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President Roosevelt agrees with John D. Kernan on currency, but is opposed to calling an emergency session of Congress in the wake of the financial crisis. Congress is meeting in four weeks anyway and it would be difficult to get proposed legislation together much before then.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1907-11-05
President Roosevelt tells Pliny T. Sexton that the great difficulty in calling an extra session of Congress is that all the best men in finance cannot agree on what kind of laws are necessary in the wake of the financial crisis.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1907-11-05
President Roosevelt tells Stanford President Jordan that he will see what he can do to help protect salmon fisheries, but it is hard to get either Congress or state legislatures to act in the matter.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1907-11-06
President Roosevelt heartily sympathizes with Thomas P. McLoughlin’s proposal and has sent it to the War Department with his stated support. Roosevelt asks McLoughlin to write to as many Congressmen as he can about the project and Roosevelt will back him.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1907-11-06
President Roosevelt thanks Henry T. Wills for the letter and the pleasing report. Roosevelt agrees on the commercial attaches, but only Congress can enact a law allowing it. He is glad Wills approves of Judge Lebbeus R. Wilfley.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1907-10-25
President Roosevelt informs New Mexico Territorial Governor Curry that he has met with congressional leaders about statehood, but they are at an impasse concerning statehood for New Mexico and Arizona. Congress would like to wait until after the 1910 census and proceed from there based on the population data. Roosevelt has also written to Arizona Territorial Governor Joseph H. Kibbey, and does not see much point in addressing the matter in his upcoming message.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1907-10-24
President Roosevelt would like to appoint the commission that J. Franklin Jameson suggested, but is reluctant to do so as he is unable to grant them travel expenses. Roosevelt would like to wait to act until he can consult Congress, as Congress resents actions like this if taken without its consent.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1907-07-02
President Roosevelt tells Benjamin Ide Wheeler that it is not important if the navy fleet is in the Pacific or Atlantic ocean, but rather that it keeps being built up. Roosevelt says that if he had not been able to overcome the opposition of Congress to improving the fleet, the West Coast would have “been in danger of bombardment.” Roosevelt is pleased Wheeler will continue on in San Francisco. He did not know anything about the industrial peace conference Wheeler mentioned, but will support it an any way he can. Roosevelt has asked Assistant Secretary of State Robert Bacon for a report about John W. Garrett.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1907-06-21
President Roosevelt presents Edgar E. George a medal of honor for saving the life of someone traveling on a railroad.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1907-06-08
President Roosevelt accepts Gerrit J. Diekema’s resignation from the Spanish Treaty Claims Commission and congratulates Diekema on his election to the United States Congress.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1907-05-14
President Roosevelt appreciated the article that Thomas R. Lounsbury wrote in the Atlantic. He admits that he was doubtful about the simplified spelling of “thru.” He disagrees with the Congressional ruling that forbids simplified spelling in publications printed by the Government Printing Office, and he continues to use it in his own correspondence.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1907-04-30
President Roosevelt informs Mary Guinan that under the provisions of “an Act to promote the security of travel upon railroads engaged in interstate commerce,” she is awarded a medal of honor for her actions on December 16, 1906 when she risked her own life to save an elderly man from being hit by a train. He encloses the medal.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1907-05-08
President Roosevelt believes Arthur Hamilton Lee handled the “Swettenham matter” efficiently, calling the matter itself a “cosmic incident” and citing others like Swettenham in American Government, most notably General James Harrison Wilson. He was amused by the opinions of John William Burgess, who was awarded the Theodore Roosevelt professorship in at the University of Berlin. While Roosevelt admires some of Burgess’s scholarly accomplishments, he considers Burgess “hopefully wrong-headed” and criticizes his first lecture denouncing the Monroe Doctrine.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1907-04-08
President Roosevelt is confused by what type of assistance Henry Lee Higginson is asking for concerning the “money market.” He believes it is the responsibility of the “railroad and corporation people”, or those who have exploited stocks, to reassure investors and the American people regarding railroad rate regulation. He also reminds Higginson that he is expanding upon the same regulations that already exist in Higginson’s home state of Massachusetts.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1907-03-28
Since Congress as failed to act, President Roosevelt has decided that the administration should act in regard to the “railroad mail matter.” Roosevelt believes Secretary of the Treasury George B. Cortelyou will tame the railroad lobby who successfully overcame the efforts of Kansas Representative Victor Murdock and Wisconsin Senator Robert M. La Follette to lower the railroad rates.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1907-03-06
President Roosevelt updates his cousin William Emlen Roosevelt on Archibald B. Roosevelt’s health. He expresses his concern about the situation going on in the business world. He notes that Edith Kermit Carow Roosevelt and Archibald will not be going on the trip down south. He asks William to give him notice when William decides to visit. He expresses relief that William warned Theodore Roosevelt, Jr. about business. He is disappointed that he did not see William’s son, George Emlen Roosevelt, at Harvard, but notes that he did not see much of his son, Theodore, either.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1907-03-08
President Roosevelt explains to California Governor Gillett that protesters in San Francisco who want to exclude Japanese laborers are preventing their goal through their own actions. Japan has agreed not to issue passports to laborers as long as Americans do not discriminate against or insult the Japanese. Attempts in California to legislate discrimination against the Japanese will undermine this agreement with Japan.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1907-03-09
President Roosevelt notifies Secretary of the Interior Garfield that his executive order on public lands is cancelled because the United States Congress did not appropriate enough funds to carry out the order. The Commissioner of the General Land Office will attempt to act using the appropriated funds.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1907-03-12
President Roosevelt informs William Allen White that newly appointed Secretary of the Treasury George B. Cortelyou has been reviewing the matter but as yet to determine the reductions. If legislation is not passed soon, Roosevelt will consider hiring outside accountants to thoroughly investigate the matter before he again approaches Congress.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1907-02-27
President Roosevelt enjoyed his visit with Viscount James Bryce and reminisces about when Bryce stayed at the White House several years prior. Roosevelt believes the question of disarmament is “full of difficulties” and wants to avoid raising “high anticipation as will ensure disappointment” with the upcoming National Arbitration and Peace Congress. He wasn’t impressed with Jamaica Governor James Alexander Swettenham’s message and compares his dealings with him to that of Henry Wolcott Bowen, former Ambassador of Venezuela. Roosevelt is pleased that the Santo Domingo treaty was ratified by Congress and is overall satisfied with the number of other legislative measures he managed to pass.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1907-02-28