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President Roosevelt thanks Anna M. Porter and the congregation of the Hillside Congregational Church for their contributions to disaster relief efforts in San Francisco in the wake of the earthquake there.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1906-04-25
President Roosevelt defends the action he took in sending money to the Red Cross, in that the prime concern was to meet the immediate emergency in San Francisco, which it was able to do. Now that local relief organizations have been created, further funds will be sent to them. Previous scandals and allegations of mismanagement of funds by the Red Cross were linked with Clara Barton, who resigned from he organization in 1904, and the organization is now efficiently organized.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1906-04-25
President Roosevelt has received a number of messages urging disaster relief funds for San Francisco to be given to local committees rather than the National Red Cross. He believes that the course he took at the time was the only possible one, but that now if the regular authorities believe they can do the necessary relief work they should be allowed to do so.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1906-04-25
President Roosevelt informs James D. Phelan that the Finance Committee can use the United States Mint at San Francisco as a depository for relief funds until the subtreasury opens, and thereafter can use the subtreasury until the banks open. He asks Phelan to consult Superintendent Frank Aleamon Leach of the San Francisco Mint regarding detailed arrangements. Secretary of the Treasury Leslie M. Shaw will wire instructions to Leach and Assistant Treasurer Julius Jacobs. Secretary of War William H. Taft has been given authority to disperse congressional appropriations.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1906-04-24
President Roosevelt thanks Baron Kentarō Kaneko for the telegram in the wake of the San Francisco earthquake and fire. While it is not as bad as the suffering brought about by the famine in Japan it is still a calamity, and he appreciates Kaneko’s sympathy.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1906-04-23
President Roosevelt plans to send a message to Congress recommending the rebuilding of public buildings in San Francisco belonging to the Post Office, Treasury, and War Departments, and asks Secretary of War Taft to prepare figures for him detailing the costs associated with repairing buildings belonging to the Department of War in San Francisco, as well as those damaged in Sacramento, San Jose, and Oakland.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1906-04-23
President Roosevelt tells Secretary of War Taft that he has read reports that the destruction of the San Francisco earthquake has fallen especially hard on the Chinese population there, and instructs him to telegraph Edward T. Devine that the Red Cross relief work in the city must be done equally for everyone, without regard to race. Roosevelt asks if it would also be worth telegraphing General Frederick Funston the same instructions.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1906-04-23
President Roosevelt plans to send a message to Congress recommending the rebuilding of public buildings in San Francisco belonging to the Post Office, Treasury, and War Departments, and asks Postmaster General Cortelyou to prepare figures for him detailing the costs associated with repairing buildings belonging to the Post Office Department in San Francisco, as well as those damaged in Sacramento, San Jose, and Oakland.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1906-04-23
President Roosevelt updates his son Kermit Roosevelt on some of the goings-on of the family, and reports that Kermit’s brother Ted’s eye surgery went well. The egg-rolling at the White House on Easter Monday was great fun for the children, and the white house grounds are looking nice in spring. Roosevelt relates a humorous story involving Kermit’s younger brother Quentin Roosevelt, who “is a funny small person if ever there was one.” Roosevelt is trying to send aid to California, still reeling after a recent earthquake, and has been continuing his fight for a rate bill and the Panama Canal issue.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1906-04-22
On the direction of President Roosevelt, William Loeb forwards Secretary of the Navy Bonaparte a telegram from California Governor George C. Pardee requesting the use of war ships to transport supplies to San Francisco to assist with disaster relief there.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1906-04-22
President Roosevelt suggests that, on behalf of the Red Cross Association, Mabel Thorp Boardman send an auditor to San Francisco to keep track of expenditures for disaster relief in the city. Roosevelt does not want to impede immediate relief to the city, but warns that after the emergency “there will be plenty of fools and plenty of knaves to make accusations against us, and plenty of good people who will believe them.” It would be beneficial, therefore, to have a clear accounting of what has been done, and with what resources.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1906-04-22
President Roosevelt tells Secretary of War Taft of a request he received from the National Advisory Board for Fuels and Structural Materials that Captain John S. Sewell of the Army Corps of Engineers be authorized to cooperate with investigations into the effects of the recent San Francisco earthquake on building materials. Roosevelt asks Taft to make this assignment, given the importance of the subject.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1906-04-20
President Roosevelt hopes that the University of California has not suffered as much damage as it has been reported to have suffered. He tells Benjamin Ide Wheeler that he shares “the horror and grief of the country at the disaster that has befallen California.”
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1906-04-19
President Roosevelt telegraphs California Governor Pardee that all available tents and rations have already been ordered to be sent to San Francisco for disaster relief. He has directed Secretary of War Taft to take up the matter of bedding and supplies, and to do everything that Pardee requests, as long as it is something they are able to do.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1906-04-19
President Roosevelt tells Owen McAleer, Mayor of Los Angeles, that the Navy Department is already trying to use warships to the extent they are available to help with disaster relief. Roosevelt notes that warships are “singularly unfitted to transport supplies or individuals,” but that he has instructed the Navy Department “to do everything that can properly be done.”
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1906-04-19
President Roosevelt was shocked to hear of the disastrous San Francisco earthquake, and tells President David Starr Jordan of Stanford University of his personal concern and sympathy for the campus in particular. He hopes things are not as bad as they are reported to be.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1906-04-19
President Roosevelt sends Secretary of War Taft a telegram from California Governor George C. Pardee, along with a copy of the reply he sent. Roosevelt urges Taft to “strain every effort to get the tentage, rations, bedding and supplies asked for” for San Francisco in the wake of the earthquake and fire that took place there.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1906-04-19
President Roosevelt has heard rumors that a disastrous earthquake hit San Francisco, but dos not know the facts. He tells Mayor Eugene E. Schmitz of San Francisco to call upon him for any assistance that may be required.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1906-04-18
President Roosevelt telegraphs California Governor Pardee that he has heard rumors of a disastrous earthquake in San Francisco, but does not know the facts of the matter. Roosevelt will provide any assistance he can if Pardee calls on him.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1906-04-18
President Roosevelt had a difficult time at first believing the news of the disaster that struck San Francisco, California, and sends his sympathies to the people of California and San Francisco. Roosevelt asks California Governor Pardee to let him know if there is anything the national government can do to assist with the situation.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1906-04-18