Your TR Source
President Roosevelt thanks James Burton Reynolds for the reports and accompanying papers he sent. Roosevelt asks what Reynolds recommends doing with the reports, whether he should make them public and send the recommendations to Congress.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1908-08-12
President Roosevelt appoints Louis N. Hammerling as one of three commissioners to investigate conditions regarding labor and accommodations in Panama.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1908-04-24
President Roosevelt gives Anna Cabot Mills Davis Lodge an update on his life and family. He laments the end of summer and tells Lodge how each member of the family has spent it, remarking upon how his children are growing up. Roosevelt has been vacationing during the summer months and now looks to his work ahead. He wants to ensure that his plans for the Navy and Panama Canal cannot be undone by his successor.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1907-09-20
President Roosevelt is glad George W. Goethals is working as chief engineer of the Panama Canal and is pleased Joseph Bucklin Bishop, secretary of the Isthmian Canal Commission, is enjoying his position.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1907-09-06
President Roosevelt congratulates Chief Engineer of the Isthmian Canal Commission Goethals and the men at work on the canal for their progress during the rainy month of August.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1907-09-05
President Roosevelt received Joseph Bucklin Bishop’s letters. He directs Bishop to have George W. Goethals, Chairman and Chief Engineer of the Isthmian Canal Commission, telegraph him, and he will arrange for their publication. Roosevelt understands Goethals’s frustration with the commission’s administration.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1907-08-29
Joseph Bucklin Bishop’s letters to President Roosevelt and Edith Kermit Carow Roosevelt “delighted our souls.” Roosevelt is highly pleased by Bishop’s report of conditions at the Isthmus of Panama. Regarding Bishop’s suggestion of a newsletter, Roosevelt proposes it include a summary of outside current events. He sends his regards to Colonel George W. Goethals and directs him to take leave whenever necessary.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1907-08-22
President Roosevelt requests Colonel Goethals, Chairman of the Isthmian Canal Commission, review sociologist Gertrude Beeks’s report and work to resolve the worker safety issues mentioned. Roosevelt counsels that good management only remains so “by constant and alert activity.”
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1907-08-15
President Roosevelt tells Ralph M. Easley of the National Civic Federation that he is impressed with sociologist Gertrude Beeks’ Panama report. Before publishing it, however, Roosevelt strongly recommends removing any unsubstantiated claims of bribery. He asks Easley how he can best provide assistance and suggests sending the report to Colonel George W. Goethals, Chairman of the Isthmian Canal Commission, to review.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1907-08-10
President Roosevelt praises Arthur Richards for returning to work on the Panama Canal after losing his foot.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1907-07-27
President Roosevelt sends reactions to three letters from Secretary of War Taft. Roosevelt approves of an address Taft is preparing concerning the Brownsville Affair. The president is also pleased by what Taft tells him of the proposed Constitution for Oklahoma in preparation for admittance to the union. Roosevelt believes Jackson Smith will have to be let go from his position as Head of the Department of Labor, Quarters, and Subsistence in the Panama Canal. Finally, the president approves of Taft’s letter to Clarence Ransom Edwards regarding opium and believes Lebbeus R. Wilfley has “made good.”
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1907-07-19
President Roosevelt opposes the idea of chief engineer John F. Stevens traveling to Washington, D.C. from the Isthmus for administrative duties because Theodore P. Shonts has been kept in his position to deal such matters.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1907-01-24
President Roosevelt tells Theodore P. Shonts that figures show the steam shovel operators in the United States and in Panama are paid comparable wages. Thomas J. Dolan will provide figures to back up this claim.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1907-01-14
President Roosevelt argues for the construction of two first-class battleships, describing the ways in which they are economically and tactically superior to other types of Navy vessels.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1907-01-11
President Roosevelt argues for the construction of two first-class battleships, describing the ways in which they are economically and tactically superior to other types of Navy vessels.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1907-01-11
President Roosevelt asks Senator Martin if anything can be done to help Mr. Lackey, who was permanently injured while working on the Panama Canal. Senator Isidor Rayner has introduced a bill for it, and Roosevelt hopes Martin will support it.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1907-01-08
President Roosevelt forwards Chairman Shonts a letter from W. H. Needham containing statements from machinists at the Canal Zone regarding complaints about their treatment. Roosevelt tells Shonts and Chief Engineer John F. Stevens that they must get past their natural “impatience with complaints” and judge the issue evenly as government employees.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1906-12-10
Charles C. Bull writes to Theodore Roosevelt about progress on the Panama Canal construction, which he says is going well. He states his opinion that though he opposes “white slaves traffic,” as by law women cannot be brought across country lines for “immoral” purposes, he says there is a problem in Panama where there are too many canal workers and too few prostitutes, and the prostitutes that are there have venereal diseases. Bull thinks there needs to be a way to bring (specifically white) prostitutes who have freely chosen the vocation to Panama and to have better health monitoring. He discusses San Francisco politics and greater U.S. politics, stating he will not support William H. Taft and he does not think the Republican Party will do well the next couple of terms, so he hopes the Democratic Party runs a presidential candidate he does not dislike too much so he does not have to vote Socialist. Lastly, he believes part of the Panama Canal construction area is not well fortified and is vulnerable to potential attack.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1911-10-14
George Haven Putnam writes Theodore Roosevelt to ask him a favor concerning Putnam’s brother’s son, George Palmer Putnam. George Palmer Putnam is a newspaper correspondent currently residing in Oregon but recently returned to New York to get married, and will travel back to Oregon soon via the Panama Canal whilst writing news reports on the canal’s status. George Haven Putnam hopes Roosevelt might still be in contact with people involved in the Panama Canal and connect Putnam’s nephew with these individuals. Putnam also knows of a book concerning war photography being published soon that Roosevelt might find interesting.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1911-10-13
William Bailey Howland hopes Edith Kermit Carow Roosevelt is recovering from her accident and praises Theodore Roosevelt’s recent editorial in The Outlook on the Panama Canal. He says him and Ella May Jacobs Howland are enjoying their time at the Manor Club House and he believes Albert Henry George Grey will accept honorary chairmanship of the English Committee on the Hundred Years.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1911-10-13