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President Roosevelt appoints George W. Littlehales to the U. S. Geographic Board as a representative of the Navy Department.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1906-11-07
President Roosevelt appoints Charles C. Rogers to the U. S. Geographic Board as a representative of the Navy Department.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1906-11-07
President Roosevelt encloses a confidential memorandum from Germany Ambassador Hermann Speck von Sternburg. Roosevelt asks Secretary of the Navy Bonaparte not to file it with the Navy Department then send it back to Roosevelt.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1906-11-06
President Roosevelt doubts he would replace Charles Holland Duell with a New Yorker. He chastises former Secretary of the Navy Paul Morton for not informing him of his attendance at the naval review. “With absolute exactness,” Roosevelt commends Morton for his service as secretary.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1906-09-05
President Roosevelt thanks Commissioner of Labor Neill for his recent report on the enforcement of the eight-hour law, and remarks that he is concerned by some of Neill’s findings. Roosevelt declares that he is “bound to see that this law is absolutely enforced,” and “will go to any requisite length in order to secure its proper enforcement.” He asks Neill to continue to work on the issue, and to draw up several orders to help ensure the law is enforced within governmental departments. Roosevelt also wishes to act against district attorneys who are lax in enforcing the law, and asks for the names of any officials Neill knows of who fall into this category.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1906-08-21
President Roosevelt thanks The Submarine Signal Company for their kindness. Before discussing matters more, he wishes to consult with the Navy Department.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1906-08-24
President Roosevelt believes Secretary of the Navy Bonaparte should follow the letter from the Chief of the Bureau of Ordnance regarding the torpedo station matter, but thinks that if possible it would be good to delay taking action until after the election. Roosevelt is pleased that Bonaparte will be able to attend the upcoming naval review, and remarks on his plans surrounding it. He additionally addresses a matter regarding half-holidays and pay, and clarifies his intention regarding the matter. Roosevelt does not intend for the holidays to increase pay, but did not feel that it was right that “men who work with the head, from clerks to bank presidents, should have a holiday as a matter of course while the wage-worker does not have it.”
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1906-08-03
President Roosevelt expresses support for copper-plating of ships to Secretary of the Navy Bonaparte. If found successful, this process would prevent ship deterioration. President Roosevelt believes this process should be given a thorough trial, and directs him to take action on it.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1906-08-07
President Roosevelt appoints Rear Admiral Rae to the National Advisory Board on Fuels and Structural Materials, representing the Bureau of Steam Engineering and the Navy Department. The committee requested Rae’s appointment because they believe his experience and advice will help them solve important problems related to fuels, and Roosevelt believes that Rae’s appointment will also make the results more valuable to the Navy. Roosevelt encloses a list of the other members of the committee for Rae’s information.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1906-06-08
President Roosevelt tells Owen McAleer, Mayor of Los Angeles, that the Navy Department is already trying to use warships to the extent they are available to help with disaster relief. Roosevelt notes that warships are “singularly unfitted to transport supplies or individuals,” but that he has instructed the Navy Department “to do everything that can properly be done.”
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1906-04-19
President Roosevelt asks to appoint Brigadier General Marshall as a member of a commission to carry out reforms in the navy. Roosevelt discussed these reforms in his recent message to congress, and he encloses a copy of that message, as well as a memorandum from a senior naval officer.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1909-02-25
President Roosevelt frankly informs James R. Branch that every witness statement from the Navy Department contradicts Branch’s statements about the fight between Minor Meriwether and his son, James R. Branch, which resulted in the younger Branch’s death. Secretary of the Navy Charles J. Bonaparte’s letter recommending clemency for Meriwether will be made public.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1906-02-12
President Roosevelt requests that Representative Foss, as Chairman of the House Committee on Naval Affairs, move forward with legislation to change the process by which midshipmen at the Naval Academy are punished for hazing. Currently they are tried by court-martial and, if found guilty, dismissed without input from other authorities. Although Roosevelt believes that hazing should be punished, he thinks that dismissal is too severe a consequence in most cases. He has pardoned John P. Miller, a midshipman who was recently dismissed for hazing.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1906-02-01
President Roosevelt requests that Senator Hale, as Chairman of the Senate Committee on Naval Affairs, move forward with legislation to change the process by which midshipmen at the Naval Academy are punished for hazing. Currently they are tried by court-martial and, if found guilty, dismissed without input from other authorities. Although Roosevelt believes that hazing should be punished, he thinks that dismissal is too severe a consequence in most cases. He has pardoned John P. Miller, a midshipman who was recently dismissed for hazing.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1906-02-01
President Roosevelt is not surprised by the conclusion Secretary of the Navy Bonaparte is coming to in the Charleston navy yard matter. He offers his view regarding the work done in the Washington, D.C., navy yard, saying that while labor people are concerned with making sure work is given to the laborers there, they also demand extra rights and holidays that laborers in exterior shipbuilding yards do not get. Roosevelt feels they should act along the lines they decided on earlier in the summer and see what the result is.
The “Charleston navy yard matter” refers to an incident in which Lieutenants J. W. G. Walker and Francis R. Harris were transferred out of supervisory roles in the Charleston navy yards, seemingly due to political pressure from a corporation that had been contracted to conduct government work, and which Walker and Harris had been holding to strict standards of quality. While Secretary of the Navy Charles J. Bonaparte concluded the transfer was not influenced, he ultimately reversed it so as to avoid the appearance of having been pressured.
President Roosevelt has received Paul Morton’s letter concerning rebates given to the Colorado Fuel Company when Morton was vice president of the Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe Railroad. As Morton’s letter indicates, he was “ignorant of the existence of such rebates” and had explicitly prohibited rebates. Roosevelt acknowledges that years prior, Morton alone was someone who gave testimony that helped stop “the system of rebates as it then existed,” and this showed Roosevelt he was “a man whose word could be trusted absolutely.” Because of this fact, the president wanted to have Morton enter his cabinet in the Navy Department, which he did serving the past year. Upon accepting Morton’s recent resignation from office, Roosevelt wishes him and former president Grover Cleveland success at the Equitable Life Assurance Society. Roosevelt believes Morton and Cleveland will do an excellent job.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1905-06-12
President Roosevelt sends Wilmon Whilldin Blackmar the text of a letter he sent to the Navy Department nominating Wadleigh Capehart as a principal appointment to the Naval Academy for 1906.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1905-01-20
President Roosevelt informs Acting Secretary of State Adee that the collector of port in San Francisco should be his willing agent in the matter of the Russian ship, Lena. In view of Admiral Caspar F. Goodrich’s telegram, the Department of Commerce and Labor shall notify the collector and the United States Navy of Roosevelt’s decision to allow the Lena to stay in port. Roosevelt comments that the severity of repairs that the ship needs will determine how long it will need to remain, and that if it remains in port for an extended time, it will need to disarm. Roosevelt instructs Adee to inform the Japanese Minister of the United States’s action regarding the Lena.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1904-09-13
President Roosevelt instructs the Acting Secretary of the Navy to publicize the order relating to the medical corps of the navy.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1904-08-23
President Roosevelt instructs Secretary of War Taft and Secretary of the Navy Morton to investigate complaints about the payment methods to employees in the arsenals and navy yards.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1904-08-15