Law reform

A game of chess is being played on the “[Depar]tment of Police” board, between a hand labeled “Political Pull” showing a cufflink labeled “Brass Check” and a hand labeled “Reform.” Some of the squares are labeled “Race Track, Suburbs, White Lights, Gambling District, Goatville, Financial District, Tenderloin, Red Light District, Lonely Beat, [and] Hell’s Kitchen.” The chess pieces are police officers, some in plainclothes, labeled “Crooked Captain, Inspector, Sleuth, ‘Fixed’ Captain, Honest Captain, Grafting Captain, Honest Inspector, Plainclothes Man, [and] Sergeant.”

comments and context

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1906-11-21

Theodore Roosevelt broadly agrees with Judge Lindsey’s proposed amendment for setting aside court judgments but suggests a few changes. Roosevelt intends to make public his decision not to be a candidate for the Republican nomination for president. However, he will not decline to serve if called upon by the public.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1912-01-07

Creator(s)

Roosevelt, Theodore, 1858-1919

Theodore Roosevelt encourages William H. Goddard to write to California Governor Hiram Johnson for more information on the effectiveness of the reforms they passed.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1915-08-20

Creator(s)

Roosevelt, Theodore, 1858-1919

Bainbridge Colby forwards a few extracts from a speech made by President William H. Taft and from the book Two Centuries Growth of American Law.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1912-04-25

Creator(s)

Colby, Bainbridge, 1869-1950

Thomas W. Shelton wants to interest Theodore Roosevelt in the fight to reform uniform pleading and procedure. Several copies of the Editorial Review are being sent to Roosevelt with articles on the subject. Shelton also sends a manuscript of his article on the relation of judicial procedure to civil liberty and property rights.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1911-11-03

Creator(s)

Shelton, Thomas W. (Thomas Wall), 1870-1931

Charles Freeman Johnson of the People’s National Legal Ethics Society requests President Taft’s support for the reform of legal procedure to prevent needless litigation and lawyer misconduct.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1911-08-18

Creator(s)

Johnson, Charles Freeman

Due to the overwhelming number of inquiries about the Peoples National Legal Ethics Society, Charles Freeman Johnson discusses its purpose and support in a letter to the editor of The Outlook. The organization seeks to cooperate with the American Bar Association through state advisory councils to adopt and enforce the Association’s code of ethics. Such enforcement throughout the country will significantly advance reform in legal procedures, and it is the type of movement President William H. Taft recommended in his speech in Chicago, Illinois. Johnson quotes lawyers and legal professionals who support the Society, which is expected to have 400,000 members within a year. He invites correspondence from interested parties.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1911-08-18

Creator(s)

Johnson, Charles Freeman

W. Durran sends Theodore Roosevelt a copy of his article. He discusses how the failures of both the British and American joint system of punishing criminals results from the historical tendency toward legalism, which he traces to the Norman Conquest. Durran hopes to enlist Roosevelt’s influence in effecting essential legal reform. 

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1911-08-07

Creator(s)

Durran, W.

Alexander Del Mar sends Theodore Roosevelt a paper on “distracting laws,” which may be interesting, especially since the writer was a friend of Roosevelt’s uncle, Robert Barnwell Roosevelt. He feels reform must come and is disappointed by the governors’ vacillation.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1910-12-06

Creator(s)

Del Mar, Alexander, 1836-1926

Cecil Spring Rice describes in absorbing detail the latest events in Russia, including the General Strike, Count Witte’s negotiations with Emperor Nicholas II, and the public unrest. Spring Rice also describes how Grand Duke Nicolas planned to use Witte as a shield between the people and the throne because Witte was hated by the reactionaries and expendable. Also narrated are the actions of Dmitri Trepov and the strikers.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1905-11-01

Creator(s)

Spring Rice, Cecil, Sir, 1859-1918

Ambassador Meyer warns that reformers in Russia would like peace to be postponed and that the number of of Moscow reformers are increasing their strength.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1905-08-03

Creator(s)

Meyer, George von Lengerke, 1858-1918

Rudolph Forster warns that due to reforms taking place and the war party in Russia working against peace, many Russians want peace to be postponed.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1905-08-03

Creator(s)

Forster, Rudolph, 1872-1943

Ambassador Meyer warns that the reformers in Russia want to postpone peace because the time seems to be favorable for reforms.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1905-08-03

Creator(s)

Meyer, George von Lengerke, 1858-1918

Ambassador Meyer warns that reformers in Russia want to postpone peace, which may have an effect on Japan’s terms for peace.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1905-08-03

Creator(s)

Meyer, George von Lengerke, 1858-1918

This article is the platform adopted by the Republican Party of Michigan ahead of the Republican National Convention. The topics mentioned include foreign trade, monetary and fiscal policies, the state electoral process, and Theodore Roosevelt’s candidacy.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1904-05-25

Creator(s)

Unknown

Charles Freeman Johnson, acting secretary of the People’s National Legal Ethics Society, has sent letters to New Jersey lawyers asking for their cooperation and expression of their views on reforming legal ethics. Text from Johnson’s letter to Justice Francis J. Swayze and his letter to the Newark Evening News regarding the movement are reprinted.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1911-08-18

Creator(s)

Unknown

An angel labeled “National Credit” with wings labeled “Sound Financial Policy” and “Repeal of Sherman Silver Law” rises above the flames of the wreck of the “U.S. Treasury.” Among the wreckage lie William McKinley bowled over by the “McKinley Bill,” John Sherman being crushed under the weight of large silver coins, Green B. Raum sitting in an empty safe labeled “U.S. Treasury,” with Benjamin Harrison and Charles Foster hanging onto the safe, and William A. Peffer among the lumber on the left.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1893-09-27

Creator(s)

Ehrhart, S. D. (Samuel D.), approximately 1862-1937

President Taft, wearing a large hat, offers a corn stalk labeled “Excuse, Apology, Explanation, Defense, [and] Persuasion” to a cow labeled “The West” and with a bell labeled “Insurgency” around its neck. The cow is not interested in Taft’s excuses or explanations.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1911-10-11

Creator(s)

Glackens, L. M. (Louis M.), 1866-1933

This article examines the question of whether President Roosevelt will call Congress into a special session to consider the proposed modifications of banking and currency laws. Interviews with Senator Henry Cabot Lodge reveal that a special session is set for November 9, 1903. J. Pierpont Morgan and George W. Perkins do not believe the special session to consider a currency bill is unnecessary, but that if one is called, it should occur as soon as possible. The writer believes that Roosevelt chose November, rather than October, for the special session because of the November elections of local and national importance. Creating a new currency bill is difficult, and anything that comes out of Congress, in order to satisfy the financial interests, Congress, and the American people, will need to be a compromise.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1903-07-18

Creator(s)

Unknown