Wages

Letter from Theodore Roosevelt to John Carter Rose

Theodore Roosevelt values Judge John Carter Rose’s opinion of him and acknowledges the many causes he and Carter have accomplished over their 27-year acquaintance. Roosevelt discusses his contentment in retiring from public life because he has worked very hard and has accomplished much in 30 years. Roosevelt is content with non-political work, such as writing for The Outlook and earning a salary sufficient to support his family and his sons’ education. He declines 100 percent of requests for political work and does not feel obligated to take on “big work” for the sake of “big work,” preferring to remain out of public life

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1911-07-20

Letter from Theodore Roosevelt to Amory A. Lawrence

Theodore Roosevelt acknowledges Amory A. Lawrence’s kindness but is unwilling to have Harvard pay for attending a meeting that he should have been at anyway.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1911-01-17

Letter from Theodore Roosevelt to George W. Perkins

Theodore Roosevelt will assume the payment of John W. McGrath’s entire salary and expenses since he has been working more for Roosevelt than the Progressive National Committee. In addition, Roosevelt will use the Metropolitan Magazine office as his headquarters rather than the National Committee office.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1915-03-31

Letter from Theodore Roosevelt to Alexander Smith Cochran

Theodore Roosevelt write to Alexander Smith Cochran, founder of the Elizabethan Club, to inquire about employment opportunities for poet Bliss Carman. Roosevelt mentions that when he was President, he angered the “ultra-civil-service Reformers” by encouraging a similar poet, Arlington Robinson, to pursue writing instead of his work at a millinery store.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1915-02-04

Letter from Theodore Roosevelt to C. Hart Merriam

Theodore Roosevelt will see C. Hart Merriam tomorrow. Roosevelt believes it is a scandal “that his salary should be so small.”

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1909-01-22

Letter from Theodore Roosevelt to Charles J. Bonaparte

President Roosevelt informs Attorney General Bonaparte that William H. H. Llewellyn feels that he is currently underpaid. Roosevelt asks what Bonaparte would think about a pay increase.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1908-12-19

Letter from Theodore Roosevelt to Paul Morton

President Roosevelt agrees with Paul Morton that wages and rates “often travel together.” He will think over the other matter that Morton wrote him about.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1908-10-25

Letter from Theodore Roosevelt to William D. Miles

President Roosevelt tells William D. Miles that he will try again to find him a government position, but he reminds Miles that he never said he would not allow him to suffer because of his testimony. Roosevelt has already taken up the matter with the Department of Agriculture, but government positions pay less than jobs in private enterprises, so he may not be able to find something that Miles will take.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1908-07-14

Letter from Theodore Roosevelt to Charles J. Bonaparte

President Roosevelt forwards Attorney General Bonaparte a letter from United States District Attorney Henry L. Stimson on the service of Bank Examiner Edward P. Moxey. Roosevelt praises Moxey’s exceptional service, and directs that his salary be set at $25 per day.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1908-06-13

Letter from Theodore Roosevelt to Joseph Gurney Cannon

President Roosevelt tells Speaker Cannon that only appropriating $50,000 to the Interstate Commerce Commission instead of the asked-for $350,000 effectively repeals the twentieth section of the Hepburn Act. He also disagrees with provisions in the sundry bill limiting wages on the Panama Canal and regarding the secret service.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1908-04-30

Letter from Theodore Roosevelt to Victor Howard Metcalf

President Roosevelt has heard reports that recruiting men for the engine room is difficult and that members of that post desert “at the earliest opportunity.” He believes that either a pay raise or a different arrangement would improve retention and recruitment, and asks Secretary of the Navy Victor Howard Metcalf for a report on this issue.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1908-04-09

Letter from Theodore Roosevelt to William H. Taft

President Roosevelt believes that Secretary of War Taft should “severely rap over the knuckles” the person who prepared a letter for him to sign regarding the case of an employee at Fort Totten. If Taft had signed it, it would have done him a lot of damage. The letter would have been a “frank avowal of the starvation wage theory” and would have asserted that the government should cut wages.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1908-04-02

Letter from Theodore Roosevelt to Hoke Smith

President Roosevelt promises Governor Smith that he will bring the letter that Smith sent to the Interstate Commerce Commission. Roosevelt thinks that they should get the facts before they decide on a policy related to the control of wages. It is interesting that Roosevelt and Smith were independently working along the same lines regarding this matter.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1908-02-22

Letter from Theodore Roosevelt to William B. Allison

President Roosevelt tells Senator Allison that during the past summer, Senator John Hollis Bankhead, who was moving from the House of Representatives to the Senate, had served on the Inland Waterways Commission. While serving here, he paid for his own expenses, but received no compensation. This is not true of any other member of the commission, and Roosevelt suggests that Bankhead be compensated for his work on the commission as if he had been in Congress the entire time.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1908-01-29

Letter from Theodore Roosevelt to William H. Taft

President Roosevelt asks Secretary of War Taft to give his orderly, Sergeant Cornelius McDermott, the same allowance as the Chief of Staff.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1907-06-11

Letter from Theodore Roosevelt to Victor Howard Metcalf

President Roosevelt asks Secretary of the Navy Metcalf if there would be some way for representatives of labor organizations to have access to the facts once the wage rates are established. Roosevelt has received word that rates are too low in a number of cities. He asks Metcalf to take up the matter and listen to the arguments of representatives of the workmen and the Wage Boards.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1907-05-15

Letter from Theodore Roosevelt to Ralph M. Easley

President Roosevelt encloses a copy of a letter he has just sent to James O’Connell. The labor situation will be referred to in Roosevelt’s upcoming report to Congress on the Panama Canal. He wants Edward A. Moffett or “his comrade” to report on the conditions, but he does not agree with Moffett that there is a need for a labor union for the canal’s commission. Roosevelt also spoke to several railroad men who complained about working overtime and were confused about a recent eight-hour labor law. Roosevelt instructed officers of the commission to reduce the overtime work as much as possible.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1906-11-27

Letter from Theodore Roosevelt to Victor Howard Metcalf

President Roosevelt encloses a complaint he feels should be addressed about wages in the Washington Navy Yard.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1906-11-05

Letter from Theodore Roosevelt to Augustus Saint-Gaudens

President Roosevelt asks Augustus Saint-Gaudens if it is wise to select Gutzon Borglum to do the work in question.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1905-12-20

Letter from Theodore Roosevelt to William H. Taft

President Roosevelt instructs Secretary of War Taft that under the Isthmian Canal Commission, Dr. William Crawford Gorgas should receive a $10,000 salary. He does not understand Admiral John Grimes Walker’s wish to leave the “useless and expensive” office of the Panama Railroad in New York, while at the same time seeking to economize the medical service improperly.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1905-01-09