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President Roosevelt instructs Secretary of the Navy Newberry to expend the $800,000 appropriated by Congress for the agreed-upon cause of aid for the victims of the 1908 earthquake in Messina, Italy.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1909-01-18
President Roosevelt appreciates that President-Elect Taft favors a veto of the Census Bureau bill and tells him not to worry about Senator Joseph B. Foraker’s inquest into the expenditures from the Emergency Fund, as Roosevelt accepts “full responsibility” for Taft and Secretary of State Elihu Root’s uses of the fund.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1909-01-16
President Roosevelt informs Senator Allison that William Sidney Rossiter of the Census Bureau did a full investigation and report on conditions at the Government Printing Office that led to his working “day and night” and spending over $100 of his personal funds. He asks Allison if he could be compensated an extra $1000, and if this could be added to an appropriation bill.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1908-05-20
President Roosevelt returns the draft of Representative Burton’s letter and will trust his judgment. He asks Burton to be sure that the appropriation is put in some bill, as it would be humiliating should the bill pass looking like a sham.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1908-05-19
President Roosevelt sends Senator Newlands a copy of a letter he has sent to Representative Theodore E. Burton regarding the bill about the Inland Waterways Commission. Roosevelt tells Newlands that the bill as written is “a sham,” and he hopes that it will be amended to appropriately provide funds for the commission.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1908-05-18
President Roosevelt takes issue with the current wording of a bill to provide funds to the Inland Waterways Commission. He impresses upon Congressman Burton the importance of passing a bill that will properly appropriate funds to the commission in order to allow it to do its work.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1908-05-18
President Roosevelt advocates to Senator Newlands for the passage of a “perfectly simple bill” as submitted by Gifford Pinchot. The bill would provide a $20,000 appropriation for continuing the work of the Inland Waterways Commission. He asks Newlands to introduce this bill, or one like it.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1908-05-13
President Roosevelt will take the matter T. Louis Comparette writes about up with Frank Aleamon Leach, Director of the U.S. Mint. The difficulty he writes about stems from the government employing people who do not appreciate or want to pay for good design; it is not currently possible for the United States to get good coins.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1908-05-06
President Roosevelt advises Senator Allison against passing the provision in the sundry civil bill as the House prepared it. An increase of wages in the United States would cause good men in Panama to leave. Another provision would hamper the Justice Department’s work, especially regarding the prosecution of land thieves in the West.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1908-04-29
President Roosevelt asks Senator Lodge if the amount of money provided by the Philippines church claims bill that is currently in front of Lodge’s committee could be increased to what had originally been requested. He hopes that the bill will be acted upon quickly.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1908-03-10
President Roosevelt tells Baron Kentarō Kaneko that he is trying to increase the appropriation, but cannot be positive about what Congress will do.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1908-03-02
President Roosevelt wishes to call the attention of Representative Tawney, Chairman of the House Committee on Appropriations, to the need for increased appropriations for the education and support of Native Americans in Alaska, as well as for the support of the reindeer industry there. Roosevelt explains some of the plans of the Commissioner of Education for Alaska, and urges Tawney that the full amount asked for by Secretary of the Interior James Rudolph Garfield be appropriated.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1908-02-28
President Roosevelt directs Secretary of the Interior Garfield that he should give Congress all of the information that he can, without interrupting regular functioning of the Bureau of Indian Affairs. Roosevelt includes the text of a memorandum from Garfield and says that, from the memorandum, it appears that some of the information Congress asked for would necessitate the appropriation of money, and that regardless it may disrupt normal administrative functioning. Roosevelt tells Garfield to use his own discretion, maintain the normal efficiency of the bureau, and tell congress of the need for funding in order to supply all the details asked for.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1908-01-30
President Roosevelt informs Acting Secretary of the Interior Woodruff that he does not feel warranted in using the Department of State’s funds without talking with Secretary of State Elihu Root and First Assistant Secretary of State Robert Bacon, who are currently unavailable.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1907-08-21
President Roosevelt has just signed a bill that will allow for an investigation and report on women and children workers in the United States. He tells James A. Tawney, Chairman of the Committee on Appropriations, that he does not think the amount of $150,000 recommended by Secretary of Commerce and Labor Oscar S. Straus is enough money to carry out an adequate investigation, and feels an amount double this should be appropriated.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1907-01-29
President Roosevelt tells Senator Allison that he has just signed a bill that authorizes the Secretary of Commerce and Labor to investigate the welfare of women and child workers in the United States. However he feels that double the amount suggested would be needed to conduct a substantial investigation.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1907-01-29
President Roosevelt makes it clear to Representative Littauer that the appropriation he asked for relating to the immigration investigation is in addition to any bill the committee reports. Roosevelt hopes that there is immigration legislation during the current session and the appropriation for the investigation should be included.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1907-01-19
President Roosevelt provides Senator La Follette with an update on the matters he had contacted him about in relation to the Indian appropriation bill. Secretary of the Interior Ethan Allen Hitchcock believes he has the power to settle the Mrs. Lou Bumgarner matter equitably, and that there is no reason to fail to sign the bill. Hitchcock also ordered an immediate investigation into the other matter that La Follette mentioned to Roosevelt concerning the conduct of an assistant of Dawes Commissioner Tams Bixby.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1906-06-21
President Roosevelt comments to Senator Proctor that he has not felt as strongly about the point that Proctor mentioned as the people championing the other side of the argument, and says that his “object is to be sure that the inspection is complete.” He presents several options for providing funding of governmental inspection of meat packinghouses, and believes that any of the methods would work. He does not want to keep seeming to interfere with Congress, and has been trying to keep out of its business.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1906-06-18
If objections are still raised to appropriating $25,000 for presidential travel, President Roosevelt tells Congressman Tawney that he would consent to a provision being inserted that none of the money would be for the president’s personal travel. Roosevelt states that regardless of this, the bulk of the money would go to providing for the travel of clerks, stenographers, and other government employees who travel with him, and not his own personal fare. He notes that Thomas Jefferson, when he was president, would travel on horseback, but was not required to supply fifty additional horses for the “government employees, newspaper men, Governors, Senators, Congressmen and outsiders who went along with him,” nor personally pay for all of their lodgings.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1906-06-17