George, Henry, 1862-1916

President Roosevelt responds to Outlook editor Lyman Abbott’s comments on the sections of Roosevelt’s recent “muck-rake speech” dealing with the inheritance tax. Roosevelt did not mean to suggest that such a tax would be the only measure necessary to deal with the amassing of large fortunes, but wished to bring attention to the fact that it would help. He believes that a progressive income tax would also be good, but feels that it is harder to frame such a measure, while modifying the tariff would have a minimal effect on such fortunes. Roosevelt is puzzled by Abbott’s comments about taxing land, and asks if he is trying to revive the theories of Henry George, or if he is referring to something else. Regardless, Roosevelt feels the language is too vague to be useful, while he was trying to bring attention to specific measures that could be accomplished. He was surprised the portion of his speech dealing with labor leaders has received little attention; while he feels that the amassing of great fortunes is harmful to the United States, so too is the sort of violence resulting from “unhealthy sentimentality and morbid class consciousness” like that of socialist leader Eugene V. Debs.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1906-04-23

Creator(s)

Roosevelt, Theodore, 1858-1919

Assistant Secretary of the Navy Roosevelt sent for Story of the Cowboy before receiving Hamlin Garland’s letter. He will not be stopping in New York and looks forward to seeing Garland in Washington D. C. Roosevelt wishes Henry George “was all we have to fear in New York.”

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1897-09-29

Creator(s)

Roosevelt, Theodore, 1858-1919

Morris H. Hart was previously involved in New York State politics and is currently employed as a temporary clerk in the Manufactures Division of the Census Bureau. The Bureau is dismissing clerks, and Hart fears he will be among the first to go since he does not have Senatorial influence. He asks Roosevelt to contact Senator Elihu Root on his behalf. 

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1911-07-29

Creator(s)

Hart, Morris H.

Henry E. Rhoades reminisces on the ways in which his journalistic career has intersected with the political work of Theodore Roosevelt. He requests a favor from Roosevelt, hoping the former president can request Rhoades’s commendation from the Secretary of the Navy George von Lengerke Meyer when reporting on proposed Senate bill 2028. The passage of this bill would provide Rhoades with additional pension pay he receives after contracting an illness while in service on the Juniata expedition. 

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1911-05-31

Creator(s)

Rhoades, Henry E. (Henry Eckford), 1844-1934

Ernest Harvier discusses the weaknesses of the New York County Republican organization and lists the candidates for congressman and state senator.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1911-01-21

Creator(s)

Harvier, Ernest, 1863-1929

James Hulme Canfield writes to President Roosevelt about taxation. Canfield has enclosed a tract he wrote over twenty years ago for the Society for Political Education, written long before he had ever read Henry George’s economic theories.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1906-07-27

Creator(s)

Canfield, James Hulme, 1847-1909

G. Wallace Chessman looks at the evolving historiography of the study of Theodore Roosevelt and places his own work on Roosevelt’s time as Governor of New York within that framework. He asserts that Roosevelt’s reputation suffered in the 1930s with the publication of Henry Pringle’s biography (Theodore Roosevelt: A Biography), but the work of historians such as George Mowry and John Blum served as a correction to Pringle’s work. Chessman argues that the 1930s, with its isolationism in foreign affairs and its hostility to big business, further undermined Roosevelt’s standing.

Chessman argues that as Governor of New York, Roosevelt mostly took stands that should be viewed as “progressive,” and that he successfully navigated a course between obedience to the New York political machine led by Thomas Platt and his own reform agenda. He says that Roosevelt’s time as governor prepared him for the presidency, and he concludes his essay by contending that Roosevelt, however much he loved the American West, should primarily be seen as a man of New York City: “T.R. was surely an urban man.”

Collection

Theodore Roosevelt Association Journal

Creation Date

1975

A brief history of the Twilight Club and a list of some individuals who have addressed it.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1911-04-19

Creator(s)

Twilight Club

Thomas Collier Platt kneels on the right, praying, as a bolt of lightning labeled “Citizens Union” strikes at his feet from a storm cloud showing the face of Seth Low. He is back to back with Richard Croker, on the left, who is struck by a bolt of lightning labeled “Henry George Party” coming from a dark cloud showing the face of Henry George. The jolt knocks off Croker’s hat.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1897-10-27

Creator(s)

Dalrymple, Louis, 1866-1905

A battered ironclad labeled “High Cost of Living” is being bombarded by several ironclads labeled “Berger, Shanks [sic], Sulzer, George, Jr., [and] Taft.” Their gun blasts are labeled, respectively, “Socialism, Municipal Market, Parcel Post, Single Tax, [and] Tariff Board,” and one unidentified “Monitor” with gun blast labeled “Free Trade.” Caption: The Civil War Merrimac was hard enough to whip, but this one may be harder.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1912-02-28

Creator(s)

Keppler, Udo J., 1872-1956