Your TR Source
Theodore Roosevelt informs William Phillips that as a rule, he does not comment on individual bills, though Roosevelt recalls touching on the subject several times in his political career.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1911-10-24
Senator Carroll Smalley Page informs Theodore Roosevelt he has taken up the bill to bring agricultural and industrial education to children who do not have access to college because they are sons of laborers and farmers. Germany has a system to prepare boys for apprenticeship and work starting at age fourteen. Page quotes Roosevelt in the report he encloses knowing Roosevelt is sympathetic to the project and hopes he will provide Page with encouragement by referring to the bill in The Outlook.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1911-12-13
President Roosevelt sends Surgeon-General Wyman a copy of a letter he has sent to Doctor Henry Pickering Walcott, outlining the administration’s plans. Until the plans have been acted upon, Roosevelt does not feel he can make the bills related to the Public Health and Marine Service Department into law.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1908-09-28
Speaker of the House Cannon may think President Roosevelt is the “horse-leech’s daughter” and that he will “keep saying give-give,” according to Roosevelt. However, the enclosed letter from a respected physician refers to a matter of grave consequence to the army, but comes at little expense and Roosevelt stresses his desire that the bill is passed.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1907-01-28
President Roosevelt tells Secretary of the Navy Metcalf that he hopes the navy personnel bill will be passed, but they need to put up a fight and Metcalf should write to the senate committee as Roosevelt already has. Roosevelt also makes it clear he wants two battleships this session.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1907-01-27
Secretary of Commerce and Labor Oscar S. Straus and Secretary of the Interior Ethan Allen Hitchcock both agree that some of the proposed changes to the bill mentioned will result in serious trouble. President Roosevelt would like for Secretary of State Root to meet with Straus and report back to him the outcome of the conversation. Roosevelt has asked for the bill to be held up in the senate, or he will have to veto it if it gets passed in its present form.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1907-01-25
President Roosevelt tells Commander Key that he has written to Speaker Joseph Gurney Cannon urging that the personnel bill be passed.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1907-01-24
President Roosevelt asks Speaker Cannon if the personnel bill can be taken up and passed as it is important to reducing expenses for the Navy. Roosevelt suggests that Cannon speak to Chairman of the Committee on Naval Affairs George Edmund Foss.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1907-01-24
President Roosevelt would like Congressman Davis to let him know the status of a bill that will increase the salaries of the “least well paid” government employees. Roosevelt feels that most of these men should have their salaries increased, especially the rural free delivery mail carriers.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1907-01-24
President Roosevelt asks Senator Spooner when the criminal appeals bill will be reported from his committee as it is of great importance to the government.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1907-01-23
President Roosevelt has given a letter to Charles D. Walcott and J. A. Holmes, both from the U.S. Geological Survey, to present to Senator La Follette to explain why he has chosen to withdraw coal lands from entry. Roosevelt states that there will be great opposition to La Follette’s bill because it will significantly impact the states that are affected. Roosevelt has given Walcott a draft of a bill to show La Follette which supports the essentials of La Follette’s bill and leasing natural resources in the public lands, but leaves some matters up to the discretion of the Secretary of the Interior.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1907-01-23
President Roosevelt informs Paul Morton that along with his own message he has sent in Drake’s report and Brandeis’s letter, and has also included Morton’s recommendations from the concluding paragraphs in his letter to Roosevelt. If Roosevelt feels the need, he will discreetly make Morton’s entire letter known so that it may help the bill get passed in the winter.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1907-01-22
President Roosevelt tells Speaker of the House Cannon that he would like immigration legislation this session, but would like funding for the immigration investigation that would provide information to put before Congress.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1907-01-19
President Roosevelt informs Representative Bartholdt that he will see Representative James A. Tawney on Monday and do all he can. Senator Albert J. Beveridge wants Roosevelt’s support for his child labor bill, but Roosevelt believes the only way forward with that bill is for Bartholdt to get his bill through the Senate.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1907-01-19
President Roosevelt was interested by Professor John C. Freeman’s recent letter detailing the bad behavior of multiple US consulate members. Roosevelt notes that all five members have left the service, and that the current roster is pretty good. He also writes that the bill “we got past last year did work a real betterment in the service,” although he had asked for even more.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1906-12-17
President Roosevelt forwards Representative Tawney a letter from “M.S. Anderson of Whalan, Minnesota.” The president notes that if Tawney gets the bill through congress he will sign it, “having in view the large size of his family!”
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1906-12-09
President Roosevelt congratulates Representative Lacey for his part in helping pass the Olympic Game Preserve Bill.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1906-12-07
Helen M. Bent writes to Theodore Roosevelt about his upcoming speech on “The Conservation of Womanhood and Childhood.” She would like Roosevelt to specifically bring up venereal diseases and how it threatens the lives of innocent women and children. She writes that many women’s organizations have focused on this problem for years and are frustrated since, as women with little political power, state boards of health have not done enough to address the topic.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1911-10-14
Edward A. Moseley, secretary of the Interstate Commerce Commission, encloses a copy of a senator’s bill and instructs William Loeb not to lose it as all other copies have been suppressed. He also sent copies to Secretary of War William H. Taft and journalist Gustav J. Karger.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1907-08-23
William Allen White has heard that Representative Victor Murdock’s bill regarding mail rates will fail, and would like President Roosevelt to assist Murdock if he can, as the postal service is in great need of reform. White would visit Roosevelt himself, but his wife Sallie Moss Lindsay White is ill.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1907-02-16