Addams, Jane, 1860-1935

Theodore Roosevelt writes Amos Pinchot to discuss his continued support for George W. Perkins to remain a figure in the Progressive Party and warns against rooting out moderates from the party for the sake of maintaining the purity of ideals. Roosevelt also pushes back against the idea that breaking down trusts would improve the cost of living, and lays out what happened regarding the trust plank of the Progressive Party’s 1912 platform. 

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1912-12-05

Creator(s)

Roosevelt, Theodore, 1858-1919

Theodore Roosevelt is sending Thomas Robins’s letter to Jane Addams.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1912-11-29

Creator(s)

Roosevelt, Theodore, 1858-1919

Theodore Roosevelt thanks Millicent Garrett Fawcett for her letter. Roosevelt believes that the Progressive campaign helped women’s suffrage by having women work equally with the men in the campaign. If he had won the presidency, he would have given women positions in the administration, even in his cabinet. He is also amused with the voting trends in suffrage states. 

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1912-11-19

Creator(s)

Roosevelt, Theodore, 1858-1919

Theodore Roosevelt apologizes to Manly W. Hoffman that he will not be able to speak at “Roosevelt Day” in Jackson, Michigan. 

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1912-11-18

Creator(s)

Roosevelt, Theodore, 1858-1919

President Roosevelt explains his thoughts related to socialism, saying that socialists do some good in waking some people up to the evils of modern life and the great disparities of wealth, but that for the most part they “merely add to the mass of aimless discontent.” Roosevelt discusses several instances in which socialism praises people who he believes do not deserve it, such as Eugene V. Debs. He believes that socialism also is frequently associated with an “only partially concealed crusade against domestic morality.” For Roosevelt, trending too far towards the ideas of socialism is just as bad as going too far towards the actions of swindling financiers or corrupt politicians.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1908-06-17

Creator(s)

Roosevelt, Theodore, 1858-1919

President Roosevelt writes to Florence Bayard Lockwood La Farge about Jane Addams’s book. He criticizes her stance against militarism. Roosevelt compares Addams to Leo Tolstoy in their similar actions in speaking out against war and industrialism, but being ultimately misguided in their argument that because there are hardships that result from these, they should be entirely abandoned, rather than acknowledging the positives and working to alleviate the negatives. It is just as bad, Roosevelt says, to preach unrighteous peace as to preach unrighteous war, and even more foolish.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1908-02-13

Creator(s)

Roosevelt, Theodore, 1858-1919

President Roosevelt remarks upon several books to Florence Bayard Lockwood La Farge. He also tells her that Edith Kermit Carow Roosevelt will be writing her soon to ask when she and C. Grant La Farge will be able to visit.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1908-01-29

Creator(s)

Roosevelt, Theodore, 1858-1919

President Roosevelt thanks James Bronson Reynolds for everything he has written, and has sent Reynolds’s memorandum to the Bureau of Animal industry for comment. There is no committee on immigration, and does not believe that if there were one he would appoint Jane Addams to it. Roosevelt asks Reynolds to show this letter to Robert Watchorn, commissioner of immigration at Ellis Island, and tell him that Roosevelt wishes for Reynolds to be given a free hand to look into any matter there. Reynolds can start the work there any time after September 1.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1906-07-11

Creator(s)

Roosevelt, Theodore, 1858-1919

Professor Kirchwey requests that Theodore Roosevelt speak out in support of the New York Children’s Court. Pending legislation will make the court “the spoil of Tammany politics.”

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1911

Creator(s)

Kirchwey, George W. (George Washington), 1855-1942

On behalf of the National Consumers’ League, James P. Heaton asks Theodore Roosevelt to sign the enclosed letter to induce Christmas shoppers to buy early. He lists other individuals to whom they sent the letter.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1911-11-09

Creator(s)

Heaton, James P.

Edward William Bok understands that Theodore Roosevelt needs to be careful about writing for periodicals other than The Outlook. However, he feels his request will not violate Roosevelt’s commitment. Bok wants to awaken interest in appreciating good pictures by having prominent individuals discuss their favorite pictures to be published with a recreation of the image. He lists the other individuals he has asked for a contribution. The enclosed check is merely an expression of appreciation.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1911-11-03

Creator(s)

Bok, Edward William, 1863-1930

Charles K. Levin is creating a collection of autographs from prominent individuals he has met in person, and is asking Theodore Roosevelt for one of his to help complete the collection.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1911-09-05

Creator(s)

Levin, Charles K., 1889-

Ida B. Hiltz informs Theodore Roosevelt that he was elected as an Honorary Vice President of the American Association for the Conservation of Vision by its board of managers, alongside several other notable figures. Hiltz urges him to lend his name to the organization, which works toward the prevention of blindness. 

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1911-05-25

Creator(s)

Hiltz, Ida B., 1891-

Ruth Heywood Whitman Sears agrees with Theodore Roosevelt’s views on the family. However, Sears is troubled by his “tepidity” regarding women’s suffrage. She argues it is “a duty to share the responsibilities of citizenship.” The issue is to be submitted for a vote in California. While Roosevelt is in California, Sears requests Roosevelt state, in his “own forceful way,” his reasons for voting in favor of suffrage.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1911-04

Creator(s)

Sears, Ruth Heywood Whitman, 1874-1954

Anne Fitzhugh Miller thanks Theodore Roosevelt for his recent speech, and is glad that women’s political equality has “become important enough for a new declaration on [Roosevelt’s] part.”

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1911-02-25

Creator(s)

Miller, Anne Fitzhugh, 1856-1912

Florence Bayard Lockwood La Farge replies to President Roosevel’s recent letter about books, and agrees with him on what he has written about Jane Addams. She believes that Addams’s arguments are not well thought out. La Farge wishes that emigration could stop for five years while the United States assimilates its citizens into a more unified whole. She recommends the book The World Machine by Carl Snyder.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1908-02-20

Creator(s)

La Farge, Florence Bayard Lockwood, 1864-1944

Florence Bayard Lockwood La Farge tells President Roosevelt her thoughts on a variety of books she has read recently. Notably she read and enjoyed George Macaulay Trevelyan’s Garibaldi’s Defense of Rome and Herbert W. Paul’s Life of Froude. She has also read Jane Addams’ book The New Ideals of Peace, and enjoyed Horace Plunkett’s book on Ireland. Her husband C. Grant La Farge has been “splendidly” handling the new arrangements following the death of George Lewis Heins.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1908-01-28

Creator(s)

La Farge, Florence Bayard Lockwood, 1864-1944

J. Ellen Foster encloses an article from a Chicago paper. She knows Mary McDowell, who was trained at Hull House by Jane Addams and is now in charge of the University of Chicago Settlement at the stock yards.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1904-08-01

Creator(s)

Foster, J. Ellen (Judith Ellen), 1840-

Invitation to the 25th anniversary of the founding of the University Settlement Society of New York, which will include guest speakers, stereopticon views, and music by an orchestra of the Settlement.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1911-12-07

Creator(s)

University Settlement Society of New York

Natalie A. Naylor charts Theodore Roosevelt’s support of women’s suffrage from his writing an essay supporting equal rights for women as a Harvard student, to his tepid support of the movement as president, and his embrace of the right of women to vote in his 1912 Progressive Party campaign for president. Naylor notes the unsuccessful efforts of pioneer suffragettes like Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton to move Roosevelt on the issue while president, and she shows how the 1912 campaign saw a change in Roosevelt’s attitude that he would maintain until the end of his life. Naylor details Roosevelt’s efforts in support of women’s suffrage in the years surrounding World War I, including the successful passage of women’s suffrage in 1917 in New York State.

The article includes a transcript of Roosevelt’s undergraduate essay “Practicability of Equalizing Men and Women before the Law” along with a one page hand-written excerpt from the essay. Two photographs of Roosevelt speaking and a drawing by Roosevelt supplement the article.

Collection

Theodore Roosevelt Association Journal

Creation Date

2020