Smith, Charles Emory, 1842-1908

James Bruns explores the use of motorized vehicles–electric, steam, and gasoline powered–to deliver mail in major American cities in place of horse drawn wagons. Many of these experiments began with postmasters appointed by Theodore Roosevelt. Bruns examines the use of trucks in cities such as Detroit, Baltimore, and Washington, D.C., and he notes the various manufacturers who competed to have their vehicles tested. Bruns reports that many of the tests were conducted during the busy Christmas season.

Eleven photographs of various motorized delivery vehicles populate the article.

Collection

Theodore Roosevelt Association Journal

President Roosevelt looks on as members of his 1906 cabinet laugh at papers with the heading, “Storer.” One chair is empty, and there are pictures on the wall of Postmaster General Charles Emory Smith, Secretary of the Navy John Davis Long, Secretary of the Treasury Lyman J. Gage, and Attorney General Philander C. Knox, all from 1901.

Comments and Context

This political cartoon by Clifford Kennedy Berryman, with its typically awkward depictions of public figures, addresses not the general composition of President Roosevelt’s cabinet, although it was within a week of this cartoon that Oscar S. Strauss succeeded George B. Cortelyou as Secretary of Commerce and Labor, the latter moving to the Treasure portfolio.

It rather has to do with the denouement of a protracted and embarrassing contretemps between Roosevelt and erstwhile friends and political sponsors, Bellamy and Maria Longworth Storer of Cincinnati. The wealthy Storers of Cincinnati, friends of William H. Taft of their city, had a home in Washington, D.C., where they hosted friends like Taft when he was President Benjamin Harrison’s Solicitor General. They attached themselves to Taft’s friend Theodore Roosevelt, too, when he became Civil Service Commissioner in 1889.

Various prominent citizens including, President Roosevelt and multiple senators, justices, and cabinet members, state their support of endowing a department of political science in Western Reserve University in memory of the late Senator Marcus Alonzo Hanna.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1905-01-27

President Roosevelt thanks Senator Lodge for his letters and asks him to write as often as possible, as he feels out of touch with politics. He is exhausted from all his activities in San Francisco. He will take up the Post Office matter as soon as he gets back, and asks to hear Lodge’s thoughts on the matter.

Collection

Massachusetts Historical Society

Creation Date

1903-05-13

Composite photograph showing President Roosevelt with members of his cabinet seated and standing around a table.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1901-11-16

Photograph of President Roosevelt with black ink portraits of his eight Cabinet members. On the second page are five black and white photographs of William McKinley’s casket traveling from the Milburn residence to the city hall of Buffalo, New York.

Collection

Theodore Roosevelt Inaugural National Historic Site

Creation Date

1901

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1902-07-03

Creator(s)

Cortelyou, George B. (George Bruce), 1862-1940

Recipient

Bingham, Theo. A. (Theodore Alfred), 1858-1934

President Roosevelt encloses a letter from ex-Postmaster General Smith, regarding graft in the supplies. He asks if Joseph L. Bristow has noticed this issue and requests statistics for 1902 to compare to Smith’s figures of 1898.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1903-08-18

President Roosevelt outlines and refutes the falsehoods in Alfred Holt Stone’s Studies in the American Race Problem. He tells John Graham Brooks that he judges a work’s reliability by seeing what it says about a subject he is familiar with, and then deciding if he can trust it on things that he does not know as much about. He explains that Stone is spreading falsehoods about the so-called “referee” system in the Southern states, especially Mississippi. Roosevelt points out that the practice was common with presidents before him, and that it is necessary in areas where the Republican party does not have a strong enough presence to provide good appointees to positions. He also discusses his handling of the case of African American postmistress Minnie M. Geddings Cox, who was forced by an angry mob to resign her position and leave town.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1908-11-13

President Roosevelt sends his condolences to Henrietta Nichols Smith on the death of her husband Charles Emory Smith, former United States Minister to Russia and Postmaster General.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1908-01-19

President Roosevelt tells Attorney General Moody that if Judge Hosea Townsend’s character and career justify it, he should continue as a judge in Indian Territory whether or not it becomes a state. Roosevelt forwards a letter written by former Postmaster Charles Emory Smith to Moody.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1906-03-03

President Roosevelt implores Cornelius Newton Bliss to accept the chairmanship.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1904-05-06

Theodore Roosevelt has seen Charles Emory Smith. Roosevelt shares Thomas Dolan’s views on the chairmanship and would like to have lunch with Dolan to talk about the matter.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1904-03-27

President Roosevelt does not believe that S. Davies Warfield, postmaster at Baltimore, Maryland, should be removed. Warfield should have brought the case to the attention of Postmaster General Charles Emory Smith, but he was acting under the orders of his superiors.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1903-08-19

President Roosevelt encloses a letter from former Postmaster General Smith and asks Joseph L. Bristow for the facts about the “graft in the supplies.”

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1903-08-18

President Roosevelt tells Senator Lodge that his letters give him “great pleasure,” and asks him to write as often as possible. Roosevelt is on a tour in San Francisco, where he has been kept very busy. When he returns, he will take up the post office matter. He asks what Lodge thinks of the accusations by Seymour Wilcox Tulloch.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1903-05-13

Postmaster General Smith has assured President Roosevelt that Clayton McMichael’s conduct was entirely proper. There appears to be no basis for Woodruff’s charges.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1902-01-09

William Loeb informs Minnie H. Hinman that, as Edith Kermit Carow Roosevelt cannot take any part in Government affairs, her letter has been referred to Postmaster General Charles Emory Smith.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1902-01-03

President Roosevelt has been informed that Clayton McMichael is a good candidate for postmaster. He would like William Dudley Foulke to pass that information on to Mr. Woodruff.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1901-12-21

George B. Cortelyou informs Mrs. N. G. Dow that Edith Kermit Carow Roosevelt does not involve herself in government affairs. Dow will have to communicate with Postmaster General Charles Emory Smith.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1901-10-31