Your TR Source
President Roosevelt would like Assistant Secretary of Commerce and Labor Murray to suggest remarks he might make in his annual message to Congress, regarding the Committee on Department Methods, otherwise known as the Keep Commission.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1907-07-23
Edward Thompson thanks Theodore Roosevelt for his reply but regrets he can’t follow his advice. He hopes Roosevelt will still help fix what he sees as an unfair situation in the Canal Zone.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1911-09-12
Assistant Secretary of the Treasury Keep, Comptroller of Currency Murray, and Chief Forester Pinchot provide President Roosevelt with a detailed report of the organization and operations of the Department of the Interior. The report highlights “grave defects” in the structure of the Department such as redundant job functions, an “abuse of letter writing” that impedes public business, and rampant inefficiency. The report recommends the dissolution of several divisions.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1906-10-22
Keep, Charles Hallam, 1861-1941; Murray, Lawrence O., 1864-1926; Pinchot, Gifford, 1865-1946
President Roosevelt appoints Gifford Pinchot to serve on the Committee on Department Methods. The committee is to investigate improving the administration of government departments and services by adopting “best modern business practices.” Roosevelt identifies several things which should be looked at including salaries, purchasing supplies, and the “elimination of useless letter-writing.”
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1905-06-02
President Roosevelt tells Senator Knox he and Secretary of War William H. Taft have been considering Felton, but Taft thinks Felton is not the right man. Roosevelt is anxious to meet with Knox.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1905-03-09
President Roosevelt asks political economist Jacob H. Hollander to let him know whenever Hollander notices any work that he may be able to do that would be advantageous to the government. Roosevelt says he can only make such a request of a limited number of men, but that he “[counts] it a piece of good fortune for the Government whenever I can have you work for it.”
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1905-02-08
Ambassador Meyer informs President Roosevelt about the unsatisfactory conditions of the Caucasus and Poland. He also tells the President that Russia suffers from poor government administration, roads, and lack of preparation of the army for the war as examples. There is talk about building ships for the Imperial Navy, but nothing concrete as of yet.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1905-05-05
A memorandum outlines the legislative history which designates who is responsible for the administration of the Chinese Exclusion Act.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1905-11
Oscar S. Straus II, president of the Theodore Roosevelt Association, hosts the annual awards ceremony. Hermann Hagedorn, executive director, introduces Arthur Holly Compton, a nuclear physicist, and Thomas E. Dewey, Governor of New York, recipients of the Distinguished Service Medals in Science and Public Service. In their acceptance speeches, Compton speaks on public service and the importance of a free society working together towards a unified goal, as was done during the second world war, and Dewey speaks on the worldwide application of the “American Dream,” and the shifting struggles between the United States and the Soviet Union. Additional brief remarks are presented by Anne Lyon Haight, who comments on an upcoming merger of the Theodore Roosevelt Association and the Women’s Theodore Roosevelt Memorial Association.
Theodore Roosevelt Association
1955-10-27
Regis Henri Post sends his impressions of Puerto Rico. He describes Governor Hunt as a “splendid fellow” and believes the administration is a “pretty good lot.” Post would like to be consulted if the Danish West Indies comes under American control. He believes that Charles Hartzell would make an excellent successor to Hunt and has heard that Judge Sulzbacher wants to leave for a job back in the U.S.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1903-05-31
The President of Cornell University Jacob Gould Schurman discusses the situation in the Philippines in this excerpt of his speech. Schurman advocates administrating the Philippines for the benefit of the Filipinos.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1902-12-19