Presidents--Finance

Frank C. Smith encloses statements of President Roosevelt’s accounts for 1904.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1905-01-07

Walter S. Swan, president of the Charles River National Bank, sends President Roosevelt a blank check in case he wishes to close his account which has a balance of $21.73.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1905-06-26

Noah Seaman does not think anything further is required, as the bill has been paid.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1904-12-20

John Ellis Roosevelt received President and Edith Kermit Carow Roosevelt’s wills. John Ellis Roosevelt mentions that the witnesses have failed to provide their addresses. Although this omission does not affect the validity of the wills, it may constitute a small fine for the witnesses. He has therefore taken the liberty of indicating “Washington, D.C.,” as their address, and asks Loeb to advise him if this is not correct.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1904-12-06

Douglas Robinson has received the check and will invest it on President Roosevelt’s behalf. Robinson has also received a check from the law firm of Carter and Ledyard. This is an inheritance payment. Robinson will send a ring Ethel Carow Roosevelt wants as soon as it is retrieved from the vault. He and Corinne Roosevelt Robinson enjoyed their trip with Roosevelt to St. Louis, Missouri.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1904-12-02

President Roosevelt enjoyed a cartoon from Chicago Evening Post editor John C. Shaffer, but voices his frustration at press coverage claiming he will make two dollars a word for writing about his upcoming African safari. Roosevelt emphasizes he will be travelling as a private citizen, and that the offer he accepted from Scribner’s was half of what he was offered by another publication. Roosevelt is confident that William H. Taft will win the upcoming presidential election.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1908-07-20

President Roosevelt sends Robert Bridges of Charles Scribner’s Sons detailed notes about revisions to the galleys for several portions to the upcoming second edition of Outdoor Pastimes, portions of which have been, and will be, printed in Scribner’s Magazine. Alexander Lambert will provide photographs for a new magazine story, but Roosevelt is not sure if they are good enough for publication in the book. Roosevelt asks when the book and new article will come out, and about payment for the new article.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1907-11-05

If objections are still raised to appropriating $25,000 for presidential travel, President Roosevelt tells Congressman Tawney that he would consent to a provision being inserted that none of the money would be for the president’s personal travel. Roosevelt states that regardless of this, the bulk of the money would go to providing for the travel of clerks, stenographers, and other government employees who travel with him, and not his own personal fare. He notes that Thomas Jefferson, when he was president, would travel on horseback, but was not required to supply fifty additional horses for the “government employees, newspaper men, Governors, Senators, Congressmen and outsiders who went along with him,” nor personally pay for all of their lodgings.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1906-06-17

President Roosevelt comments on false stories that have appeared in the press regarding executive spending. He defends the expansion of the White House as being necessary and the cost of the tennis court as trivial. There was no “personal naval review” that used public money and Roosevelt has used the government yachts, Mayflower and Sylph, sparingly. The yachts are also not exclusive to the president and are used by other government officials. Finally, entertainment at the White House is paid personally by Roosevelt.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1904-03-14

President Roosevelt cannot afford the amount of insurance discussed, but could take $10,000 in each of the companies Douglas Robinson suggested.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1901-10-28

Douglas Robinson acknowledges receipt of a draft in the amount of $5,000 to be credited to President Roosevelt’s principle account.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1905-12-02

Douglas Robinson writes to William Loeb regarding a clerical error in a previous letter about a deposit to President Roosevelt’s account. The correct amount was actually credited to the account. Robinson apologized for the transcription mistake in the letter.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1905-12-05

A fire at the Treasury Building is billowing clouds of smoke labeled “Deficit.” Nelson W. Aldrich is the fire chief, and he is telling firefighters Stephen B. Elkins, Joseph Gurney Cannon, Sereno Elisha Payne, and Jacob H. Gallinger to send a fire engine labeled “Lower Tariff” back to the station. President William H. Taft and Elihu Root carry a large fire extinguisher labeled “Corporation Tax” and race up the steps of the building, attempting to extinguish the blaze. Caption: Chief Aldrich (at the great Treasury blaze) — Send that engine home! We’ll put her out with the extinguisher!

comments and context

Comments and Context

Udo J. Keppler’s cartoon, for all its drama while debates over tariff legislation were raging in the Capital, betrays a certain ambiguity. Editorially, Puck frequently through the years occasionally was ambiguous about its position on tariffs and trusts. So were the political parties, despite the Republicans (who received the cartoonist’s attention here) generally being the party of big business and high tariffs. President Roosevelt had begun to warm to the concept of “fair trade” and reciprocal trade agreements, on a country-to-country basis. Such concepts would be strongly advocated by President William H. Taft, particularly with the Philippines; and famously with Canada. He was to stake — and lose — much of his political capital, urging Canadian reciprocity.

Douglas Robinson acknowledges receipt of a check to President Roosevelt from W. H. Ralston.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1903-07-01