Southern Pacific Railroad Company

Miller Freeman notifies Theodore Roosevelt that a delegation of “Southern Pacific Attorneys” left to attend a hearing in Washington, D.C. to protest against Henry L. Stimson, U.S. Secretary of War, letting Lake Washington canal lock a contract. Freeman says there are no legal questions involved and left to Stimson on sound judgement. Freeman states if Roosevelt attended the hearing, he would see that the corporation is trying to block the pacific coast from the benefits of the Panama Canal, and Freeman asks Roosevelt for his help in the matter. 

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1911-06-17

Creator(s)

Freeman, Miller, 1875-1955

Miller Freeman notifies Theodore Roosevelt that a delegation of “Southern Pacific Attorneys” left to attend a hearing in Washington, D.C. to protest against Henry L. Stimson, U.S. Secretary of War, letting Lake Washington canal lock a contract. Freeman says there are no legal questions involved and left to Stimson on sound judgement. Freeman states if Roosevelt attended the hearing, he would see that the corporation is trying to block the pacific coast from the benefits of the Panama Canal, and Freeman asks Roosevelt for his help in the matter.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1911-06-17

Creator(s)

Freeman, Miller, 1875-1955

President Roosevelt details how Attorney General Bonaparte is to respond to United States District Attorney N. M. Ruick, using quotations from various correspondences.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1907-08-24

Creator(s)

Roosevelt, Theodore, 1858-1919

President Roosevelt tells Governor Pardee that Southern Pacific Railroad chairman Edward Henry Harriman has given permission to his employees to immediately repair the break in the Colorado River. Roosevelt closes by saying he will bring the matter before congress when it reconvenes.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1906-12-20

Creator(s)

Roosevelt, Theodore, 1858-1919

Attorney General Bonaparte recently met with Charles B. Morrison and Frank B. Kellogg regarding the suit against the Standard Oil Company. He summarizes the facts of the case for President Roosevelt and shares his thoughts. Bonaparte and Kellogg also discussed the Interstate Commerce Commission’s report on the Union Pacific and Southern Pacific Railroad Companies.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1907-08-22

Creator(s)

Bonaparte, Charles J. (Charles Joseph), 1851-1921

Secretary of State Root sends Ambassador Thompson a telegram about failing levees as part of a dam project on the Colorado River; Root does not believe that Mexico will take the necessary action to fix the levees, so urges Thompson to ask discreetly whether the United States might enter Mexican territory to make the repairs.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1906-12-11

Creator(s)

Root, Elihu, 1845-1937

Benjamin Ide Wheeler writes that Frank P. Flint has won the Senate seat. Wheeler recommends Flint as an honest man, and a supporter of President Roosevelt’s administration, though not of “supreme ability or thorough education.” Flint was “selected” by the Southern Pacific Railway and so will not take issue with “railroad interests.”

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1905-01-13

Creator(s)

Wheeler, Benjamin Ide, 1854-1927

Theodore Roosevelt’s secretary thanks Robert G. Leidig for his letter and discusses Roosevelt’s position on the recall of judges in California and Arizona. Roosevelt supported the recall in Arizona in support of states’ rights, and the recall in California due to the close association of the judges with the Southern Pacific Railroad.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1912-05-07

Creator(s)

Secretary of Theodore Roosevelt

President Roosevelt has received the report he previously mentioned to Representative Miller, which discusses the amount the federal government should reimburse the Southern Pacific Railroad for the cost of repairing a break in the tracks in Mexico. Roosevelt suggests a rough amount of twenty percent, but would like to have a thoroughly trained person investigate the subject. He asks if Miller could appropriate money to fund such an investigation by the Department of the Interior.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1908-03-17

Creator(s)

Roosevelt, Theodore, 1858-1919

President Roosevelt informs Representative James M. Miller, Chairman of the Committee on Claims, that he has asked Secretary of the Interior James Rudolph Garfield, Frederick Haynes Newell, and Charles D. Walcott to investigate what the government should pay as its share of the expenses related to the Southern Pacific Railway’s saving of the Imperial Valley of southern California. Although there is no legal obligation to pay, Roosevelt believes there is a moral obligation to reimburse the Southern Pacific Railway for its action.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1908-03-11

Creator(s)

Roosevelt, Theodore, 1858-1919

President Roosevelt sends self-explanatory correspondence. Roosevelt understands that that Judge Clements is about to investigate the Union Pacific and Southern Pacific railroad companies and adds that he was not paying attention to the management of the two companies until Clements reported on the coal lands. Roosevelt has since heard several complaints of the companies’s management, including their connection with the grain elevators. Roosevelt believes that the complaints are widespread enough for a thorough investigation and would like the Interstate Commerce Commission, of which Clements is a member, to judge the matter. 

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1906-10-21

Creator(s)

Roosevelt, Theodore, 1858-1919

William E. Sanford asks Frank Harper for an update on securing him a position in the Navy.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1911-04-18

Creator(s)

Sanford, William E., 1885-

Frank B. Kellogg, a member of the Republican National Committee, writes to Republican National Committee Treasurer George Rumsey Sheldon protesting the acceptance of money from the trusts and those who run them. In particular he lists the Standard Oil Company, the Union and Southern Pacific railroads, and the Powder Trust, and names the men he knows who are associated with them. He states that it would be wrong for the Republican Party to take money from any trust when these same trusts are violating the law.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1908-09-21

Creator(s)

Kellogg, Frank B. (Frank Billings), 1856-1937

George C. Pardee, former Governor of California, warns that Secretary of War William H. Taft should not trust Edward Henry Harriman when he says he supports Taft’s nomination. Harriman and the Southern Pacific Railroad Company’s Political Bureau consider Taft too similar to President Roosevelt and, in the likely case they are involved with the California delegation to the Republican National Convention, would break from supporting him if the opportunity presents itself.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1907-11-13

Creator(s)

Pardee, George C., 1857-1941

Francis J. Heney sends some letters he received from Meyer Lissner to President Roosevelt. Heney agrees with Lissner’s assessment of the information Frank H. Hitchcock may have received from anyone in Los Angeles, and adds that if he talked to Arthur G. Fisk in San Francisco, Hitchcock would also have received bad information. Heney was unable to meet with Hitchcock since he was tied up in court proceedings, but hopes to travel to Washington after municipal elections in San Francisco on November 5.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1907-10-26

Creator(s)

Heney, Francis J. (Francis Joseph), 1859-1937

Senator Jonathan Bourne conveys to William Loeb that a friend in California believes that the political machine of the Southern Pacific Railroad Company is still in control there. Bourne writes that the meeting with Judge William C. Van Fleet will have to wait until he returns from a trip.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1907-07-24

Creator(s)

Bourne, Jonathan, 1855-1940

Fairfax Henry Wheelan asks President Roosevelt to appoint General Charles Albert Woodruff to a position on the visiting board to Annapolis. Wheelan also writes at length about the San Francisco political campaign that ended in disappointment, and says that much of the difficulty they had was due to tensions with labor movements. He also comments about William R. Wheeler’s appointment to the Interstate Commerce Commission, noting that the Southern Pacific Railroad will oppose him, but he thinks that Wheeler will be fair.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1905-11-24

Creator(s)

Wheelan, Fairfax Henry, 1856-1915

In this chapter excerpt from his book John Muir and His Legacy: The American Conservation Movement, Stephen Fox examines efforts to expand Yosemite National Park, the battle between preservationists and conservationists over the use of forests, and provides portraits of John Muir, Gifford Pinchot, John Burroughs, and Theodore Roosevelt. He looks at the work undertaken by the conservation movement to preserve Niagara Falls, the redwood forests of California, and Mount Desert Island in Maine. Fox concludes the chapter with a look at the battle over the city of San Francisco’s desire to build a dam at the southern end of Hetch Hetchy valley in Yosemite National Park. In addition to looking at the life and work of Muir, the chapter provides information on many lesser known figures in the turn of the twentieth-century conservation movement.

A listing of the officers and the members of the executive, finance, and Theodore Roosevelt Birthplace committees of the Theodore Roosevelt Association is found on the second page of the excerpt.

Collection

Theodore Roosevelt Association Journal

Creation Date

1981

The Congressional Record reports a portion of a conversation between several senators regarding railroad grant lands owned by the Northern Pacific and Southern Pacific Railroads. Congress granted the railroads lands with the condition that they would sell them to settlers, but the companies have not been holding up their end of the bargain. The Department of Justice is taking the matter under investigation.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1908-01-31

Creator(s)

United States. Congress

The Constitution of the Lincoln-Roosevelt Republican Club outlines the purposes of the club, general organizational structure, and rules. The immediate goals of the club are expressed to be emancipating the Californian Republican Party from the Southern Pacific Railroad Company, selecting future delegates who will uphold President Roosevelt’s policies, and the election of a capable Legislature.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

Unknown

Creator(s)

Lincoln-Roosevelt Republican Club