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Anna Roosevelt Cowles informs President Roosevelt that she has seen a newspaper article stating the Hepburn Rate Act had passed and inquires about his reaction to what was amended in the bill. She also writes that the Maharaja (Gaekwar) of Baroda will be visiting and suggests the President see him.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1906-05-19
Charles A. Prouty writes to President Roosevelt about the amendment to the sixth section. The act is to regulate commerce and railway rates.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1906-05-18
Francis B. Loomis states that the vast majority of people view President Roosevelt’s fight to get the Rate Bill passed very favorably and their confidence in Roosevelt is strengthened. A small number of people are not satisfied with the bill, but those people are the type that would only be satisfied by work done by their own hands.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1906-05-24
William Peters Hepburn is in receipt of President Roosevelt’s note of the 29th which referenced Standard Oil and the coal ownership propositions that were put in the rate bill by the Senate.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1906-05-30
Lyman Abbott writes to congratulate Theodore Roosevelt on his success with the Allison amendment. Abbott encourages Roosevelt to take a break and relax.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1906-05-08
Thomas W. McNeil writes to President Roosevelt regarding Senate opposition to rate legislation and to the Panama Canal. While public opinion was formerly with Roosevelt and against the Senate, McNeil believes that the Mrs. Morris incident and how Mrs. Morris was treated by William Loeb and Benjamin F. Barnes have turned this around, endangering the chance for the legislation to pass. McNeil urges Roosevelt to let Loeb and Barnes go, in the interest of these reforms.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1906-01-09
Attorney General Moody provides President Roosevelt with a “concise history” of the case against the Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe Railway Company.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1905-12-13
George Alfred Townsend comments on the condition of the American book industry, saying that they have “been made bricks without straw by the news companies affiliated with the railroads.” Townsend also comments on the railroad rate bill.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1905-12-06
Attorney General Moody writes to President Roosevelt after examining a letter that Charles S. Mellen, a railroad executive, previously sent Roosevelt. Moody states he will keep Mellen’s ideas for railroad rates in mind if a bill is presented.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1905-11-24
Charles Jerome Traxler writes on behalf of the Northwestern Retail Lumbermen’s Association and the Northwestern Retail Coal Dealers Association. The two associations have membership over the states of Minnesota, Iowa, North Dakota, and South Dakota; members consist of chiefly poor men. Traxler asks President Roosevelt to assist in securing legislation to regulate and control railroad rate abuses that are detrimental to the men who pay the freight. The bill has received favorable comments from some of the largest shippers in the country.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1905-11-15
John Revelstoke Rathom responds to President Roosevelt’s recent request for a statement regarding the sentiments “for and against the making of railroad rates through Governmental agency.” Rathom acknowledges his own stance in favor of the railroads but assures Roosevelt that the words presented are a true statement in regard to “a side of this great subject that I do not believe has yet been adequately presented.” Rathom highlights the circumstances surrounding the “Bacon Convention” in Chicago led by E. P. Bacon in showing that the business community, although not necessarily friends of the railroads, are largely against the principle of governmental regulation.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1905-11-14
Commissioner of Pensions Ware writes to President Roosevelt that the people of Kansas are disturbed about Senator Chester I. Long’s reluctance to endorse the President’s railroad policy, and that they are working to get him to endorse it. Whether or not he does, however, Ware assures the President that the people of Kansas are with him. Ware worries that William Jennings Bryan will be the next president if the senators do not cooperate.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1905-11-14
Senator Townsend of Michigan relays his correspondence with Representative John Sharp Williams of Mississippi to President Roosevelt regarding a pending railroad bill. Williams asserts that railroad companies are spreading propaganda in the South, suggesting that a strengthened Interstate Commerce Commission will nullify Jim Crow segregation in coach accommodations. Townsend offers counterpoints to these concerns, and suggests saying nothing about race in order to protect the bill. Addressing Roosevelt directly, he describes his draft of the railroad bill and discloses having sent a copy to Attorney General William H. Moody. Townsend also encloses a letter from Williams, which wishes Roosevelt to see.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1905-11-03
Secretary of War Taft discusses the “misuse and abuse” that has led to the concentration of capital “in the hands of the comparatively few,” and the demand of the public for legislation to restrain, regulate, and supervise “the exercise of the mighty means of good and evil which organized capital has proven to be.” Taft stresses, however, it is important to keep in mind that wealth used as capital for the production of goods and services is essential to the life and comfort of the people, and without it, the country would not have prospered. Taft provides a history of government involvement in regulating “organized capital” through legislation and discusses present efforts to expand the rights of laborers.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1906-08-29
Attorney General Moody writes concerning the issue of rebates being granted by the Atchison, Topkea and, Santa Fe Railway Company to the Colorado Fuel and Iron Company. Moody writes that it may be assumed that the transportation of coal at less than the published rate is in contempt of the restraining order of 1902. However, he does not believe any proceedings should be brought against any officers of the railroad company, including E. P. Ripley and Paul Morton, unless there is evidence linking them to guilty conduct.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1905-05-31
Benjamin Ide Wheeler, president of the University of California at Berkeley, recommends Professor Bernard Moses to President Roosevelt for a ministry position. Further contact with South America is inevitable, and Moses has expertise in South American language and affairs, as demonstrated in his book The Establishment of Spanish Rule in America. Wheeler also anticipates a visit from Alice Roosevelt, who is coming with Secretary of War William H. Taft and Taft’s family. He briefly discusses an upcoming struggle with Republican senators over foreign policy issues and arguments over railway rate control and the prospect of government ownership.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1905-05-23
Newspaper clipping of cartoon showing Uncle Sam riding atop a hybrid between a donkey and an elephant, labeled “Railroad Rate Bill.” The creature is being driven by Benjamin R. Tillman, holding a pitchfork, and prodded from behind by Theodore Roosevelt.
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs
1906
An advertisement for content that will be produced by S. S. McClure Company in the next year. It includes material about President Roosevelt by William Allen White and Henry Beach Needham.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1905-11-26
Draft text of a bill amending an 1887 act to regulate commerce, as well as all following amendments to that bill. The bill outlines the role of the Interstate Commerce Commission in defining and setting shipping rates and tariffs.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1905-11-28
Using the various subsidiaries of a beef trust run by J. Ogden Armour, Ray Stannard Baker illustrates the ways in which large companies and trusts can manipulate and take advantage of railroads to gain advantageous shipping rates and contracts.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1905-11-17