Your TR Source
Harvey Maitland Watts sends Theodore Roosevelt his book titled, The Wife of Potiphar with Other Poems as well as a letter he received in response to it by Melville Elijah Stone. Watts adds that the poems are distinctly American and, in a handwritten aside, says he is not a Harvard man despite the poem titled “At Harvard.”
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1911-12-19
A page from the Topeka Daily State Journal featuring a highlighted section of reminiscences of Frank P. MacLennan’s recent meeting and luncheon with Theodore Roosevelt, several editors and businessmen from The Outlook, and others in New York. Also included in the section titled “Chapter LII” is information about Roosevelt’s insistence he has no intention to be nominated as a Republican candidate in the upcoming election, Taft’s fight against big business, and LaFollette’s campaign efforts as the presidential election approaches.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1911-12-20
Seven books, including two memoirs, are examined in six review essays in this edition of the “Book Notes” section. Michael L. Manson reviews two books on Theodore Roosevelt’s 1914 scientific expedition to Brazil; one penned by Roosevelt and the other by Joseph R. Ornig. Manson praises the forewords to both books written by Tweed Roosevelt, and he finds Ornig’s book provides a detailed look at the expedition and the cast of characters besides Roosevelt who made it successful. Stacy A. Cordery notes that journalist Joseph Alsop’s memoirs deal mostly with the major events and figures of the mid to late twentieth century, and she reveals Alsop’s opinions of various senators, presidents, and generals.
Richard P. Harmon faults Peter Collier’s The Roosevelts: An American Saga for focusing too much on the private lives of the two Roosevelt families, and he says that many of Collier’s assertions are not backed by evidence and that the book relies too much on a psychohistory approach. James Summerville asserts that H. Paul Jeffers’s look at Roosevelt’s tenure as Police Commissioner of New York City, Commissioner Roosevelt, disappoints and that readers should turn to Jay S. Berman’s study or to coverage of this period of Roosevelt’s career in biographies. John A. Gable provides a positive and short review of a short book, William H. Harbaugh’s fifty page history of Pine Knot, which Gable says is written with “charm and style.” Robert D. Dalziel, President of the Theodore Roosevelt Association (TRA), reviews the memoirs of Hamilton Fish, a winner of the TRA’s Distinguished Service Medal. Dalziel says that Fish’s opinions are straightforward and blunt like their author.
Two photographs appear in the section: one shows three members of the Rio Roosevelt Expedition of 1992 and the other dignitaries of the Dutch government at the Roosevelt Study Center in the Netherlands.
Based on his book Police Administration and Progressive Reform: Theodore Roosevelt As Police Commissioner of New York, Jay S. Berman examines Theodore Roosevelt’s tenure as President of the Police Board of New York City. Berman looks at the political obstacles posed by Senator Thomas Collier Platt and Police Superintendent Thomas Byrnes, and he notes how Roosevelt’s penchant for action and for assuming a leadership role manifested themselves in his job as Police Commissioner. Berman looks at Roosevelt’s late night, undercover inspections and how Roosevelt used them to improve the police force, and he adds that they also improved Roosevelt’s political standing and reputation.
Theodore Roosevelt Association Journal
1988
The writer of the article draws parallels between corruption and graft in politics and the corrupt practices that allow big businesses to accumulate and control most of the money in the country. The article quotes heavily from an article in Everybody’s Magazine by Lincoln Steffens that criticizes the few rich businessmen who control most of the capital of the country.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1911-02-10
Various forms of graft, fraud, and bribery were committed by San Francisco mayor Eugene Schmitz and members of the Board of Supervisors. Following trials of many offenders, a report is published on the causes of the corruption and recommendations made on how to prevent municipal corruption in the future.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1910-01-05
Theodore Roosevelt appears as “Mikado Roosevelt” with a large cast of characters standing behind him: “Pish Tush Root,” “Landis,” “Pooh Bah Taft,” “Burroughs,” “Heney,” “Cortelyou,” “Steffens,” “La Follette,” “Folk,” “Garfield,” “Riis,” “Loeb,” and “Koko Bonaparte,” who is holding a large sword labeled “Department of Justice.” John D. Rockefeller labeled “Flim-Flam Business,” and Edward Henry Harriman labeled “Flim Flam Finance,” are kneeling on the stage awaiting execution. Caption: “My object all sublime / I shall achieve in time — / To let the punishment fit the crime — / The punishment fit the crime. — / And make each prisoner pent / Unwillingly represent / A source of infinite merriment, / Of infinite merriment.”
Cartoonists in Puck and rival magazine like Judge and Life, as well as newspaper political cartoonists, frequently turned to operas, mythology, and Shakespeare for metaphorical and allegorical setting for their cartoons. Despite their current popularity, the operettas of Gilbert and Sullivan seldom inspired the cartoonists to parody.
J. S. Pughe of Puck made an exception in the first week of January, 1908. In a rather tortured casting of political reformers and Muckraking journalists as characters from The Mikado, they dance as two condemned men (behind the costumes, John D. Rockefeller of Standard Oil; and railroad baron Edward Henry Harriman) nervously await their fate.
Police Commissioner Roosevelt writes a letter of introduction to The Atlantic Monthly for Lincoln Steffens.
1895-08-06
Assistant Secretary of the Navy Roosevelt writes to Avery De Lano Andrews thanking him for the report and inviting Andrews to lunch with Roosevelt and Jacob A. Riis. Andrews is free to invite Frank Moss and Lincoln Steffens.
1897-07-07
Commissioner Roosevelt writes to Avery De Lano Andrews about an article in the Sun newspaper about Roosevelt’s interview with Parker. Roosevelt is unhappy about the article and would like to meet with Lincoln Steffens.
1896-12-30
A large group of politicians and journalists appear as knights on a crusade against graft and corruption. Many carry large pens like a lance. Periodicals mentioned are “Colliers, Harper’s Weekly, Life, Puck, [and] McClure’s” Magazine. Caption: Marching embattled ‘gainst the Saracens of Graft.
This cartoon by Carl Hassmann, which resembles a poster, could indeed be a historian’s guide to the leading crusading Muckrakers of the day (circa 1906, the high-water mark of reform before the Progressive Era and certainly in journalism and books). The double-page cartoon is a panegyric to the movement, a paean to the personalities.
Hassmann addresses not an issue or controversy of the week, but pulls back to portray the army of reformers and crusaders fighting corruption, exposing corporate scandals, fighting for reform. It is interesting to note that fewer than five years before this cartoon, there was no such crusade sweeping across America, and many of the names were yet unknown to the public. This surely was a period of change.
Theodore Roosevelt discusses a recent article written by Lincoln Steffens. Roosevelt strongly disagrees with the article’s content. Roosevelt would like Medill McCormick at the publicity bureau in Washington to advise Roosevelt on the matter.
1912-02-12
President Roosevelt has an ongoing dispute with Dr. Albert Shaw of the Review of Reviews over whether or not Roosevelt said that Missouri gubernatorial candidate Cyrus Packard Walbridge is a better man than opposing candidate Joseph Wingate Folk. Roosevelt insists he said no such thing, and Shaw insists he did. Roosevelt sends a copy of a letter he received from Shaw to Collier. Roosevelt wishes not to discuss any of this in public, especially concerned about the misrepresentation of his political views.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1904-10-27
Theodore Roosevelt is delighted with the clear information in Charles Dwight Willard’s letter and wishes he could reply at length. He wants to quote Willard in an article about women’s rights and duties. Roosevelt congratulates Willard on his overwhelming victory in the municipal contest. Recalling his article on James B. McNamara’s trial, Roosevelt wishes that leaders would remember, as Willard does, that true progressives stand against brutal wrongdoing done by labor as much as that done by capital.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1911-12-11
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.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1908-11-13
President Roosevelt sends John St. Loe Strachey the two last volumes of his speeches and messages, and has added some notations for where to find speeches relating to matters of socialism and class consciousness that Strachey has been talking about. Roosevelt additionally includes a copy of a letter he wrote to Lincoln Steffens. The Republican National Convention will be starting soon, and Roosevelt is sure that Secretary of War William H. Taft will be nominated as the Republican presidential candidate.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1908-06-11
President Roosevelt acknowledges Lyman Abbott’s note and says that letters he wrote to Lincoln Steffens and Ray Stannard Baker are encouraging for The Outlook.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1908-06-05
President Roosevelt enjoyed the clippings sent by Robert J. Collier. Roosevelt likes the article by Lincoln Steffens, although he notes that impressionist paintings, while they may give a good general view, are useless for analyzing specific geography. Steffens once told Roosevelt that he finds what Roosevelt would call “gossip” quite useful, and Roosevelt thinks that expresses the difference between him and Steffens perfectly. Roosevelt adds that Moody is a fine person undeserving of attack.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1907-11-04
President Roosevelt refutes the points made in an article published in Collier’s Weekly accusing Supreme Court Justice William H. Moody of misconduct while overseeing the Oregon land fraud scandal as Attorney General. The article alleged that Moody’s personal grudge against the chief prosecutor of the trial, U.S. Attorney for the District of Oregon Francis J. Heney, led to him nearly undermining the case by allowing a U.S. Marshal implicated in the scandal to remain in his position, suggesting a potentially compromised judge to sit the case, and refusing to appoint the Heney-recommended William C. Bristol as District Attorney.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1907-10-26
President Roosevelt refutes the points made in an article published in Collier’s Weekly accusing Supreme Court Justice William H. Moody of misconduct while overseeing the Oregon land fraud scandal as Attorney General. The article alleged that Moody’s personal grudge against the chief prosecutor of the trial, U.S. Attorney for the District of Oregon Francis J. Heney, led to him nearly undermining the case by allowing a U.S. Marshal implicated in the scandal to remain in his position, suggesting a potentially compromised judge to sit the case, and refusing to appoint the Heney-recommended William C. Bristol as District Attorney. The piece has several handwritten additions and notes which Roosevelt includes in the final draft of his piece.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1907-10-26