Bankers

The opening lesson of the fall term

Uncle Sam stands in front of a class of men, including a “shopman,” “manufacturer,” “railroad man,” “lawyer,” “farmer,” “banker,” and “merchant,” and instructs them on a document titled “President on the live issues,” which each man holds a copy of. Caption: The teacher—”Our first reading lesson will be the article entitled, ‘President on the Live Issues,’ beginning on page one. We will continue through to the end as it is one of the best things that has been written.”

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1904-09-12

Santa Claus in Wall Street

An angry mob of bankers, brokers, and financiers threaten Santa Claus who is hanging off the statue of George Washington outside Federal Hall in Manhattan, New York City, New York. Caption: Chorus of Bankers and Brokers — Just say Christmas to us this year, that’s all! We dare you!

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1913-12-10

The vanished meal; or, the mystery of the bankers’ lunch club

Three steel workers sit on a girder eating the lunch that they pilfered from a table through an open window in a bankers’ club room adjacent to the building they are constructing. The “Club Number” is written on the window directly below the girder.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1911-05-31

House for Roosevelt, Jr.

Article reporting that Theodore Roosevelt Jr. will lease a home at 165 East Seventy-fourth Street when he moves to New York City to take a job in a Wall Street banking house.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1912

T. Roosevelt, Jr. to be a banker

Article describing how Theodore Roosevelt Jr. is leaving his job in the carpet industry in San Francisco, California, for a job at a Wall Street firm in New York City.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1912

Letter from Theodore Roosevelt to Dix W. Smith

Theodore Roosevelt writes to Dix. W. Smith to forward on a letter from his cousin, in which he relays that he has been unable to think of a suggestion to help his friend.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1911-07-07

Letter from Theodore Roosevelt to John M. Thompson

Theodore Roosevelt offers to write a letter of introduction for John M. Thompson’s son to the bankers of the South American bank that employs Kermit Roosevelt. However, Roosevelt did not communicate with the bank when Kermit applied and the bankers are politically opposed to Roosevelt. He fears a letter would do more damage then good.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1914-10-02

Letter from Theodore Roosevelt to Henry White

Ambassador White’s assessment, that unlike big financiers in Europe, American financiers are largely speculators, is correct. President Roosevelt believes this is the main problem his administration is facing, and that the proposed legislation will not solve the underlying problem. He also thanks Margaret Stuyvesant Rutherford White for remembering him at Christmas and sends his love.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1908-01-13

Letter from Theodore Roosevelt to George B. Cortelyou

President Roosevelt asks Secretary of the Treasury Cortelyou to look at the enclosed document. Roosevelt does not know how to answer it and would like more information. It seems that the chief objection to the administration’s actions is the belief that bankers are loaned money without interest, then loan it to stock brokers at a high interest rate. Roosevelt wishes they could “tax stock speculation out of existence.”

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1908-01-12

Letter from Theodore Roosevelt to William Emlen Roosevelt

President Roosevelt updates his cousin William Emlen Roosevelt on Archibald “Archie” B. Roosevelt’s health. He expresses his concern about the situation going on in the business world. He notes that First Lady Edith Kermit Carow Roosevelt and Archibald will not be going on the trip down south. He asks William to give him notice when William decides to visit. He expresses relief that William warned Theodore “Ted” Roosevelt, Jr. about business. He is disappointed that he did not see William’s son, George Emlen Roosevelt, at Harvard, but notes that he did not see much of his son, Theodore, either.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1907-03-08

Letter from Theodore Roosevelt to Alexander Lambert

President Roosevelt tells Dr. Alexander Lambert that the bid is so high because the bankers charge six percent, rather than five as Lambert had expected.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1907-02-06

Letter from Theodore Roosevelt to Christine Griffin Kean Roosevelt

President Roosevelt tells Christine Griffin Kean Roosevelt (wife of his cousin Emlen) that he hopes she approves of the way he used the Nobel Prize cash award. Roosevelt notes that after he got past his anger over the Maria Longworth Storer incident, that he found the situation amusing. He reports that he is taking up James Alexander Scrymser’s application with “the Departments,” and that he has had a difficult time getting businessmen and bankers to agree upon currency legislation.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1906-12-14

Letter from Theodore Roosevelt to James H. Eckels

President Roosevelt has just seen the reports from U.S. District Attorney in Chicago Charles B. Morrison and bank examiner Edward P. Moxey. Roosevelt does not believe there is anything else he can do in the John R. Walsh case. Roosevelt believes that the only way to proceed from now on is to have communications between Walsh’s lawyers and Morrison. Roosevelt is reluctant to say this to James H. Eckels, Comptroller of Currency, but feels there is no alternative. Roosevelt really liked Walsh and has sympathy for Senator Albert J. Hopkins and admiration for Eckels – which is why he has gone over the case several times at their request. 

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1906-10-19

Letter from Theodore Roosevelt to Forrest H. Parker

President Roosevelt explains that he has received many similar suggestions from prominent men and bankers, but not to the same lengths that Forrest H. Parker now makes. Roosevelt says he knows nothing of the subject and it is out of the question for him to treat the matter “unless there was a very strong feeling among bankers and business men about it.” 

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1906-10-17

Letter from Theodore Roosevelt to Jonathan P. Dolliver

President Roosevelt hopes Senator Dolliver can speak to the New York bankers.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1904-12-10

Letter from Theodore Roosevelt to William Emlen Roosevelt

President Roosevelt tells William Emlen Roosevelt he regrets he is unable to attend the bankers’ dinner.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1904-12-09

Letter from Theodore Roosevelt to Elihu Root

In response to a previous letter from Elihu Root, President Roosevelt asks if he should communicate directly with James Speyer or wait until Root returns from Newfoundland.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1904-09-02

Letter from Theodore Roosevelt to John Byrne

President Roosevelt explains to John Byrne his reluctance to say anything until the financial people can come to an agreement. Roosevelt believes Congress would act if the bankers and business men could “agree on any one scheme.” Roosevelt invites Byrne to see him in either Washington or Oyster Bay.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1904-07-27

Letter from Michael McMahon to Theodore Roosevelt

Michael McMahon writes to Theodore Roosevelt about politics, securities, printed money, and many other things. McMahon calls Roosevelt “The” Citizen and wishes him a merry Christmas.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1911-12-16

Letter from Jacob A. Riis to Theodore Roosevelt

Jacob A. Riis encloses a letter and tells President Roosevelt about his friend John Phoenix Moore Richards in Spokane, Washington. Richards is a “bully fellow” who kept the town calm during a financial panic. Riis also describes the political situation in Vermont. The politicians in that state are against Roosevelt, but the people support him.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1908-01-15