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Otto Gresham corrects a statement made in a prior letter to President Roosevelt. Gresham himself opined that the confession of the Chicago and Alton Railroad and its attorneys would embarrass Standard Oil if the case were reversed. He did not mean to imply that the statement was made by John S. Miller, the attorney for Standard Oil.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1907-09-06
Attorney General Bonaparte sends President Roosevelt letters from United States Attorney Edwin Walter Sims and Assistant Attorney General Marsden C. Burch along with a clipping about Special Assistant U.S. District Attorney Grace Humiston (Mrs. Quackenbos). Bonaparte thinks his statement will suffice until he gets to Chicago, but the press will likely attack them anyway. It puzzles Bonaparte that Judge Kenesaw Mountain Landis does not see that going back on the matter the would be exactly what Standard Oil wants.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1907-09-05
Attorney Otto Gresham sends President Roosevelt a letter from Judge Kenesaw Mountain Landis. Gresham shares his views, as well as the views of various local lawyers and judges, on Landis’s actions and the proceedings of the Standard Oil case. Gresham also summarizes the conversations he had with Landis regarding the potential reversal of the case and the imposition of the fine. After discussing the history of law in Britain, Gresham concludes that the people support Roosevelt in his actions to control the corporations.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1907-09-04
Commissioner of Labor Neill does not expect a strike in amongst the railroad workers in Chicago, but still worries that things may escalate soon. He advises no one within the Interstate Commerce Commission to coax President Roosevelt into action unless the situation reaches an “extremely critical” point.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1907-03-29
William Grant Webster writes to William Loeb requesting an audience with President Roosevelt. Webster intends to declare as a candidate for the United States Senate in Illinois for 1908, and he hopes that Roosevelt will endorse the notion that federal office holders in Illinois will allow the people to have a say in the election process.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1907-02-12
Railroad executive William C. Brown tells Chairman of the Isthmian Canal Commission Theodore P. Shonts that he is happy Shonts will be coming to New York. He reminisces about a train trip taken with then vice-presidential candidate Theodore Roosevelt, and discusses the paths their careers have taken. Brown expresses his support for federal and state railroad regulations, but is concerned that poor public confidence surrounding abuses and corruption by railroad executives in the past, is impacting the financing of railroad improvements. Brown hopes President Roosevelt will “call attention to the fact that the railroads are an important and inseparable part of the wealth of this Nation.”
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1907-01-28
William G. Cogswell forwards to William Loeb a sketch of an advertisement displayed in the window of a Chicago business establishment. Cogswell finds the advertisement disrespectful toward President Roosevelt and expresses his indignation to Loeb.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1905-06-29
William G. Cogswell recreates a local window advertisement he saw in Chicago that featured President Roosevelt unfavorably. The drawing was enclosed in a letter Cogswell wrote to Roosevelt’s secretary William Loeb on the matter.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1905-06-29
A note concerning the U.S. district attorney in Chicago and whether or not a letter should be written.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1905-06-29
Victor Howard Metcalf provides President Roosevelt with a series of correspondences regarding an immigration inspector, George C. Triick, who was accused of mistreating Mr. Chow Tszchi, a Chinese dignitary. The department agrees that the Government should provide the utmost courtesy to Chinese people but notes issues in proving citizenship or defining who could be classified as a Chinese laborer. Chinese merchants, teachers, students and bankers are welcome, but not laborers with falsified Chinese papers pretending to be of a higher class. A treaty written in 1904 sought to deal with falsified records but the Chinese thought it was too strict. Metcalf notes any concerns of harshness in the enforcement of exclusionary laws is necessary to combat those trying to skirt the system.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1905-06-07
Alfred R. Urion, acting as general counsel for Armour & Co., tells Arthur Meeker, vice president of the company, that it would be good for George B. Robbins, President of the Armour Car Lines and a director of the company, to come to Washington D.C. around the time the company’s showing before the House Committee on Interstate Commerce is completed, and that this will not be before the middle of the next week. Urion also comments on the progress of legislation, saying that precedents are not holding. Public feeling “now as aroused it must be quieted some,” and an unidentified Senator said that the wealthy and powerful should enlist the press to help mold public opinion.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1905-02-04
Henry Clay Frick writes to Senator Knox, asking that President Roosevelt send for Henry H. Porter and several others in regards to the railroad.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1905-02-03
Abner Clarke Harding explains to President Roosevelt why he believes Judge Peter Stenger Grosscup should be impeached. Harding alleges that Grosscup used his position as judge to further his business interests in Illinois transit companies.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1905-02-03
Williams has read the extract and comments that “no sensible Negro would ask for a better statement of our case.”
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1905-01
George W. Ogilvie asks President Roosevelt to send a representative of the Department of Justice to Chicago to investigate unspecified claims of corruption.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1905-01-25
Marian A. White sends Theodore Roosevelt a report based on thirty years of her personal experience and research regarding the destruction of natural resources around Chicago, Illinois.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1910-12-19
Adolphus Clay Bartlett states his opinion to Paul Morton why Arizona and New Mexico should not be combined. He states that Arizona is clearly American and that New Mexico is clearly Mexican. There is only one reason they should be combined and it is merely a political excuse. Bartlett looks to Morton to use his influence to prevent this from happening.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1904-12-16
John Morley thanks President Roosevelt for his kind letter, and shares details of his travel plans. He is looking forward to his visit.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1904-10-30
Uncle Sam looks up at the sky and sees several eclipses: a “partial eclipse in New York” with Charles Evans Hughes, a “partial eclipse in Penns.” with Philander C. Knox, a “partial eclipse in Wisconsin” with Robert M. La Follette, a “partial eclipse in Indiana” with Vice President Charles W. Fairbanks, a “partial eclipse in Illinois” with Speaker of the House Joseph Gurney Cannon, a “total eclipse in Chicago,” and a “partial eclipse in Ohio” with William H. Taft. “My world” with President Roosevelt is about to overshadow Taft.
Things were looking up in 1908. . .or at least people were looking up to the heavens. An unusually high number of solar and lunar eclipses were due that year, and the spectacular once-in-a-lifetime Halley’s Comet was due to brighten the skies in 1910. All were matters of public discussion and newspaper feature stories.
President Roosevelt fights a “Chicago compressed cooked corned beef” minotaur that stands outside of the “beef trust labyrinth.”
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1906-06-13