is socialism, than to be frightened out of a proper conservation by the equally senseless yell that it represents reaction.” Roosevelt agrees with Riis on the uselessness of large fortunes, as well as the necessity of revising the tariff.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1906-04-18
President Roosevelt is glad to hear that Jacob A. Riis is doing well, and is pleased that Riis takes the same position that he does regarding General Leonard Wood. Wood’s critics make Roosevelt indignant. Regarding the labor issue, Roosevelt explains that he is not afraid of the labor people, but stands with them at present because he feels their cause is right. When their cause is in the wrong, he will oppose them “just as fearlessly.”
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1906-03-24
Jacob A. Riis’s son John Riis accepted the position of Forest Guard offered to him by Gifford Pinchot.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1906-02-22
President Roosevelt thinks it is “awfully sweet” that Jacob A. Riis is so interested in his daughter Alice. He will see Riis on January 29.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1905-12-16
President Roosevelt is happy to hear that Jacob A. Riis is going to speak about Josephine Shaw Lowell.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1905-10-31