United States. Dept. of Agriculture

Letter from Theodore Roosevelt to Edwin Anderson Alderman

President Roosevelt informs Edwin Anderson Alderman that he is appointing a five-member board to answer scientific questions necessary to enforcing the Pure Food and Drugs Act. Secretary of Agriculture James Wilson will certify the board. The board will be liberally compensated and only answer questions about issues involving “a serious difference of opinion among eminent authorities.” The board’s answers on the matters will be final. Roosevelt asks if Alderman knows any men who are available to serve on it.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1908-01-16

Letter from Theodore Roosevelt to Arthur Twining Hadley

President Roosevelt informs Arthur Twining Hadley that he is appointing a five-member board to answer scientific questions necessary to enforcing the Pure Food and Drugs Act. Secretary of Agriculture James Wilson will certify the board. The board will be liberally compensated and only answer questions about issues involving “a serious difference of opinion among eminent authorities.” The board’s answers on the matters will be final. Roosevelt asks if Hadley knows any men who are available to serve on it.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1908-01-16

Letter from Theodore Roosevelt to A. W. Harris

President Roosevelt informs A. W. Harris that he is appointing a five-member board to answer scientific questions necessary to enforcing the Pure Food and Drugs Act. Secretary of Agriculture James Wilson will certify the board. The board will be liberally compensated and only answer questions about issues involving “a serious difference of opinion among eminent authorities.” The board’s answers on the matters will be final. Roosevelt asks if Harris knows any men who are available to serve on it.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1908-01-16

Letter from Theodore Roosevelt to Ira Remsen

President Roosevelt informs Johns Hopkins University President Remsen that he is appointing a five-member board to answer scientific questions necessary in the enforcement of the Pure Food and Drugs Act. He asks if Remsen has any suggestions of people who would be available to serve on this board.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1908-01-16

Letter from Theodore Roosevelt to Benjamin Ide Wheeler

President Roosevelt informs University of California President Wheeler that he is appointing a five-member board to answer scientific questions necessary in the enforcement of the Pure Food and Drugs Act. He asks if Wheeler has any recommendations of men available to serve as members.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1908-01-16

Letter from Theodore Roosevelt to Theodore E. Burton

President Roosevelt appoints an Inland Waterways Commission and requests that Representative Burton serve as chairman of the commission, along with Senator Francis G. Newlands, Senator William Warner, Representative John Hollis Bankhead, General Alexander Mackenzie, Dr. W. J. McGee, Frederick Haynes Newell, Gifford Pinchot, and Herbert Knox Smith. He explains the purpose of the commission to develop a “comprehensive plan for the improvement and control of the river systems of the United States.” The same letter was sent to the other prospective appointees.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1907-03-14

Letter from Theodore Roosevelt to Cyrus Northrop

President Roosevelt reaches out to Cyrus Northrop, president of the University of Minnesota, on behalf of Secretary of Agriculture James Wilson. Wilson is seeking to hire someone, and he thinks a young professor from the chemistry department or the medical school would be the most suitable candidate. It would be difficult to hire a physician at the salary level he can offer. Roosevelt has sent a similar request to James Burrill Angell, the president of the University of Michigan.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1907-03-19

Letter from Theodore Roosevelt to James Wilson

President Roosevelt asks Secretary of Agriculture Wilson to which department the Fish Commission should belong.  

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1906-10-09

Letter from Theodore Roosevelt to Overton W. Price

President Roosevelt appoints Overton W. Price to the United States Geographic Board as a representative of the Forest Service.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1906-09-11

Report upon the organization of the Department of the Interior

Assistant Secretary of the Treasury Keep, Comptroller of Currency Murray, and Chief Forester Pinchot provide President Roosevelt with a detailed report of the organization and operations of the Department of the Interior. The report highlights “grave defects” in the structure of the Department such as redundant job functions, an “abuse of letter writing” that impedes public business, and rampant inefficiency. The report recommends the dissolution of several divisions.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1906-10-22

Letter from Theodore Roosevelt to James Wolcott Wadsworth

President Roosevelt sends Congressman Wadsworth the reports of an inspection made by a committee appointed by the Department of Agriculture into conditions at meat packinghouses. Prior to the completion of these inspections, Roosevelt ordered a similar investigation be made by Commissioner of Labor Charles Patrick Neill and James Bronson Reynolds. Their report is not yet concluded and contains some details not touched upon by the Department of Agriculture’s reports, but there is no significant disagreement in the two studies. Roosevelt believes that the simple fact of investigations into conditions at the packinghouses has already produced beneficial changes, and provides the text of a letter attesting to this. In order to continue this improvement of conditions, Roosevelt calls for “immediate, thoroughgoing and radical enlargement of the powers of the Government in inspecting all meats which enter into interstate and foreign commerce.”

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1906-06-08

Letter from Theodore Roosevelt to Charles Patrick Neill

President Roosevelt would like to speak with Commissioner of Labor Neill about his report on stockyards and meat packing once Neill and James Bronson Reynolds have gotten it in suitable shape. He would also like to discuss the report with Neill and representatives of the Department of Agriculture. Roosevelt believes the matter should not be acted on hastily, as it will have far-reaching effects.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1906-05-23

Letter from Theodore Roosevelt to Charles Patrick Neill

President Roosevelt asks Commissioner of Labor Neill to consider some papers he recently received from the Department of Agriculture and tells him that he would like to see him and James Bronson Reynolds soon to discuss the matter. Enclosed in the letter are a draft of a bill regarding the inspection of meat as well as proposed changes to the bill.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1906-05-04

Letter from Theodore Roosevelt to James Wolcott Wadsworth

President Roosevelt sends Representative Wadsworth the report of the Committee on Department Methods, also known as the Keep Commission, dealing with several matters involving the Department of Agriculture. Judging by a recent speech of Wadsworth’s, Roosevelt believes he has seen the report already but sends it nevertheless in case there are further actions Wadsworth believes Roosevelt should take.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1906-05-04

Letter from Theodore Roosevelt to Charles Patrick Neill

President Roosevelt sends Commissioner of Labor Neill a second report from the Department of Agriculture on the packing town matter, and says that it is more satisfactory than the first report. Roosevelt asks Neill to consider the report in connection with his own investigations and report to him on it.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1906-04-16

Letter from Theodore Roosevelt to James Wilson

President Roosevelt warns Secretary of Agriculture Wilson to be careful of further leaks from his department regarding the governmental investigations into beef packers. Roosevelt believes that the department should announce that the report is merely a preliminary one, as he is also unsatisfied by its current state. At present, it does not give any clear, definite answers, and Roosevelt has submitted it to Commissioner of Labor Charles Patrick Neill for revision and further development.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1906-04-11

Letter from Theodore Roosevelt to Upton Sinclair

President Roosevelt heard about Upton Sinclair’s book from Commissioner of Corporations James Rudolph Garfield at the Department of Commerce and Labor. Garfield believes that some of Sinclair’s conclusions are too pessimistic, but he sympathized with Sinclair in much of what he had done. Roosevelt would like Sinclair to come to Washington to see him and Garfield, and asks if he has further suggestions.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1906-03-09

Letter from Theodore Roosevelt to Thomas MacDonald Patterson

After discussing the matter of grazing rates in forest reserves with Attorney General William H. Moody and Secretary of Agriculture James Wilson, President Roosevelt disagrees with Senator Patterson about the matter. He encloses letters between himself and Wilson that show that their policy is made in the interest of the smaller ranchmen and stockmen.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1905-12-21

Letter from Theodore Roosevelt to Charles William Eliot

President Roosevelt tells Harvard President Charles William Eliot that the dismissal of George T. Moore from the Department of Agriculture was the necessary course of action, and that he cannot be reinstated.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1905-10-15

Letter from Theodore Roosevelt to James Wilson

President Roosevelt tells Secretary of Agriculture Wilson that it was best for D. E. Salmon, veterinarian in the Department of Agriculture, to resign. Roosevelt believes that Wilson cannot think any worse of the Herald than him but has learned that sometimes it is wise to “pay heed to what purport to be positive statements of fact even in very unworthy places.”

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1905-09-08