Your TR Source
President Roosevelt found the letter to Pracht to be “first-class” and suggests that if Pracht answers insolently Richard Williams should remove him.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1903-09-10
The writer asserts that Max Pracht and W. Scott Smith are “working together” and offers evidence. Pracht was suspended from the Land Office for insubordination and sought help from Senator John H. Mitchell; but when Mitchell was unable to help, Pracht turned to Smith and Secretary of the Interior Ethan Allen Hitchcock to obtain his current post at the War Department. Events discussed since then by Pracht could only be known through a source close to the Secretary of the Interior such as Smith.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1907
William A. Richards tells President Roosevelt that, in acting upon the recommendations of M. A. Meyendorff, who was investigating land fraud in Colorado, he transferred special agent Max Pracht from Pueblo to Durango, Colorado. Pracht sent Richards a confidential letter, and took exception to Richards’s reply. Now, Pracht intends to come to Washington, D.C., to “place himself right,” and has told his political backers in Oregon “that he will resign as a special agent and then proceed to do some terrible things which he only hints at.” Richards forwards Roosevelt a copy of the offending letter.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1903-09-09