Censorship

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1900-01-21

Creator(s)

Otis, Elwell S. (Elwell Stephen), 1838-1909

Recipient

Corbin, Henry Clark, 1842-1909

Ambassador Meyer writes President Roosevelt about the Russo-Japanese War. Meyer describes Stanley Washburn’s report of dwindling American sympathies with the Japanese. Washburn does not believe the Japanese army will ever beat the Russian army in Manchuria. Meyer mentions his interactions with Camille Barrère, the French Ambassador, and his indication that French and German banks are beginning to side with Russia. Meyer also relates an interaction he had with the Japanese minister, in which the minister stated he was interested in Roosevelt’s thoughts on Manchuria and Japan’s control of Port Arthur.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1905-01-20

Theodore Roosevelt reports that Archie Roosevelt is now a father and that Archie’s old captain, Adolf Wiedebach, came to visit. Weidebach agrees with Roosevelt that the German-American Alliance should be suppressed. He ends with a comment about letters being censored.

Collection

Harvard College Library

Creation Date

1918-03-04

Anthony Comstock, as a monk, thwarts shameless displays of excessive flesh, whether that of women, horses, or dogs, with a “Jane Doe Warrant.”

comments and context

Comments and Context

Anthony Comstock, father of “Comstockery” — the assertion of Victorian moral values on society — continued his crusades past the Victorian Era, to his death in 1915. The term has survived because some people maintain that his puritanical attitudes have survived to today.

President Roosevelt sits in a chair labeled “Presidency” with a fasces behind his left shoulder and with a gag labeled “Civil Decency” in his mouth. He is looking at a spirit of himself from 1900 when he could speak freely.

comments and context

Comments and Context

This cartoon, signed by Joseph Keppler Junior but oddly unlike his style, and reminiscent of Louis Dalrymple (who had left Puck for the Republican Judge), displays the power of partisanship in election years. Puck, owned by Keppler, had been a consistent supporter of President Roosevelt since he ascended to the presidency upon the death of William McKinley. The magazine extolled the man, complimented his multi-faceted personality, and generally endorsed his policies.

The political cartoon Ambassador Reid sent greatly amuses President Roosevelt. He inquires if he can obtain the original, in addition to other Punch cartoons, including one depicting him and Emperor William II, which was banned in Berlin. Unsurprisingly, people have responded negatively to the financial crisis. Roosevelt remembers a similar reaction during the Spanish-American War. He has a better understanding of what Abraham Lincoln faced and what future presidents will experience in the case of a great national crisis.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1907-11-14

Henry Bowers follows up to Theodore Roosevelt on his idea that the government should form an authorized body reviewing literature censorship and offers additional political comments.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1911-10-22

Charles Dwight Willard sends Theodore Roosevelt newspaper clippings and a detailed letter criticizing the Los Angeles Times, its publisher, Harrison Gray Otis, and the political protection Otis allegedly receives. Willard discusses the recent indictment of Otis and two staff members for publishing indecent content, the moral and legal implications, the reaction of local authorities, and broader issues of press ethics, censorship, and home rule in California. He also comments on Associated Press bias, utility board rulings, and the political atmosphere in San Francisco.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1911-09-08

Henry Bowers has previously shared his plan for literature reform and wants someone to recognize and take it up. He discusses how writers have unrestricted freedom to suggest and teach anything, not just mere obscenity of language but obscenity of immoral thought. Bowers suggests forming a committee of censors who judge and certify materials. The process is not compulsory and does not restrict circulation.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1911-08-22

A sphinx-like Alton B. Parker and a frozen Indiana Senator Charles W. Fairbanks keep their mouths shut while Henry Gassaway Davis and President Roosevelt’s mouths have “censorship” gags over them.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1904-09-19

In her draft of a speech in response to her trial on The Woman Rebel dissemination, Margaret Sanger discusses social problems and the manner in which birth control can address these issues and help the working class. Sanger critiques anti-obscenity laws and the notion of birth control education as pornography. She asks whether former President Roosevelt is truly moral for encouraging large families and she is immoral for encouraging small families. Sanger also addresses the charge that her article concerning an assassination attempt incited murder. She includes quotations from well-known ancient orators and writers and also from Roosevelt, claiming that if these writings on assassination are not accused of inciting murder, she should not be accused of such either.

Collection

The Margaret Sanger Papers Project

Creation Date

1916-01

Margaret Sanger writes of her efforts and struggles to bring birth control education to working class women in order to combat issues such as infant and maternal mortality, abortion, and poverty. Sanger argues that it is unfair that she is considered immoral for urging working class couples to have small families while former President Roosevelt is lauded as moral for encouraging them to have large families in order to prevent race suicide.

Collection

The Margaret Sanger Papers Project

Creation Date

1917-04

Margaret Sanger writes that the first edition of her journal The Woman Rebel was returned by the postmaster because it violated anti-obscenity laws. Sanger sarcastically declares her intentions to be more patriotic, claiming she will follow former President Roosevelt’s example and champion for large families. However, while Roosevelt stated the country needed large families to prevent race suicide, Sanger claims that large numbers of children are necessary to “uphold” all of America’s areas of failing–public schools, factories, asylums, prisons, courts, and “slums”–in a satirical critique.

Collection

The Margaret Sanger Papers Project

Creation Date

1914-04

The New York Times reports that Margaret Sanger spoke to a large crowd at Carnegie Hall in New York the previous evening. Sanger spoke about birth control and the importance of disseminating the information to women, particularly women of the working classes who are prevented from the education that upper class women receive. Sanger criticized former President Roosevelt, stating that he was freely allowed to discuss female reproduction when he encouraged large families. She discussed Roosevelt’s home of Oyster Bay, New York, claiming that sixty-three “poor mothers” from the area had sought her help on matters of birth control.

Collection

The Margaret Sanger Papers Project

Creation Date

1917-01-30

Journalist Gene Frances Baker, who wrote under the name Gene Baker, reports on the crowd of women who “came in droves” to hear Margaret Sanger speak at the Hotel Oakland ballroom. Sanger, who Baker describes as “feminine” with “personal warmth,” scientifically and clearly described the issue of birth control. She criticized the censorship of the United States Postal Service and former President Roosevelt’s sense of morality. Sanger asked the audience who was more moral: she, for encouraging small, responsible families, or Roosevelt, for encouraging American couples to have many children? At this, Baker reports that Sanger received a great deal of applause, indicating that “the Rooseveltian theory would never win him many of the women’s votes.”

Collection

The Margaret Sanger Papers Project

Creation Date

1916-06-15

Herbert Spencer appears as a statue of a large dog at the entrance to a public building emitting rays of light labeled “Science.” Many diminutive men, wearing over-sized top hats, scamper about with ladders and muzzles in an attempt to silence Spencer’s views on religion and science. On a nearby flagpole hangs a banner that states “Freedom of Thought.” Caption: “The Society for the Suppression of Blasphemous Literature proposes to get up cases against Professors Huxley and Tyndall, Herbert Spencer, and others who, by their writings, have sown widespread unbelief, and in some cases rank atheism.” Tel. London, March 5, 1883.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1883-03-14

General Elwell S. Otis, wearing a military uniform and holding papers labeled “Plans of Campaign,” is confronted by a swarm of press reporters as mosquitoes labeled “Yellow Journalist.” One of the reporters is holding a paper that states, “If you don’t let us run this business, we’ll run you out.” Several of the mosquitoes at bottom have gotten caught on a fly-paper labeled “Press Censorship.” Caption: General Otis–If it wasn’t for that “tanglefoot” fly-paper those insects would pester the life out of me!

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1899-08-16

Theodore Roosevelt is proud of Archibald Roosevelt and his three brothers for their military service. Although Roosevelt agrees with Archie’s complaints about inefficiencies in the military, he cautions against being too vocal as it could make Archie’s situation more difficult. Roosevelt is seeing signs that the public is beginning to comprehend the extent of military shortages and inefficiencies. There has been some backlash against Roosevelt’s outspokenness on the war effort and he would like the government to move against him as it would only help carry his message farther. He concludes with updates on Roosevelt family members.

Collection

Harvard College Library

Creation Date

1918-01-20

Theodore Roosevelt is proud that Quentin Roosevelt is going to the front as a pursuit pilot after many months of waiting and that the pride outweighs the anxiety. He mentions Flora Payne Whitney sending them the letter Quentin wrote her and how it amused him, especially given the work of the censors. Roosevelt has finished his speaking engagements and believes the country is hardening against German sentiment.

Collection

Harvard College Library

Creation Date

1918-06-19

Charles J. Bonaparte informs President Roosevelt that he has sought copies of the files about Seymour Wilcox Tulloch’s charges against the postal administration; he and Holmes Conrad will report to Roosevelt about it as soon as possible. Per a conversation with Darwin R. James of the Board of Indian Commissioners, Bonaparte shares that Secretary of the Interior Ethan Allen Hitchcock “finally consented” to publish unchanged a report from the Board, and Bonaparte has urged James to ask Roosevelt that these reports always be printed as their “subjection to a censorship” by the Interior Department is “more objectionable than their entire suppression.” Bonaparte also reports that Hitchcock refused, as was the custom, to publish with the Board’s report the proceedings of the last “Mohawk Conference of the Friends of the Indian,” a decision Bonaparte finds regrettable as the precedent is clear, the expense negligible, and the discussions of the Conference considerable. He feels the incident will place the Department in “a position of needless antagonism.” Bonaparte concludes by noting the enclosure of his letter to Archbishop P. J. Ryan of Philadelphia regarding the withdrawal of rations the previous autumn from Native American children attending religious schools. Bonaparte will try to obtain a copy of a pamphlet circulated among Catholics on this subject.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1903-07-22