Trusts, Industrial

President Roosevelt tells Paul Morton that the things that Roosevelt wanted to talk to him about are not enough to warrant him coming back. Roosevelt had been feeling angry over some of the antics of Standard Oil and the Edward Henry Harriman crowd. Roosevelt believes that Morton is correct in what he said about Secretary of War William H. Taft and William Jennings Bryan.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1908-01-28

President Roosevelt valued M. J. Costello’s editorial and thought it counterbalanced all the writing by those affiliated with the trusts in the other papers. He has tried to serve the plain people by championing their demands and has only grown more understanding of their plight.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1907-12-30

President Roosevelt informs Attorney General Bonaparte of a meeting he had with Judge Elbert H. Gary and Henry Clay Frick regarding the potential failure of an important Wall Street firm, Moore and Schley. The firm is heavily invested in the Tennessee Coal, Iron and Railroad company. Gary and Frick propose that the United States Steel Company purchase that stock from the firm to prevent its failure. This purchase could expose United States Steel to an antitrust attack from the government, but Gary and Frick explain why it would not constitute a monopoly, and feel strongly that preventing the firm’s failure would be in everyone’s best interest. Roosevelt told them that while he could not advise them to take the proposed action, he felt it was not his duty to tell them not to.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1907-11-04

President Roosevelt agrees with Cephas F. Clapp, both about railroad trusts and nature faker writers. Roosevelt discusses the characteristics of antelope and giraffe horns.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1907-06-21

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1907-04-08

Creator(s)

Roosevelt, Theodore, 1858-1919

Recipient

Patterson, Thomas MacDonald, 1839-1916

President Roosevelt will speak with Mr. Robinson. He agrees with William D. Washburn about the railway and trust question. There may be “temporary financial trouble,” but Roosevelt will not change his course.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1907-03-09

President Roosevelt thanks Samuel A. Harper for his letter but chastises him for requesting more insight on Aaron Burr when Roosevelt is busy with a myriad of current affairs.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1906-09-12

President Roosevelt briefly follows up with Attorney General Moody on several issues, including an ice matter, acting against Standard Oil, and guidance on spelling reform.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1906-09-13

President Roosevelt thanks Secretary of State Root for the humorous translation of a Spanish newspaper. He provides updates on the successful naval review, recent state elections, and the boiling pot of New York politics. Roosevelt finds that William Jennings Bryan’s eagerness for popularity causes him to commit “to preposterous positions,” as revealed by his recent speech.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1906-09-04

President Roosevelt remarks that the recent sessions of the national legislatures of the United States, Great Britain, and France have all been very interesting. Roosevelt comments particularly on a speech by Prime Minister Georges Clemenceau of France. Looking at his own career, Roosevelt expects “the swinging of the pendulum” to occur soon, as he has been president for five years already. While there may be increasing resistance from Congress, however, he believes the past five years have been extremely productive and is proud of what he has accomplished. Roosevelt is interested in the proceedings of the upcoming Hague conference, and tells George Otto Trevelyan that there is a narrow path to walk between reducing armaments among European nations, and in going too far and “having the free peoples rendered helpless in the faces of the various military despotism and barbarisms of the world.”

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1906-08-18

President Roosevelt was pleased to hear from George Rumsey Sheldon. Roosevelt believes they feel the same way about a particular combination, and promises “when things have developed a little further I will tell you some inside facts about it.”

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1906-07-20

President Roosevelt comments to Attorney General Moody on the state of several cases currently being prosecuted, potentially being brought to trial, or being appealed. He was disturbed by the judgement of Judge George C. Holt that Moody referred to, and feels that while it is inevitable that “even a good judge will go wrong in a percentage of cases,” this was an important case in which Holt missed the larger Governmental questions. Roosevelt would like to prosecute other cases without reference to the one Holt decided, and wishes to use the case as an example to argue for the right of appeal, so long as he can do so without offending Holt. He would be glad if there is reasonable ground to proceed against Standard Oil in antitrust suits, as several special counsels think there is.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1906-07-21

President Roosevelt wishes he could make an exception about the naval cadetship as Seth Low wished, but if he did he would have to make similar exceptions for many other people as well. He agrees with the final point of Low’s letter that the powers of the national government are “being steadily strengthened,” and that must be done in order to combat “lawlessness of great corporations, which has developed because of the division of power between the states and the federal government.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1906-07-12

President Roosevelt thanks Howard Allen Bridgman for his recent editorial, both because he personally enjoyed it and because he thinks it sets out important facts. Roosevelt comments that there is a danger in trying to work between the excesses of populism and demagoguery on one hand, and the real abuses and wrongs that have been committed by businesses and the wealthy on the other. Roosevelt compares the two sides to the French nobility and the leaders of the French Revolution, both of which went to very dangerous and damaging excesses.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1906-07-14

President Roosevelt believes that the proper thing for him to do is to direct the Interstate Commerce Commission to look into the ice trust prosecution that Harry B. Kirtland wrote to him about. Roosevelt privately believes that Judge Reynolds R. Kinkade and Lyman W. Wachenheimer’s opinions in the matter have been of great value, but feels that he should not make any such public statement without being absolutely positive of the facts.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1906-07-16

President Roosevelt explains that he cannot get any Ohio appointments confirmed for local office without the consent of the Ohio senators. He tells Harry B. Kirtland that he already asked about Howard D. Manington, and was advised that he would not be confirmed. Roosevelt could make a fight for the appointment of Judge Reynolds R. Kinkade on principle, but does not feel that that is possible for Manington, where it is simply a matter of preference. Changing topics, Roosevelt promises to order an investigation into relations between the railroads and the ice trust if Kirtland thinks it would be advisable to do so.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1906-07-07

President Roosevelt hopes that Lyman Abbott makes it clear in his editorial that he disapproves of several corporations acting in the Rocky Mountains, and remarks that people often have difficulty understanding that it is imperative for people to “disprove equally of the murderous lawlessness of labor unions which degenerate into thugism of the Molly McGuire kind, and of the practically as arrogant and greedy lawlessness of quite as noxious a type shown by certain big corporations.” Roosevelt considers it important to be against lawlessness wherever and whenever it is found. He compares his actions with those of several other figures, and says that while former president Grover Cleveland acted both against corporations and labor unions, William Jennings Bryan and Senator Robert M. La Follette refuse to attack labor.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1906-07-01

President Roosevelt invites Cecil Andrew Lyon; his wife, Claudia Lyon; his sister-in-law, Louise Forster-Brown; and his daughter, Claudia Lyon, to call on Roosevelt tomorrow morning. Unfortunately, Roosevelt is unable to take lunch with the Lyon family, as the president already has plans. Roosevelt is frustrated that Cecil did not notify him in advance about passing through Washington, D.C., as Cecil promised to do when Roosevelt was with Cecil in Texas.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1905-06-07

President Roosevelt outlines the facts concerning a case against the Kodak Company for Richard A. Anthony. Roosevelt brought Anthony’s concerns to Attorney General Philander C. Knox, who wanted to wait to bring the case based on the outcome of ongoing litigation; when Attorney General William H. Moody came into office, Roosevelt brought it to his attention as well, but Moody felt the case was not strong enough to prosecute. 

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1905-03-02

President Roosevelt wishes Senator Knox a happy New Year and asks when Knox can drop by to discuss current issues the Department of Justice is facing regarding anthracite coal, the tobacco trust, and the International Harvester Company.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1904-12-28