VOLUME 66 August 10, 1906 to September 21, 1906 SERIES 2 66Index 18-47-55-64-86-110-130-146-172-184-195-215 230-246-258-298-313-322-352-369-391-405-490State, Secretary of 91,-284,-298-323-368-872-389-431-432-439 Treasury, Secretary of 155, 271, 328-343-382-456 War, Secretary of 10-41-82-130-159-196-249-294-299-324-329-453-480 Attorney-General 152-222-257-321-386-417-445 Postmaster General 80-421 Navy, Secretary of 4-27-58, 86-127-194, 235-334-358-385-464-492 Interior, Secretary of 56,105,184-201-318-350-373-422 [?] -441-478 Agriculture, Secretary of 292-376-387-459 Commerce and Labor, Secretary ofAinsworth, Gen. F. C. 157 Andrews, Lient Adolphur 170 Alexander, Lucien H. 175-446 Abbott, Rev. Dr. Lyman 305 Abbott, Ernest Hamlin 366 Adams - Brooks 462 [*A*] [*B*] Bacon, Hon. Robert 6-298-323-368-372-389-431 Bridges, Robert 33,101 Beveridge, Hon. Albert J. 53-171 Butler, Col. A. B. 121-433 Brown, Gen. R. B. 132 Brick, Hon. A. L. 179 Barrett, Hon. John 211 Brent, Bishop C. H. 228 Bell, Brig. Gen. J. F. 247-352-490 Bullock, Capt Seth 259 Burton, Hon. T. E. 332 Bede, Hon. J. Adam 336 Brownlow Hon. W. P. 338 Blodgett, William T 347 Binghman, Gen. Theodore A. 348 Billings, Rev. Sherrard 494[*C*] [*D*] Cannon, Hon. J. M. 44-64-114-191-341-457 Cowles, Mrs. William S. 54-138 Collier, Hon. William Miller 77 Churchill, Winston 99-488 Cowles, Rear Admiral Wm S. 137 Curtis, E. S. 220 Carter, Hon. G. R., 276-331 Clark, Hon. E. E. 307 Carnegie, Andrew 314 Converel, Rear Admiral George A 357 Cora, Countess of Strafford 371 Cockrell, Hon. F. M. 375 Cochs, Mrs. Lena 396[*C*] [*D*] Devereux, Horace K. 9 Dodge, Cleveland H 154 Doyle, Rev. A. P. 189 Duell, Hon. C. H. 217 Dillingham, Hon. William P. 261 Daniels, B. F. 265 des Planches, Baron Edmondo Mayor 273 Dunne, F. P. 289 Donoven Micheal J. 409 Dayton Alston G. 437E F Egan, Dr. Maurice Francis 11-306 Eliot Charles W 420-484 [*E*] [*F*] Fleming, Hon. William H. 8, 125 Foss, Hon. George E. 119 Flammer, Hon Charles A 131 Fairbanks, Hon. Charles W. 177, 282 Ferguson, R. H. M. 266 Fairley, Hon. D. B. 274-398-497 Fay Waldo B 450 Fortescue G. R. 474 Farley J 479G H Greenway, John C. 14 Groscenor, Hon. C. H. 180 Goff. John 188 Gilman, Bradley 200 Gardner, Hon. A. P. 280 Garfield, Hon. James R. 312 Griscom, Lloyd C. 349 Gilman, Daniel C. 370 Griscom Clement A 410 Gnus, John W. 487 [*G*] [*H*] Horstmann, Bishop I. F 2 Hunter, C. E. 78 Hale, Hon. Eugene 118-393 Hardcastle, E 149 Howard, Henry 182 Howells, W. D. 226 Hunter, Leigh 233 Harlan, Hon. James T. 234 Hanna, Hon. John B. 236-395 Harlan, Hon. John M. 260 Higgins, Hon. F. W. 297-405 Harris, Rear Admiral H. T. B. 360 Harper, Samuel A 400 Hicks, John 416 Heney Francis. J 431 Harben Will N. 475 Hitt, R.R. 480 Hagerman, Herbert J, 483I J International League of Press Clubs, 195 [*I*] [*J*] Jenks, Prof. J. W. 24 Japan, Emperor of 35 Jusserand, J. J. 62 James, Hon. Darwin R. 117 Jones, Mrs. Mary Cadwalader 251-353 Joy, Fred. 342 Jackson Mrs William M 407 Jessep Morris K 435 Jackson, Mrs. Anna 493[*K*] [*L*] Kin, Madam Yamei 186 Knox, P. C. 432 Kibbey, Joseph H. 481 [*K L*][*K*] [*L*] Lodge, Hon H. C. 51-141-290-402 Le Roux, Hugues 98 Lee, Gen. Jesse M. 100 Lee, Col. Arthur 122 Lambert, Dr Alexander 212 Ledyard, Lewis Cass 242 La Farge, C, Grant 245-311 Lyon, Col. Cecil A. 275 LaFarge, Mrs. C Grant 302 Louis, Prince of Battenberg 423 Lane William C. 424-486 Leupp F. E. 449-466M Mc Mahan, Captain A T 61 Minto, Earl of 79 Miles, William D 113 Matthews, Brander 148 Matsukata, Count Masayoshi 173 Matre, Anthony 193 Miller, Hon Warner 221 Merry, Hon. William Lawrence 229 Meyer Hon. G. V. L. 243 Morton, Hon. Paul 304 Markley, Horace 345 Martin, James 426 Moody William R 472 MacVeagh, Wayne 498M Mc McCoy, Captain Frank Ross 49 McCawley, Major Charles L. 57 McBeth E. 425N O Nixon, Hon. George S. 50 Neill, Hon Charles F 143 Nelson, Hon Knute 237 Nelson, Col. W. R. 267 NON O Oliver, Frederich Scott 18-145-451 Overstreet, Hon. Jesse. 178-316 Officials, of the Infirmary 206 at Salisbury Osbow, Capt. B. S. 499 Penrose, Hon. Boier 60-489 Platt, Hon. T. C. 76-325 Proctor, Hon. Redfield 151-301 Pinchot, Gifford 162,263-436 Price, Mr. Augustus H. 210 Pritchett, Henry S. 240 Proctor, Hon. Redfield 262-397 Price, Overton W. 374 P QQuesada, Senor (Don Gonzalo De 427 P Q Read, Opic 25, Roosevelt, Master Kermit 96 Robinson, Douglas 147-411 Rockhill, Hon. William W 187 Runington, Mrs. H. H. 190 Reid, Hon. Whitelaw 207 Roosevelt, Theodore Jr. 269 Richardson, Clifford 346 Rowley, Lewis E. 406 Ryan 422 Rimsen,{?} Ira 460 R SR S Sleicher, Hon. John. A. 12, 176 Smith Billy 29 Sherman, Hon. J.S. 30-47-199 Stimson, Hon. Henry L 31 Strachey, J. St Loe 102-326-380 Scott, Hon. James Brown 104 Stillings, Hon. Charles A. 111, 112, 230, 231 Spooner, Hon. John C. 115-215 Sims, Comdr. William S. 126-136 Sullivan, James E 141 Sturnburg Baron H 146-322-356 Submarine Signal Co. 174 Siwall, W.W. 198 Scott, Charles P.G. 216 Sartoris, Capt. Alegram 246 Sheffield, Hon. James R. 254 Schurman, Dr. J.G. 256 Stokes, Surgeon Charles F 272-491 Seton, Ernest Thompson 278 Spencer, Gen. Bird W. 299 Simpson, Private E.C 300 Sargent, Hon. F.P. 309 Straus, Hon. Oscar S. 317 Schneebeli, Hon. G.A. 378 Stewart, Phillip B. 430-438-448 Stokes, Edwin C. 469 Stevenson Elizabeth 476 Tauchnity, Baron 32 Tanner, Hon. James 56 Trevelyan, Sir, George Otto 87-361 Tucker, Hon. H. St. G. 158 Tailer, Mrs. Clara Wright 239 Thayer, William Roscoe 253 Torrey, George A. 340 Thompson, D. 434 Taft, Henry W. 299-463 T UT U Underhill Francis T. 461V W Wadsworth, Maj, W. A. 1-181-438 White, W. A. 16,120 Wister, Owen 23 Wheeler, President Benjamin Ide 26, White, Hon. Henry 37-412 Watson, Hon. James E. 75,153 Washburn, Hon. W. D. 134 Willcox, Hon, William R. 219 Watson, Hon. Thomas C 224 Whitridge, Hon. F. W. 279 Williams, Rev. J. 355 Weld, C. Kninoh 415 Warren, Hon. T. E. 496Y Z Young, S. B. M. 495 YZOyster Bay, N.Y. August 10, 1906. Dear Austin: I do not know anything about Whipple. I am trying to get the best man without regard to his rank. I have read your experience with Mrs. Roosevelt’s erstwhile favorite horse aloud to her, and she chuckled as loudly as you did. I hope the Madam is very well. Give her our love. Faithfully yours, Theodore Roosevelt Major W. A. Wadsworth, The Homestead, Genesco, N.Y.[*2*] Oyster Bay, N.Y., August 10, 1906. My dear Bishop: First, as to that so-called message, said to have been printed in the Government school. I have asked for a full report upon it to find out who wrote it, who permitted its printing, and everything of the kind, and shall deal as severely as I have power to do with the offenders. The Rev. Aaron Clark has been Mr. Leupp’s most violent opponent and most [??] critic in this contract school business. The present arrangement I supposed was entirely satisfactory, as it was decided upon in conference between Mr. Leupp, the Attorney General, Mr. Bonaparte, and myself. All the attacks upon us in connection with the Sioux business have come from the Episcopalians and Congregationalists. If you have seen their church papers you have probably noticed this. If you will see Mr. Bonaparte he will tell you that my object has been to go as far as under the law I could go in sup- Supporting those so-called contract schools. I have felt that the Indians in their peculiar circumstances receive special advantages in these schools. But I cannot violate the law. Are you aware that at this moment we are being sued on behalf of the (Protestant) Indian Rights Association, under the lead of the Rev. Mr. Brosius for our alleged improper conduct in favoring the Catholic contract schools? I hardly think you can be aware of this, from you letter. The suit will decide exactly what the rights are; [???} [??? of the court.] I shall have Mr. Leupp answer your letter more at length. He and I, my dear Bishop, have but one purpose in this matter, which is to do justice under the law. Sincerely yours, Theodore Roosevelt Bishop Ignatius Frederick Horstmann, 583 Superior Street, Cleveland, Ohio.[*4*] Personal Oyster Bay, N. Y., August 10, 1906. My dear Bonaparte: That is a first-class list of vessels. Would you mind finding out from Admiral Evans what hour would be best for the review? Tell him that I would like to have the captains of all the ships come on board for a lunch. As there are so many it will have to be a standup lunch. Either have the lunch before or after the review, as Admiral Evans thinks best. Ask Admiral Dewey if he won’t be present on the Mayflower; and I think that the naval attaches had better go on the Mayflower also. Please ask the State Department to send the invitations to the attaches. As for you and Newberry, do just as you see fit, but if you decide to stay on the Dolphin, at least come on the Mayflower for lunch, with your party. Faithfully yours, Theodore Roosevelt Hon. Charles J. Bonaparte, Secretary of the Navy. (over)5 P.S. I do not for a moment anticipate that there will be any trouble with the Japanese over this killing of the seal poachers, but I feel that the navy should have possible contingencies clearly in view. I think that the General Board should be ready with advice to give as to what we should do with our ships on the Asiatic Station if trouble should come with Japan. There are two battleships, a monitor, five torpedo boats and nine unarmored cruisers. They would be helpless to resist a Japanese attack, and yet their loss would be serious. My own inclination would be to get them right out of Asiatic waters and have them join the rest of our forces in the Atlantic waters as speedily as possible; or else having them join these same Atlantic forces somewhere near San Francisco as speedily as possible. I would like the views of the General Board on this. P. S. No. 2. I think the enclosed suggestion concerning Commodore Vanderbilt a good one, and I would also like to have Commodore E. C. Benedict of the Seawanhaka-Corinthian Yacht Club invited to be present. Have both Commodores asked to lunch on the Mayflower. I do not think it necessary to ask any of the other officers of the yacht clubs to lunch.[*6*] Oyster Bay, N.Y. August 13, 1906. Dear Bob: Will you please see Mr. Charles H. Tweed, of Speyer and Company, and also have Dr. Hollander see him about the Santo Domingo debt matter? Speyer and Company feel that owing to a conversation they had with Secretary Root they were justified in the belief that the matter would not be taken up without giving them an equal opportunity with any other bankers to a make their proposals as regards the matter, and this seems to me eminently just. The Speyers think that an agreement has been made on the matter, but of course this is not so, at least so far as the United States is concerned. Won’t you thrash out the whole matter with Tweed and advise me just what the situation is? It seems to me that owning to the early7 identification of the Speyers with the matter they should as a matter of justice be given exactly as good an opportunity as others have to make their proposals and find out if they are satisfactory. Faithfully yours, Theodore Roosevelt Hon. Robert Bacon, Acting Secretary of State, Washington, D.C. P.S. If it can be arranged, I hope you will have Straight go through Siberia on his way to Mukden. I think this important.[*8*] Oyster Bay, August 11, 1906. My dear Mr. Fleming: Of course I like your answer very much, and to me it is astounding that Judge Miller should have assailed you. I should expect your views to be attacked only by men like Governor Vardman, of Mississippi. I have had, by the way, the very strongest letters supporting your position from Judge Lurton and Judge Jones, of Tennessee and Alabama respectively, both of them old Confederate soldiers. I look forward to seeing you next winter. Sincerely yours, Theodore Roosevelt Hon. William H. Fleming, 215 Leonard Building, Augusta, Georgia.[*9*] Oyster Bay, N.Y., August 11, 1906. Dear Horace: I have your letter of the 7th and return the enclosure herewith. Of course I would like to help Jesse, but upon my word, all I can suggest is that you write as strong a letter as your conscience will stand and let it pass at that. How are you getting on? Always yours, Theodore Roosevelt Mr. Horace K. Devereux, Colorado Springs, Colorado. Enclosure[*10*] Oyster Bay, N.Y. August 11, 1906. The Acting Secretary of War: What is the need of keeping Article 77 of the Articles of War as it is? I think that officers of the regular army should be competent to sit on courts-martial to try the officers and soldiers of other forces. Unless there is good reason to the contrary, I think this article should be amended. In the event of war, where volunteer forces serve with the regular army, it is a very distinct advantage to have some regular officers on the different courts martial. Theodore Roosevelt[*11*] Oyster Bay, N.Y. August 11, 1906. Dear Dr. Egan: I have your letter of the 10th. One two or three years ago I was unwary enough to send such a greeting as you propose, and it brought me literally hundreds of similar requests. I shall receive at least a hundred requests for Christmas greetings this year. I cannot send any of them. Do you remember our friend Connolly, the writer of the Gloucester sea stories? I have asked him to go with me on the naval review. I think he is entitled to go, and I want the navy to have the benefit of his pen. Sincerely yours, Theodore Roosevelt Dr. Maurice Francis Egan, 2308 Nineteenth Street, Washington.[*12*] Personal Oyster Bay, N.Y. August 11, 1906. My dear Mr. Sleicher: Many thanks for your letter of the 9th instant. You are a politician and you know that Congress has got to get so that it will and can act on the tariff before any action on my part would do more than split the Republican party wide open. If I were the legislative as well as the executive I would revise the tariff right away, although I am not at all sure that at least half of those who are loudest to demand revision would be satisfied with the revision I would give. But at present I doubt whether it would be possible to get the tariff revised prior to the next Presidential election. I then hope that the man whom the Republicans nominate in my place will be nominated on a platform which shall promise immediate action in13 the direction of a revision. And now, my dear fellow, remember that I am under no circumstances to be that man. If this were my first term I should certainly count upon taking up a revision of the tariff as one of the things that I would have to do in my second term. As it is, it must be taken up by the man who succeeds me. I do not think that the Herald possesses the slightest weight one way or the other. It was a pleasure to have you out here the other day. Sincerely yours, Theodore Roosevelt Hon. John A. Sleicher, 225 Fourth Avenue, New York.[*14*] Oyster Bay, N.Y. August 11, 1906. Dear John: It did me good to hear from you. Fitzhugh Lee is visiting me now. To-day we were jumping my horses, as I have a couple of good hunters, and curiously enough we were talking of you and wishing you were here. Gordon Johnston was out visiting me the other day with his pretty wife. It was awfully good to see him again. No, John, you will have to vote for some one else in 1908, and while you must not quote me, I have exactly your view that Taft is the man. Do you know him? I do not believe I can get up to Minnesota this year, much though I should like to; but I want you to spend three or four days with us at the White House. And then I shall have you meet Taft, as well as many other fellows.15 Mrs. Roosevelt and all the children send their love. I appreciate so much your having written. Always yours, Theodore Roosevelt Mr. John C. Greenway, Bovey, Minnesota.[*16*] Personal Oyster Bay, N.Y. August 11, 1906. My dear White: I have your letter of the 8th. Personally I wish very much that you would write exactly that article. For me to say what I think, which is that it is an insult to the people to suppose that we have not got men who can carry on my work, might look a little like what our southern friends call “biggity.” You have exactly expressed my ideas. Of course I am not going to try to nominate any man. Personally you know how highly I think of Secretary Taft, but I am not going to take a hand in his nomination, for it is none of my business. I am sure Kansas will like him. He would be an ideal President. He is the kind of broad-gauge American that Kansas ought to like. But I do not believe that for any consideration he would consent to be “mighty keerful"! It is not17 his style. I think he and Kansas speak the same language – the American language – the language which perhaps is spoken best in some districts of the West, but which is familiar to all good Americans in every part of our country. No, don’t send me any more of those Leavenworth Times articles. I am delighted to have you send anything to me that you think worth while that attacks me, but it makes me redhot to see how people persecute Wood. I enclose Taft’s letter on the subject. Get on to see me at Washington in October. Faithfully yours, Theodore Roosevelt Mr. W. A. White, Editor, The Gazette, Emporia, Kansas.18 Personal Oyster Bay, N.Y., August 9, 1906. My dear Mr. Oliver: I have so thoroughly enjoyed your book on Hamilton that you must allow me the privilege of writing to tell you so. I have just sent a copy to Lodge. There are naturally one or two points on which you and I would not quite agree; but they are very few, and it is really remarkable that you, an English man of letters, and I, an American politician largely of non-English descent, should be in such entire accord as regards the essentials. I shall inflict upon you a rather cruel punishment for having written the book; for I am sending you a volume of mine. As it deals with New York City most of it will be of no interest whatever to you; but it is possible that pages 104 to 158, in which I touch on some of the very questions you deal with, both as regards the Revolutionary War, the adoption of the Constitution, and Hamilton himself, will appeal to you, because it seems to me that the ideas are substantially like those which you develop. Thank Heaven, I have never hesitated to criticize Jefferson; he was infinitely below Hamilton; I think the worship of Jefferson a discredit to my country; and I have as small use for the ordinary Jeffersonian as for the ordinary defender of the house of Stuart - and I am delighted to notice that you share this last prejudice with me. I think Jefferson on the whole did harm in public life. At the same time, there are two [?]19 2 compared to his Federalist opponents (always excepting Washington). He did thoroughly believe in the people, just as Abraham Lincoln did, just as Chatham and Pitt believed in England; and though this did not blind Lincoln to popular faults and failings any more than it blinded the elder and the younger Pitts to English failings, it was in each case a prerequisite to doing the work well. In the second place, Jefferson believed in the West and in the expansion of our people westward, whereas the northeastern Federalists allowed themselves to get into a position of utter hostility to western expansion. Finally, Jefferson was a politician and Hamilton was not. Hamilton's admirers are apt to speak as if this was really to his credit; but such a position is all nonsense. A politician may be and often is a very base creature, and if he cares only for party success, if he panders to what is evil in the people, and still more if he cares only for his own success, his special abilities merely render him a curse. But among free peoples, and especially among the free peoples who speak English, it is only in very exceptional circumstances that a statesman can be efficient, can be of use to the country, unless he is also (not as a substitute, but in addition) a politician. This is a very rough-and-tumble, workaday world, and the [people] persons such as our "anti-imperialist" critics over here, who sit in comfortable libraries and construct theories, or even the people who like to do splendid and spectacular feats in public office without undergoing all the necessary preliminary outside drudgery, are and deserve to be at a disadvantage compared to the man who takes the trouble, who takes the pains, to organize victory. Lincoln - who, as you finally put it unconsciously carried out the Hamiltonian tradition - was superior to20 3 Hamilton just because he was a politician and was a genuine democrat and therefore suited to lead a genuine democracy. He was infinitely superior to Jefferson of course; for Jefferson led the people wrong, and followed them when they went wrong; and though he had plenty of imagination and of sentimental aspiration, he had neither courage nor farsighted common sense, where the interests of the nation were at stake. I have not much sympathy with Hamilton's distrust of the democracy. Nobody knows better than I that a democracy may go very wrong indeed, and I loathe the kind of demagogy which finds expression in such statements as "the voice of the people is the voice of God"; but in my own experience it has certainly been true, and if I read history aright it was true both before and the the time of the Civil War, that the highly cultivated classes, who tend to become either cynically worldly-wise or to develop along the lines of the Eighteenth Century philosophers, and the moneyed classes, especially those of large fortune, whose ideal tends to be mere money, are not fitted for any predominant guidance in a really great nation. I do not dislike, but I certainly have no especial respect or admiration for and no trust in, the typical big moneyed men of my country. I do not regard them as furnishing sound opinion as regards either foreign or domestic policies. Quite as little do I regard as furnishing such opinion the men who especially pride themselves on their cultivation - the men like many of those who graduate from my own college of Harvard, and who find their organs in the New York Evening Post and Nation. These papers are written especially for21 4 cultivated gentlefolk. They have many minor virtues, moral and intellectual; and yet during my twenty-five years in public life I have found them much more often wrong than right on the great and vital public issues. In England they would be howling little Englanders, would be raving against the expense of the navy, and eager to find out something to criticize in Lord Cromer's management of Egypt, not to speak of perpetually insisting upon abandoning the Soudan. ) Sumner, whose life of Hamilton you quote, is an exact representative of this type. He is a college professor, a cold-blooded creature of a good deal of intellect, but lacking the fighting virtues and all wide patriotism, who has an idea that he can teach statesmen and politicians their duty. Three times out of four he goes as wrong on public questions as any Tammany alderman possibly could go; and he would be quite unable even to understand the lofty ambition which, for instance, makes you desire to treat the tariff as something neither good nor bad in itself, but to be handled in whatever way best contributes to solidifying the British Empire and making it a compact and coherent union. You speak of your lack of direct familiarity with American politics. Do come over to this side next winter and spend a night or two with me at the White House. I shall have Lodge and various others in to see you, and I think you would enjoy meeting them. By the way, I shall, under those circumstances, try to have you meet one of Hamilton's many descendants, Miss Louisa Lee Schuyler of whom I am very fond; she is a dear, - almost an elderly lady now; whenever she comes to dine at the White House she wears a brooch with Hamilton's hair. I shall also have22 5 you meet my Commissioner of Corporations, Garfield, - his father, the President, was the first of our Presidents who publicly put Hamilton in the high place where he belongs. By the way, the inkstand I am using was given me by the Hamilton Club of Chicago when I was inaugurated Governor of New York. With regard, Sincerely yours, Theodore Roosevelt Frederick Scott Oliver, Esq., Checkendor Court, Oxfordshire, England.23 Oyster Bay, N.Y. August 14, 1906. Mr. Owen Wister, Players Club, 16 Gramercy Park, New York City. Telegram received. Come out on afternoon train leaving East Thirty-Fourth Street four thirty, reaching here five thirty-nine. Carriage will meet you. THEODORE ROOSEVELT.[*24*] Oyster Bay, N.Y. August 13, 1906. My dear Professor Jenks: I shall read your book on “Citizenship and the Schools” with much interest, and much appreciate your sending it to me. I entirely agree with you that the really important things are not what appeal to the average citizen as economical problems, but those of the exact type that you touch upon in your books, and that must be touched upon in all our civic and useful work. With warm regards, Faithfully yours, Theodore Roosevelt Professor J. W. Jenks, Cornell University, Ithaca, N.Y.25 Private Oyster Bay, N.Y. August 13, 1906. My dear Mr. Read: Indeed I shall be very glad to have you dedicate your book to me, and as you know, I am pleased when I have my name coupled with Andrew Jackson’s. You must not think that I put him up with Abraham Lincoln. I do not put anybody up with Abraham Lincoln, but I have a hearty respect for Old Hickory. With regard and thanks, believe me, Sincerely yours, Theodore Roosevelt Mr. Opie Read, 246 East 61st Street, Chicago.26 Oyster Bay, N.Y., August 13, 1906. My dear President Wheeler: I have your letter of the 7th instant. I would rather not appoint a Democrat to that judgeship, especially in Nevada. But I shall most carefully go over the whole situation with Moody before deciding, and of course what you say will have great weight. With warm regards, believe me, Sincerely yours, Theodore Roosevelt President Benjamin Ide Wheeler, University of California, Berkeley, California.27 4 Personal Oyster Bay, N.Y. August 13, 1906. Dear Bonaparte: I have your letter of the 11th instant. Do send me those clippings as to the Lukesh matter. I should like to see your blister-raising letter! Admiral Converse occupies the normal (and I regret to say very foolish) position of the naval officers toward the naval militia. In the first place the naval militia is not a toy; and in the next place the naval militia gives us what we so sorely need – the means of influencing the people on behalf of the navy. I do not see myself why, if they happen to be on the Puritan, they should not take part in the review provided they are able to. It would encourage them greatly; and granted their ability, I do not see how it28 could do any harm. I sit back at my ease and watch with sinister pleasure the labors of the Boss! Give my love to Mrs. Bonaparte, Always yours, Theodore Roosevelt Hon. Charles J. Bonaparte, Secretary of the Navy, Washington.29 Personal Oyster Bay, N.Y. August 13, 1906. My dear Smith: I have your letter of the 9th instant. I am afraid I am too old to box now, and what little cleverness I ever had at the game I have lost. It was a great pleasure to have you appointed. You know how I like to do anything I can for any member of our regiment. Sincerely yours, Theodore Roosevelt Mr. Billy Smith, Deputy United States Marshal, Albuquerque, New Mexico.30 Personal Oyster Bay, N.Y. August 14, 1906. My dear Sherman: One of the great troubles of the standpatters is the fact the expression “stand pat” is violently disliked by our people. Do for Heaven’s sake refrain from using it. You know how much there is in a name, and the use of that term irritates to the last point a great number of revisionists who are really entirely moderate and who have substantially our views. If you could avoid the use of the term “stand pat” in the campaign material put out by your committee, I should regard it as a very good thing. I shall send you that letter of mine to Watson in a couple of days, Sincerely yours, Theodore Roosevelt Hon. J.S. Sherman, Chairman, Republican Congressional Committee, Post Office Box 2063, New York.31 Personal Oyster Bay, N.Y. August 14, 1906. Dear Stimson: I thank you for the platform. Now get just as good a rest as you can. You will need it all. But alas! I shall not be able to take part in that fox-hunt. Faithfully yours, Theodore Roosevelt Hon. Henry L. Stimson, United States Attorney, New York.32 Private – not for publication. Oyster Bay, N.Y. August 14, 1906. My dear Baron: I thank you for your kind letter. It was a real pleasure to tell the Ambassador that I should be glad to have you dedicate the four thousandth volume of your continental series to me, especially as it is a manual of American literature. I suppose, my dear sir, that you must by this time be tired of being thanked by the many hundreds of thousands, among whom I am one, who have owed so much pleasure to your series. Your arrangement about the “Outdoor Pastimes” is entirely satisfactory to me, and I have so advised my publishers, who will undoubtedly communicate with you in the matter. Before going ahead, please wait until you hear form them. With regard, I am, Sincerely yours, Theodore Roosevelt Baron Tauchnitz, Leipzig, Germany.33 Personal Oyster Bay, N. Y., August 14, 1906. My dear Bridges: I find Ted objects very strongly to having his name signed to that poem, and I shall ask you to have it signed as I originally intended, that is, "Jacob Van Vechten. I am happy to say that he, like my other children, has grown to have a perfect horror of seeming to pose in the newspapers, and he is convinced that if his name were published there would be a chance for a little unpleasant notoriety, and for the assertion that he only got his poem published because he was my son; that he was seeking newspaper advertisement, and so forth, and so forth. Ted thinks the effect might be bad upon him in college; and much to my amusement, he also said that if he was to go into railroading, as he hoped, it might have a bad effect upon people who would employ34 him if they found he was writing poetry! So I shall ask you not to publish his name. It was awfully nice to see you yesterday. Faithfully yours, Theodore Roosevelt Mr. Robert Bridges, Charles Scribner's Sons, 153 Fifth Avenue, New York. P.S. I send you herewith a letter from Baron Tauchnitz, of Leipsic. I gave him permission to use one of my books, and he has selected "Outdoor Pastimes." If you approve will you communicate with him in the matter? The amount named is perfectly satisfactory to me. Enclosure35 Written out by hand. Oyster Bay, N.Y. August 11, 1906. To His Majesty, The Emperor of Japan. Great and Good Friend: Permit me most warmly to thank Your Majesty for the more than kind letter I have just received from you in reference to the contributions of the American Red Cross Society in aid of the famine-stricken people of your northeastern provinces. Since then your people have in even quicker and more striking fashion shown their abundant generosity and sympathy in the action they took for relieving the sufferers in San Francisco; and this action was taken not merely with such generosity, but with such tact and judgment, as to make it doubly welcome. It is my earnest wish to see the American people stand well with all civilized powers, and among all these civilized powers there is none with36 which I am more anxious that it should be on terms of hearty goodwill than with your great Empire. Again expressing to you my sense of obligation and with the best wishes for your continued wellbeing and the prosperity of your great Nation, believe me, Ever your sincere friend, THEODORE ROOSEVELT.37 Confidential Oyster Bay, N. Y., August 24, 1906. Dear White: You have such discretion that I feel able to say that you can make what use of this letter you desire, provided always that the man to whom you quote it realizes that in such a matter as the limitation or reduction of armaments it is not possible for me definitely to commit myself without knowing what the actual conditions at The Hague Conference may be. Therefore what I am about to say must be taken as tentative and suggestive and not as definitely binding me, and still less the nation I represent. I agree entirely with Haldane that it is very advisable to put a check to the inordinate growth of armaments; and I further agree with Haldane that in one sense we are peculiarly in a position to propose their limitation or reduction; but in another sense we are not, because we have a very small navy (and an army so much smaller as to seem infinitesimal) compared with the armed forces of the other great powers which in point of population, extent of territory, wealth and resources, can be put in the same category with us. Therefore we can not ourselves reduce our forces. We could not possibly reduce our army, I have already reduced it since I have been President by about twenty-five per cent. Think what a similar percentage of38 2 reduction would mean to the continental armies of Europe, yet with us it merely meant cutting down some twenty-five thousand men. We now have it at the very lowest possible limit. As for our navy, I think that we have it as regards number of units just at about the right point. All that I feel we should do is steadily, though gradually, to replace inefficient with efficient units. I should say that this would mean a program of building about a battleship each year. Now and then we could omit a battleship. Now and then we should have to add a cruiser or a few torpedo-boats. Would it help to have a program for Europe and Japan with which the above program for us would be compatible? So much for what I should like to go into - and I should very much like to put a stop to this rivalry in building up armies and navies. Now for the practicability of the program. You should know all the inside of my dealings with the Kaiser at Algeciras, and know how very limited my influence over him is. My course with him during the last five years has been uniform. I admire him, respect him, and like him. I think him a big man, and on the whole a good man; but I think his international and indeed his personal attitude one of intense egoism. I have always been most polite with him, have done my best to avoid our taking any attitude which could possibly give him legitimate offense, and have endeavored to show him that I was sincerely friendly to him and to Germany. Moreover, where I have forced him to give39 3 way I have been sedulously anxious to build a bridge of gold for him, and to give him the satisfaction of feeling that his dignity and reputation in the face of the world were safe. In other words, where I have had to take part of the kernel from him, I have been anxious that he should have all the shell possible, and have that shell painted any way he wished. At the same time I have had to speak with extreme emphasis to him on more than one occasion; and on one occasion (that of Venezuela) have had to make a display of force and to convince him definitely that I would use the force if necessary. At the time of the Venezuela business I saw the German Ambassador privately myself; told him to tell the Kaiser that I had put Dewey in charge of our fleet to maneuver in West Indian waters; that the world at large should know this merely as a maneuver, and we should strive in every way to appear simply as cooperating with the Germans; but that I regretted to say that the popular feeling was such that I should be obliged to interfere, by force if necessary, if the Germans took any action which looked like the acquisition of territory in Venezuela or elsewhere along the Caribbean; that this was not in any way intended as a threat, but as the position [*on the part of the Government*] which the American people would demand, and that I wanted him to understand it before the two nations drifted into such a position that trouble might come. I do not know whether it was a case of post hoc or proctor hoc, but immediately afterwards the Kaiser made to me the proposition that I should arbitrate40 4 myself, which I finally got him to modify so that it was sent to The Hague. I need hardly say that in showing anybody any part of this letter, or telling him any part of this letter, you will of course have to keep all I have said to you about the Kaiser absolutely to yourself. I would not want any of your brother-ambassadors, save only George Meyer if you happen to meet him, to see it. The Kaiser, like Carlyle, is "gay ill" to live with, on occasions, Therefore I have no knowledge whether I could accomplish anything whatever with the Kaiser. I will try, of course. That I can work with France and England I have no doubt; but I would like Haldane or Gray and would like the French people to understand that in my judgement it is essential that we should have some fair guaranty that a given policy will be carried out in good faith. I should feel it a great misfortune for the free peoples to disarm and leave the various military despotisms and military barbarisms armed. If China became civilized like Japan; if the Turkish Empire were abolished, and all of uncivilized Asia and Africa held by England or France or Russia or Germany, then I believe we should be within sight of a time when a genuine international agreement could be made by which armies and navies could be reduced so as to meet merely the needs of internal and international police work. But at present we a far from any such ideal possibility, and we can only accomplish good at all by not trying to accomplish the impossible good. Sincerely yours, Theodore Roosevelt Hon. Henry White, The American Ambassador, Rome, Italy.41 10 Personal Oyster Bay, N.Y. August 14, 1906. Dear Will: Pray express to Senator Millard my heart-broken grief, Ac., Ac., Ac. Nevertheless, the trip shall not be abandoned! I return his letter. I had a most interesting talk with Shonts yesterday, and also with Bishop. As regards much of the talk, I shall wish to discuss it in person and not by letter. I think Stevens and Shonts are unjust to Magoon, but is evidently wise that he should go to the Philippines. I am inclined to think it best, if you deem it wise, that Shonts should himself appoint the administrator instead of combining the latter’s functions with those of Gorgas; but I believe that Sands should be appointed Minister in spite of the opposition of Shonts and Stevens. The last two are, I believe, the very best man we could get for actually digging the canal, but their phenomenal administrative and engineering qualities are not accompanied by any appreciation of the exact qualities necessary in dealing either with a foreign42 power, and especially a small Spanish American power, or with Congress or with the labor situation. You will need to keep a lookout on their treatment of the latter because they fail to understand that a row with labor means a row with Congress. I have little doubt that sooner or later we shall have to have a row with organized labor on the Isthmus; but we must be extremely careful that when it comes we are not only in the right but can prove beyond a possibility of doubt to Congress that we are in the right. That canal is to be dug, to be dug by Chinese labor or any other labor that we can get hold of, and the labor union men are to do their work up to the handle on the Isthmus and be subordinate if they are to be well treated; [??] Shonts and Stevens must keep in mind the fact that they are not now working for Hill on the Great Northern but for the United States Government, and that this means they will have to take into account, so far as with propriety it is possible, the more deep-seated convictions and prejudices of the American people. Always yours, Theodor Roosevelt Hon. William H. Taft, Pointe au Pic, Province of Quebec, Canada (See postscript) Enclosure[*43*] P.S. Referring to the enclosed letters from Loomis, I feel that we should act with as little delay as possible, athough of course it is mere nonsense to say that six months will be saved by suddenly acting now. I suggest that you and Shonts look up this man Brown very carefully. Evidently Shonts and Stevens think they have got the right plan, through which Brown and the other contractors can be used. It seems to me as if their plan was all right and I hear well of Brown, but it is a matter of such importance that we must have not only Brown but all the other contractors looked into and be sure we have got good men. I enclose an editorial from the Journal of Commerce which I should like to have sent to Mr. Stevens for a specific answer to the part I have marked. I would like a definite statement as to whether any men under Mr. Stevens have been appointed or are being retained because of political "pull" or influence or personal favoritism. I do not for a moment believe such to be the case, but think it would be well to have a definite statement on record.44 Personal Oyster Bay, N. Y., August 15, 1906. My dear Mr. Speaker: Do not think me pig-headed if I leave my tariff statement substantially as it is, inasmuch as you do not think it bad and merely think that the proposed change would be a certain improvement. The Indianapolis News and other papers might say it was a committal to an immediate revision, but they would know that they were lying; and on the other hand the paragraph in question may salve the feelings of men as various as Lodge, Dick and Crumpacker, all of whom feel that there is tariff revision sentiment in their States, and dread the effect of an out-and-out stand-pat declaration. The words "stand pat" evidently irritate a great many people, and it is curious how much mischief mere words can sometimes do; and so I should suggest for your consideration that the Congressional Committee avoid the use of those words. For instance, Sherman, who heartily approved of my letter and said that he did not wish to change a word in it, when the newspaper men interviewed him on going away, stated to them that the campaign book would be a straight-out stand-pat document. I have already received a great many protests against these stand-pat statements. Even in your own speech I think it would be well if you could soften down what you say about there being no revision taken at once, by accompanying45 2 accompanying it with a statement running in some such fashion as that, while just at this time you felt that there had not been a showing which would warrant the American people throwing business into the confusion which would be caused by revision, yet the Republican party stood ready to enter upon the task of revision the very moment that the conditions of the country and the evident sentiment of our people were such as to make this revision advisable. Lodge has written me asking me to put in something about the maximum and minimum. Do you object to this or not? Will your wire me on receipt of this letter, simply saying "I consent," or "I advise against the proposition"? I shall then govern myself accordingly, inserting it in cautious form in one case, or leaving out all reference to it in the other. Lodge also wanted me to say something general about the immigration bill, but here again it seems to me questionable whether to do so. As you know, I favored the bill; but I favored it not on the ground that it was a vote-getter, but because I felt that it would do good to the country; and in this campaign I am afraid that any allusion to it would do harm rather than good. Lodge also wanted allusions made to the naturalization and one or two other bills, but they seem to me hardly important enough. My idea is to say nothing that will not help us in the election. It is not the time for academic discussion. Bob Bacon, for instance, is redhot about the maximum and minimum, as he thinks it is of great importance to us in our foreign relations. So do I; but I46 3 do not want to go into trying to convert our people to my policy just at this moment; my aim is to make them understand how admirable the work of the majority of the House of Representatives, and incidentally the Republican party, has been, so that they shall not commit the folly of halting all progress by sending a Democratic majority to Congress. As soon as you telegraph me I shall send the letter to Sherman so that it shall be published in ample time not only for the Maine but for the Vermont election. Heaven only knows whether it will do good; but I hope it at least will not do harm. I feel just as you do about Littlefield. I need hardly say that I value no man who has not independence of character; but Littlefield made the mistake of thinking that it was a good thing to take a position now and then which showed that he was out of sympathy with the President or a majority of Congress; and this has undoubtedly hurt him. Of course all I can do to help him in his contest will be done. Taft is going to speak for him. I regard it as of peculiar importance, under existing conditions, to elect Littlefield by a substantial majority. Sincerely yours, Theodore Roosevelt Hon. J. G. Cannon, M. C., Danville, Illinois.47 Personal Oyster Bay, N.Y., August 15, 1906 My dear Sherman: Here is a copy of a letter I have sent Cannon; I shall send you by Saturday, a copy of my letter to Watson, for you to make public any time you deem best. I wish you would note particularly what I say to Cannon about the tariff. Now, about labor. I do not know that anything at present can be done, because the labor leaders have taken so very unreasonable an attitude. At the same time, I most earnestly hope that every effort will be made to show the reasonable labor men that we are far more genuinely their friends than the frothy and sinister demagogues who are opposed to us, who will promise anything, and will then preform it or not as their interests dictate, and with scant regard indeed for the welfare of the republic. We must not let the violent and foolish ex-48 tremists among the labor men goad us into any irrational opposition to labor as a whole; while of course we must under no circumstances either promise or perform for the labor people any more than for any other people, anything that is not right in itself and for the interest of the country as a whole. Sincerely yours, Theodore Roosevelt Hon. James S. Sherman, Chairman Republican Congressional Committee, Post Office Box 2063, New York. Enclosures49 Oyster Bay, N.Y., August 15, 1906. My dear Captain McCoy: I have your letter of the 12th instant. I am very glad you have decided to come. I did not want you to come unless you desired to, and, unless General Wood was willing that you should, and that is the reason why I communicated with you in the form I did. You will succeed to the duties of Major McCawley. Sincerely yours, Theodore Roosevelt Captain Frank Ross McCoy, U.S.A., Lewistown, Pennsylvania.50 Oyster Bay, N.Y., August 15, 1906. My dear Senator Nixon: I have received a number of letters about that Nevada judgeship, and am not yet prepared to say what I shall ultimately do. As you know, I feel very strongly about the judiciary. I do not regard a judge as an ordinary appointment. I do not want merely a good man, but the best man from every standpoint. Sincerely yours, Theodore Roosevelt Hon. George S. Nixon, U.S.S., Winnemucca, Nevada.51 Personal Oyster Bay, N.Y., August 15, 1906. Dear Cabot: I do not believe that it would be expedient to touch on immigration in the Watson letter. I did all I could for the immigration bill, because I thought it would be of benefit to the country. I did not think it would be an advantage politically. On the contrary I thought it would probably be a disadvantage. Such being the case, it does not see to me expedient to make any mention of it in a document which in intended to influence votes for Congress rather than to influence Congress. As to the maximum and minimum, Jim Sherman strongly objects, evidently feeling that it would confuse the issues. I have not heard from the Cannon about it. He wanted me to make more of a stand-pat statement than I made, and I have been trying to get him to make less52 of a stand-pat statement than he intends to make. Of course as far as I can I want to work in agreement with those responsible for the House campaign. I have been protesting to Sherman and Cannon against their use of the words “stand pat,” quoting what you said and expressing my hearty agreement with it, namely, that a good deal of the opposition we are experiencing from tariff revisionists is due to the use of unfortunate terms, “stand pat” being a [particular] striking example of them. I do not believe that the voters as a whole know anything about the maximum and minimum. I do not think they are educated up to it. They do understand the expression “stand pat” and do not like it. I send you a letter from a man named Miles, and a letter which I proposed sending to him but do not send, deeming it better to say it to him in person. What is your judgement about the letter? That is admirable address of young Hill’s. I return it to you. I think it a rather remarkable pamphlet, and the young fellow must have the right stuff in him. Ever yours, Theodore Roosevelt Hon. H. C. Lodge, Nahant, Massachusetts.53 Oyster Bay, N.Y., August 15, 1906. Dear Senator, That is very interesting and I thank you for it. Oh, how I wish I could have been off on a canoe trip is the great woods myself! However, I must not grumble. I have had a delightful summer and a real rest. I shall see if I can not get hold of Gifford Pinchot and make him go with you. I am not going to promise until I see him, because I do not know just how much weight he puts upon the other appeals made to him. Always yours, Theodore Roosevelt Hon. Albert J. Beveridge, U.S.S., Rangeley, Maine.54 Oyster Bay, N. Y., August 15, 1906. Darling Bye: I enclose the deed, which explains itself. I have agreed to get from Emlen in lieu of this a right of way and a right to build a boathouse, bathhouse and dock on the southernmost portion of his beach, about one hundred yards south of the present location, as this will not break up the continuity of his beach. Now, darling Bye, you have said you do not want any money for this; but I want you to talk it over with Will, and remember that I am more than willing to pay anything you and he believe would be about square. I know that any price you would set would represent not justice but an over-generosity toward me. I am most anxious to have you see the place now. It has already been a great comfort to have Smith's field, because it has enabled us to cut out a good vista.55 Alice and Nick are here and are just as nice as possible. Last night Dan Wister was here, and a friend of Alice's, Mary Harriman, seemingly a very nice girl. I am looking forward to seeing Will next Sunday. Ever yours, T.R. Mrs. William S. Cowles, Saranac Inn, Franklin County, N.Y.56 Oyster Bay, N. Y., August 17, 1906. Hon. E. A. Hitchcock, Secretary of the Interior, Dublin, New Hampshire. Telegram received. I do not at the moment remember who Colonel Butler is. In any event ask him to write me at once and as fully as possible what he has to say. I requested Jones to make his statement in writing and the statement in writing from Colonel Butler will be infinitely preferable from every standpoint to a personal interview. THEODORE ROOSEVELT (Official) Oyster Bay, N. Y., August 17, 1906. Hon. James Tanner, Commander-in-Chief, G. A. R., Minneapolis, Minn. Many thanks for your telegram. Through you I extend to the Grand Army my heartfelt greetings not merely personally but officially on behalf of all the people of this nation whose existence is owing to what you and your comrades did in the heroic days of the civil war. THEODORE ROOSEVELT (Official) 57 Personal Oyster Bay, N.Y., August 16, 1906. My dear Major McCawley: Now that you are, as I hope, well, I wish again to renew any very warm congratulations and my earnest good wishes for the happiness of both you and your wife. We shall hope to see much of both of you next winter. We have decided to put in your place an aide at the White House, Captain McCoy, Mrs. Roosevelt feeling, as I do, that it is best that it should be filled by an unmarried man. We would like to have consulted with you about your successor, but there did not seem to be any opportunity. No successor can really take your place my dear fellow! Repeating my good wishes, believe me, Sincerely yours, Theodore Roosevelt Major Charles L. McCawley, U.S.M.C., Headquarters, U.S. Marine Corps, Washington, D.C.58 27 Personal Oyster Bay, N.Y., August 16, 1906. My dear Bonaparte: We can decide about the Connecticut later, but I agree with you that if she is ready in time it looks to me as if she was the best ship for me to go to Panama on. The Columbia is evidently the right ship for Root. I congratulate you upon the way you have handled that meat business in the New York navy yard – but, my dear fellow, this is almost needless, for I have merely to congratulate you upon the way you are handling all things connected with the Navy Department. The correspondence with the Providence Journal delighted my soul, and I laughed especially over the sentence in the last editorial in which he mentions your proposed destruction of the ship Constitution as being presumably due to my instigation – the good59 creature evidently thinking that my violent hostility to the Constitution is extended to anything which bears the hated title! I take a certain malign satisfaction in seeing a professional goo-goo paper assume the same attitude toward you that its kind has always assumed toward me; and I loved that touch in which the Journal spoke of your praiseworthy conduct as President of the Civil Service Reform Association, and inferentially contrasted it with your conduct since you had come under the upas-like influence of my administration – the only two instances which he had been able to specify being your having obeyed the law in the Paymaster Lukesh business, and your having proposed for the Constitution such an end as the most famous Norse Vikings so often proposed both for their ships and for themselves. Faithfully yours, Theodore Roosevelt P.S. I feel Clark Evans should explain about sending out those ships in close order in the fog. Has any explanation been [asked]? Hon. Charles J. Bonaparte, Hotel Aspinwall, Lenox, Massachusetts.60 Personal Oyster Bay, N.Y., August 16, 1906. My dear Senator Penrose: Your request about the Abbeville, South Carolina, post office case puts me in considerable of a quandary. Mr. Cortelyou feels very strongly about that case and I dislike very much interfering with him. On the other hand the South Carolina Senators and Congressmen have certainly established no claim whatever to recognition by this administration. I wish much that you would write direct to Mr. Cortelyou. Sincerely yours, Theodore Roosevelt Hon. Boies Penrose, U.S.S., Arcade Building, Philadelphia.61 Oyster Bay, N.Y., August 16, 1906. My dear Captain Mahan, I have your letter of the 14th instant. Your position is a peculiar one, and without intending to treat this as a precedent, I desire you to have a free hand to discuss in any way you wish the so-called peace proposals. You have a deserved reputation as a publicist which makes this proper from the public standpoint. Indeed I think it important for you to write just what you think of the matter. Sincerely yours, Theodore Roosevelt Captain A. T. Mahan, U.S.N., retired, Quogue, N.Y.62 Personal Oyster Bay, N. Y., August 18, 1906. My dear Jusserand: I return those memoires of de Gelder. They are really interesting. My daughter and her husband have just come home. The were evidently much impressed by Clemenceau and brought me the full official report of his great speech in answer to Jaures. If you happen to see M. Clemenceau I wish you would tell him how immensely I admire his speech. Excepting on two or three points which really have no special bearing upon the matter at issue, I felt the most hearty agreement with it, and I was rather interested to see that in its essentials his program of legislation and of governmental acts is so much like my own; and what is more important, that the spirit of moderation and yet of resolution with which he is approaching the carrying-out of his program is exactly the spirit in which I am endeavoring to make our people approach the program here. Jaures' speech was of the canonical "friend of the people" kind; and I specially liked what Clemenceau said as to its being not friendship but enmity to any class of people - workmen or any other - to treat them as never doing wrong, and being afraid to blame anything that is wrong that they do. My own views are that I should not have been quite as moderate as M. Clemenceau was as to the necessary means of putting down mob violence. [*63*] 2 If ever a United States Army officer is killed by a mob, I shall hope that as many as possible of the mob pay the penalty with their lives. I have no patience with the mawkish sentimentality which in the name of humanity counsels submission to brutality. I have a hearty sympathy with those who are seeking to establish representative institutions on a broad popular basis of justice and equality before the law in Russia; but I have a feeling of impatient contempt for the action of the Douma in seeking to abolish the death penalty at the very moment when murder under the meanest form of assassination is rife through Russia. The Douma said not one word in condemnation of these murders, and yet proposed to abolish the only adequate penalty for them. But the Russian autocracy, or bureaucracy, is impossible; no wonder it excites the wildest antagonism. Give my love to Madame Jusserand. I hope you think sometimes of our dinners last June on the White House terrace. Ask Madame Jusserand if she is yet reconciled to your pronouncing "bowl" as a dissyllable. Always yours, Theodore Roosevelt [*Longworth is having Clemenceau's speech translated and printed; it is a wonderful speech; and, as I said, he substantially outlines my own platforms on most matters of economic interest.*] Mr. J. J. Jusserand, Care of Minister of Foreign Affairs, Paris, France. Enclosure64 Oyster Bay, N.Y. August 17, 1906. Hon. J.G. Cannon Denville, Illinois. Telegram received. Heartily congratulate you on your speech and nomination. If you care to see me it would of course be a great pleasure to have you’re here at lunch Monday. Advise if you decide to come. Will send letter to Watson tomorrow. Theodore Roosevelt. (Answer to D.H.) 65 Oyster Bay, N. Y., August 18, 1906. My dear Mr. Watson: I hear through Speaker Cannon and Representative Sherman that you have volunteered to give your services to the Congressional Committee for the entire campaign, without regard to the effect it may have upon your canvass in your own district; and I feel like writing you a word of congratulations and of earnest hope for the success of your efforts. If there were only partisan issues involved in this contest I should hesitate to say anything publicly in reference thereto. But I do not feet that such is the case. On the contrary, I feel that all good citizens that have the welfare of America at heart should appreciate the immense amount that has been accomplished by the present Congress organized as it is, and the urgent need of keeping this organization in power. With Mr. Cannon as speaker, the House has accomplished a literally phenomenal amount of good work. It has shown a courage, good sense and patriotism that it would be a real and serious misfortune for the country to fail to recognize. To change the leadership and organization of the House at this time means to bring confusion upon those who have been successfully engaged in the steady working out of a great and comprehensive scheme for the betterment of our social, industrial and civic condition. Such a change would substitute a purposeless confusion, a violent and hurtful oscillation between the positions66 2 of the extreme radical and the extreme reactionary, for the present orderly progress along the lines of a carefully thought-out policy. The interests of this nation are as varied as they are vast. Congress must take account, not of one national need, but of many and widely different national needs; and I speak with historic accuracy when I say that not in our time has any other Congress done so well in so many different fields of endeavor as the present Congress has done. No Congress can do everything. Still less can it in one session meet every need. At the first session the present Congress, in addition to the many tasks it actually completed, undertook several tasks which I firmly believe it will bring to completion in its second session next winter. Among these I hope and believe that the bills to prohibit political contributions by corporations, and to lower the duties on imports from the Philippine Islands, each of which has been passed by one House, will be enacted into law. I hope, and I have reason to believe, that favorable action will be taken upon the bill limiting the number of hours of employment of railway employees. These and one or two other measures, the enactment of which I have reason to hope for, are important. But far more important are the measures which have actually passed, and as to these measures I wish to reiterate that they a not important in a merely partisan sense, but are important because they subserve the welfare of our people as a whole, of our nation as an entirety. They are important because those who enacted them into law thereby showed themselves to be fit representatives of all good Americans.67 3 In affairs outside of our own country our great work has been beginning to dig the Panama Canal. The acquisition of the canal strip was due to the initiative of Congress; and the fact that the work thereon is now being done in the most thorough and satisfactory fashion is due to the action of the present Congress at the session just closed. Only this action rendered the work possible, and the heartiest acknowledgements are due to the far-seeing patriotism of those who thus made it possible. The digging of the Panama Canal is the colossal engineering feat of all the ages. No task as great of the kind has ever been undertaken by any other nation. The interests banded together to oppose it were and are numerous and bitter, and most of them with a positively sinister basis for their opposition. This sinister opposition rarely indeed ventures openly to announce its antagonism to the canal as such. Sometimes it takes the form of baseless accusation against the management, and of a demand for an investigation under circumstances which would mean indefinite delay. Sometimes it takes the form of determined opposition to the adoption of plans which will enable the work to be done not merely in the best but in the quickest possible way. Had Congress been either timid or corrupt, and had not the leaders of Congress shown the most far-sighted resolution in the matter, the work of building the canal would never have been begun, or if begun, would now have halted. The opposition to the adoption of the treaty by which our right to build the Panama Canal was secured; a part at least of the opposition even now being made to the ratification of the Santo Domingo treaty, which is one more step in the effort to make peaceful65 4 and secure the waters through which the route of the canal leads; the constant effort to delay on one pretext and another the actual work on the canal - all prove how essential it is that if the American people desire the Panama Canal to be built in speedy and efficient fashion they should uphold the hands of those who in the present Congress have so effectively championed this work. No less praiseworthy has been the attitude of this Congress in continuing to build and maintain on a high plane of efficiency the United States Navy. This county is irrevocably committed to the maintenance of the Monroe Doctrine. It is irrevocably committed to the principle of defending and policing the canal route. But its championship of the Monroe Doctrine and its announcement of its intentions as to the canal route, would both be absurd on their face, if the Nation failed to do its duty in maintaining a thoroughly efficient navy at as high a point of perfection as can possibly be attained. Our external affairs are important, but our internal affairs are even more important; and no other Congress for many a long year has, as regards the betterment of our internal affairs, so much and such excellent work to its credit. The tremendous social and industrial changes in our nation have rendered evident the need of a larger exercise by the national government of its power to deal with the business use of wealth, and especially of corporate wealth, in interstate business. It is not too much to say that the course of Congress within the last few years, and the hearty agreement between the executive and legislative departments of the nation in taking the needed action each within its own sphere, have resulted in the69 5 action for the first time definitely entering upon the career of proper performance of duty in these matters. The task is peculiarly difficult, because it is one in which the fanatical and foolish extremist, and the reactionary, whether honest or dishonest, play into one another's hands; and they thereby render it especially hard to secure legislative and executive action which shall be thoroughgoing and effective and yet which shall not needlessly jeopardize the business prosperity which we all share, even though we do not all share it with so much equality as we are striving to secure. It is a very easy thing to play the demagogue in this matter, to confine oneself merely to renouncing the evils of wealth, and to advocate, often in vague language, measures so sweeping that, while they would entirely fail to correct the evils aimed at, they would undoubtedly succeed in bringing down the prosperity of the nation with a crash. It is also easy to play the part of the mere obstructionist; to decline to recognize the great evils of the present system and to oppose any effort to deal with them in rational fashion - thereby strengthening immensely the hands of those who advocate extreme and foolish measures. But it is not easy to do as the present Congress and its immediate predecessors have done; that is, sternly to disregard alike the self-interest of those who have profited by the present evils, and the wild clamor of of those who care less to do away with them than to make a reputation with the unthinking of standing in extreme opposition to them. But this is precisely what the present Congress has done. Instead of enacting anti-trust laws which were either so vague or so sweeping as completely to defeat their own objects, it has given us an interstate commerce law70 6 which will enable us to exercise in thorough fashion a supervision over the common carriers of this country, so as, while scrupulously safeguarding their proper interests, to prevent them from charging excessive rates; to prevent their favoring one man at the expense of another, and especially a strong man at the expense of a weak man; and to require them to be fully accountable to the public for the service which to their own profit they render the public. The previous Congress, by the enactment of the Elkins law and by the creation of the Department of Commerce and Labor, including the Bureau of Corporations, had enabled us to take great strides in advance along the path of thus bringing the use of wealth in business under the supervision and regulation of the national government, - for in acting practice it has proved a sham and pretense to say that the several States can thus supervise and regulate it. The strides taken by the present Congress have been even longer in the right direction. The enactment of the pure food bill and the passage of the bill which rendered effective the control of the government over the meat-packing industries are really along the same general line as the passage of the interstate commerce law, and are second only to it in importance. Perhaps the peculiar merit of these laws is best shown by the fact that while they have aroused the deepest anger of the reactionaries, of the men who make a fetish of wealth, they have not satisfied the unwise extremists; and the present Congress in achieving this merit has acted in the exact spirit of Abraham Lincoln, who was never to be frightened out of going forward by the cries of those who feared progress, nor yet71 7 to be hurried into a precipitate advance by the demands of the crude-thinking, though often well-meaning, men who are not accustomed soberly to distinguish between phrase-making and action. To the men who come in the latter category all we need say is to bid them possess their souls in peace. They have advocated action; but we have taken action; and the fact that this action has been sober and temperate has been in no small degree the cause of its far-reaching efficiency. To the former class - to the reactionaries, who need to fear that to deal in proper fashion with the abuses of property is somehow an attack upon property - we would recall the words of Edmund Burke: "If wealth is obedient and laborious in the service of virtue and public honor, then, wealth is in its place and has its use. But if this order is changed and honor is to be sacrificed to the conservation of riches, riches, which have neither eyes nor hands nor anything truly vital in them, can not long survive the well being of . . . their legitimate masters . . . If we command our wealth we shall be rich and free. If our wealth commands us we are poor indeed." In addition to thus dealing with the proper control of capitalistic wealth, Congress has also taken important steps in securing to the wage-workers certain [great?] rights. At the session that has just closed an employers' liability law was enacted which puts the national government in its proper place as regards such legislation. An eight-hour law was already on the statute books; but as is almost inevitable with such laws, there has at first been great confusion as to whose duty it was72 8 among the different public officials to enforce it. This confusion has now been remedied and the law is in process of thorough enforcement. If this enforcement demonstrates the need of additional legislation to make this night hour law effective, I shall ask for such legislation. I may add that next year I shall ask Congress to put in the permanent form of law the provision I have made by executive order for securing the wage-workers under the government half-holidays during the summer months, just as regular holidays are now secured by law for the salaried clerical workers in the classified services. No Congress has ever more clearly shown its practical appreciation of the fact that the welfare of the wage-workers, and the welfare of the tillers of the soil, make the real basis of the welfare of the nation as a whole. We will do everything that can be done to further the interests of the farmer and the wage-worker, and this declaration is subject only to one reservation - which is, that for no man, and no body of man, will we do anything that is wrong. Our constant aim is to do justice to every man, and to treat each man as by his own actions he shows that he deserves to be treated. We favor the organization of labor, as we favor the organization of capital; but on condition that organized labor and organized capital alike act in a spirit of justice73 9 and fair dealing, and with due regard to both the letter and the spirit of the law. We heartily favor trades unions, and we recognize in them, as in corporations, when properly conducted, indispensable instruments in the economic life of the present day; but where either type of organization is guilty of abuse, we do not propose to weaken the remedial powers of the Government to deal with such abuse. We are anxious to help, alike by law and by executive action, so far as in our power lies, every honest man, every right-dealing labor union, and, for the matter of that, every right-dealing corporation. But, as a corollary to this, we intend fearlessly and resolutely to uphold the law, and to strengthen it, so that we can put down wrong, whether done by rich or poor; if done by the most powerful corporation or the most influential labor union, just as much as if done by the humblest and least influential individual in the land. The fact that we heartily recognize an organization or a kind of organization as useful will not prevent our taking action to control it or to prevent its committing abuses when it uses in wrong fashion the power which organization confers. The enactment into law of the bill removing the tax on alcohol used in the arts will ultimately be of marked benefit to us in more ways than one. It shows likewise the entire willingness of those responsible for the handling of the present Congress to alter our revenue system, whether derived by taxation on imports or internal taxation, whenever it is necessary so to do. We stand unequivocally for a protective tariff, and we feel that the phenomenal industrial prosperity which we are now enjoying is not74 10 lightly to be jeopardized for it would be to the last degree foolish to secure here and there a small benefit at the cost of general business depression. But whenever a given rate or schedule becomes evidently disadvantageous to the nation, because of the changes which go on from year to year in our conditions, and where it is feasible to change this rate or schedule without too much dislocation of the system, it will be done; while a general revision of the rates and schedules will be undertaken whenever it shall appear to the sober business sense of our people that on the whole the benefits to be derived from making such changes will outweigh the disadvantages; that is, when the revision will do more good than harm. Let me add one word of caution, however. The question of revising the tariff stands wholly apart from the question of dealing with the so-called "trusts" - that is, with the control of monopolies and with the supervision of great wealth in business, especially in corporate form. The only way in which it is possible to deal with these trusts and monopolies and this great corporate wealth is by action along the line of the laws enacted by the present Congress and its immediate predecessors. The cry that the problem can be met by any changes in the tariff represents, whether consciously or unconsciously, an effort to divert the public attention from the only method of taking effective action. I shall not pretend to enumerate all the good measures of less importance which the present Congress has enacted into law, although some of these measures, as for instance the consular bill and the naturalization bill are of wide-reaching effect. I have said enough to show why, in my judgement, you and your colleagues are entitled to the good wishes of all those American citizens who believe that there are real evils in our industrial and economic system, and that these evils can be effectively grappled with,75 not by loose declamation, but by resolute and intelligent legislation and executive action. Sincerely yours, [Theodore Roosevelt] 1176 Oyster Bay, N.Y. August 17, 1906. My dear Senator: I have your letter of the 16th instant. I hear well of Colonel Patton [Patten, Paston, Peston], although I am not yet prepared to say who is the best man for the place. I shall take the matter up with the Secretary Taft this fall. With warm regards to Mrs. Platt and trusting that you are both well, believe me, Sincerely yours, Theodore Roosevelt Hon. T.C. Platt, U.S.S., 49 Broadway, New York. 77 Personal Oyster Bay, N.Y. August 17, 1906. My dear Collier: Shortly after your letter came I found that everything had been arranged in the State Department on a satisfactory basis. Bacon speaks in high terms of what you have accomplished and I entirely share his feelings. Pray accept my congratulations. Sincerely yours, Theodore Roosevelt Hon. William Miller Collier, The America Minister, Madrid, Spain. 78 Personal Oyster Bay, N.Y. August 17, 1906. My dear Hunter: Many thanks for your letter of the 13th. I think that is an awfully nice button and I am really very much pleased with it. I have long thought we ought to have such a button, and this one to me in excellent taste and good in every way. With regard, Sincerely yours, Theodore Roosevelt Mr. C.E. Hunter, President, Roosevelt’s Rough Riders Association, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. 79 Oyster Bay, N.Y. August 17, 1906. My dear Lord Minto: May I trouble you about a private matter? My daughter, Mrs. Longworth, has for some time been anxious to make a tour of India, but her husband is in Congress, which site in winter, so that they cannot go at the ordinary time. Would it bother you to tell me how early in the fall and how late in the spring it is possible to travel about so as to see something at least of southern India. I do not know that the Longworths could be in India in the fall at all. Congress adjourns on the 4th of March. In cases they decide they can go, which of course is problematical, they would be in India as soon after that as trains and boats could carry them. I trust that Lady Minto is well. Pray present to her my warm regards. Sincerely yours, Theodore Roosevelt His Excellency, the Right Honorable, The Earl of Minto, Viceroy of India, Simia. 80 Oyster Bay, N.Y. August 17, 1906. My dear Cortelyou: Have you taken up the matter of the charges by the railways for the nails? My attention was directed to a recent remark to the Cosmopolitan to the effect that we paid ten times as much as was paid by the express companies. Of course the fact that a thing appears in the Cosmopolitan in presumptive evidence of its falsehood; but we may have an attack made upon us about the railways and the nails and I should like to feel that we are armed in the matter. However, I have never been satisfied that we were not paying too much. I have a great regard for the personal character of Mr. Shallenberger, but I know that many of those who are anxious to have him kept in are clearly identified with the great 81 railroad interests, and I think we should be very careful to see that we are not doing or continuing to do what is improper for those interests. Sincerely yours, Theodore Roosevelt Hon. George B. Cortelyou, Locust Lodge, Huntington, N.Y. 82 Personal. Oyster Bay, N.Y. August 17, 1906. [*41*]h Dear Will: All right. Have the amount of money mentioned by General Ainsworth expended for temporary stabling for the cavalry at Boise, Idaho. I enclose the proposition from Brown about which Stevens wrote me and Shonts spoke to me Offhand, I am inclined to think as Stevens and Shonts do that this is the right proposition; but of course I feel that we should look very, very carefully into the character and responsibility of Brown and all those associated with him before making up our minds. The matter is of such vital importance that we can not afford to make any mistake. After consultation with Moody I decided to appoint James S. Harlan on the Interstate Commerce Commission. I have pretty nearly concluded to appoint Lurton. If I do, I shall want to appoint a circuit judge in his place. What States are included in the circuit? It may be that we shall want to promote a district judge, and it may be that we shall want to make an appointment outright. I wonder if Garfield would care to go on as a circuit judge. If he would, I should be strongly tempted to offer it to him. What are your views as to any man in the district? I feel that we should undoubtedly ap- 83 8 point a Republican, and by preference a man from north of the Ohio River, as we are appointing a southern Democrat to the great position on the Supreme Count. Have you looked at the Cosmopolitan! It is crammed full of the usual type of slanderous falsehood, and one of the most infamous of the articles is the leading one, by Poultney Bigelow. Nevertheless, I suppose we shall have to meet some of his statements. Would it not be well to get from Stevens a direct statement as to Bigelow's assertion on page 460 that many of the canal officials own lots in Colon and have a pecuniary interest in congesting population there so that rents may rise? Then, also. a statement as to the alleged reservoir for Colon? I shall visit that reservoir anyhow, but I think it might be well to have ready a detailed answer to this first article of Bigelow's handling him as roughly as he deserves, but giving him specific answers wherever he makes specific allegations. I believe that Bishop could write such an answer. The man is a slanderer, a liar, and an all-around skunk, but nevertheless it behooves us to examine and see whether say of his statements are true. Shote? and Stevens do not even yet understand that this is not like a private work, and that one very important part of the business is ability to answer in detail the accusations made to me. Stevens feels, and in one way quite justly, that it is pure interference with the work to require him to abandon it in order to more criticisms. He is quite right in this and the real enemies84 3 of the work are the Congressmen who make charges which they know, or ought to know, have no foundation, and the unspeakably putrid creatures like Poultney Bigelow who furnish the material for these charge. But Stevens is entirely wrong in believing that these charges can be ignored, and especially that the Congressmen can be ignored. Of course in the long run the work itself can answer the charges; but we will not be allowed to go on with the work unless we are able to satisfy Congress that what we are doing is all right. Stevens' strength is in part his weakness. He is able to do the work as I believe no other engineer in the United States could do it, but he is making no effort whatever to develop any man in the second [his] place. I doubt if he would consent to have any really good man put under him. This renders it all the more important for us to try to get within our range of vision one or two good men to when, if necessary, the job could be offered. Lady Susan Townley had an excellent article on the canal, taking directly the opposite view from Bigelow. She made one suggestion which I wish you would ask Stevens to consider. She says that the American is not accustomed to deal with the Jamaican negro, whereas there are plenty of whites in Jamaica who are accustomed to deal with him and who get good work out of him, and that therefore it would be well to get some white Jamaican foreman to handle those negroes. I should like some information as to whether this is feasible. I shall go over that letter of mine to Watson in view of your comments; but both as to the future and the past I feel like [?] by my expressions as to Santo Domingo.85 4 and Panama. [But] I certainly do not feel like refraining from saying in substance that the opposition to Santo Domingo is opposition to Panama. I shall work in what you suggest about the labor business. Apparently Cannon handled it well in his speech to his nominating convention. I have wished that he and the other leaders would not assume such an outright stand-pat attitude as regards the tariff. But we must do our best to alert them When do you speak in Littlefield's district? Ever yours, Theodore Roosevelt Hon. William H. Taft, Pointe au Pic, Province of Quebec, Canada. Enclosure.86 (Copy-sent in President's handwriting.) 58 Sagamore Hill. August 18th, 1906. Dear Bonaparte: From what I learn -- speaking as a layman -- close order is necessary in a fog. So any inquiry into the accidents under Evans will start with the presumption in his favor. Yet I think that you might with advantage make the inquiry, if only to have a satisfactory statement ready if Congress should desire it. Sincerely yours, THEODORE ROOSEVELT.87 Personal. Oyster Bay, N.Y., August 18, 1906. My dear Trevelyan: It seems to me that the last sessions of the national legislatures alike of Great Britain, France and the United States have possessed peculiar interest. I have followed the work of your Parliament with entire sympathy on most points; although there are of course two or three matters as to which I do not know enough to express any opinion. I was really greatly impressed and pleased with Clemenceau's speech in answer to the socialist Jaures when the latter attacked Clemenceau for preserving order at the time of the riotous demonstration by the working men. Clemenceau must be a very able man, and the program he sketched out as that which his party should undertake in economic matters is substantially the program to which I should like to see the American people committed. Here we are greatly hampered in dealing with industrial questions affecting combinations of capital and combinations of labor both with reference to one another and with reference to the general public, by the peculiarities of our Federal Constitution. It is most important that so far as possible these matters should be entrusted to the Federal [*general*] Government; and we made astounding progress during the last session88 -2- of Congress along the lines of this desirable policy by greatly increasing the power of the federal authorities to deal with interstate commerce, both in connection with the railroads, in connection with the meat-packing industry, and in connection with pure food. We also got a very good employers' liability law passed, not to speak of the work of the Panama canal and other matters. I have now been five years President. It is about time for the swinging of the pendulum. I should not be in the least surprised to see the Congressional elections go against me; but whether this happens or not, it will remain true that during these five years we have accomplished a great quantity of substantive work of an important kind. Indeed, I can hardly recall any other five years since the reconstruction days succeeding the Civil War during which as much important work has been done. I do not think that this has been undertaken in the least in a demagogic spirit. We have tried, and I think we have succeeded, in making it evident that while we intended to do all we can [could] in the way of giving the widest social and economic opportunity to the wage worker and to the poor man, and while we intend[ed] to supervise and control the business use of wealth so that it shall [should] not be used in an unethical or [?] anti-social spirit, yet that we intended fearlessly to put down anything in the89 -3- nature of mob violence, and that we set our faces like flint against the preachers who appeal to or excite the dark and evil passions of men [?]. I shall hope later to get action taken along the lines of the graduated income tax and the graduated inheritance tax. Just at present we have been obliged to make it evident that we will not submit to the tyranny of the trades union any more than [???] to the tyranny of the corporation. Of the absolute propriety of this general course from the standpoint of the nation and of the good that it will ultimately do I am certain. But of course, as inevitably happens in any period of constructive legislation, we tend to alienate the extremists of both sides. There are great numbers of radicals who think we have not gone far enough, and a great number of reactionaries who think we have gone altogether too far, and we array against ourselves both the sordid beneficiaries of the evils we assail and the wild-eyed agitators who tend to indiscriminate assault on everything good and bad alike. This is of course not an experience in any way peculiar to our contest. It is the kind of combination that always appears in every such contest. The consolation is that even though the alliance is temporarily effective, it is never able wholly to undo all the good work that has been done.90 -4- In your last letter you spoke very bitterly of Balfour. Would you mind writing me exactly what it is about him that makes you feel so bitterly? With very many of the policies with which Mr. Balfour has been identified I have not the slightest sympathy; but I had not supposed he was a man who personally excited such active hostility. I am interested, of course, in The Hague conference. On the one hand I am anxious that we shall do something effective toward the substitution of other agents than war for settling disputes between nations. On the other hand, I feel very strongly that if we try to go too far - if we try to do what the preposterous apostles of peace of the type of ex-Secretary of State Foster and, I am sorry to say, Congressman Burton in this country would desire - we should put ourselves in the position of having the free peoples rendered helpless in the face of the various military despotisms and barbarisms of the world. For example, if we can come to an agreement to stop the general increase of the navies of the world, I shall be very glad. But I do not feel that England and the United States should impair the efficiency of their navies if it is permitted to other Powers, which may some day be hostile to them, to go on building up and increasing their military strength. I shall inflict upon you a copy of my letter on behalf of the Republican candidates for Congress, which I send herewith. Believe me, with warm regards, Very sincerely yours, Theodore Roosevelt Sir George Otto Trevelyan, Wellington, Cambr, England.91 Personal. Oyster Bay, N.Y., August 18, 1906. My dear Elihu: I suppose this will be forwarded to you at Panama; [and] it is merely a word of greeting and of hearty congratulation upon the success of your trip. You have made a great impression here; and, as far as from this distance one can judge, you have made a great impression in South America. Your speeches have been admirable from every standpoint - but this is a matter of course. In short, the trip seems to me to have realized all and more than all I dared hope, and I feel that it marks a permanent epoch in the relations of this country with the other American republics. I hope that Mrs. Root has enjoyed herself. Give her our love. By the way, Elihu spent last night with us and was just so nice as he could be. He had to go away early this morning. By George! I hope that a few years hence I shall [will] be feeling the same pride in what my boys are doing that you have a right to feel in what he is doing. I have had a real rest this summer, and there has been very little of political [*going on*] importance. We are now beginning the fall campaign. I have never known Congress to do quite as well as this Congress has done; and it seems to me that it is not often that an administration92 -2- administration can say with greater truth than we can that we have carried out with signal success the policies we have undertaken. Therefore if all men were reasonable and farseeing we could count upon sufficient support to reelect a Republican Congress; but judging from my experience of the past the time has about come for the swinging of the pendulum, and in such circumstances the people take the greatest satisfaction, under the lead of the "educated conscience," in upsetting those who have done well, on the ground, in the first place, that all that could be accomplished by them has already been accomplished, so that this usefulness is ended, and in the second place, that there are some things that they have not done anyway and so it is time for a new deal. The tariff is of course what will cause us the most trouble. The demand for its immediate revision is entirely irrational; but this does not alter the fact that there is a strong demand, and as Cannon and the Congressional leaders will not - and I really cannot - say that there will be an immediate revision, I should not be surprised to see this issue used to defeat us. Moreover, the labor people are causing all the trouble they can. I do not think that the Congress last year did all they might have for these labor people; but their position is so extreme that they have left us no alternative but to come out squrely [sic] against some of their demands. Cannon has done this in a very straightforward and manly way. Taft will follow suit in his speech in Littlefield's district, and I shall [will]93 -3- back them up in a letter I am writing to the Republican whip in Congress - Watson. We are absolutely right and are entitled to the support of all good people; but I doubt if we get that support, at any rate to a degree sufficient to counterbalance the opposition of the labor men. The success of the labor movement at the last elections in England has immensely encouraged the labor leaders here. The very wealthy people are quite willing to side for the time being with the labor people, with their usual shortsightedness, because they think it will punish me. So while it is possible we may win, I should not be at all surprised at a heavy defeat. Isn't it a great comfort to feel that in such circumstances it really does not alter the fact that during the time we have been in office we have accomplished great substantive work for good, and that while some of what we have done will be swept away, a very large part will remain? I have recently been reading a book, which you must read - a life of Hamilton, by an Englishman named Oliver, and he shows ho, in Hamilton's [his] few years of public life, which ended by his seeing the actual triumph of the man and the seeming triumph of the principles to which he was most opposed, he nevertheless accomplished an amount of work which has remained vital and effective until the present day. Taft has definitely concluded not to accept the judgeship. I shall probably on the advice of Taft and Day put in Lurton, an ex-94 -4- Confederate and nominal Democrat from Tennessee, but a man who is a good, sound, national man, who, as far as I can see, takes [has] just the attitude we take as regards the control of corporations, the checking of labor people when they go wrong, the right so to construe the Constitution as to permit us properly to manage our insular affairs, and the propriety of the National Government doing what it can to secure certain elementary civil rights to the Negro. In my judgement this action of Taft's puts him at once in the rank of Presidential candidates; though this he will doubtless even to himself deny. I am of course personally glad that he has take it, for it is a strength to me to have him in the Cabinet, and continuing his handling of the Philippines and the canal. By the way, I shall have a muss with the labor people over our use of Chinese on the canal. I should suppose that even the most fat-headed fools would see that the white man is not particularly interested in the question as to whether the Chinaman should supplant the West Indian Negro in building the canal; but this is not the view that Gompers and his people take. Give my warm regards to Captain Winslow. In a fortnight I shall have a big naval review in the Sound, and the day after I shall go off on the Missouri to see some gun practice. It will be an excellent thing for the navy in every way; and I need hardly add95 -5- that it will be the subject of hysterical attack in many of the newspapers. Higgins has paid the penalty of his weakness here in New York. You recall how strongly we urged him to act early last winter. He would not do it. Finally, in the spring he came to Washington [on], and after a little beating around the bush requested me, to my great relief and pleasure, not to take any part in the fight; evidently fearing that I [it] would do more harm than good. Well, he shilly-shallied until Platt and Odell combined, and when the vote came in the committee the other day they beat him by just one majority. I think they got away two or three of his votes by corrupt means, for Odell has been spending money like water; but the net result is that Higgins is mode to look like a weak and incompetent creature before the people and has been stood on his head by Odell. The Sun and Evening Post are now enthusiastically backing Jerome for the Democratic nomination. If he gets it, Hearst will run against him as an independent. There will then at least be the consolation that we will have fifty per cent. of satisfaction in the defeat of either of them. Higgins is a very weak candidate, and it may be that it will be found necessary to nominate some one else in his place. Odell and Platt want Hughes; and upon my word I am not at all certain but that it would be well to nominate him. Ever yours, Hon. Elihu Root, Secretary of State.96 Oyster Bay, N.Y., August 18, 1906. Dear Kermit: When this reaches you you will be at Medora, having come up from Deadwood by reversing the journey I took fourteen years ago at the time when I first saw Captain Bullock. Give him my warm regards, and tell him how very much obliged I am for all he has done for you. I look forward with the greatest interest to hearing about your trip. Did you meet old man Lebo, with whom I went to the Big [Great] Horn Mountains twenty-two years ago? Did you ask Joe Ferris about the time when the horse ran off with the saddles that we were using as pillows; and the other time when Mrs. Maloy scalded his pig, and Joe became suddenly anxious to know if I was a Catholic? Everyone is well here. Nick and Sister went away having, I really believe, thoroughly enjoyed themselves. Nick fitted into the family life with the utmost ease. They have now gone out to Cincinnati where Nick is to look after his political fences. Ted and Ethel lead exactly the life they have led all summer, and fairly haunt the aviary. Mother and I ride and row together. Sometimes I chop. Yesterday I played tennis with Jack, beating him two love97 -2- sets and two deuce sets. Like you, he needs to get a little more strength and a little more command over his muscles. As soon as you and he do that you will both beat me. Quentin is the same cheerful pagan philosopher as ever. He swims like a little duck; rides well; stands quite severe injuries without complaint; and is really becoming a manly little fellow. Archie is devoted to the Why. The other day while Mother and I were [coming in] rowing in we met him sailing out, and it was too cunning for anything. The Why looks exactly like a black wooden shoe with a sail in it, and the crew consisted of Archie, of one of his beloved playmates, a seaman from the Sylph, Obey, and of Skip- very alert and knowing. Uncle Will is spending Sunday with us together with the Richardsons. Ever yours, Theodore Roosevelt Lorraine beat me two sets of tennis. Master Kermit Roosevelt, Medora, North Dakota.98 Oyster Bay, N.Y., August 18, 1906. My dear M. Le Roux In the first place, let me express my regret that the volume you sent was not acknowledged. I certainly thought I had acknowledged it, and evidently the letter has miscarried. In the next place, let me say that I accent with great pleasure your kind offer to elect me to honorary membership in the “Academie Francoise des Sport.” I thoroughly believe in the movement for which this society stands, and it is a double pleasure to accept in view of my pleasant remembrances of meeting you when you were on this side. Hoping to again have the pleasure of seeing you sometime in the not too different future, I am, Sincerely yours, Theodore Roosevelt M. Hugues Le Roux Saint-Germain-en Laye, 47 Rue de Poisey, France. 99 Oyster Bay, N.Y., August 18, 1906. Private and Personal My dear Churchill Mrs. Roosevelt and I have just finished “Coniston,” and we like it so much that I must write you a line to tell you me. She, of course, was appealed to by it most from the standpoint of the story. My interest in it was even greater because I think you were dealing with one of the real and great abuses of this generation. I do not know whether I abhor most the wealthy corruptionist or the minister demagogue who tries to rise by exciting, and appealing to, the evil passions of envy and jealousy and hatred. In the last analysis the two supplement one another. Sincerely yours, Theodore Roosevelt Mr. Winston Churchill, Cornish, New Hampshire. 100 Oyster Bay, N. Y., August 15, 1906 My dear General Lee: I have your letter of the 9th ultimo. I already had a high opinion of Col. [Dorat?], and what you say of him of course carries great weight with me. When you come back from the Philippines, will you do me the kindness to call upon me at as early a date as possible? I want to talk over several matters connected with the army with you. Sincerely yours, Theodore Roosevelt Gen. Jesse M. Lee, Camp Stotsenburg, Pampanga, P. I.101 Oyster Bay, N. Y., August 16, 1906. My dear Bridges: I thank you for that book by Jesse Lynch Williams. It was awfully good of you to send it. Now, may you have as pleasant a vacation as you deserve. Faithfully yours, Theodore Roosevelt Mr. Robert Bridges, 153 Fifth Avenue, New York, N. Y.102 Oyster Bay, N. Y., August 16, 1906. My dear Strachey: I thank you for sending me Col. Pollock's interesting letter, which I return herewith. I agree substantially with all that he says, but unfortunately I see almost no signs of any realization in this country of the need of such a system. I find it difficult enough to get authority from Congress to try to help forward marksmanship in the National Guard, and among the citizens generally. Without a preliminary exposition and agitation of the scheme in the papers, it would be not merely hopeless but foolish in me to try to bring [it] about action on it. The fact is that the conditions which differentiate the case of England from the nations of Continental Europe exist in a much greater degree here. I mean conditions both physical and mental. Physically, you are separated by the channel from Europe, and we by oceans from both Asia and Europe. This difference tends to bring about the mental differences, for, whereas you have but a small army compared with the armies of Continental Europe and your people take a not very intense interest of the practical kind in supplementing this army by an auxiliary system of defense, we have not merely a small but an insignificant army, while our people take almost no interest of the practical kind in supplementing this army. An irritating feature of life here is that we do not have the backing for a proper movement like this from the very sources where we ought to get it. The cultivated people of the northeastern States, for instance103 2 instance are very apt to assume an attitude of such maudlin idiocy on the subject of peace that it almost converts a red blooded on-looker into a mere jingo. I am sincerely anxious for peace and have a sincere horror of war! but I have an unspeakable contempt for the more prominent and so-to-speak professional peace agitators and for the whole crew of anti-imperialists and all professional howlers against not merely war but the army and navy, such as are very many of the prominent graduates of my own college of Harvard, and of the papers which they read and which claim to be peculiarly the product of the educated conscience, that is, papers like the Nation, the Evening Post, etc. Give my warm regards to Mrs. Strachey. Remember how we are looking forward to seen you both. Sincerely yours, Theodore Roosevelt Mr. J. St.Loe Strachey, Newlands Corner, Merrow Downs, Guildford, England. Enclosure.104 Oyster Bay, N. Y., August 16, 1906. My dear Mr. Scott: [???on] handed me your manuscript essay on Hamilton. I return it herewith. I have read it and enjoyed it greatly. I congratulate the State Department that is has connected with it a man capable of writing such an article. With regards, Sincerely yours, Theodore Roosevelt Hon. James Brown Scott, Solicitor for the Department of State, Washington, D.C.105 56 Oyster Bay, N. Y., August 13, 1906. My dear Mr. Secretary: I enclose a letter, dated August 15th, from ex-Senator Jones as Attorney for Theodore W. Barnsdall of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, accompanied by certain papers. I received from him as well as from you a copy of the printed pamphlet containing the examination before you on the question of leasing oil lands and natural gas wells in the Indian Territory and Oklahoma. It appears that Mr. Barnsdall is in a certain sense the representative of Messrs. Duffey and Galey, or at least has interests with them. This is not a matter with which I am especially familiar, and before coming to even a tentative decision as regards any of the points raised in this letter I shall want to hear from you, and very possibly to go over the whole matter in the Cabinet, where we can have the benefit of the judgement of the trained lawyers among its members. Would it not also be well to have a report from Garfield on this matter, inasmuch as he made some very careful investigations into the Standard Oil business in Kansas, and I suppose in the Indian Territory and Oklahoma? My general principle, as you know, is that it is inadvisable from every standpoint for the Government to spend its efforts in seeking to prevent a combination; that the true course for the Government to pursue is not to try to prevent combinations, but to reserve its right to exercise106 2 exercise a rigid and effective control over them in the interest of the public, and of course doubly in the interest of the Indians, who are the special wards of the Government. However, while this is my general feeling, there may be and probably are special reasons why the policy would be a bad one in this particular case. Senator Jones raises several distinct issues on behalf of Mr. Barnsdall. In the first place I would like a report on Mr. Barnsdall's request that he be allowed to select 4800 acres of leases for oil and gas purposes in the Cherokee and Creek country, out of the leases he already had in his own right, amounting to 4700 acres, and those which he acquired as he admits without warrant of law to the extent of 3300 acres from Duffey and Galey. I am not in a position to express even a tentative opinion on the propriety of this request. The next request is for the ratification of Mr. Barnsdall's contracts for drilling about 7000 acres of leases of other peoples' lands in which he is in no sense the owner, these drilling contracts, as he asserts, being made in good faith on the advice of his attorneys. Apparently it is the contention of the Interior Department that this is simply a method of evading the requirements of the Department. As to this I am by no means sure. There seems to be much force in the argument that it is impossible, or at least highly undesirable, in many cases, for the man of small capital, including the land owner of small capital, to try to sink these oil wells himself, as many of them turn out to be [run] dry. I know that in Pennsylvania and West Virginia it is customary for the farmers, including the shrewdest of them, to contract with the big oil men of107 3 the type of Barnsdall, for these big men [?] to go to the expense and risk of sinking the well, and then give some fixed royalty to the land owner. I should like to have a clear showing as to whether or not there are objections to a similar course being pursued, under the supervision of the Secretary of the Interior, under such regulations as he might impose, in [reference to] Oklahoma and Indian Territory. If the system works well in Pennsylvania and West Virginia, it would seem to me that the presumption is that it would work well elsewhere, especially as pipe lines are now common carriers. Of course this presumption may be overcome by facts of which I have no knowledge. It seems to me - although, as I wish to repeat, on what I do not in my way regard as a sufficient consideration of the case - that it would be possible to have this privilege granted in ways that would insure an equal chance to the independent oil companies as against the Standard: and in any event we could retain the right to see that [?] every oil company was [?] forced to pay an adequate remuneration to the owner of the land, and we would thereby do away with the evil effects which I have no doubt obtain in Pennsylvania and West Virginia, due to the Standard having a monopoly, so that the farmer could not get his oil out unless he did it by means of the Standard. The [?????] matter brought up by Mr. Barnsdall is in reference to the Osage reservations, under the law of Congress passed in March, 1905, which law I signed on your recommendation that I should do so, the proviso being, if I remember it correctly, embodied in the Indian bill. Here, apparently, Barnsdall's contention is that he has spent large sums108 4 of money in developing properties which he acquired in good faith for a valuable consideration, and he asks that action be taken which recognizes his rights in the sub-leases that he has acquired. It appears that these sub-leases include the very large amount of 160,000 acres. I know nothing whatever of the equities of this case and would like a full report on it. I also know little of the matters regarding the natural gas to which Senator Jones refers in his letter. He contends that there is more gas than can be used profitably in the [?] neighborhood, and that there would be a market for it in Kansas City and Saint Louis, but not for any such small amount as can be obtained from 4800 acres of land, and that the gas should be disposed of to any responsible single person (whether Mr. Barnsdall or anyone else) in a sufficiently large amount of land surface to justify the building of a pipe line. He further contends that the gas should not be paid for by a percentage of the gross product of sale, but by a fixed sum per year per well. He asserts that the latter is the well-nigh invariable practice in the States where natural gas wells exist, and submits papers in proof of this assertion. He offers to pay $200 per well, and thinks that he should be permitted to acquire the gas on at least 200,000 acres of land. He insists that to provide for compensation of gas wells on the percentage basis would require a meter at every well, which would be very costly and expensive to maintain, but states he is entirely willing to pay the percentage of gross sales as imposed by the Interior Department if the owner of the land will provide the meter and provide for the expense connected with it.109 5 I am not familiar with the business, but I am informed that Mr. Barnsdall exaggerates the expense of a meter; that it is often possible to combine [?] a number of wells so as to use the meter for the product of all of them; and furthermore, that if a well proves unproductive the meter can be taken away and used on a productive well. Under these circumstances it would seem to me possible to provide that if it was found that a well produced less than a certain amount the meter could be removed and an outright sum paid for it, while the meters [shall] would be used to test the products of the wells, or the joint products of the several wells, in any given district [?] where it was found that they were very productive. There may be, of course, objections of which I am ignorant to the adoption of those suggestions. Of course we should want to look out and see that no gas pipe-line was put in and really used for oil, as a method of getting around any law or any regulation of the Interior Department; and it would seem to me that if the gas wells are very productive it would not be just or fair to permit an insignificant sum to be paid for them; and if very productive, $200 would be an insignificant sum. I should like a detailed comment made upon Senator Jones' letter, and if possible, to have this comment arranged under heads that will enable me to take up the points one after the other, as I have done in this letter. Trusting Mrs. Hitchcock and you are having a most pleasant vacation, believe me, Sincerely yours, Theodore Roosevelt Hon. E. A. Hitchcock, Monadnock, New Hampshire. Enclosure (see P.S. on following page)110 6 P.S. Your telegram received. I have met Colonel Butler and have heard very highly of him; but not remembering his first name I did not know to whom you referred when you telegraphed. His letter has come and it is very strong indeed. Would you be willing to send to Colonel Butler a copy of this letter and ask him for his comments upon it? It seems fairly providential that there should be an independent oil operator whom we know to be reputable who can give us such comments. I would particularly like Colonel Butler's comments on the one part of Senator Jones' letter which made an impression upon me; [that?] is the question about boring the wells in partnership, in the second part of Jones' letter.111 Oyster Bay, N. Y., August 21, 1906. Hon. Charles A. Stillings, Public Printer, Washington, D. C. Quietly and unofficially it might be well for you to draw the attention of your subordinates to the extreme seriousness of their going on any strike. I do not want to make a horseback judgement but you are authorized to tell them definitely that I would not even consider, or permit you to consider, the question of attending to any of their grievances if they went on a strike unless they immediately resumed work, and that in all probability after giving them one warning to resume work I would then not permit the reinstatement of any man who continued on a strike after such warning was given. I will not tolerate any action of this kind by employees in the Government service. Of course I would prefer that you settle the matter quietly and without trouble, but they may as well definitely understand that if they persist in making trouble the consequences will be on their own heads. THEODORE ROOSEVELT. (Official)112 Oyster Bay, N.Y., August 20, 1906. My dear Mr. Stillings: I have very great sympathy with the cause of appealing reform, though I know that like other practical reforms it is necessary to go slow and feel one’s way. Will you do me the favor to write to Mr. Brander Matthews, of New York, and get from him the pamphlet which the association has issued giving the changes which they immediately recommend? I understand that one or two magazines have already adopted those changes. Then will you see that all Government publications, including the President’s messages, are spelt in accordance with that plan? Sincerely yours, Theodore Roosevelt Hon. Charles A. Stillings, Public Printer, Washington.113 Oyster Bay, N.Y., August 20, 1906. My dear Mr. Miles: One verbal correction. I never said I would not allow you to be the loser through testifying. What I said was that I could not afford to ask you to testify if you thought you would lose too heavily by doing on. Now I shall take up at once the question of getting you a better appointment, and I agree with you that the offer made to you was altogether inadequate. At the same time, my dear sir, remember that the Government pays very small salaries indeed. The Cabinet officers only receive $8000 and their assistants $4500, and from those the salaries taper down. I will at once take up the matte with Secretary Wilson and see what can be done. Sincerely your, Theodore Roosevelt Mr. William D. Miles, The Washington, Kansas City, Missouri. 114 Personal Oyster Bay, N.Y., August 20, 1906. My dear Mr. Speaker: Many thanks for your letter. There is nothing for me to say to you if you had come out here except to express my hearty approval of the courage, common sense, and patriotism with which you face the labor situation. After I saw your speech I changed my letter to Watson by amplifying what I had said on the labor situation so me, I hope, to back you were up more effectively. I made no other alteration. With all good wishes, Theodore Roosevelt Hon. J.G. Cannon, Valour, N.Y. 115 Personal Oyster Bay, N.Y., August 20, 1906. My dear Senator Spooner: Naturally is it with extreme reluctance that I send you the enclosed letter from Commissioner Leupp. I have never known any Government official more anxious than Leupp to avoid such action so he has here been compelled to take. He at one time actually went over with me the proposition of suspending your brother as Superintendent of the Indian Warehouse and “carrying him on the salary list as dead weight.” He has given him every chance to reform. He writes me now that he can not accept any promise of his to change his course, and that has not moved until he was absolutely sure that the Superintendent would never be anything else than what he is. He has talked over this matter a number of times and written to me about it several times. In his last letter he closes with the statement that the Superintendent has been given his116 abundant day of grace, and that he (Leupp) has reached the last limit of long-endured patience. Now, my dear Senator, this letter is only less painful for me to write than it will be for you to receive, and yet I have no alternative save to ask you whether you will request your brother to resign or whether I shall do so. He will have to leave the service. If you prefer for me to ask him, I will of course make the request; but if you think it would be easier for him or easier for you that you should ask him, then go ahead and do it. Let me know what you decide. With great regret and best wishes, believe me, Sincerely yours, Theodore Roosevelt Hon. John C. Spooner, U.S.S., Pittsburg, New Hampshire.117 Oyster Bay, N.Y., August 20, 1906. My dear Mr. James: Doubtless I will appoint Sharpless at once. I wish I had in mind a man to appoint in Bonaparte’s place. Accept my best regards and best wishes for a pleasant trip for both you and Mrs. James. Sincerely yours, Theodore Roosevelt Hon. Darwin R. James, 123 Melden Lane, New York, N.Y.118 Oyster Bay, N.Y. August 20, 1906. My dear Senator Hale: I do not know whether there is any chance of your getting down to see the naval review, but it would be a great pleasure if you and any members of your Committee should be on the Mayflower on September 3d to witness the review. I think you will have a right to feel proud of your handiwork. With great regard, Sincerely yours, Theodore Roosevelt Hon. Eugene Hale, U.S.S., Ellsworth, Maine.119 Oyster Bay, N.Y. August 20, 1906. My dear Mr. Foss: I do not know whether there is any chance of your getting down to see the naval review, but it would be a great pleasure if you and any members of your Committee could be on the Mayflower on September 3d to witness the review. I think you will have a right to feel proud of your handiwork. With great regard, Sincerely yours, Theodore Roosevelt Hon. George E. Foss, M.C., Chicago, Ill.120 Personal Oyster Bay, N.Y., August 20, 1906. Dear White: That is awfully nice letter of yours and I have taken the liberty of sending it at once, with the accompanying editorial, to Taft; and I have also asked him what his views are as to what we should do in the Wood matter. Sincerely yours, Theodore Roosevelt Mr. W. A. White, Editor, The Gazette, Emporia, Kansas. Enclosures121 Oyster Bay, N.Y. August 20, 1906. My dear Colonel Butler: Your letter is very strong indeed. I have asked Secretary Hitchcock to send you for comment a letter which I have just sent him. At present I am not far enough advanced to have a talk with you that will do me good, but it may be that a little later I shall have to trespass upon your good nature and ask you to come and see me. With regards, believe me, Sincerely yours, Theodore Roosevelt Colonel A. B. Butler, Ontio Hotel, Ogunquit, Maine.122 Oyster Bay, N.Y., August 20, 1906. My dear Lee: I am concerned to hear that you have not been in good health. I hope you will soon be all right. What I want to say to you is really not of enough importance to warrant your coming over here. But if you are coming anyhow, then will you and Mrs. Lee (if she is with you) spend a couple of nights with us at the White House in October? There are several things that I should like to discuss with you. I do not think things are worse between the two nations than they were, but it is always well to look ahead and avoid difficulties. With best wishes, believe me, Sincerely yours, Theodore Roosevelt Colonel Arthur Lee, M.P., Kininvie, Dufftown, Banffshire, Scotland.123 Personal Oyster Bay, N. Y., August 20, 1906. My dear Mr. Fleming: I have just received your very interesting and important letter and have taken the liberty of sending it and the accompanying clippings to Secretary Taft, with whom I shall discuss the matter. Until I read your address at Athens I had been at times inclined to feel that it might possibly be that in the end we should have to come back to trying to enforce the Fourteenth Amendment. Your address made me feel that any such proposition was out of the question. Now as to what you suggest. I am only too anxious to do anything that will help in this matter; but my constant effort is in trying to help not to do something that will hurt. Of course such utterance as that of Congressman Hardwick are infamous. Incidentally, they are just what I should expect from such a contemptible creature. Before any fair-minded audience it would not even be worth while to discuss any such proposition as that "no constitutional amendment is binding upon any individual who thinks that he would not have voted for it;" for this is exactly what Hardwick's proposition, in the last analysis, comes down to. Moreover, there is a peculiarly base dishonesty which can not be overstated in announcing at one and the same time that the Constitution is to be violated in order to prevent the negro from voting, and that furthermore it is to be violated in order to enable the124 2 white man who prevents the negro from voting, nevertheless to count his vote in enabling that white man to himself count for more than a white man in some other part of the country where there are either no negroes or where negroes do vote. Moreover, I feel that there is very much to be said for your view that it is extremely hard for you and others like you to have to make a fight down in Georgia and elsewhere and not have the Federal Government back you up. But now, my dear sir, let me try to state the converse of this proposition. After a good deal of painful worry, and after of course having been misunderstood and my attitude misrepresented both north and south, I have grown more and more to feel that about all I could accomplish of value was in the direction of upholding in the South the men who were acting right. I won't sanction a force bill, I won't sanction a proposition to cut down southern representation, although each measure, considered in the abstract, is ethically right; because in the concrete I think neither measure would do good, and because I want to do only what men like you, like Judge Lurton, like Judge Jones, like most of the Episcopal bishops in the South, think is the right thing. So far from having continually appointed negroes to office, as you probably know I have reduced the number in office in the South, and have gone as far in refusing to appoint them as I could, short of joining with those who wish to take the position that under no circumstances must any colored man ever get hold of an official position [???]. If you come to Washington next October I wonder if it would be practicable to have present two or three men such as I have spoken of,125 3 like Lurton and Jones, to consult with as to what ought to be done. What would you think of such a consultation? Would it do good, or only harm? Sincerely yours, Hon. William H. Fleming, 215 Leonard Building, Augusta, Georgia.126 Oyster Bay, N.Y. August 21, 1906. Commander William S. Sims, U.S.N., Westmore, Monadnock, New Hampshire. Three cheers! Accept heartiest congratulations, first of all for Mrs. Sims, then for you, the baby and the stork! THEODORE and EDITH ROOSEVELT. (President’s private account)127 Oyster Bay, N.Y., August 20, 1906. 86 My dear Bonaparte: Many thanks for your long and interesting letter. Won't you have some order or letter sent to Commander Peters of the New Jersey Naval Militia, stating the President's commendation of what they have done? You can then use language of just the right force. If I tried to do it myself I might unduly slop over or be unduly cold. I think it was rather fortunate that Hale's letter was timed just right in reference to the issuing of your orders. On the big ship proposition I think we shall probably have to keep open minds. I have never been quite as rabid a big-ship an as some of our experts, and while I should prefer a big ship to a small one, I should greatly prefer a first-class sixteen-thousand-ton battleship to none at all. Oh, how heartily I sympathize with everything you say as to the outlook for patriotism and common sense not being roseate in view of the attitude of the two Houses! Perhaps I get more exasperated with the demagogues of peace of the Burton type than with anyone else. They mean so well, but they are such fools and they invite such disaster! Doesn't it seem incredible that an intelligent man like Burton is wholly unable to profit from our experience at the opening of the nineteenth century, when Jefferson stopped building the navy and announced that his passion128 2 was peace, and when this country twelve years later was probably saved from dissolution only because we still had the little navy which had been begun before Jefferson's time! By the way, I enclose a letter from Congressman Foss about Congressman Eaton. I think that some ship should be designated to carry any members of the naval committees of the two houses. I suppose hardly any of them will be present. still, some of them might come, and I am inclined to think it would be a good thing to do. Suppose you ask them to be on the Mayflower for the review. Then we can have them at lunch and have them dismissed immediately afterwards. We shall have a pretty job-lot of gentlemen on the Mayflower anyhow, and I really think we ought to extend an invitation to the members of the two committees. Faithfully yours, Theodore Roosevelt Hon. Charles J. Bonaparte, Hotel Aspinwall, Lenox, Massachusetts. Enclosures August 21st. P.S. I had a rather amusing talk with Evans yesterday about his fleet accidents and the courts-martial. Is it possible for you to defer action thereon until I have gone over the matter with you when we meet? On Evans' advice I have decided not to have any target practice on129 3 The day after the review, but to run down on the Mayflower with Mrs. Roosevelt on the evening of the 29th of September to Hyanis, and the next morning cross to Cape Cod and witness the target practices which will then be done in regular form by the fleet, and return on the Mayflower that evening. After talking with admiral Evans I have concluded to have at the lunch on the Mayflower the three admirals, the captain of the battleship and cruisers and of the Yankee, the senior officer of the division of destroyers, the senior officer of the division of torpedo-boats, and Nelson as representing the submarines. After lunch I shall myself visit the flagships of the three admirals, and also the Yankee, where I shall wish to say a few words to the Marinas and crews on account of their services in Santo Domiagan waters.130 82 Personal Oyster Bay, N.Y. August 20, 1906. Dear Will: I have your letter of the 17th. Good! I am glad you are so carefully looking into all those things. We will go over them together in September. By George, I am as pleased as punch that you are to stay in the Cabinet! Read the enclosed letter from White. I send you a copy of the letter I sent him. Ought we to do anything about the charges against Wood? I suppose the whole thing will come out anyway I also send you a very interesting letter from that ex-Democratic Congressman, Fleming, in Georgia. I want your cool advice on it. Faithfully yours, Theodore Roosevelt Hon. William H. Taft, Pointe au Pic, Province of Quebec, Canada. Enclosures131 Oyster Bay, N.Y., August 21, 1906. My dear Judge Flammer: Many thanks for your letter of the 20th instant. That is a very nice thing for you to suggest, and I shall write to General Brown immediately. With all good wishes, Sincerely yours Theodore Roosevelt Hon. Charles A. Flammer, Barclay Building, 299 Broadway, New York.132 Oyster Bay, N.Y., August 21, 1906. My dear Commander-in-Chief: Let me send you a word of sincere and hearty congratulation upon your election as Commander-in-Chief of the Grand Army. As you were yourself in the ranks, perhaps the following anecdote may amuse you: I made my old commander in the cavalry brigade, General S. P. M. Young, lieutenant-general; and when he retired I appointed to succeed him General Adna R. Chaffee with whom I also had the good fortune to serve in the Santiago campaign. Both of them had begun their careers in the army as private soldiers in the Civil War, and on the day when General Chaffee took office and was formally presented to me, General Young sent him his own lieutenant general’s stars with a memorandum that they were133 from Private Young to Private Chaffee Our Country is a pretty good country, after all, isn’t it? With all good wishes, and trusting to have the pleasure of meeting you personally in Washington this winter, I am, Sincerely yours, Theodore Roosevelt General R. B. Brown Commander-in-Chief, Grand Army of the Republic, Zanesville, Ohio.134 Personal Oyster Bay, N.Y., August 21, 1906 My dear Senator Washburn: You have played a distinguished part in public life yourself. Surely you must realize that it is out of the question for the President, who must represent not his own feelings alone but in addition the feelings of the party organization, to write a full answer to such a series of important propositions as you propounded in your letter. There were some points on which I heartily agreed with you, and some points on which I did not. To compare the tariff issue with the issue of slavery and union seems to me the veriest nonsense imaginable. The tariff is not a real moral issue at all. It is one of economic expediency, to be approached by the nation just as a private individual approaches the question of whether he shall invest in real estate or buy railroad whether he shall invest in real estate or buy railroad135 bonds or start a dry-goods house. Some time when you are in Washington I will talk with you on the subject, but purely privately; and this letter is not to be made public in any fashion. Sincerely yours, Theodore Roosevelt Hon. W. D. Washburn, Minneapolis, Minnesota.136 Oyster Bay, N.Y., August 21, 1906. My dear Commander Sims: Let me renew my hearty congratulations, which I have already sent by wire. After seeing Admiral Evans, I decided to defer my visit to the ships at target practice until September 29th, when I can see the regular target practice of the whole fleet. On the morning of that day I shall be at Hyannis on the Mayflower and will drive across to Barnstable and visit the fleet. I suppose you can join me at Barnstable and so will not have to bother to come down to Oyster Bay. I want you with me on the 29th. Sincerely yours, Theodore Roosevelt Lieutenant Commander William S. Sims, U.S.N., Westmore, Monadnock, New Hampshire.137 Personal Oyster Bay, N.Y., August 21, 1906. Dear Will: Anna has just written me that she hopes you can be at the review. Now I am very sorry to say that we haven’t a room vacant in the house – which I think is rather to Alice’s disappointment, by the way, as she had rather vague thoughts of the review herself. Would you care to come on on the night train and be on Emlen Roosevelt’s dock to go to the Mayflower at 10 o’clock in the morning and stay for the day, returning again in the evening or night train? Do not do this if it will tire you too much; but treat it as a suggestion, sincerely. You would have to take the train leaving East 34th Street at 7:20 a.m., reaching Oyster Bay at 8:56. It was delightful having you here on Sunday. Ever yours, Theodore Roosevelt Rear Admiral William S. Cowles, U.S.N., Chief of the Bureau of Equipment, Navy Department.138 Oyster Bay, N.Y., August 21, 1906. Darling Bye: Indeed that is a very, very nice Christmas present, and a very big Christmas present, and I appreciate it deeply. Now about the review. You say that you hope Will will be near enough to see it. There is not a room vacant in the house, but I shall at once ask Will if he is willing to come on on the night train and join us on the Mayflower in the morning for the day. We look forward to seeing you and Sheffield here. What a cunning mite he is! I am sure you have enjoyed the Adirondacks, and that it has been good for you. Alice and Nick were just as nice as they possibly could be, and both have evidently done just the right things abroad.139 It is a mighty interesting thing that you say about Joe Alsop's friend. I want to see Joe Alsop, and should like to see his friend, too, some time next winter, because I am to deliver an address at an agricultural college in the spring. There is not one matter in which I am more interested than the very things on which they touch. Again heartily thanking you, dear Bye, I am, Ever yours, Theodore Roosevelt Mrs. William S. Cowles, Upper Saranac Inn, Franklin County, N.Y.140 Oyster Bay, N.Y., August 21, 1906. Dear Cabot: That is an awfully nice letter of Alger’s. I have sent it to Bacon. I agree with all you say about Oliver’s book, and I could not resist the temptation to let him know what you had said; because it can not help making him feel happy! (I speak as a fellow-author). I hope that now my letter is out you still like it. I strengthened the part about labor, where I thought Cannon took a very manly stand and was entitled to any backing I could give him. Ever yours, Theodore Roosevelt Hon. H. C. Lodge, U.S.S., Nahant, Massachusetts.141 Personal Oyster Bay, N.Y., August 21, 1906. My dear Mr. Sullivan: If I were able to be at those games I should be most glad to accept the position of honorary referee, but as it is I simply can not be present. It hardly seems to me to be advisable to accept the position of honorary president. Bitter experiences have shown me that even the word “honorary” in such cases does not keep the President entirely clear from being asked to participate in matters of importance with which, from the nature of the case, he can not be thoroughly acquainted. Won’t you down to Washington, if possible bringing Paine with you, and I will hear from you in full all about the games and will also tell you more at length the reasons why I do not accept this honorary presidency as142 you so kindly ask me to. Sincerely yours, Theodore Roosevelt Mr. James E. Sullivan, Chairman, Amateur Athletic Union, 21 Warren Street, New York.143 Oyster Bay, N.Y., August 21, 1906. My dear Commissioner Neill: I have read and reread your report on the enforcement of the eight- hour law. I thank you for it, and for the spirit in which you have gone into the matter. What you say gives me great concern. I quite understand why the labor people should have a very bitter feeling about the way this law has been disregarded. The antagonism to it, as shown by the action of the grand juries which you quote, is evidently not confined to the Government officials. But my dear Commissioner, I am bound to see that this law is absolutely enforced, and I will go to any [the] requisite length in order to secure its proper enforcement. I shall ask you to continue at this work and make it your special business to look into this matter until we get Government officials, contractors, and grand juries alike awake to the fact that it is a real law, which is to be enforced as any other law is enforced. I understand from what you say that in the War and Navy Departments under which the bulk of the work comes there is now an honest and intelligent effort being made to enforce the law. Will you please draw up for me orders, which I shall send to all the Government departments, requiring them to instruct their representatives on all public works to report every instance in which contractors require their men to work144 2 over eight hours a day? These reports then to be forwarded to the Department of justice, and from thence to the proper district attorneys, with directions to enforce compliance with the law. Could I not go further than this? Could I not refuse to receive work for the Government if convinced that the eight-hour law has been violated? Will you also draw up what you regard as a suitable order to be issued in order to secure uniform practice in calling the attention of bidders on contracts to the statutes which concern them. Apparently the Reclamation Service has done better than any other in this regard. Now there is another point to which I should like attention paid. Will you give me the names of the two district attorneys who, in your judgment, were lax or indifferent in their efforts to secure convictions for violations of the law? I shall take whatever action may be necessary against them. Will you also give me the names of the engineers of the War Department who practically argued against the Government in the third case, stating that it came within the extraordinary emergency clause? I shall required of them a full explanation and justification of their conduct. Can you suggest to me anything additional that I can do to insure the proper enforcement of the law? Sincerely yours, Theodore Roosevelt Hon. Charles F. Neill, Commissioner of Labor, Washington.145 Confidential Oyster Bay, N.Y., August 21, 1906. My dear Mr. Oliver: I enclose you an extract from a letter from Lodge, who has just read your book. The letter is a personal one and I do not know that I am warranted in sending it to you; but I do not want to ask him for permission for fear he will say no! Of course you will keep it purely confidential. Very truly yours, Theodore Roosevelt Frederick Scott Oliver, Esq., Chockander Court, Oxfordshire, England. Enclosure146 Oyster Bay, N.Y., August 21, 1906. Dear Speck: I have received your letter of the 21st. Won’t you come down on the afternoon of Saturday, September 1st, take dinner and spend the night? Fortunately, I just have a room to spare for that particular night. Give my warm regards to the Baroness. I am much interested in what you say about Kuropatkin’s extraordinary shortsightedness. Faithfully yours, Theodore Roosevelt Baron H. Sturnburg, The German Ambassador, Beverley Farms, Massachusetts. P.S. Take the train leaving Long Island City 4:43 P.M. arriving Oyster Bay 5:39 P.M. A carriage will meet you.147 Oyster Bay, N.Y., August 23, 1906. Douglas Robinson, Richfield Springs, N.Y. Letter and telegram have just arrived together. We are inexpressibly shocked and grieved. We know all your mother was to you and we loved her greatly ourselves. You have our deepest sympathies. We think of you all the time. THEODORE AND EDITH ROOSEVELT. (President’s private account)148 Oyster Bay, N.Y., August 22, 1906. Dear Brander: It may interest you to know that the Public Printer has been instructed to follow the rules of your new Spelling Reform Association, and that Mr. Loeb, himself an advanced spelling reformer, will hereafter see that the President in his correspondence spells the way you say he ought to. With love to Mrs. Matthews, believe me, Always yours, Theodore Roosevelt Mr. Brander Matthews, 681 West End Avenue, New York.149 Personal Oyster Bay, N.Y., August 22, 1906. My dear Mr. Hardcastle: I thank you heartily for your letter, and I have thoroughly enjoyed the account of your deer-stalking. Some years ago, at the request of Mr. Littledale I got some Wapiti from New Zealand. I have always had a great admiration for your country, and have watched its progress with much interest. Your people are working out a real social experiment, and it looks to me as if you were developing a sane, healthy, interesting type of English-speaking community which is bound in many respects to serve as a model for all the rest of us. I wish you could come to America. I am sorry to say that I fear my hunting days are pretty nearly over. I lead a very busy, sedentary life, and become very soft,150 with the result that when I get a holiday I am not fit for hard work. With renewed thanks, believe me, Sincerely yours, Theodore Roosevelt Just this moment Skip has come into the room with Archie. Mr. E. Hardcastle, The Weekly Press, Christchurch, New Zealand.151 Oyster Bay, N.Y., August 22, 1906. My dear Senator: I am interested and pleased with what you say about your grandson’s hunting, and interested and concerned about what you say as to the political assault upon your son. I had not supposed that there was any real opposition to him at all. It will indeed be a bad business if anything should go wrong in Vermont. I look forward to seeing you as soon as you return to Washington. Faithfully yours, Theodore Roosevelt Hon. Redfield Proctor, U.S.S., Proctor, Vermont.152 Oyster Bay, N.Y., August 22, 1906. My dear Moody: I hate the effect that will be produced by any commutation of sentence as regards any of those convicted post office criminals. If you think Loren’s services to the Government in the trial of the cases were such as to make him justly entitled to this commutation, I shall grant it, but I shall only do it because you think I ought to. I am afraid we are apt to have a similar plea for Beavers later on. Sincerely yours, Theodore Roosevelt Hon. William H. Moody, 84 State Street, Boston.153 Oyster Bay, N.Y., August 22, 1906. My dear Watson: I am more than pleased that you liked that letter. If it does the slightest good I can not say how rejoiced I shall be. With best wishes, Sincerely yours, Theodore Roosevelt Hon. James E. Watson, M.C., Rushville, Indiana.154 Oyster Bay, N.Y., August 22, 1906. Dear Cleve: It was a real pleasure, as always, having you here, and I enjoyed meeting Colonel Hobbes. I am mighty glad McCoy is doing so well for the San Francisco Young Men’s Christian Association. Mott’s letter was admirable. I return it herewith. Faithfully yours, Theodore Roosevelt Mr. Cleveland H. Dodge, 90 John Street, New York.155 Personal Oyster Bay, N.Y., August 22, 1906. My dear Shaw: The enclosed letter, which I shall ask you to return to me, is one of a number I have received, and various Congressmen have been speaking to me about your supposed or alleged failure to support Cummins for Governor after he has been regularly nominated. Now I coerce no man’s conscience, and if you can not support Cummins I shall not ask you to so, although of course I would be glad if you felt that you conscientiously could. But if you can not support him, then I feel it is eminently right and proper that you should take no part in the campaign there. Do no talking, and confine yourself simply to casting your own vote. If we are beaten in the Congressional156 elections this fall, it will have nothing to do with national affairs, but to the rows over State issues in a dozen different States from Vermont, New York, and Pennsylvania, to Ohio Delaware, and Iowa. Of course there are a few States, notably Massachusetts, and perhaps also Nebraska and one or two others, where we shall lose on account of the tariff revision feeling. Faithfully yours, Theodore Roosevelt Hon. L. W. Shaw, Secretary of the Treasury. Enclosure157 Oyster Bay, N.Y., August 24, 1906. Ainsworth, Acting Secretary of War, Washington, D.C. Because of facts enumerated in your telegram of August twenty-fourth I entirely approve of the action you propose to take. Let the battalion take the accused men with it to San Antonio and turn them over to the military authorities there, to be confined and guarded until further direction from me. Meanwhile the battalion will proceed to For Reno immediately on delivering prisoners at San Antonio. Act immediately. THEODORE ROOSEVELT. (Official)158 Oyster Bay, N.Y., August 23, 1906. My dear Mr. Tucker: That is most kind of you, and I take it for granted that, so you are the committee, so-to-speak, the committee will arrange in accordance with your very attractive personal invitation. Assuring you again of my warm appreciation, I am, Sincerely yours, Theodore Roosevelt Hon. H. St. G. Tucker, Lexington, Va.159 Oyster Bay, N.Y., August 23, 1906. Dear Will: It may be that for reasons which I shall go over with you I shall want to appoint Garfield to that judgeship anyway, if he decides that he wishes it. I think he would be a most admirable judge; and as you know, I pay mighty little heed to the geographical consideration, save in so far as I may think best, in such appointments. As for Burrows objecting to your speaking about the Michigan judiciary, let him object until he is black in the face. If Denison is, as I expect he [???] is, the best man available, I will send him [?] is, and we will see if we can not confirm him anyway. Perhaps it will be best, if Burrows objects, to have me propose to send him in and let it be fully known that Burrows is preventing the filling of the place, and then I will appoint him as soon as Congress adjourns. It will be a good point on which to make sharply the issue that in every appointment, when I choose and when the stakes160 are large enough and the issue efficiently clear-cut, I have the right to appoint any man whom I think best, and leave to the Senators simply the question of taking the responsibility of besting or confirming him. Faithfully yours, Theodore Roosevelt Hon. William H. Taft, Pointe au Pic, Province of Quebec, Canada.161 162 Oyster Bay, N.Y., August 24, 1906. My dear Mr. Pinchot: Through you let me extend my heartiest congratulations and good wishes to those assembled to forward the cause of reclamation and irrigation. Operations under the Reclamation Act, which I signed on June 17, 1902, have been carried on energetically during the four years since that date. The Reclamation Service, consisting of over 400 skilled engineers and experts in various lines, has been organized, and it is now handling the work with rapidity and effectiveness. Construction is already well advanced on twenty-three great enterprises in the arid States and Territories. Over 1,000,000 acres of land have been laid out for irrigation, and of this 200,000 acres are now under ditch; 300 miles of canals and ditches and 30,000 feet of tunnel have been completed; and 16,000,000 cubic yards of earth and 3,000,000 cubic yards of rock have been moved. Detailed topographic surveys have been extended over 10,000 square miles of country within which the reclamation work is located and 20,000 miles of level lines have been run. Three hundred buildings, including offices and sleeping quarters for workmen, have been erected by the Reclamation Service, and about an equal number by the contractors. Over 10,000 men and about 5,000 horses are at163 2 present employed. The period of general surveys and examinations for projects is past. Effort is now concentrated on getting the water upon a sufficient area of irrigable land in each project to put it on a revenue-producing basis. To bring all the projects to this point will require upwards of $40,000,000, which amount, it is estimated, will be available from the receipts from the disposal of public lands for the years 1901-1908. We may well congratulate ourselves upon the rapid progress already made, and rejoice that the infancy of the work has been safely passed. But we must not forget that there are dangers and difficulties still ahead, and that only unbroken vigilance, efficiency, integrity, and good sense will suffice to prevent disaster. There is now no question as to where the work shall be done, how it shall be done, or the precise way in which the expenditures shall be made. All that is settled. There remains, however, the critical question of how best to utilize the reclaimed lands by putting them into the hands of actual cultivators and home-makers, who will return the original outlay in annual installments paid back into the reclamation fund; the question of seeing that the lands are used for houses, and not for purposes of speculation or for the building up of large fortunes. This question is by no means simple. It is easy to make plans and spend money. During the time when the Government is making a great investment like this, the men in charge are praised and the rapid progress is commended. But when the time comes for the Government to demand the refund of the investment under the terms of the law, then the164 3 law itself will be put to the test, and the quality of its administration will appear. The pressing danger just now springs from the desire of nearly every man to get and hold as much land as he can, whether he can handle it profitably or not, and whether or not it is for the interest of the community that he should have it. The prosperity of the present irrigated areas came from the subdivision of the land and the consequent intensive cultivation. With an adequate supply of water, a farm of five acres in some parts of the arid West, or of forty acres elsewhere, is as large as may be successfully tilled by one family. When, therefore, a man attempts to hold 160 acres of land completely irrigated by Government works, he is preventing others from acquiring a home, and is actually keeping down the population of his State. Speculation in lands reclaimed by the Government must be checked at whatever cost. The object of the Reclamation Act is not to make money, but to make homes. Therefore, the requirement of the Reclamation Act that the size of the farm unit shall be limited in each region to the area which will comfortably support one family must be enforced in letter and in spirit. This does not mean that the farm unit should be sufficient for the present family with its future grown children and grand-children, but rather that during the ten years of payment the area assigned for each family shall be sufficient to support it. When once the farms have been fully tilled by freeholders, little danger of land monopoly will remain. This great meeting of practical irrigators should give particular attention to this problem and others of the same kind. You should, and I doubt not that you will, give your effectual support to the officers of the Government in making the Reclamation law successful in all respects, and165 4 particularly in getting back the original investment, so that the money may be used again and again in the completion of other projects and thus in the general extension of prosperity in the West. Until it has been proved that this great investment of $40,000,000 in irrigation made by the Government will be returning to the Treasury, it is useless to expect that the people of the country will consider direct appropriations for the work. Let us give the Reclamation Service a chance to utilize the present investment a second time before discussing such increase. I look forward with great confidence to the result. By the side of the Reclamation Service there has grown up another service of not less interest and value to you of the West. This is the Forest Service, which was erected when the charge of the forest reserves was transferred from the Interior Department to the Department of Agriculture. The forest policy of the administration, which the Forest Service is engaged in carrying out, is based, as I have often said, on the vigorous purpose to make every resource of the forest reserves contribute in the highest degree to the permanent prosperity of the people who depend upon them. If ever the time should come when the western forests are destroyed, there will disappear with them the prosperity of the stockman, the miner, the lumberman and the railroads, and, most important of all, the small ranchman who cultivates his own land. I know that you are with me in the intention to preserve the timber, the water, and the grass by using them fully, but wisely and conservatively. We propose to do this through the freest and most cordial cooperation between the Government and every man who is in sympathy with this policy, the wisdom of which no man who knows the facts can for a moment doubt.166 5 It is now less than two years since the Forest Service was established. It had a great task before it, - to create or reorganize the Service on a hundred forest reserves and to ascertain and meet the very different local conditions and local needs all over the West. This task is not finished, and of course it could not have been finished in so short a time. But the work has been carried forward with energy and intelligence, and enough has been done to show how our forest policy is working out. The result of first importance to you as irrigators is this: The Forest Service has proved that forest fires can be controlled, by controlling them. Only one-tenth of one per cent of the area of the forest reserves was burned over in 1905. This achievement was due both to the Forest Service and to the effective assistance of settlers and others in and near the reserves. Everything the Government has ever spent upon its forest work is a small price to pay for the knowledge that the streams which make your prosperity can be and are being freed from the ever-present threat of forest fires. The long-standing and formerly bitter differences between the stockmen and the forest officers are nearly all settled. Those which remain are in process of settlement. Hearty cooperation exists almost everywhere between the officers of the Forest Service and the local associations of stockmen, who are appointing advisory167 6 committees which are systematically consulted by the Forest Service to all questions in which they are concerned. This most satisfactory condition of mutual help will be as welcome to you as it is to the Administration and to the stockmen. To the stockmen it means more, and more certain, grass; to you, because of the better protection and wiser use of the range, it means steadier streamflow and more water. The sales of forest reserve timber to settlers, miners, lumbermen and other users are increasing very rapidly, and in that way also the reserves are successfully meeting a growing need. Lands in the forest reserves that are more valuable for agriculture than for forest purposes are being opened to settlement and entry as fast as their agricultural character can be ascertained. There is therefore no longer excuse for saying that the reserves retard the legitimate settlement and development of the country. On the contrary, they promote and sustain that development, and they will do so in no way more powerfully than through their direct contributions to the schools and roads. Ten per cent. of all the money received from the forest reserves goes to the States for the use of the counties in which the reserves lie, to be used for schools and roads. The amount of this contribution is nearly $70,000, for the first year. It will grow steadily larger, and will form a certain and permanent source of income, which would not have been the case with the taxes whose place it takes.168 7 Finally, a body of intelligent, practical, well-trained men, citizens of the West, is being built up - men in whose hands the public interests, including your own, are and will be safe. All these results are good, but they have not been achieved by the Forest Service alone. On the contrary, they represent also the needs and suggestions of the people of the whole West. They embody constant changes and adjustments to meet these suggestions and needs. The forest policy of the Government in the West has now become what the West desired it to be. It is a national policy, wider than the boundaries of any State, and larger than the interests of any single industry. Of course it can not give any set of men exactly what they would choose. Undoubtedly the irrigator would often like to have less stock on his watersheds, while the stockman wants more. The lumberman would like to cut more timber, the settler and the miner would often like him to cut less. The county authorities want to see more money coming in for schools and roads, while the lumbermen and stockmen object to the rise in value of timber and grass. But the interests of the people as a whole are, I repeat, safe in the hands of the Forest Service. By keeping the public forests in the public hands our forest policy substitutes the good of the whole people for the profits of the privileged few. With that result none will quarrel except the men who are losing the chance of person profit at the 169 3 public expense. Our western forest policy is based [formed] upon meeting the wishes of the best public sentiment of the whole West. It proposes to create new reserves wherever forest lands still vacant are found in the public domain, and to give the reserves already made the highest possible usefulness to all the people. So far our production to the pople in regard to it have all been made good; and I have faith that this policy will he carried to successful completion, because I believe that the people of the West are behind it. Sincerely yours, Theodore Roosevelt Mr. Gifford Pinchot, Chief Forester, Department of Agriculture, Washington, D.C.170 Oyster Bay, N.Y., August 23, 1906. My dear Andrews: It was nice of you to write me, and I appreciate it. I am glad to hear how well you are doing. You know that both Mrs. Roosevelt and I grew very fond of you while you were with us at the White House, and I have absolute confidence in your future. With high regard, Sincerely yours, Theodore Roosevelt Lieut. Adolphus Andrews, U.S.N., Commanding U.S.S. VILLALOBOS, Chefee, China.171 Oyster Bay, N.Y., August 23, 1906. My dear Senator: I was interested in your letter, and congratulate you heartily upon your admirable speech. I thought Cannon took a very bold and healthy stand on the labor question. As to the tariff, the trouble is that of which those business men with whom you spoke ought to be [?????]-that when it comes down to the practical work of reforming the tariff no two men want quite the same reform. As you know, I have for a couple of years been desirous of seeing the tariff revised; [and] for, while its protective principle should be maintained, a number of the schedules should be materially lowered. But I confess I do not see how we are going to accomplish this just at this time unless there is a change in the temper of the people as a whole, as reflected by their Congressmen. With regard, Sincerely yours, Theodore Roosevelt Hon. A.J. Beveridge, U.S.S., Rangeley, Maine. (Over)172 P.S. I send you the enclosed two telegrams, feeling that they can not help but please you. I congratulat you heartily.173 Copy – original sent in handwriting. Oyster Bay, N.Y., August 23, 1906. My dear Sir: I have met your son who is at Harvard, where my son also is, and I have followed with interest and admiration your career; so that perhaps you will pardon my taking the liberty of writing to express the very deep sympathy I feel for you in the death of your other gallant young son who was studying at the naval academy. It was very hard that he should die away from his own people in a foreign land, and I feel deeply what his loss is to you and yours. I trust I need hardly express to you the admiration I have for the Japanese people; and no small part of this admiration is due to the fact that they have developed, and have submitted to the leadership of, statesmen like yourself. Sincerely yours, THEODORE ROOSEVELT. Count Masayoshi Matsukata Mite Shibeku, Tokio, Japan.174 Personal Oyster Bay, N.Y., August 24, 1906. Gentleman: Let me thank you personally for your kindness, which I greatly appreciate. Before answering your letter further than thus acknowledging its receipt personally, I desire to submit the matter to the Navy Department. Sincerely yours, Theodore Roosevelt The Submarine Signal Company, Boston, Massachusetts.175 Oyster Bay, N.Y., August 24, 1906. My dear Mr. Alexander: I appreciate so much not only your courteous reference to me, but even more the vital importance of the question of legal ethics, that I am most sincerely wish that it was in my power to do as you desire; but it is not. I receive so many requests to write letters or send messages on matters of real importance that it is out of the question for me to comply. I cause dissatisfaction if I do it in one case and not in others; and in a case such as this, where the matter is of exceptional interest, I either have to literally take days in order to write something worth writing, or else send something merely perfunctory, which you would not want to receive and I would not be willing to send. Sincerely yours, Theodore Roosevelt Mr. Lucien H. Alexander, 713 Arcade Building, Philadelphia.176 Personal Oyster Bay, N.Y., August 24, 1906. My dear Mr. Sleicher: Give my love to your dear daughter. I hope she is getting on well. I thank you most heartily for your letter, and I am so pleased that you like what I wrote to Watson. About the New York State situation, I may want to communicate with you later. I had heard a disquieting rumor as to the nomination of the very man to whom you refer. Sincerely yours, Theodore Roosevelt Hon. John A. Sleicher, President, The Judge Company, 225 Fourth Avenue, New York.177 Oyster Bay, N.Y., August 24, 1906. My dear Mr. Vice President: I think you heartily, and am so pleased that you like the Watson letter. I very earnestly hope that you will be on the stump this fall. We shall need you badly in very many different places. With warm regards to Mrs. Fairbanks and yourself from Mrs. Roosevelt, in which I cordially join, believe me, Sincerely yours, Theodore Roosevelt Hon. Charles W. Fairbanks, Indianapolis, Indiana.178 Oyster Bay, N.Y., August 24, 1906. My dear Overstreet: Your letter of the 22nd instant has given me real pleasure and I thank you heartily for it. If my letter to Watson does any good I shall be more than pleased. Sincerely yours, Theodore Roosevelt. Hon. Jesse Overstreet, M.C., 808 Traction Terminal Building, Indianapolis.179 Oyster Bay, N.Y., August 24, 1906. My dear Brick: That is a very nice letter of yours and I heartily appreciate it. Good luck be with you always! Sincerely yours, Theodore Roosevelt Hon. A. L. Brick, M.C., South Bend, Indiana.180 Oyster Bay, N.Y., August 24, 1906. My dear General: I thank you for your very interesting letter of the 24th instant, and especially for what you say about Missouri. I only hope that your anticipations will prove true. Now, my dear General, do get a good rest. You need it and deserve it. Sincerely yours, Theodore Roosevelt Hon. C. H. Grosvenor, M.C., Athens, Ohio.181 Oyster Bay, N.Y., August 24, 1906. Dear Austin: It seems to me that volume is a good one. I would not know how to suggest any improvements. Is there anything especial you have been thinking of? Give our love to the Madam. Just at this time we are thinking of both her and you a great deal. Always yours, Theodore Roosevelt Major W. A. Wadsworth The Homestead, Geneseo, N.Y.182 Oyster Bay, N.Y., August 24, 1906. My dear Mr. Howard: I assure you that you have done nothing to annoy me; and as regards the clipping you enclose, I never heard of it. I know nothing of the alleged facts therein mentioned until I received it from you. Pray tell Captain Hebbinghaus that this is the case; that the article in question is certainly not inspired, because I never even knew of its existence, and had never heard anything concerning the matters to which it alludes. Most certainly I do not regard the yacht races as an international failure. I think it a very sportsmanlike thing for the Eastern Yacht Club and the Kaiserlicher Yacht Club to arrange for these races, and I183 hope for them all success. Sincerely yours, Theodore Roosevelt Mr. Henry Howard, Chairman, Regatta Committee, Eastern Yacht Club, Amory Street, Brookline, Massachusetts.184 105 Oyster Bay, N.Y., August 24, 1906. The Secretary of the Interior: Mr. Jenison sent the enclosed statement to me direct at my request, owing to a letter received by me from a clergyman who stated that an official of the Interior Department had charges to make against other Government officers, but that he had not felt that there was much chances of their receiving proper attention. Mr. Jenison therefore acted under my direction. If the Interior Department sees no reason to the contrary, I should like the letters to be returned to me so that I may submit them to the Department of Justice with directions that a full statement be procured from District Attorney Burke, of Wyoming. Theodore Roosevelt Enclosures The enclosures are a letter from W. E. Jenison, Special Agent, General Land Office, Cheyenne, Wyo. (dated at Jefferson, Iowa) and one from Rev. Eugene W.F. ReQua, of Jefferson, Wyo., containing charges against U.S.Attorney Burke, of Wyoming, for failure to press cases of illegal fencing of public lands, timber trespass, etc., brought to his attention.185 Oyster Bay, N.Y., August 24, 1906. My dear Madam Kin: Let me thank you for your most interesting letter. I do not know when I have read any letter with more genuine feeling that I was learning what was important to learn. I have always prized the opportunity of having made your acquaintance. Will you present this letter, with my enclosed note-of-introduction, to the American Minister, Mr. Rockhill? Also you are at liberty to show this letter to anyone and to say that I know you through having met you here in America; that I was greatly impressed with you; that you are the wife of a former United States citizen; and that I bespeak from all American representatives in the consular and diplomatic service or in the army and navy all possible courtesy for you, and requests that they186 give you any proper aid in their power. I believe with all my heart in the kind of work which you are doing. I shall send your letter to Dr. Lyman Abbott and some other friends, and shall also submit it to the State Department because I think it is of value as helping to outline how both our public and officials and our missionaries should strive to behave toward China and the people of China. I trust I need not say, as far as I am personally concerned, that my own aim is to treat the Chinese just as I should wish them to treat us. Sincerely yours, Theodore Roosevelt Madam Yamei Kin, Care Rev. H.J. Squire, Ichang, Hupeh Provinces, China.187 Oyster Bay, N.Y., August 25, 1906. My dear Mr. Rockhill: This is to introduce to you Madam Yamei Kin. I think you have met her already. She has on two different occasions been at the White House, where I conversed long with her over conditions in China. I very cordially command her to your courtesy. Sincerely yours, Theodore Roosevelt Hon. William W. Rockhill The American Minister, Peking, China.188 Oyster Bay, N.Y., August 25, 1906. Dear Johnny: I am concerned at what you write me and I am very sorry that you felt you had to resign. I shall take up with the Department the matter of Superintendent Pierce’s actions as you recount them. Still, I do not know that it is a bad thing for you. I hope you are now situated where you have pretty regular customers. How are boys getting along? Have they got their little herd of cattle and ponies started? Remember me to Mrs. Goff, Sincerely yours, Theodore Roosevelt Mr. John Goff, Care Irma Hotel, Cody, Wyoming.189 Oyster Bay, N.Y., August 25, 1906. Dear Father Doyle: Yes, I am sure that Archbishop Harty is now the trump he always has been, and I do not wonder that now and then he should grow a little irritated over matters. I wish you would tell him from me how pleased I am that there has been a Filipino Bishop consecrated; ant I think the dinner His Grace the Archbishop gave to the new Bishop was the best possible things, with the mingling of military and civic authorities among the guests. It did me good to hear of it. Sincerely yours, Theodore Roosevelt Very Rev. A.P. Doyle, The Catholic Missionary Union, Brookland Station, Washington, D.C.190 Oyster Bay, N.Y., August 25, 1906. My dear Mrs. Runington: Permit me in the first place to express my very deep sympathy with you. I need not say how shocked and horrified Americans were at the disaster. In the next place let me thank you for your suggestions, which I am gladly comply with. You do not, however, tell me whom I should direct my letter to, and so I have had to draw it up in rather general terms, for submission through our Ambassador. Sincerely yours, Theodore Roosevelt Mrs. H. H. Runington, Harcourt House, Harcourt Terrace, Salisbury, England.191 Personal 114 Oyster Bay, N.Y., August 25, 1906. My dear Mr. Speaker: Upon my word you ought to have come down here and taken lunch again and got soothed! I saw that cartoon and thoroughly enjoyed it. I thought it a mighty good one and I did not feel that it called for any remark whatever from you. The story, as I understand, was started in Washington by a man who had neither seen nor heard from either you or me and whose stories are not trustworthy anyhow. Of course do not pay any further attention to that cartoon at all, or to those stories. If you denied them, it would probably merely serve to attract attention to them, or else make somebody say that I had now definitely come out for Taft or Root. My dear Mr. Speaker, you need never waste your time in thinking that I will misunderstand you or that I will give so much as a second thought to any kind of story in the [?] degree reflecting on you.192 I know your attitude absolutely. All you are trying to do is from the standpoint of the welfare of the country and the party, to strengthen all the factors that can be brought into play for success in November. You have done your part up to the handle. More power to your elbow! Give my warm regards to Sibley. Sincerely yours, Theodore Roosevelt Hon. J. G. Cannon, Valcour, N.Y.193 Personal Oyster Bay, N.Y., August 25, 1906. My dear Mr. Matre: May I through you extend to the members of the American Federation of Catholic Societies my warm acknowledgments for your letter and for the copy of the resolutions with their kindly allusions to me? Some of the matters you touch upon in those resolutions are so important that it would be a particular pleasure to me if I could have the opportunity of seeing you on some occasion when you are in Washington to go over them with you. Sincerely yours, Theodore Roosevelt Mr. Anthony Matre, National Secretary, American Federation of Catholic Societies, 4150 Wyoming Street, St. Louis, Missouri.194 Oyster Bay, N.Y. August 27, 1906. Hon. Charles J. Bonaparte, Hotel Aspinwall, Lenox, Massachusetts. Following dispatch has just been received from Root: "I now hope to reach Panama September 16. if Mayflower can be ready then, at Colon, to take me to Cartagena and return without delay, I shall probably be able to return via San Francisco. Prosperous voyage so far." I should send Mayflower down to meet Root as requested, but I shall need it to receive the German and American representatives of the International yacht rapas[?] on September twelfth and to go to the target practice at Cape Cod and return on September twenty-ninth. Are you going to use the Dolphin in September. Could you not send her down immediately after the review to take Root from Colon to Cartagana and return? Then you could use the Mayflower for yourself on all the [??] [??] the two I have given above. Please wire answer. Theodore Roosevelt (OFFICIAL)195 Oyster Bay, N.Y., August 28, 1906 The President of the International League of Press Clubs, The Albany, Denver, Colo. Greeting to the League, and best wishes for an enjoyable and profitable session of its annual convention. THEODORE ROOSEVELT. (Official)196 159 Oyster Bay, N.Y. August 27, 1906. Dear Will: Don't you think you ought to forward that letter of Arias (or a copy of it rather) to Root, so that he can look at it while he is on the Isthmus? Stevens is an admirable man. He can render himself worse than valueless in just one way, and that is by thinking himself indispensable, and therefore that he does not have to regard public opinion at home as represented in Congress, or public opinion on the Isthmus as represented in the Government of Panama. I guess it is a mighty good thing that you and I are going down to the Isthmus. By the way, if Mrs. Taft goes with you wouldn't you and she have better accommodations if you went on the other battleship, whichever it is? I have an idea that we had best keep the party down to you and myself, our respective spouses, and Surgeon General Rixey if he wishes to go. Mrs. Roosevelt will not take a maid, as both she and I think it would be inadvisable, and we can probably get a thoroly competent man among the stewards, possibly taking one from the Sylph197 or Mayflower, who would do whatever was necessary for us. I do not think that on the battleships there should be any person with us whom it is possible by any chances to avoid taking with us, and that is one reason why I am particularly glad that Senator Millard did not accept. The reporters and so forth must go to the Isthmus on their own responsibility. We will show them every courtesy while we are at Panama. No press representative is to go on the ship. We will arrange that on each ship some officer shall send them wireless messages whenever we are in communication with a wireless station. I wish you would tell Ainsworth, or whoever is acting for you in Washington, that I am very much discontented with the pedantry, red tape, and hidebound lack of initiative and common sense shown by the Department in dealing with me in reference to the Cuban Government's request for an advance of cartridges. No! Don't tell him! I've straightened matters myself. I enclose another letter from Fleming which please return when you have read it. Sincerely yours, Theodore Roosevelt Hon. William H. Taft, Pointe au Pic. Province of Quebec, Canada. Enclosure P. S. This is my first spelling reform letter! 198 Oyster Bay, N. Y. , August 27, 1906. Friend William: You evidently do not understand about the trip to Panama. I am going on a battleship and will only be accompanied by men in official position, and by as few of these as possible - probably merely the Secretary of War and the Surgeon General of the Navy. If the Collector of Customs from Maine had official duties in Panama, then I could with propriety take him, provided there were room enough. But you have no such status down there; and moreover, if you had I do not believe there would be any room on the battleship for you. I have had to refuse the requests of hundreds of people, from United States Senators down, to go on this trip. In great haste, Faithfully yours, Theodore Roosevelt Mr. W. W. Sewall, Island Falls, Maine. 199 [*47*] Personal October Bay, N. Y., August 27, 1906. My dear Mr. Sherman: I am at my wits' end to know what to do in that Oklahoma and Indian Territory matter. I have sent your letter and the accompanying one from Mr. Fulton to the Secretary of the Interior and asked him for a statement about it. Whether I can do anything, Heaven only knows. Sincerely yours, Theodore Roosevelt Hon. J. S. Sherman, Chairman, Republican Congressional Committee, St. James Building New York.200 [*184*] Personal Oyster Bay, N.y., August 27, 1906. My dear Gilman: I have just received your volume. I need hardly say how I appreciate its dedication to me. Let me compliment you not merely upon the matter but upon the manner and the entire make up of the volume. Believe me, my dear fellow, I appreciate this kind and affectionate remembrance [of] from my old friend and classmate. With all good wishes, believe me, Sincerely yours, Theodore Roosevelt Mr. Bradley Gilman, Canton Corner, Massachusetts. 201 [184] Private and confidential. Oyster Bay, N. Y. , August 27, 1906. My dear Mr. Secretary: After some hesitation I have concluded to send you the enclosed two letters from Congressman Sharman and Mr. Fulton, a Republican County Committee chairman in the Indian Territory. I do not know anything about the Cherokee payment which it is alleged has caused such dissatisfaction among the Cherokee . I should like much if you would give me a statement about it. I have of course received a great many complaints as to the damage being done politically by the action of the Interior department in Oklahoma and Indian Territory, both in the matter of the investigation of Governor Frantz, of the attacks on District Attorney Embry, and of the feeling by the Indians that they have been treated with harshness by the Department; and the National Republican Committee are inclined to believe that the feeling thus caused, no matter how ill-founded, will cost us the loss of the delegation in Congress from the new State. I have not taken this up with you because I of course believe that no matter how disastrous to the administration politically, we can not for a moment entertain any other thought than to do exact and equal justice, and if a given course of conduct is right it must be followed, and if a given official is corrupt or incompetent he must be punished, no matter what party disaster is brought about 202 - 2 - thereby. But it is of course true that we do not wish either wantonly or foolishly to invite such disaster. I need hardly say that the election of a Democratic House this fall will mean a rebuke to the entire administration, including the Interior Department just as much as any other department, and will mean that for the last half of my administration I will not only be unable to continue to make such advances along the path of social and economic reform as we have made last session, but will see every department under me, including doubtless the Interior Department, harassed in every way by a Democratic majority anxious simply to make capital on the eve of a presidential election. It was for this reason that I have so regretted the unfortunate publication of the correspondence with me by you and Governor Higgins, the publication of which has served no useful purpose whatever, but has merely furnished to the Democratic opponents of the administration in New York a weapon wherewith to attack the Republican party. I call your attention to the fact that the letter of Governor Higgins was to me and that your answer was to me. Under such circumstances, my dear Mr. Secretary, I trust you will see how unfortunate it was that without any authorization by me you should have published these letters. I am continually receiving letters of protest from acquaintances, who write with a freedom which it would be impossible to use if they believed their letters would be published, and where these refer to departmental matters I simply turn them over bodily to the appropriate Cabinet officer for comment. If the Cabinet officer, without consultation or authori- 203 - 3 - nation by me publishes the correspondent's letter and his letter to me in response, it renders it impossible for me to continue to treat him in such matter in the confidential manner, which it is so eminently desirable should obtain between the President and the members of his Cabinet. This letter is to be regarded so private and confidential. I know Mr. Higgins well while I was Governor and have followed his career closely since, and while I am not as close to him as I am to you and other members of my Cabinet, still I am fairly close to him. I have the same faith in his honesty and uprightness, my dear Mr. Secretary, as I have in your honesty and uprightness. Any reflections by him on you I so completely disregarded that I doubt if I even remembered them when I sent his letter on to you; and just as I should never dream of thinking twice of reflections by him or anyone else upon your purposes and intentions, so I should pay no heed to the reflections of anyone upon Mr. Higgins' honesty of purpose. The unwarranted publication of his letter and your letter to me has on the one hand given encouragement to the men who for party purposes and with the object of breaking down the Republican party and this administration are striving to blacken Higgins' character, and on the other hand it has given to many sincere Republican the of course entirely unwarranted belief that either the administration itself or you personally are anxious to secure Republican disaster at the polls in New York State this year. Of course Higgins may not be a candidate for Governor, and what I say is wholly without reference to whether I shall in the end feel that he ought or ought not 204 - 4 - to be [xxxx] for Governor - a point as to which my mind has remained open; but all of this does not alter the extreme undesirability of having had the letters made public, and this aside from the fact that no such letter should ever be made public without my express authorization. As I am continually answering many such queries, written or spoken, as that in the enclosed letter from Sherman, will you kindly give me the facts in this case? I was much interested in all the matter you enclosed me in connection with the oil lease business. Let me repeat, however, (a position in which I am sure you entirely sympathize) that the Government must keep such control as will enable us to secure justice without relying upon competition between the Standard Oil Company and its opponents. In your letter to the editor of the Bartlesville Daily Enterprise you urge the independent operators to unitedly build such pipe lines and tanks as will [xxxx] them to become independent of the Standard Oil Company and different subsidiary companies; but if such a combination of the independent operators took place and became successful, there would always be the chance of its combining with the Standard Oil Company in some fashion at the expense of outsiders. Therefore I would not regard any such combination as that you proposed the independent operators should go into , as being even to a slight degree satisfactory as a substitute for keeping in the hands of the Government the power by the exercise of proper supervision and control to see that justice is done by all the companies, whether Standard or independent. I return 205 5 the enclosures, as you request. I am also much interested in the letter of the Colonel Butler, which I enclose. It seems to me that he pretty thoroly establishes his case, but I shall of course keep an entirely open mind on the subject until I hear from you, tho I gather that Butler's views are substantially those that you held. With regards to Mrs. Hitchcock, Very sincerely yours, Theodore Roosevelt Hon. E. A. Hitchcock, Monadneck, New Hampshire. Enclosures206 Oyster Bay, N.Y., August 25, 1906. To the Officials of the Infirmary at Salisbury: I have heard so much of the generous care you have lavished upon the American sufferers in the lamentable train wreck, that I wish to write you a line of acknowledgment on behalf of our people. As one of those you took care of his written me, “from the chaplain down to the hall boy no sacrifice has been too great ” for you to make on behalf of those who so suddenly came under your care. Thanking you from the bottom of my heart, I am, Sincerely yours, Theodore Roosevelt 207 Confidential Oyster Bay, N. Y. , August 27, 1906. My dear Mr. Ambassador: I thank you for your very interesting letter. Your lecture I had already read, as you had sent it to Mrs. Roosevelt, and it is first-class. Let me repeat that you were most wise about [xxxx], and I am very grateful to you. I am half [xxxx] and half annoyed to see so many really good people anxious to see the King, for no good reason. But, my dear Mr. Ambassador, Kings are not the only people who have individuals insist upon seeing them for no good reason. American Ambassadors in London stand high in the same category and so do Presidents of the United States, for that matter. Of course our foreign relations with Great Britain are always complicated by the Canadian element. I do not for a [xxxxxx] that this country would have behaved better than Canada under similar circumstances, 208 but the fact remains that Canada's attitude both toward the question of the Alaskan boundary and the question of the seal fisheries was outrageous. It was not merely selfish, but it was one of short-sighted felly and of absolute brutal disregard of the rights of others and of the general welfare of the world at large. Newfoundland seems to be taking much the same position. Fear [xxxx], I would not for a good deal interfere with him serving out his full term and retiring on his pension, for he is a thereby well-meaning and upright soul; but I wish to Heaven they could send him on some mission of vital importance to [xxxx] or [xxxx] or the Antarctic regimes and give us a competent man in his place. If proper, will you send the enclosed letter to the Infirmary at Salisbury, where the American sufferers from that wrecked train were taken such care off? Sincerely yours, Theodore Roosevelt Hon. Whitelaw Reid, The American Ambassador, London, England. Enclosure209 Oyster Bay, N.Y., August 27, 1906. My dear Colonel Cody: I shall take that matter up at once. I am very much afraid, however, that it will be impossible to furnish from a Government ditch water in excess of that required for 160 acres for any one person. I do not well see how this precedent could be violated. If there is anything that can properly be done for you, I need hardly say that I shall be only too anxious to do it. I shall find out what the facts are from the Department at Washington. With regard, Sincerely yours, Theodore Roosevelt Colonel W. F. Cody, Care The American Consul, Brussels, Belgium.210 Oyster Bay, N.Y., August 27, 1906. My dear Mr. Price: That is an extremely nice letter of yours. It is true that the Commissioner of Internal Revenue got an unfortunate impression of your performance of your duties in connection with some of the internal revenue matters, but my impression is that the Department of Justice did not sympathize with this view. Some time next winter when you are in Washington I shall be glad to see you and go over the matter. Sincerely yours, Theodore Roosevelt Mr. Augustus H. Price 111 West Council Street, Salisbury, North Carolina.211 Oyster Bay, N.Y., August 27, 1906. My dear Mr. Barrett: I thank you for that very interesting letter of yours. I look forward to seeing Root and hearing from him in detail about his various experiences, including those with you. Sincerely yours, Theodore Roosevelt Hon. John Barrett, The American Minister, Bogota, Columbia. 212 Personal Oyster Bay, N. Y. , August 27, 1906. Dear Alex: What you tell me about Jerome's plan is interesting and characteristic. Jerome has some good qualities and he now and then renders good service, but down at bottom he is a there-paced fakir. He knows perfectly well that he lies when he says we are trying to placate Odell with a view to the senator-ship. If I had announced that I was a candidate for another term for the presidency, he would be howling that my continuing as I have always continued to act as regards New York politics was due to my desire to secure a recombination. As I insist that I am not a candidate, he announces that it is because I desire the senator-ship that I am following this course. He knows he is lying, and there is nothing more to be said about it. In the same way, he knows he is lying in what he says about Hughes. If Hughes were to run I do not believe that for a moment he would be hoodwinked by Odell say more than I was hoodwinked by him when I was a candidate for governor. Jerome knows this, too. But Jerome knows he would be a formidable competitor, and he thinks that this particular kind of lying slender will help him, Hughes' little finger is thicker than Jerome's [xxxx] . Hughes is a real man and Jerome is a fakir, and Jerome has the hatred of the fakir for the real man. 213 - 2 - I have done everything I can to help Parsons and to help Wadsworth, my difficulty with Wadsworth being greatly enhanced by the extreme folly of Wadsworth's papa. If I should turn in and help Parsons, Wadsworth and Company by the use of the offices, in the way that Jerome and his friends now profess to desire, they would be the very first people to split the air with their yells ever my iniquity; and what is more, they would have justification. Incidentally, the invariable experience of the past shows that the President who interferes in such a way does no good to the man as whose behalf he interferes, came when the circumstances are altogether exceptional. If these exceptional circumstances arise, I shall interfere without hesitation. Ever yours, Theodore Roosevelt Dr. Alexander Lambert, 36 East 31st Street, New York.215 [*115*] Oyster Bay, N.Y., August 29, 1905. Hon. John C. Spooner, S. S., New Hampshire. Arrangement suggested by you entirely satisfactory. THEODORE ROOSEVELT.216 Personal Oyster Bay, N.Y., August 28, 1906 My dear Mr. Scott: In your letter you have just to express what I hope to accomplish; that is, to get the attention of the people to the proposed reform, and to give such encouragement as will enable scholars and educators to handle it with the freedom of thought and action which they use toward commerce, literature, biology, and pretty much all other subjects of human thought. I have directed the use of the simplified spelling in the three hundred words recommended by the Board. I think I shall wait for a few months before giving a further order of the kind suggested by you to the Public Printer. Sincerely yours, Theodore Roosevelt Mr. Charles P. G. Scott, Secretary, Simplified Spelling Board, 1 Madison Avenue, New York.217 Oyster Bay, N.Y., August 28, 1906. My dear Judge Duell: Your letter is a great surprise, and I may add, a shock to me. It never entered my head that you thought of resigning. I am inclined to look favorably upon your suggestion of promoting Judge Stafford to your place. There is just one thing about the Judge Stafford’s action that I have not liked, and if I promote him, after the promotion and not before I shall ask him about it. This was an injunction he issued against a labor organization which seemed to me to be of an extreme, and, indeed, of an improper, character. I have resolutely opposed the extreme labor people who demand the abolition of all use of the injunction in labor troubles but the very fact of my thus opposing makes me feel that it is a most unfortunate to give any color of right to their claim that the injunction is used oppressively218 and tyrannically against them. I should like, and, would carefully consider, any suggestion of yours as to filling your place – or rather, if I promote Judge Stafford, filling his place. Sincerely yours, Theodore Roosevelt Hon. C. H. Duell, 60 Wall Street, New York.219 Oyster Bay, N.Y., August 28, 1906. My dear Mr. Willcox This will introduce to you Mrs. Clifford Richardson, an old and valued friend of mine. I bespeak your courtesy for her. Sincerely yours, Theodore Roosevelt Hon. William R. Willcox, Postmaster, New York.220 Oyster Bay, N.Y., August 28, 1906. My dear Mr. Curtis: I have your letter of the 17th instant and return you the introduction. I should not care to make criticisms upon it to detail. With its general purpose I am in entire accord. Now, I so therely sympathize with you in your work that I am so inclined to write the introduction you desire; but how long do you wish it to be, and when do you wish me to have it ready for you? Sincerely yours, Theodore Roosevelt Mr. E. S. Curtis, Holbrook, Arizona.221 Oyster Bay, N.Y., August 28, 1906. My dear Senator Miller: I wish I could be present at the dinner to be given by you and your associates, with my old friend Admiral Coghlan presiding, to General Mills. It has been a good fortune to have served with General Mills in battle, and he is the type of American officer of whom the whole American people should be proud. May all good fortune go with him everywhere. Sincerely yours, Theodore Roosevelt Hon. Warner Miller, 100 Broadway, New York.222 152 Personal Oyster Bay, N.Y., August 28, 1906. Dear Moody: I have your letter of the 27th. If you can wait until after election. I should prefer it. Before election a considerable body of people will say that I am kicking you out of the Cabinet because I am discontented with your handling of the trust question; and a such larger proportion, that you find yourself, in your honest, noble efforts to [?] the trusts, so hampered by my corrupt partiality for them that you have flung your commission in my face, and that it is well known that you have privately stated that the position has become intolerable for any honest man. I do not know which of these two attitudes the Boston Herald, for instance, would take, but it would certainly take one and probably both. But of course if you feel you223 ought to make your statement public, then do so. It was a real comfort having you here even for a night and enabled me to orient myself, so to speak, on several different matters. Lord, how I hate to have you go! Always yours, Theodore Roosevelt Hon. William H. Moody, 94 State Street, Boston.224 Personal Oyster Bay, N.Y. August 28, 1906. My dear Mr. Watson: Your letter absolutely astounds me. In confidence I do not mind telling you that the chief motive that influenced Mr. Cortelyou and myself in appointing Mr. Barnes as postmaster at Thomson, Georgia, was our belief that the appointment would be particularly pleasing to you. I trust I need not say, my dear Mr. Watson how strong a feeling of personal regard I have for you, and it was only because of Judge Speer’s statements (I did not feel at liberty to disregard his opinion) that I removed Mr. Barnes from his original position in spite of your letter. I thought that the appointment as postmaster gave as the chance of all others which you would like best. I understood that Miss Farmer wanted to resign and desired her uncle, Mr. Barnes, appointed, and that the people of the town shared this225 desire. I have directed a full investigation by Mr. Cortelyou into what has occurred, and will let you know the result. Sincerely yours, Theodore Roosevelt Hon. Thomas E. Watson, Thomson, Georgia.226 Personal Oyster Bay, N.Y., August 28, 1906. My dear Mr. Mamalles: Naturally I very much appreciate your letter, and perhaps most of all the concluding anecdote. Not only do I feel about spelling reform just as you do, but I particularly welcome your comparing what I am trying to do in the matter with what I am trying to do in so much more important a matter as the effort to restrain the accumulation of, and supervising the control and use of, great fortunes. I do not believe in violent revolutions, but I do believe in steady and healthy growth in the right direction. Of course I should like during the remaining two years and a half of my term to see not only much further progress in the control of corporations by the national Government, but the enactment of a good, stiff progressive inheritance tax and a good, stiff progressive income tax by the national Government. But I feel at any rate227 [inverted] I have laid the foundations for right action along these lines, and even the election of a Parker or a Jerome or of some re- actionary Republican would only temporarily stop the move- ment. With great regard, Sincerely yours, Theodore Roosevelt Mr. W. D. Howells, Kittery Point, Maine.228 Oyster Bay, N.Y., August 28, 1906. My dear Bishop Brent: I thank you for your letter of the 24th instant and shall take up that matter with Mr. Root as soon as he returns from South America. It seems to me that such and international consideration of the opium traffic would do far-reaching good. Meanwhile, I shall submit your letter to Secretary Taft for common and return. May good fortunes attend you always. Faithfully yours, Theodore Roosevelt Bishop C. H. Brent, Manila, Philippines Islands.229 Oyster Bay, N.Y., August 28, 1906. My dear Mr. Merry: I am very much pleased at that gift of a rebosa in the shape of the American flag, coming from the native woman Salvader as a memorial of my interest in the cause of Central American peace. I would like you to thank them for me; and with my thanks and congratulations to you personally, believe me. Sincerely yours, Theodore Roosevelt Hon. William Lawrence Merry The American Minister, San Jose, Costa Rico.230 [1/2] Oyster Bay, N. Y. , August 27, 1906. My dear Mr. Stillings: I enclose herewith copies of certain circulars of the Simplified Spelling Board, which can be obtained free from the Board at No.1 Madison Avenue, New York City. Please hereafter direct that in all Government publications of the executive departments the three hundred words enumerated in Circular No. 5 shall be spelled as therein set forth. If anyone asks the reason for the action, refer him to Circulars 3, 4 and 6 as issued by the Simplified Spelling Board. Most of the criticism of the proposed step is evidently made in entire ignorance of what the step is, no less than in entire ignorance of the very moderate and common-sense views as to the purposes to be achieved, which views are so excellently set forth in the circulars to which I have referred. There is not the slightest intention to do anything revolutionary or initiate any far-reaching policy. The purpose simply is for the Government, instead of lagging behind popular sentiment, to advance abreast of it and at the same time abreast of the views of the ablest and most practical educators of our time as well as the most profound scholars - men of the stamp of Professor Lounsbury. If the slight changes in the231 2 spelling of the three hundred words proposed wholly or partially meet popular approval, then the changes will become permanent without any references to what public officials or individual private citizens may feel; if they do not ultimately meet with popular approval they will be dropt, and that is all there is about it. They represent nothing in the world but a very slight extension of the unconscious movement which has made agricultural implement workers and farmers write "plow" instead of "plough"; which has made most Americans write "honor" without the somewhat absurd, superfluous "u"; and which is even now making people write "program" without the "me" - just as all people who speak English now write "bat," "set," "dim," "sum," and "fish," instead of the Elizabethan "batte," "sette," "dimme," "summe," and "fyeshe"; which makes us write "public," "almanac," "era," "fantasy," and "wagon," instead of the "publick," "almanack," "aera," "phantasy," and "waggon" of our great-grandfathers. It is not an attack on the language of Shakespeare and Hilton, because it is in some instances a going-back to the forms they used, and in others merely the extension of changes which, as regards other words, have taken place since their time. It is not an attempt to do anything far-reaching or sudden or violent, or indeed anything very great at all. It is merely an attempt to cast what slight weight can properly be cast on the side of the popular forces which are endeavering to make our spelling a little less foolish and fantastic. Sincerely yours, Theodore Roosevelt Hon. Charles A. Stillings, Public Printer, Washington.232 Personal Oyster Bay, N.Y., August 29, 1906. 230 My dear Mr. Stillings: I enclose herewith a letter from the President. I have given copies to three press associations, released for publication in the Monday morning (September 3rd) papers. Very truly yours, Wm. Loeb, Jr., Secretary to the President. Hon. Charles A. Stillings, Public Printer, Washington, D.C.233 Oyster Bay, N.Y., August 29, 1906. My dear Mr. Hunt: By George, those pictures make me thrill both as hunter and naturalist! Will you extend my cordial thanks to Sir William, and compliment him for me upon the admirable living photographs of elephants, giraffe, and buffalo which he has thus obtained? With regard, believe me, Sincerely yours, Theodore Roosevelt Mr. Leigh Hunt, Hotel St. Regis, New York.234 Oyster Bay, N.Y., August 29, 1906. My dear Mr. Harlan: I thank you for your letter. I feel you occupy one of the most responsible and important positions in my gift. As soon as possible after my return to Washington in October I shall want to see you and talk over the matter. Sincerely yours, Theodore Roosevelt Hon. James S. Harlan Essex, N.Y.235 194 Oyster Bay, N.Y., August 30, 1906. The Acting Secretary of the Navy: In studying the Russian-Japanese War I am much struck by the damage done in the destruction of the smokestacks, and I am alarmed to see how high we are building our smokestacks. Has this matter been carefully considered by the General Board? Theodore Roosevelt236 Oyster Bay, N.Y., August 30, 1906. My dear Mr. Hanna: I enclose this letter from Mr. Jackson, hoping you will give me your views in relation to the subject matter thereof. I must earnestly desire to see the differences in the Republican party on Maryland harmonized, and a united effort made for success this fall. Faithfully yours, Theodore Roosevelt Hon. John B. Hanna, Chairman Republican State Central Committee, 741 Calvert Building, Baltimore. Enclosure237 Personal Oyster Bay, N.Y., August 30, 1906. My dear Senator Nelson: I shall most carefully consider Mr. Speol’s name in the hope that I can do as you suggest. At the moment I recall nothing about Mr. Speal. There was one candidate as to whom there is a most unpleasant feeling because he feigned sickness at the beginning of the Spanish War – that is, at the very time when, sick or well, a man ought to have gone to the front if it killed him. I do not remember whether Speal was this man or not; and of course this statement of mine is for your private eye alone, as I do not want to even connect his name with the statement unless the facts are true. Moreover, my dear Senator, I know I will have your hearty approval in trying to get the very best man for this important position. The present238 condition of the office is not satisfactory. There should be a change in the law and a change in the administration. With regard, believe me, Sincerely yours, Theodore Roosevelt Hon. Knute Nelson, U.S.S., Alexandria, Minnesota.239 Oyster Bay, N.Y., August 30, 1906. My dear Mr. Tailer: It would be a real pleasure to see you at any time; but I hate to have to tell you that I can do nothing for you about young Leslie. All he can do is to appeal to the Congressman of his district or the United States Senators from this State and find out what his chances are for a vacancy, if such exists, to which any of them has the appointment. I only appoint the sons the regular army and navy officers, and of these I have from twenty to fifty who apply for every vacancy. I wish I were able to give you more encouraging advice. Sincerely yours, Theodore Roosevelt Hon. Clara Wright Tailer, Hempstead, L.I., N.Y.240 Oyster Bay, N.Y., August 30, 1906. My dear Mr. Pritchett: I have your letter of the 29th instant. It would not be possible for me to address such a meeting, the there is literally no meeting with whose purpose I could have more entire sympathy. If I should accept that invitation it would not mean metaphorically but literally that I would have to decline a score of other invitations, each in the administration of [???] deserving as much attention as this. But next spring I an speak to a notable gathering of graduates of agriculture colleges in the West, and I want to make that a real and serious speech which shall be half along the very lines you have in view. I would be grateful if you would sketch for me any outline of the kind of thing you think I ought to say – perhaps the things you think I ought to say if I had been able to make the speech241 you propose – and then in October please come on to Washington and talk the matter over with me. Faithfully yours, Theodore Roosevelt President Henry S. Pritchett, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Boston.242 Oyster Bay, N.Y., August 30, 1906. My dear Mr. Ledyard: Yours is the first letter I have ever had asking me to keep a man in the navy. I am usually driven to my wits’ end in refusing utterly unreasoning requests and demands for me to let men out. I have written Mr. Bonaparte that it seems to me that this man should certainly be kept in. I rather welcome the chance to mete out to a man of wealth the same justice that I am continually obliged to mete out to poo devils who, having gone into the navy in a burst of exaltation, think they would like to get out in order to make money for themselves or friends. Sincerely yours, Theodore Roosevelt, Mr. Lewis Case Ledyard, 54 Wall Street, New York.243 Oyster Bay, N.Y., August 30, 1906. Dear George: That is a might interesting letter of yours. I have felt thoroughly impatient with the Duna. It has seemed to me to be under the socialistic and anarchistic influence, and under the leader of what I suppose could be called the Pan-European agitators, and it is a dreadful misfortune to a people struggling to obtain a measure of practical self-government and an abatement of evils that their very best leaders should be impractical and foolish visionaries of the Tolstoy clans. It must be a very bad community indeed in which Tolstoy is not a curse, and when he represents the best one can see how had the rest are! I suppose the reactionaries are at least as bad as even the extreme revolutionaries perhaps [?]244 I suppose you will be pretty steadily in Russia now until I send for you to come home permanently next winter. It will be irksome in a way, but most interesting. Faithfully yours, Theodore Roosevelt Hon. G. V. L. Meyer, The American Ambassador St. Petersburg, Russia.245 Oyster Bay, N.Y., August 30, 1906. Dear Grant: That poem is immense; but it would look even better spelled phonetically! Alas, I am not in trim to play tennis with you, but come down as early as you can on Saturday anyway and I have no doubt Kermit can play with you. I am looking forward eagerly to seeing you and Florence. Ever yours, Theodore Roosevelt Mr. C. Grant LaFarge, 30 East 21st Street, New York.246 Oyster Bay, N.Y., August 30, 1906. My dear Captain Sartoris: Please present my warm regards to Mrs. Sartoris. I congratulate you heartily on the birth of the baby. If Washington and Grant were content with two terms, it seems to me that two terms are enough for me. With all good wishes, believe me, Sincerely yours, Theodore Roosevelt Captain Algernon Sartoris, 5 rue Theodule Ribot, Paris.247 Personal Oyster Bay, N.Y., September, 1906. My dear General Bell: I thank you not only for your interesting letter but for the way you are steadily taking though in advance. The propositions that you make represent the kind of proposition which makes it worth while to have a Chief of Staff. Present my compliments to General Ainsworth, show him this letter, and he will follow out the suggestion that you have made in your letter – that Is, get the three officers, including Major Ladd and Captain Aultman over to Cuba in just the way you propose, President Palm’s assent of course having been obtained. You need not give me any further details, as I am so entirely in accord with the purposes and methods that I do not think it necessary248 for General Ainsworth and you to come to Oyster Bay. Of course, I should be glad to see you both if you deem that you ought to come. Sincerely yours, Theodore Roosevelt Brig. Gen. J.F. Bell, U.S.A., Chief of Staff, War Department.249 [196] Personal. Oyster Bay, N.Y. September 1, 1906. Dear Will: You and I and Mrs. Roosevelt, then, will be the only members of our party. We will all be on one ship. Mr. Loeb is not going. He does not want to go. I think anyhow we ought to keep the party down to the lowest limit. You will have your servants, and we will take a steward from the Sylph or Mayflower. Perhaps if we put the newspaper men on the other ship I can then have Assistant Secretary Latta, from my office, go with them, and in the event of an emergency on the Isthmus you and I could use him. I doubt if Burrows fights Denison, and I think that I shall simply tell him I have concluded that Denison is the man to appoint. As for your tariff speech, I have felt that you saved yourself by the clause saying that you did not know when sentiment would crystallize [soon?] naturally to bring about revisions. Of course a session that250 [inverted] deals with the tariff can probably do nothing else; and the vital factor in the situation is this crystallization of sentiment. I do not believe that the sentiment in the Republican party will crystallize so that it will be a possible matter to take up the tariff prior to the Presidential election; but in this I may be mistaken. In any event I am confident that by the time of the Presidential election sentiment will so have crystallized that we shall have to announce that there shall be tariff revision by the Republican party immediately after the election. But I neither wish to [spur?] the Republican Party, nor to seem to promise something congress would not do. Before deciding what answer to make to Ross and his article in Collier's Weekly, go over it carefully yourself and then, if you are willing, lay the matter before me. I should doubt the expediency of writing a personal and private communication to the Collier people in the matter. I should think an entirely temperate letter to them, which could be printed and in which the character of Ross is exposed and his statements taken up, would be better. But this, again, can be taken up when I see you, Ever yours, Theodore Roosevelt Hon. William H. Taft,251 Oyster Bay, N.Y., September 1, 1906. My dear Mrs. Jones: By the time you have received this letter you will have seen my published letter, which tells just what I hope to accomplish and how little that really is. Most certainly there is grave danger that every variety of ignorant creature will rush in to confuse our spelling. If our present fixed system were not one of such literally ludicrous and wild absurdity, I should feel a little alarmed over the prospect of this danger. But as a matter of fact, no possible confusion could be worse than our present system of spelling – or rather, the it might be temporarily worse, it would, I am sure, lead to better things. We are all of us creatures of habit, and this is best shown by the fact that have all of us greatly enjoyed Artemus Ward, and many of use Josh Billings, and find their spelling humorous, altho in252 each case it is infinitely more rational, infinitely saner and better, than the spelling that you and I and all cultivated people employ as a matter of course. I enclose you a little pamphlet by the Englishman, Skeat, the great Chaucerian scholar, Sincerely yours, Theodore Roosevelt Mrs. Mary Cadwalador Jones, Reef Point, Bar Harbor, Maine. Enclosure253 Personal Oyster Bay, N.Y. September 1, 1906. My dear Mr. Thayer: I have been immensely impressed with Fogassaro’s “the Saint,” and I so much like the interpretation of it give in your introduction, and the point of view you have, that I must write to tell you so. I should feel like letting Fogassaro himself know how much I liked the book, but as he apparently has acquiesced in the judgment which has placed it on the index, this hardly seems worth while. Sincerely yours, Theodore Roosevelt. William Roscoe Thayer, Esq., 8 Berkeley Street, Cambridge, Massachusetts.254 Oyster Bay, N.Y. September 1, 1906. Dear Jim: It would not be possible for us to go anywhere now. It is awfully good of Mrs. Sheffield and you to have thought of me. Incidentally, if I went up there your house would be besieged from morning until night by reporters, photographers, office-seekers and sight-seers, and no one of your family, nor yet either Mrs. Roosevelt or myself, would be able to have so much as fifteen minutes quiet and pleasure, save what could be procured under a guard of secret service men. My bitter experience has shown as that really my only chance of being alone (and, at that, not always a very good chance) is here at my own house. Let me thank you again, my dear fellow, for your own and your wife’s kindness, and Mrs. Roosevelt and I very255 much appreciate it. With hearty regard, Sincerely yours, Theodore Roosevelt Hon. James R. Sheffield, Saranac Inn, Franklin County, N.Y.256 Oyster Bay, N.Y., September 1, 1906. Strictly private. My dear Schurman: You have stated my view with the utmost insight; and I have taken the liberty of sending your letter to Herbert Parsons, who has, in a spirit of loyalty to Higgins (whom I esteem as highly as you do), combated the Hughes proposition. Could you quietly tell Hughes at my request that I wish he would not commit himself about the Governorship until I get a chance to see him? Let this information meet him on his arrival. With regard, believe me, Sincerely yours, Theodore Roosevelt Dr. J. G. Schurman, Breezy Knowe, East Hampton, L.I., N.Y.257 222 Oyster Bay, N.Y., September 1, 1906. My dear Mr. Attorney General: In view of what you say in your letter of August 31st I do not see that there is anything to be done. Most certainly we should act authorize proceedings under the Sherman act if there is a strong probability that they would fail. Apparently the parties when it is proposed to proceed against are already under injunction by a federal judge. Properly speaking, the acts complained of should be punished by the local officials by vigorous proceedings taken against the offenders. Where, are was true in the Dobs case, action by the United States Government was warranted in a case of this kind; but it would be from every standpoint most unwise to act under a law when in the opinion258 of the Attorney General himself it does not cover the case. I return the enclosures herewith. Sincerely yours, Theodore Roosevelt Hon. William H. Moody, Attorney General. Enclosures.259 Oyster Bay, N.Y. September 3, 1906. Dear Seth: You are a therebred yourself and I have about come to the conclusion that the combination of the Bullock and Roosevelt families is hard to beat. I am really proud of what you tell me of Kermit and very grateful to you for what you did for him in taking him on this trip. It was a better education for him than three months’ schooling. Give my warm regards to Mrs. Bullock. I am very anxious that both of you should come on this year to Washington, and that while there you should spend a night at the White House. Sincerely yours, Theodore Roosevelt Captain Seth Bullock, Deadwood, South Dakota.260 Oyster Bay, N.Y. September 3, 1906. My dear Mr. Justice: It was a very real pleasure to appoint your son. I considered carefully, and went over with the Attorney General, the protests made by certain Senators against your son’s appointment, these protests being based on the reasons I gave you before. I came to the conclusion that the did not justify a failure to appoint James. I need not say how glad I was to be able to, conscientiously to come to this conclusion. With warm regards to Mrs. Harlan, believe me, Sincerely yours, Theodore Roosevelt Hon. John M. Harlan, Pointe au Pic, Province of Quebec, Canada.261 Oyster Bay, N.Y. September 3, 1906. My dear Senator: I have a very high opinion of Judge Stafford. If I am able to do what you desire, it will be a real pleasure. But I shall have to go over the whole matter carefully with the Attorney General. Sincerely yours, Theodore Roosevelt Hon. William P. Dillingham, U.S.S., Montpelier, Vermont.262 Oyster Bay, N.Y. September 3, 1906. My dear Senator: I have a very high opinion of Judge Stafford. If I am able do what you desire, it will be a real pleasure. But I shall have to go over the whole matter carefully with the Attorney General. Sincerely yours, Theodore Roosevelt Hon. Redfield Proctor, U.S.S., Proctor, Vermont.263 162 Personal Oyster Bay, N.Y., September 3, 1906. Dear Gifford: Mrs. LaFarge told me that Ames had told you or her (I forget which) last year that Norman Hapgood stated that he had letters of mine which proved that I had not correctly stated the facts or had not told the truth in connection with the Colonel Mann prosecution. I send you copy of a correspondence I had with Hapgood this year. You will see that in this I challenged Hapgood to make any showing as to any failure of mine exactly to tell the truth, and you will also see what happened to him when he attempted to make good his statement. In this he did not even attempt to make any such showing in the Colonel Mann case. He could not do it, for if he made any such statement as264 was alleged he was deliberately inventing it out of the whole cloth. Ever yours, Theodore Roosevelt Mr. Gifford Pinchot, Chief Forester, Department of Agriculture Washington. Enclosure265 Oyster Bay, N.Y., September 4, 1906. B. F. Daniels, Blue Springs, Mo. Pray accept my sincere sympathy. THEODORE ROOSEVELT. (President’s private acct.)266 Oyster Bay, N.Y., September 5, 1906. R. H. M. Ferguson, 23 West Twenty-sixth Street, New York. Three cheers! The whole family delighted. Give our warmest love to dear Isabella. THEODORE ROOSEVELT. (President’s private acct.)267 Oyster Bay, N.Y., September 4, 1906. Confidential. Dear Colonel Nelson: I have your letter of the 21st ultimo. I should suggest that hereafter whoever cables you from Kansas City try to cable the exact facts. I suppose that since then you have yourself seen my letter and have seen that it contained absolutely nothing on the tariff that I have not said again and again in my messages and speeches as well as in my letter of acceptances two years ago. I did not in any shape of way take any position of the tariff as to 1908; for as a matter of fact I am inclined to think (the I would not of course at present to be able to say so in public) that I shall advocate in 1908 a platform containing almost exactly what you suggest should be put into it. Do not, how-268 ever, take this in any way as a definite committal on my part. Cannot you stop in Washington and give me a chance to see you; and also to see Taft! Sincerely yours, Theodore Roosevelt Col. W. R. Nelson, Hotel Bristol, Karlsbad, Germany.269 Oyster Bay, N. Y. September 4, 1906. Dear Ted: Your letter to Mother came and I was sorry, tho not disappointed, to learn that you had not found any bear. In such hunting, hot and dry weather is very hard on the dogs, and snow is an immense help to them. I still hope you may be able to get something before you get back. I have just finished the naval review, and it was really a great sight. Connolly, the man who wrote those " Out of Gloucester" stories, stayed with us during the review and was really very pleasant. The dear La Farges were here also. Archie was simply in his element. He is devoted to the water and devoted to the navy, and I am quite confident that he will remain steadfast in his desire to go to Annapolis. Of course270 I haven't an idea whether I shall be able to get him in, or whether he will come up to the physical and mental requirements. Give my regards to Shaun. The last two or three days have been glorious - cool and bright, with a brisk wind that has made me fairly homesick to be off in the wilderness, either among the mountains or on the great plains; where I would see no human beings, and some game. Your loving father. T. R. Mr. Theodore Roosevelt, Jr. Pagoda, Routt County, Colorado.271 155 Personal Oyster Bay, N.Y., September 4, 1906. My dear Mr. Secretary: Can you make a speech in Texas this fall? Colonel Lyon, who is a good fellow, wishes much to have you speak there. I think you could do good. Sincerely yours, Theodore Roosevelt Hon. L. M. Shaw, Secretary of the Treasury.272 Oyster Bay, N.Y., September 4, 1906. My dear Dr. Stokes: I am interested in the clipping. I do not think very highly of Collier’s Weekly, but I am surprised that even they should have employed such a fakir as Dr. Seaman. Mrs. Roosevelt will be as pleased as I am to hear that you are enjoying himself, and that Mrs. Stokes and John are well. We have had a restful and pleasant summer. The naval review was most interesting and successful. With hearty thanks, believe me, Sincerely yours, Theodore Roosevelt Surgeon Charles F. Stokes, U.S.N., United States Naval Hospital, San Juan, Porto Rico.273 Oyster Bay, N.Y., September 4, 1906. My dear Mr. Ambassador: Naturally, I am greatly pleased at your proposal; and indeed I am more than pleased, I am deeply touched by it. Of course you have my full permission. I trust it will be but a short time before we can have the chance of again seeing you and your charming wife. With all good wishes, and the utmost possible respect, believe me, Sincerely yours, Theodore Roosevelt Baron Edmondo Mayor Des Planches, Italian Ambassador to the United States, Moncalieri, Italy.274 Pesonal Oyster Bay, N.Y., September 4, 1906. My dear Mr. Fairley: I have your letter of the 31st ultimo. Of course I must not take part in, or be quoted in reference to any struggle for the nomination for Governor; but I need hardly say that I would throw up my hat with exultation if Phil Stewart were nominated for Governor of Colorado. There is not a state in the Union where it would not be a piece of the greatest good fortune to have Stewart elected to any officer in its gift, and I shall congratulate late to any office in its gift, and I shall congratulate you will all my heart if you succeed in nominating him. Sincerely yours, Theodore Roosevelt Hon. D. B. Fairley, Chairman, Republican State Central Committee, Post Office Box 850, Denver, Colorado.275 Oyster Bay, N.Y., September 4, 1906. My dear Colonel Lyon: Brown is an old friend of mine. I have recently appointed his boy to West Point. I shall see whether or not we can do as you suggest about the brigadier generalship. I have called the attention of the Post Office Department to the failure of the Green organization and to the conduct of the Denison postmaster. I congratulate you upon all you are doing in politics in Texas. Now, will you present my regards to District Attorney Atwell and ask him to give me full information in he Cowan matter? I shall write to Secretary Shaw at once and ask him if he can not go down to Texas. Sincerely yours, Theodore Roosevelt Col. Cecil A. Lyon, Chairman, Republican State Committee, Sherman, Taxes276 Personal Oyster Bay, N.Y., September 4, 1906. My dear Governor Carter: I have read with great interest your letter, and thank you for sending it to me. I have asked Secretary Taft for his judgment as to the army reservation. Now, as to the legislation by Congress, I agree with you that it would be best to center all the efforts on the refunding measure. Please write to me at once what you wish me to say about it, and I shall put it as strongly as possible in my message. I shall hope to prepare my message in October, so please send me the material at once. If Judge Robinson had more experience in public life he would realize that an attack upon a class of people, or what can be construed into an attack, always completely diverts attention from everything else, and277 always prevents any good coming from even the wise recommendations on other subjects. This ought not to be so; but it is so. Hoping you are having a thoroughly satisfactory time, I am, Sincerely yours, Theodore Roosevelt Hon. G. R. Carter, Governor of Hawaii, Honolulu, Hawaii.278 Oyster Bay, N.Y., September 4, 1906. Personal. My dear Dr. Seton: John Burroughs had already written me about your interesting summer camp. It seems to me an admirable movement, and I take the greatest interest in it. I shall read the Birch Bark Roll at once; and I want to congratulate and thank you for what you are doing in the matter. Sincerely yours, Theodore Roosevelt Mr. Ernest Thompson Seton, Wyndygoul, Coseob, Conn.279 Oyster Bay, N.Y., September 4, 1906. My dear Whitridge: The grouse have come, and I thank you heartily. They are in fine condition and we will surely all enjoy them. It is awfully good of you to have remembered us. I have just been reviewing the fleet, and I wish you could have seen it. It was mighty good sight for American eyes. That is a mighty interesting thing you tell as the attitude of the Germans in Brazil toward Germany. I shall be interested in hearing any further developments on the subject. With all good wishes, believe me, Sincerely yours, Theodore Roosevelt Hon. F. W. Whitridge, 59 Wall Street, New York, N.Y.280 Oyster Bay, N.Y., September 4, 1906. Dear Gussie: I have your letter of the 31st ultimo. I hope that the movement of which you speak will have some effect. Almost all of the information I have received has been to the effect that politically the movement to restrict immigration did harm, but that is good from the national standpoint, I am sure, and I had one very interesting conversation with five priests, who I found were in hearty sympathy with the movement, saying that they found it impossible to keep in any relations with the church the mass of Catholic immigrants, especially the Italians who were now coming over, and that they very earnestly wished the number could be diminished. I am mighty glad you are doing what you can to help out those Congressman who are in difficulty. I am much concerned as to what you tell me of your fight with Schofield, and I am rather surprised at Gom-281 pers’ attitude. I do not see how he can attack you and the other man for voting to take away the eight-hour restriction about the laborers on the canal zone, when he is so very careful about attacking me, though, I recommended an put through the measure. And it certainly does seem incredible that anyone could be influenced by such stuff. Good luck to you. Ever yours, Theodore Roosevelt Hon. A. P. Gardner, M.C., Hamilton, Massachusetts282 177 Oyster Bay, N.Y., September 4, 1906. My dear Mr. Vice President: I think it very important from the standpoint of the party that you should accept the request of the Hamilton Club and of President Brundage of the Cook County Court House at Chicago. There is need that one of the prominent leaders of the Republican party should attend and make, on that occasion, a speech which we be noteworthy as striking the key for the Republican cause in Illinois, and indeed around the Mississippi Valley generally. I earnestly hope that you will find yourself able to accept. Doubtless much judgement will have to be shown in making the kind of speech that they desire on this particular occasion; but the most effective political speeches are often283 those that are nominally not political at all; and that you have the necessary tact and judgment I know well. Faithfully yours, Theodore Roosevelt Hon. Charles W. Fairbanks, Vice President of the United States, Indianapolis, Indiana.284 [91] Personal. Oyster Bay, N.Y. September 4, 1906. Dear Elihu: It was good to get your letter and both Mrs. Roosevelt and I were immensely amused at the translation from the Spanish newspaper, including the awful warning with which it ended as to the trouble I would get into if I did not come up to my duties in the matter of financial obligation. I have just finished the naval review and it has been a thoro success. It was by all odds the most formidable American fleet ever gathered together, and I defy anyone with a spark of national pride in him not to feel moved at such a sight. We had on the Dolphin and Mayflower, in addition to the Bacons, the Grant La Farges, the Dunnes, and Connelly, the man who wrote those "Out of Gloucester" stories. I wanted both Dunne and Connelly to grow to have a personal feeling for the navy - to get under the naval spell - because I want them both to be our allies in keeping the people awake to what it means to have such a navy and such [the] officers and men as those who man it. The political campaign has fairly opened. The Vermont elections take place this week, and the Maine elections next. (Vermont has gone heavily our way) Taft will deliver a first-rate speech in Maine. I do not feel very hopeful as yet about285 3 our carrying a majority of Congress this fall, which I think very important; but I have been much encouraged by Bryan's breakdown; I am far more hopeful than I was. Of course, if people really were far-sighted, if they really grasped the situation, we should have a walk-over in the Congressional elections, for this Congress has done admirably and the Democrats have nothing whatever to offer; but the very fact that we have done well may operate to our immediate disadvantage. I am immensely amused that papers like the Times and Sun, for instance, which have spent most of the last five years in holding me up as an enemy to prosperity, and as the foe of the business world, as a dangerous man, have now turned a somersault and are indignantly denouncing Bryan for wanting to do anything to disturb what they describe as the unparalleled prosperity which we are now enjoying, and which they are careful to point out we have enjoyed for the last five years. Bryan, as I have said, has helped us, as he came a bad cropper in his much-heralded great speech in New York at Madison Square Garden on his return from abroad. Everybody among the Democrats was prepared to be for him, and it was felt to be, and really was, quite wonderful to see how he seemed to have strengthened his hold; but tho a kindly, well-meaning man, he is both shallow and a demagog; that is, he has no real insight into questions, and he is so eager to bid for popularity that he commits himself to preposterous positions. He had evidently been immensely impressed by just one side of my career, [and] that is, by the fact that in spite of being what is called radical on certain matters, I had added to my pop-[*286*] 3 ular strength. Apparently, he thought that the way to oust me was to be far more radical, and accordingly he came out for Government ownership of railways, and for the abolition of the right of injunction in all labor cases, not to speak of advocating warfare on the trusts by refusing to allow them to use the mails, by taking off the tariff on all trust-made articles, and so forth and so forth - all of which combine with exquisite nicety folly and viciousness. Of course he does not understand that "radical" and "conservative" are really very loosely used words, and that their value depends wholly upon the particular circumstances of each case. It is necessary at times to be extremely radical and at times to be extremely conservative, and no man in public life who has to deal with many different questions can with wisdom avoid showing both qualities from time to time as the conditions vary. It is just as it is with the surgeon. On occasions the greatest praise that can be given a surgeon is that he has been bold and fearless in going deeply with the knife, and Bryan's theory is that in such cases a man who wishes to gain more glory should cut so deeply as to cut out the patient's heart. Moreover, Bryan, having committed himself to the policy of the Government ownership of railways, has been somewhat rattled by the storm of protests and has tried to hedge, with the result of giving himself an appearance of weakness. He is not as formidable as he was and his speech has helped us in the pending campaign. However, he is by no means as dead as the New York Democratic and independent papers like the Times, Sun, and Brooklyn Eagle wish to persuade themselves is the case.[*287*] 4 In New York the political pot is boiling. Higgins, who is an absolutely honest man and has made an excellent Governor, has nevertheless succeeded in creating the ineradicable impression that he is a weak and vacillating man, and in this crisis such a man is not desirable. I am inclined to think that Hughes would be the strongest man we could nominate for Governor among those immediately available, and this in spite of the fact that Odell and Platt have been loudly (altho probably insincerely) announcing that they are in favor of him. What can actually be accomplished I do not yet see. On the Democratic side Hearst and Jerome are prominent candidates for the Governorship, and each is threatening to run independently if the other is nominated. Hearst of course appeals frankly to the spirit of unrest, and there is, I believe, literally nothing at which he would stop in the way of adding fuel to the fire of discontent, reasonable or unreasonable, innocent or fraught with destruction to the whole body politic. Jerome I personally do not care for. I think him rather cheap and a good deal of a fakir. He has lost strength among the rank and file. But he has a great deal of strength among the educated and well-to-do classes, and some great financiers as well as some men who stand high in mixt politics and business are very earnestly for him. Roughly, the people who are behind him are exactly the people who were behind Parker two years ago, and they hope to do with him what they tried to do with Parker. They feel that if they can elect him as Governor this year they will have an excellent chance to run him for the Presidency, and under such circumstances they[*288*] 5 feel that they could do as was done with Parker - that is, make a radical platform and trust to keeping the conservatives in line by assuring them that Jerome was perfectly safe. Exactly as two years ago they trusted that Parker's high character and judicial temperament and dignity and commanding appearance would convert good people to his side and carry him thru, so now they trust that Jerome's undoubted campaigning ability, his agressiveness, and the reputation in which he is held as a "fearless prosecutor" (a reputation largely faked) will put him thru. Give my warm regards to Mrs. Root. I think your visit to Carthagena very important. Don't you think that Barrett has probably won his spurs and should go to Brazil next year when Grissom goes to Russia? I hope to receive news shortly that you have definitely made up your mind to go to San Francisco. I think from every standpoint it will be admirable. How has your constitution stood the sweet champagne of Our Sister Republic? Ever yours, Theodore Roosevelt Hon. Elihu Root Secretary of State289 Personal Oyster Bay, N.Y., September 4, 1906. Dear Dunne: As you spoke to me about the [?] I think you might be interested in the enclosed copy of my correspondence with Hapgood. It is of course for your personal eye only. Didn’t we have a good time yesterday? Now I want to know frankly whether you would prefer to go down with me to the target practice, or whether you would rather go on to Boston, and after down with Connolly, who will join me at the Barnstable. If you choose you can either go there and come back with me, [?] or go there with me and return with me, and this will enable you to see Connolly in Boston. He will join us at Barnstable. Faithfully yours, Theodore Roosevelt Mr. F. P. Dunne, 19 West 31st Street, New York. Enclosures P.S. Please return the enclosure to me.290 Personal Oyster Bay, N.Y., September 4, 1906. Dear Cabot: I knew how strongly Moody felt about Lurton. I did not know how you felt. I think you both are entirely in error. I say this frankly because I know you want me to talk frankly. Nothing has been so strongly borne in on us concerning lawyers on the bench as that nominal polities of the man has nothing to do with his actions on the bench [???] Holmes should have been an ideal man on the bench. As a matter of fact the has been a bitter disappointment, not because of any one decisions but because of his general attitude. In Lurton’s case, Taft and Day, his two former associates, are very desirous of having him on. He is right on the negro question; he is right on the power of the Federal Government; he is right on the insular business; he is right about corporations; and he is right about labor. On every question that would come before the bench he has so far shown himself to be much closer touch with the policies in which you and I believe than even White., because he as been right about corporations, where White has been wrong. [???] I have grown to fell most emphatically that the Supreme Court is a matter of too great importance for me to pay heed to where a man comes from. While I have not clearly formulated this plan of which I am about to speak, I am tentatively taking into account the291 2 fact that if appoint Lurton I may later be able to appoint Moody, saying it is true that thin is making two appointments from Massachusetts, but I have shown already in my appointment of a Tennessee man and an-ex Confederate soldier, nominally a Democrat, that I pay heed only to the real need of the Court, and I am doing the same thing in this case. I have definitely made up my mind, but the above represents my present intention. I drew a sign of relief after reading Bryan’s speech. I think he has helped us immensely. Down at bottom Bryan is a deep soul. He felt that he had to take an attitude that would show that he was really a great deal more radical than I was. He did it. Now he has been inclined to hedge about it, which will merely give an added impression of weakness. Yes; my [?] has been [??] Ever yours, Theodore Roosevelt Hon. H. C. Lodge, U.S.S., Nahant, Massachusetts.292 376 Oyster Bay, N.Y., September 5, 1906. My dear Mr. Wilson: I am very much impressed by what Mr. Staton tells me. He will submit his case to you, with the papers and photographs. He is introduced to me by Conrad Kohrs, who is as straight a man as I know anywhere, and who I believe would not say anything that he did not believe to be true. The farmers, of course, find it very difficult to combine effectively. They are not wealthy men and they are at their wits’ end how to proceed in this matter. If the statements made are correct, they are suffering a grievous wrong. Please have the best men you can get make an immediate and thorough investigation, and if the facts warrant it report to me forthwith what action it is possible for us to take in the matter. I take a great personal interest in this affair.293 Will you also call the attention of Mr. Pinchot to the damage done on the forest preserves? Let me repeat that if the facts are alleged, immediate, and drastic action is called for. Sincerely yours, Theodore Roosevelt Hon. James Wilson, Secretary of Agriculture.[*294*] [*249*] Oyster Bay, N.Y., September 4, 1906. Dear Will: That is an awfully interesting letter of Allen's. He is a great deal of a fellow. I heartily approve of what Ide has done. I entirely agree with you that as Sniffen is the best man for the place as Paymaster General, he should be appointed, and I should be glad to have you so notify Ainsworth. Write me any form of letter you desire me to send to Ide accepting his resignation, and I will sign it. Your letter to Shonts in the steam-shovel men matter was admirable and was just what he needed. I should be particularly pleased to see Kerr, but I hope he can wait until after the 1st of October, when I shall be back in Washington. Do not dream of returning to Washington any sooner than you intended to. If you are in Washington by the 1st of October it will suit me. I send you a letter from Lodge, protesting against the choice of Lurton, and a copy of my letter in reply. As for Panama, I think that in your letter of the 31st you take just the right ground. Let Mrs. Taft and you go on one battleship and Mrs. Roosevelt and I on another. This will prevent our inconveniencing the officers, which is what I had in mind. We can come to a conclusion after the 1st of October. Advise Shonts to meet us down there. I am295 2 very much pleased that you do not think we ought to have the newspapermen on the battleship. In my judgment it is not in the least necessary, and, indeed, is inadvisable. I am extremely pleased that you sent the copy of your speech to the chairman of the Maine Committee and asked him to show it to Cannon or Littlefield. I did not want to do more than suggest this for your consideration, but it was eminently the right thing to do. There is no real moral issued involved in having the revision next year instead of two years hence, and it is important that we should give Congress the feeling that in this election, with the Congressmen themselves so vitally interested, we are doing everything we can to stand by them. Tell Mrs. Taft that I sympathize with her view about Bryan. But having still in mind the popular feeling about Miles and Schley at the time when the average citizen insisted upon treating both of them as heroes, I am long past the stage of asking for the justification when a considerable section of the public insist upon treating a man as a sage, a hero, or a great intellectual or political leader. However, I think that Bryan came a cropper in New York. He is a kindly, well-meaning soul, but he is cheap and shallow. His theories are almost as preposterous as those of Jefferson himself, and he has all of Jefferson's nervous fear of doing anything that may seem to be unpopular with the rank and file of the people, and his desire to take any side that he thinks will be popular. He evidently thought that as my success has been attributed to my being a radical, he would outbid me; not realizing that the great virtue296 3 of my radicalism lies in the fact that I am perfectly ready, if necessary, to be radical on the conservative side. His government-by-injunction business was pure demagogy, of course, and it will render your speech peculiarly happy. Nor do I believe he has helped himself by trying to hedge, as he has done on his Government ownership of the railroad plank. Altogether, his coming back has been a distinctly good thing for us in this year's canvass. Ever yours, Theodore Roosevelt Hon. William H. Taft, POinte au Pic, Province of Quebec, P.S. I have your letter of the 2d. If Palma is agreeable those men ought to go at once to Cuba. I do not care what the Cubans think about it. Do you remember that, to save the feeling of Spaniards, Cleveland refused to allow any of our military men on the island? We paid bitterly for it later on. We can not afford to neglect any chance of learning the situation down there. Enclosures 297 Personal Oyster Bay, N.Y., September 5, 1906. My dear Governor Higgins: Would it be convenient for you to come down here in the course of the next few days and take lunch with me? I regard the Republican situation in New York as very serious, and I should like to talk it over with you. Sincerely yours, Theodore Roosevelt Hon. F. W. Higgins, Governor of New York, Albany, N.Y.298 Oyster Bay, N. Y., Sept. 6, 1906. Hon. Robert Becon, Acting Secretary of States, Washington, D. C. In the Stensland case, can Sultan of Morocco be asked as a matter of grace to extradite him? Then we can appoint Keeley and Olsen as our official representatives to take him in custody. Find out from the Navy and War Department if some ship is not coming home at this time on which he can be placed. I am informed that the refrigerating ship Glacier is on her way home and could be used for this purpose. This is desirable because there are some foreign powers, as for instance France, with which we have no treaty covering embezzlement, and complications might come if the man were shipped home on an ordinary steamer. I desire to go to any necessary extent in the effort to bring this man to justice. He is one of the most obnoxious type of criminals. He robbed hundreds of very poor people and is said to have caused several suicides. Theodore Roosevelt. (Official)299 [294] Oyster Bay, N. Y. , September 5, 1906. Hon. William H. Taft, Pointe au Pie, Province of Quebec, Canada. As printed, the speech reads even better than as written. It is the great speech of the campaign and I cannot imagine the people failing to recognize it as such and acting accordingly. Theodore Roosevelt. (President's private account) Oyster Bay, N. Y. , September 5, 1906. My dear General Spencer: Your telegram of the 3d instant has been received. Will you please forward to Private Simpson the enclosed letter from the President congratulating him upon his success at target practice? Very truly yours, Wm. Loeb, Jr. Secretary to the President. General Bird W. Spencer, Executive Officer, Sea Girt, New Jersey. Enclosure300 Personal Oyster Bay, N.Y., September 5, 1906. My dear Mr. Simpson: Let me congratulate you heartily upon your victory in the contest for the military championship of the United States. In a country like ours, where our regular army is of infinitesimal size, it is absolutely essential that our citizens should have in them the possibility of being turned into good soldiers, and nothing is more important toward this end than creating a high standard of marksmanship. I not only congratulate you upon your personal victory, but upon the part you are playing in bringing about this high standard of marksmanship. Faithfully yours, Theodore Roosevelt Private E. C. Simpson, Company F. 2d Regiment, Connecticut National Guard.301 151 Oyster Bay, N.Y., September 5, 1906. My dear Senator Proctor: Let me congratulate you heartily on the outcome in Vermont. Give me regards to your son. Faithfully yours, Theodore Roosevelt Hon. Redfield Proctor, U.S.S., Proctor, Vermont.302 Oyster Bay, N.Y., September 5, 1906. Dear Florence: I return herewith the “Electra.” It seems to me that Murray has rendered the play admirably. The first twenty lines are particularly good. What extraordinary people the Greeks were! I do not know whether [?] to admire the wonderful power and artistic beauty of the play, or to shrink form revolting nature of the theme. I have never been able to see that there was the slightest warrant for resenting the death of Agamemnon on the part of his son and daughter, inasmuch as that worthy gentleman had previously slain another daughter, to whose loss the brother and sister never even allude; not to mention the fact that he obtained possession of the daughter, in order to slay her, by treachery, and that he brought Cassandra home with him as his mistress. I think Clytemnestra’s sin mild indeed compared with Agamemnon’s. If It is said that the Greek judgment was influenced by303 the very different culpabilities to be attached to a man and a woman, then why should no punishment whatever be awarded to Electra for her part in the murder of her mother, in which she was really determining factor! Whereas Orestes was haunted by the Furies; Electra was promptly married [???] It was delightful having you here. Ever yours, Theodore Roosevelt Mrs. C. Grant LaFarge, Saunderstown, Rhode Island304 Oyster Bay, N.Y., September 5, 1906 Dear Paul: I doubt if I put a New York man in Duell’s place. I am rather crowding the mourners with New York appointments, anyhow. How why in the name of Heaven didn’t you let me know you were at the review? Of course it would have been not merely a great personal pleasure to me, but eminently appropriate, to have had you on the Mayflower throughout the review. I had no idea that you were on this side of the water or I should have asked you to join me. I speak with absolute exactness when I say that no man we ever had in the Navy Department has in the same length of time done as much for the navy as you did while you were Secretary.305 Can you get down here for lunch next Monday? How long a time do you want with me? If you desire some little time, come on the train leaving East 34th Street at 8:50 a.m., arriving here at 10:11. If not, come on the train leaving East 34th Street at 10:50, arriving here at 12:20. You can return at 2:26. Ever yours, Theodore Roosevelt Hon. Paul Morton, 120 Broadway, New York.305 Oyster Bay, N.Y. September 5, 1906. My dear Dr. Abbott: That is a really amusing poem and I am glad you sent it to me. I send you another letter from Fleming, which I really think is worth your while reading thru. Please return it to me. It was a great pleasure to have you out here the other day. Faithfully yours, Theodore Roosevelt Rev. Dr. Lyman Abbott, The Kneel, Cornwall-on-Hunsdon, N.Y. Enclosure306 Oyster Bay, N.Y. September 5, 1906. My dear Dr. Egan: I am greatly concerned to hear that you have been sick. I did not know it. I was laughing only the other day over your last story, and the dreadful hazards incurred by failing properly to distinguish between Pope, and a Pope, and the Pope. We have a corking naval review, and among the four unofficial guests were Dunne, and Connolly. I want them both to become champions of the Navy. With best wishes, believe me, Sincerely yours, Theodore Roosevelt Dr. Maurice Francis Egan, 2306 Nineteenth Street, N.W., Washington, D.C.307 Personal Oyster Bay, N.Y., September 5, 1906. My dear Mr. Clark: This administration has had no stouter friend than the Speaker of the House. We could not have done in the past the things you and I believe in, and we shall not continue to do them in the future, without the kind of backing that he has given us. There has been a curious combination to beat him for reelection in his district. Labor men who think that he has not gone far enough for labor, and free traders who distrust his standing for a protective tariff, and men who are disgruntled at his rugged independence, all join against him. It seems to me that not only as good Republicans but as good citizens we ought to feel that it would be a veritable calamity to have Mr. Cannon, not beaten – as I do not suppose that is possible – but not reelected by an308 increased majority, so that his influence will not be impaired. I need not say to you that it is a simple absurdity to portray him as an enemy of labor. People might just as well call him an enemy of capital because he helped pass the interstate commerce bill this year, or favored the employer’s liability bill. He is a patriotic American. He is for every man, rich or poor, capitalist or labor man, so long as he is a decent American; and he his entitled to our support because he is a patriotic man. Is there anything you can properly do to help him in his district? Sincerely yours, Theodore Roosevelt Hon. E. E. Clark, Interstate Commerce Commissioner, Washington, D.C.309 Personal Oyster Bay, N.Y., September 5, 1906. My dear Sargent: This administration has had no stouter friend than the Speaker of the House. We could not have done in the past the things you and I believe in, and we shall not continue to do them in the future, without the kind of backing that has given us. There has been a curious combination to beat him for reelection in his district. Labor men, also think that he has not gone far enough for labor, and free traders, who distrust his standing for a protective tariff, and men who are disgruntled at his rugged independence, all join against him. It seems to me that not only as good Republicans but as good citizens we ought to feel that it would be a veritable calamity to have Mr. Cannon, not beaten – as I do not suppose that is possible – but not reelected by310 an increased majority, so that his influence will not be impaired. I need not say to you that it is a simple absurdity to portray him as an enemy of labor. People might just as well call him an enemy of capital because he helped pass the interstate commerce bill this year, or favored the employers’ liability bill. He is a patriotic American. He is for every man, rich or poor, capitalist or labor man, so long as he is decent American; and he is entitled to our support because he is a patriotic man. Is there anything you can properly do to help him in his district? Sincerely yours, Theodore Roosevelt Hon. F. P. Sargent, Commissioner General of Immigration and Naturalization, Department of Commerce and Labor, Washington, D.C.311 245 Oyster Bay, N.Y., September 5, 1906. Dear Grant: Now can you give me a chimney expert. This summer we have had no trouble about the chimney smoking, although it smoked terribly before we come; but on three different occasions, the last being this morning, the wind has blown the ashes out all over the library and we really do not know quite what to do about it. Of course it is really very important to us to have the chimney in good shape. It was delightful having Florence and you here. Ever yours, Theodore Roosevelt Mr. C. Grant LaFarge, 30 East 21st Street, New York, N.Y. P. S. I send you the papers in the Point Judith matter. Please return them to me as soon as possible.312 Oyster Bay, N.Y., September 5, 1906. Dear Jim: I have your letter of the 3rd. When the report comes I shall send it to the Attorney General first. More power to your elbow. It was a great pleasure to hear from you. Ever yours, Theodore Roosevelt Hon. James R. Garfield, Commissioner of Corporations, Department of Commerce and Labor. P. S. I have received your letter of the 4th. I do not want to take any hand in that matter at all. I am very fond of Burton, as you know, and regard him as a peculiarly high-minded and able leader. I cannot313 say how I regret his action about the navy, both because of the effect of what I regard as the wrong action of so high-minded and powerful a leader, and because I have greatly at heart the navy; and also because it enables his opponents to twit him with it when he vary properly criticizes their failure to support the railroad rate and Philippine tariff bills. Didn’t Taft make a perfectly bully speech? He is not only a big man, but I think he can fairly be called a great man; and he has all the qualities of a great national leader. Your report on the Bernsdall business was very illuminating and completely settled the remaining the doubts I had.314 Personal Oyster Bay, N.Y., September 6, 1906. My dear Mr. Carnegie: I have your letter of the 27th ultimo. I shall at once go over with Mr. Root whether it is possible to make some such proposal about arbitrations as you suggest. Meanwhile I have been thinking more and more that we might at least be able to limit the size of battleships, and I should put the limit below the size of the Dreadnaught. Let the English have the two or three ships of the Dreadnaught stamp that they have already built, but let all nations agree that hereafter no ship to exceed say fifteen thousand tons shall be built. I am inclined to think that, although not a very large, this would be a very real, advance, and is possible that the powers would agree to it, for surely they must be a little appalled by going into an era of competition in size of shops. Germany,315 which, as you know, has been extremely lukewarm in all Hauge matters, might be inclined to agree with us in limiting the size of battleships because her coasts are shallow and it is a disadvantage to her to have to build large ships. With warm regards to Mrs. Carnegie, Sincerely yours, Theodore Roosevelt Mr. Andrew Carnegie, Skibo Castle, Dornoch, Sutherland, Scotland.316 178 Oyster Bay, N.Y., September 6, 1906. My dear Overstreet: Many thanks for your letter of the 4th instant. I should think that reception would be admirable, but there are two conditions: (1) I do not know who ought to start to get it up; (2) I do not know whether Root would be willing to speak offhand. As a matter of fact, he makes an extremely good offhand address, but he hates speaking and it is very hard to get him to say anything. I have been badgering him to make him go to California because I think it would be a good thing for the country if at the end of this trip he came right across from California to New York, and with the experiences all fresh in his mind told our people what they ought to know about South American neighbors. Sincerely yours, Theodore Roosevelt Hon. Jesse Overstreet, M.C., 808 Traction Terminal Building, Indianapolis, Indiana.317 Personal Oyster Bay, N.Y., September 6, 1906. My dear Straus: I think your article in answer to this attacks upon the Jews was excellent. I think the best answer, after all, my dear fellow, will be your appointment to the Cabinet and the service you are certain to render thereunder. Give my warm regards to Mrs. Straus. Faithfully yours, Theodore Roosevelt Hon. Oscar S. Straus 42 Warren Street, New York.318 [201] Oyster Bay, N. Y. , September 6, 1906. My dear Mr. Secretary: Thank you for the interesting letters of Mr. Garfield, and of yourself to Assistant Secretary Ryan. It seems to me the situation is as clear as a bell. The one point about which I felt doubtful, that is, the analog of the drilling contracts with the similar drilling contracts in the East, has been effectively cleared up, especially by Mr. Garfield's letter. The letter of Mr. Scott is very valuable also as showing at least one ulterior purpose in the present movement. You were right in telling Mr. Campbell that there is no need to hurry. I do not believe that there will be the slightest necessity of bringing the matter before the Cabinet, but it is very important that our position should not only be right but should be clearly shown to be right, and that our enemies shall not be able to say that in this movement we merely represent "the usual heedless antagonism" (as they style it) of the administration to corporations. It may be, therefore, that I shall wait until I return to Washington and then go over with you the rough draft of my answer to Senator Jones, and afterwards submit it for suggestion or improvement to the members of the Cabinet. On the other hand, this may not be necessary. In the letter I shall want to go at319 2 some length into the points raised by Senator Jones, because as he stated them, and without my having expert knowledge on the other side, there seemed to be justice as regards one or two of his positions, but with my present knowledge I think he is wrong on every point. I return you Adams' letters. You will notice, however, that Adams attacks Van Devanter as a member of the Cheyenne ring. I made Van Devanter judge largely because of the urgency of your recommendation of him and your insistence upon his honesty and capacity as shown by your intimate knowledge of him. Of course in the specific case he mentions, the Gilchrest case, [he] Adams may be right; but his letter shows that he is a mighty poor type of man. His general accusations, of course, are not be to considered in any way, where he does not back them up by a single specific instance. I earnestly hope that you will soon be able to forward me the Frantz case. It was unfortunate that it was necessary to forward additional charges [against him] to him for answer. I do not understand why the investigators on the ground could not have secured at once whatever in the way of accusation there was against him to be found. Of course the investigation will go on literally indefinitely if no limit is set within which supplementary charges can be forwarded. I regret particularly that the inevitable effect caused by the delay is to give the appearance that it is in the interest of the Flynn faction, and of course also in the interest of the Democratic opponents of the administration. Where it is necessary to undertake an investigation of this kind it is very important that it be so conducted as to inflict the minimum of hardship319 3 upon the parties accused, if they prove to be innocent. If Frantz and his people are guilty, then the damage to the Republican party is greatly increased by having us taking action against them in September or October instead of July; while if they are innocent, then the mere fact of the investigation having been so long drawn out causes an irreparable damage to the innocent accused people, and the benefit which has come in any case to the Flynn faction and to the Democrats will be unaccompanied by any benefit in getting at the guilty people. It is manifestly the purpose of the Flynn crowd and of the Democrats to drag this investigation on as late as possible for the purposes of political electioneering, and we do not want to appear to have been used as tools by politicians for their own purposes. I can not help thinking that it should have been possible for our agents to have finished the case in such shape that an immediate judgment could have been past upon it six weeks ago. I do not quite understand the rights of the correspondence you submit to me in connection with United States Attorney Burke, of Wyoming, and Mr. Hintze. On their face the letters of Messrs. Burke and Clark would show Mr. Hintze's conduct to be entirely improper, and their own conduct to have been proper. But of course there may be facts which show the contrary, which, owing to my lack of familiarity with the matter, I am not possest of. I will send all the papers to the Attorney General for consideration in connection with the other charges made against Mr. Burke, and will ask for a report from him. I appreciate fully the difficulties of enforcing the law in Wyoming, where we do not have as strong popular backing as in some other320 4 States; yet we can not accept this as in any way an excuse for Burke or any other official who has been lax in his duties. Perhaps I can get the Attorney General to send out some first-class man in whose judgment and integrity we can have absolute confidence-some such man as Robb, who can investigate the subordinates of the Department of Justice in Wyoming on the ground and give us his judgment upon them. I will see that, if necessary, every nerve of the Department of Justice is strained to secure the punishment of the land thieves in any State. The Department of Justice has achieved such striking results thru Knox's employment of Heney in Oregon that if it is necessary to employ special counsel in Wyoming I will of course do it. Equally of course I do not wish to go to such expense unless we will have some result from it. Sincerely yours, Theodore Roosevelt Hon. E.A. Hitchcock, Monadnock, New Hampshire. Enclosures321 257 Personal Oyster Bay, N.Y., September 6, 1906. Dear Moody: In forwarding those papers I send you also copies (for your own individual use and not for the Department files) of my last two letters to Secretary Hitchcock. Do look over this Wyoming matter. If there is even reasonable ground for suspicion about Burke, I wish we could send out some one to investigate him, or hire some first-rate man – by preference, of course, some one who knowns the West – to go out there and look into the whole matter as Special Attorney General. Sincerely yours, Theodore Roosevelt Hon. William H. Moody, 84 State Street, Boston, Massachusetts. Enclosures322 146 57 Oyster Bay, N.Y., September 7, 1906. Baron H. Sternburg, German Ambassador, Severly Farms, Mass. Are you coming to the yacht club affair in the fourteenth? It is not necessary for you to come, but if you can Mrs. West Roosevelt wants you to stay with her; tho she is very sorry the Baroness cannot come. THEODORE ROOSEVELT. (President’s private acct.)323 298 Oyster Bay, N.Y., September 7, 1906. My dear Mr. Secretary: By direction of the President I send you, for such comments as you wish to make thereon, the accompanying letter and enclosure from Mr. Henry W. Taft concerning Santo Domingo finances, and copy of the President’s reply to Mr. Taft. Very truly yours, Wm. Loeb Jr., Secretary to the President. Hon. Robert Bacon, Acting Secretary of State. Enclosures324 299 Oyster Bay, N.Y., September 7, 1906. My dear Taft: Bacon certainly seems to think that Speyer and Company have been well treated, and he backs up Hollander absolutely. I have sent your letter to him, with Tweed’s, for his comments. I should be very reluctant to influence the negotiations of Santo Domingo with the bankers. I shall let you know as soon as I hear from Bacon. But I do not all how it is possible for me to take further action such as you desire. Sincerely yours, Theodore Roosevelt Mr. Henry W. Taft, Pointe au Pic, Province of Quebec, Canada.325 76 Oyster Bay, N.Y., September 7, 1906. My dear Senator: I have just received your letter on behalf of Mr. Allen. My intention has been to promote a judge from the District bench to Duell’s place, and then appoint a District of Columbia man to the vacancy thus created; but before taking any action in the matter I shall see you in Washington and go over the situation with you. Will you be there some time in October? Sincerely yours, Theodore Roosevelt Hon. T. C. Platt, U.S.S., 49 Broadway, New York, N.Y.326 102 Oyster Bay, N.Y., September 7, 1906. My dear Strachey: I have your letter of the 29th ultimo and thoroughly agree with all you say. I need hardly repeat how earnestly I am for peace, but that I am for peace only when it is identical with justice – never when it is the alternative to justice. But it is a lamentable thing to see how many educated people whom civilization and education together have made anemic grow to shudder at whatever is really robust, and become fairly hysterical in denunciation of the manlier virtues and of whatever tends towards effective national defense; while it is not less lamentable to see the way in which the hideous trait of regarding the achievement of wealth as the only legitimate and of ambition, tends to make the so-called successful man a man with nothing whatever but the money touch, and therefore fit for nothing higher,327 [inverted] whether in war, politics, art, science or literature. I know not whether I most object to downright corruption; or to the sordid “business” sentiment which treats wealth as the be-all and end-all of life; or to the weak and mushy sentimentalism which refuses to face facts and advises timidity as a principle. When you come over here I want you to be with us in the White House because much tho I should love to have you here in the country, I would have no chance to bring you in contact with certain men whom I would desire to have you meet. We shall be back in Washington by the 1st of October, so that we can have you visit us during that month. I heartily congratulate you upon General French’s comments on your experimental company at Aldershot. Faithfully yours, Theodore Roosevelt Mr. J. St. Loe Strachey, The Spectator, 1 Wellington Street, Strand, London, W.C., England.328 271 Oyster Bay, N.Y., September 7, 1906. My dear Sir: I have your letter of the 4th instant concerning General Mindil. That is a really sad case and it is indeed distressing to have to take such action against a veteran with such a record. Yet I see absolutely no alternative to the course you propose. It seems to me that the vacancy should be filled, if possible, by getting Fowler to recommend to you some competent man in his office, in preference to taking an outsider. Sincerely yours, Theodore Roosevelt Hon. L. M. Shaw, Secretary of the Treasury.329 324 Oyster Bay, N.Y., September 7, 1906. Dear Will: Nick will write you shortly about the attitude of the Roosevelt Club in Cincinnati. Apparently this club shows symptoms of going the way that such reform organizations so often go, and of assuming an utterly preposterous position. I do not know whether you can do anything to keep them steered decently straight, but if you can I hope you will. Always yours, Theodore Roosevelt Hon. William H. Taft, Pointe au Pic, Province of Quebec, Canada. P.S. In making that appointment of Panama Minister, I think I shall have to consider the general situation as330 well as this particular Panama appointment. I do not think Sands is yet in line for promotion. Anyhow, that can wait until I see you in October. Will you look over the enclosed letter from Congressman Brooks? Phil Stewart is a perfect trump, and if he is nominated I wish you could speak for him. Incidentally, I should particularly like to have you make a speech in one of the Rocky Mountain States – for reasons some of which I need not name. Enclosure331 Oyster Bay, Sept. 9. Carter, Honolulu. Approved. Roosevelt. (Official)332 Personal Oyster Bay, N.Y., September 8, 1906. My dear Congressman: Many thanks for your kind letter. My desire has been, of course, as you naturally would suppose, not to take any part in connection with the election of delegates to any State Convention. This is late Saturday afternoon. Your convention begins next Tuesday. I am absolutely at a loss how to issue any order at this very late date which would have the slightest effect upon the conduct of the office-holders. I need hardly say, my dear Congressman, how much I appreciate the goodwill you have shown me. If you had given me the name of any office-holders, or even any general statement, a little earlier than this, I should have been glad to have issued directions that the office- holders were not in any shape or way to use their offices to control the delegates to the convention, and333 that any office-holder might [cast] his individual vote as he saw fit without jeopardy. For instance, in the case of Mr. Leach, he may rest assured that I shall not permit him to be jeoparded for the reasons you give; that is, for a failure to respond to demands for his activity by any politicians, or because he is to be held responsible for obtaining a delegation for anyone. At this very late day I do not see what action, save as above indicated, I can [well] take, or how it would be possible for me to get information on which to act. Sincerely yours, Theodore Roosevelt Hon. T. E. Burton, M.C., Cleveland, Ohio.334 Oyster Bay, N.Y., September 8, 1906. My dear Bonaparte: All right; if you and Evans and Converse, in addition to Newbury, feel that the trail should go on, I have nothing to say. All that has caused me concern is the fear lest if the court-martial is ordered on any but ample grounds, it may result in making the captains very timid in the management of their ships. Wasn’t the review a great success? Faithfully yours, Theodore Roosevelt Hon. Charles J. Bonaparte, Secretary of the Navy, Washington, D.C. (over)335 P.S. I have your letter of the 8th and enclosures. All right; appoint Rogers Paymaster General. I have followed your draft in preparing the letter to Harris, and shall sent it to you to hand to him after you announce the appointments of Rogers, which should not be until after the Maine elections. The three man who have been turned down on account of defective hearing will have to be kept out of the Academy. We cannot admit one without admitting all such cases.336 Oyster Bay, N.Y., September 8, 1906. My dear Mr. Bede: I have your letter of the 6th instant. The trouble is that so many Congressmen ask me to write individual letters (two other requests have come in the mail with yours) that it is evident that I shall have to refuse to write any individual letter or else I shall have to write one for every Congressman, which of course would be ridiculous and do harm and not good. Don’t you think that my letter to Mr. Watson covered the case. That was a letter written to help in the election of a Republican Congress, and that of course means to help in the election of each nominee of a Congressional Republican convention. How could I be more definite than I was in that letter?337 Believe me, that I hate to seem churlish and not to respond to a personal appeal, but I am sure you will understand how impossible it is for me to respond to one and not to others, and that if I responded to all it would simply turn the whole matter into a jest. With regard, Faithfully yours, Theodore Roosevelt Hon. J. Adam Bede, M.C., Duluth, Minnesota.338 Oyster Bay, N.Y., September 8, 1906. My dear Mr. Brownlow: I have your letter of the 6th instant. The trouble is that so many Congressmen ask me to write individual letters (two other requests have come in the mail with yours) that it is evident that I shall have to refuse to write any individual letter or else I shall have to write one for every Congressman, which of course would be ridiculous and do harm and not good. Don’t you think that my letter to Mr. Watson covered the case. That was a letter written to help in the election of a Republican Congress, and that of course means to help in the election of each nominee of a Congressional Republican convention. How could I be more definite than I was in the letter?339 Believe me, that I hate to seem churlish and not to respond to a personal appeal, but I am sure you will understand how impossible it is for me to respond to one and not to others, and that if I responded to all it would simply turn the whole matter into a jest. With regard, Faithfully yours, Theodore Roosevelt Hon. W. P. Brownlow, M.C., Jonesboro, Tenn.340 Personal Oyster Bay, N.Y., September 8, 1906. My dear Mr. Torrey: Of course I am much amused by your letter. It was what some of classic friends would call “good fooling.” The New York Sun has been most amusing about the whole matter. Sincerely yours, Theodore Roosevelt Mr. George A. Torrey, Boston and Maine Railroad, 11 Pemberton Square, Boston.341 191 Personal Oyster Bay, N.Y., September 8, 1906. My dear Mr. Speaker: Will you look over this letter from Sargent and then return it to me? My own view is that Sargent could not do anything on the stump for you in your district. The ordinary labor people distrust the railroad men at best, and they especially distrust the railroad man who is in office. Let me know if you feel differently. Faithfully yours, Theodore Roosevelt, Hon. J. G. Cannon, Danville, Illinois. Enclosure342 Oyster Bay, N.Y., September 8, 1906. My dear Mr. Joy: It was a pleasure to hear from you and to sign the photograph. Good luck to Harvard ’81 from Harvard ’80. Sincerely yours, Theodore Roosevelt Mr. Fred Joy, 95 Milk Street, Boston. Enclosure343 Oyster Bay, N.Y., September 8, 1906. 271 My dear Mr. Secretary: Would not you find it possible, after speaking in Kansas City on the 18th, to visit Colorado? They are very anxious to have your, and they say it will be a close and ugly fight for Governor. There are three Congressman to be elected from Colorado, and if the fight for Governor is close, it means that the fight for the Congressman will be close. I very earnestly hope you can see your way to getting out there. Will you communicate with Congressman F.E. Brooks at Colorado Springs, Colorado? That is an admirable letter of yours to Sherman. Evidently your action on the money business had an excellent effect.344 Do speak in Texas and Colorado, and if you get a chance to speak elsewhere in the South I feel that it would be most admirable missionary work. As you say, it won’t count much in 1906, but it is mighty valuable for 1916. Faithfully yours, Theodore Roosevelt Hon. L. M. Shaw, Secretary of the Treasury.345 Oyster Bay, N.Y., September 8, 1906. Personal. My dear Mr. Markley: I thank you for that volume, and I am very much pleased that you should have issued it. And, my dear sir, I am really touched by what you say in the preface. Believe me, I appreciate it. Sincerely yours, Theodore Roosevelt Mr. Horace Markley, The Allendale Press, Allendale, N.J.346 Oyster Bay, N.Y., September 8, 1906. Dear Clifford: I am sincerely obliged to you for that address of Washburn. It is not only interesting but will be of real use to me. Faithfully yours, Theodore Roosevelt Mr. Clifford Richardson, Long Island City, N.Y.347 Oyster Bay, N.Y., September 8, 1906. Dear Billy: I am delighted at the good news and congratulate you most heartily. All I object to, my dear fellow, is your having waited so long. But I know of Miss Whitney, so I am well prepared to believe that she was well worth waiting for. May I ask that you convey to her my regards? Again conveying to you my congratulations, I am, Faithfully yours, Theodore Roosevelt Mr. William T. Blodgett, Northeast Harbor, Mt. Desert, Maine.348 Personal Oyster Bay, N.Y., September 8, 1906. My dear General Bingham: Will you look over the enclosed, which please treat as confidential and return to me? While I am a friend of Parsons, I need hardly say that if you are called upon to act I should earnestly hope that you would to the full, as relentlessly follow up any thug who took action on the Parsons side as any thug who took action on the Quigg side. But if you are called upon to interfere, all I should ask is (and, my dear General, with you it is really needless to ask it) that you show all ruffian s guilty of any of the threats or acts complained of, not matter on whose side, that they will be sternly required to observe the law. Sincerely yours, Theodore Roosevelt General Theodore A. Bingham, Police Commissioner, New York.349 Oyster Bay, N.Y., September 8, 1906. My dear Griscom: In your letter you tell me just what I wished to know, and you have given me a vivid picture of the effect Root produced. I heartily thank you for it. With warm regards to Mrs. Griscom, Faithfully yours, Theodore Roosevelt Hon. Lloyd C. Griscom, The American Ambassador, Petropolis, Brazil.350 318 Oyster Bay, N.Y., September 8, 1906. My dear Mr. Hitchcock: I am rather puzzled by the report of Inspector O’Fallon on the Register and Receiver of the Land Office at Boise, Idaho and by the statements in reference thereto by Acting Secretary Ryan, and Acting Commissioner Pollock. The Inspector, Mr. O’Fallon says that the officials in their official conduct have acted uprightly and honestly and that they ought not to be removed, but that it should be officially announced that they ought not to be reappointed. Acting Commissioner Pollock agrees with this suggestion, whereas Acting Secretary Ryan feels as you do, that they should be removed. I also feel that they ought to be removed. Whatever may be the technical interpretation of Section 452 of the Revised Statutes, it351 seems to me that it was morally binding upon these two officials not to let their views make entries. It prohibits them from directly or indirectly or indirectly purchasing or becoming interested in the purchase of any of the public lands. It certainly seems to me that even considering the facts that the wives vote and have separate property, it yet remains true that for the wife to purchase public land does convey to the husband at least an indirect interest in it. Such being the case I think their resignations should be requested. Do you think it would be worth while waiting until we get back to Washington three weeks hence, when we can go over the matter with the land office? Sincerely yours, Theodore Roosevelt Hon. E. A. Hitchcock Monadnock, New Hampshire. Enclosures352 247 Oyster Bay, N.Y. September 8, 1906. My dear General Bell: I have read with the utmost interest General Funston’s letter, and with only less interest the memorandum on the reorganization of the Chinese Army. Both are very important for us, and the former may (though I most earnestly hope not) have an immediate interest for us. I reenclose them. With hearty regard, Sincerely yours, Theodore Roosevelt Brigadier General J.F. Bell, Chief of Staff, U.S. Army, Washington, D.C. Enclosures353 251 Oyster Bay, N.Y., September 10, 1906. Dear Mrs. Jones: I liked your letter; but don’t you think we are nearer together than you believe? Of course I can not help even so staunch a supporter as the editor of the Bangor Commercial thinking that my letter to Stillings (which was itself the order) must by some inscrutable process of reasoning be taken to mean that I ?without? [*meant*] to rescind the order; but if you will read the simplified spelling pamphlet issued for the use of the Government Departments, which I enclose, and think over what I have really said in my letter, I believe you will see that I do not intend to be more than a very slight help, instead of a hindrance, in the process of “quiet erosion” of what it undesirable. As for your regret about the English attitude, I am afraid I cannot take our good friends across the water354 quite as seriously as you do. Of course they won’t read my letter to Stillings; but if they did I fail to see how they would find very much seriously to object to, and such objection, frankly, I should regard merely as a reflection on their own good [?] Sincerely yours, Theodore Roosevelt Mrs. Mary Cadwallader Jones, Reef Point, Bar Harbor, Maine.355 Oyster Bay, N.Y., September 10, 1906. My dear Comrade: I am in receipt of your letter of the 6th instant and return the enclosure. I find that your Grand Army are apt to be mighty good Americans. I find that the Methodists ministers are apt to be mighty good Americans. When you combine both in one person he is dead sure to be a first-class American; and so I particularly appreciate your letter. With regards and good wishes, Faithfully yours, Theodore Roosevelt Rev. J. Williams, Pastor M.E. Church Belle Center, Logan Country, Ohio.356 322 Oyster Bay, N.Y., September 10, 1906. Dear Speck: That is a most interesting pamphlet, and your letter is still more interesting. I distrust the tendency to go exclusively to big guns. I think you are quite right not to come here at the time those yachtsmen come here. I will give them a little lunch, present the cup, and do all that is necessary. Hebbinghaus is the right man to be here. Sincerely yours, Theodore Roosevelt Our officers report, [?] the Chinese army field [?], that its improvement in all soldiers is marvelous; that many of the officers do not show to[o] much advantage; that though China is glad now to be tutored by Japan, it has no intentions whatever of permitting this state of pupilage to be permanent. Baron. H. Sternburg, The German Ambassador, Beverly Farms, Massachusetts.357 334 Oyster Bay, N.Y., September 10, 1906. My dear Admiral Converse: Will you bring quietly before the General Board this letter of Ambassador Sternburg and the accompanying article in the French “Maniteur de la Flotte” by the Italian Naval Constructor? I wish you would go over it in connection with information we may have as to the effect of the intermediate Japanese batteries on the Russian ships in the Sea of Japan battle. I am not at all sure that the destructive effect to the personnel of the five- and six-inch guns is something that we can safely disregard in eliminating these guns from our batteries. At any rate I want the most careful judgement on the matter from the General Board. Have you seen Mahan's article on the Russian-Japanese War in which he touches on this very point? Sincerely yours, Theodore Roosevelt Rear Admiral George A. Converse, U.S.N., Chief of the Bureau of Navigation, Navy Department. Enclosure358 334 Oyster Bay, N.Y., September 10, 1906. My dear Mr. Secretary: I enclose herewith the letter which the President was to sign and send to the Paymaster General of the Navy thru you. Very truly yours, Wm. Loeb Jr., Secretary to the President. Hon. Charles J. Bonaparte, Secretary of the Navy, Washington, D.C. Enclosure.359 334 Oyster Bay, N.Y., September 10, 1906. My dear Mr. Paymaster General: Officers on the retired list are entitled to the rest and liberty accorded them by law in return for their long and valuable service, unless peculiar circumstances demand from them continued active service in the public interest. It was the opinion of Secretary Morton and also of Secretary Bonaparte that such circumstances existed in your case, and you merit my thanks and due appreciation from the public for your willingness on two successive occasions to continue the discharge of your present onerous duties. Immediately after the recent naval review the Secretary of the Navy submitted to me, in accordance with my orders, a personal report as to a suitable officer to relieve you. He informed me that, having obtained, as I desired him to do, your own views in the matter, you had recommended any one among three of the pay directors for this purpose, and that upon the strength of this recommendation and as the result of a very careful consideration on his part of all officers of the corps who could reasonably be thought of in this connection, whether candidates for the position or not, he had decided to advise the choice of one of the three, namely, Pay Director Eustace B. Rogers, U.S.N., as your successor. After a full conference with the Secretary, I reached the same conclusion which he had announced, and, as Mr. Rogers was not a formal applicant for the position, directed an inquiry as to his willingness to accept it.360 2 I learn that he will accept, and have therefore authorized the Secretary of the Navy to announce his selection. Before this should be done, however, I wisht to write you personally, informing you in advance of the public of the action upon which I had decided, and expressing my satisfaction with the administration of your office. I may add that I have been especially gratified to learn, through the Secretary, of the energetic and efficient measures which you took to secure satisfactory results in connection with the food of the enlisted men at several of our naval stations during the present summer. The Secretary of the Navy mentioned November 1st next as the approximate date when it would be probably most convenient for the new Paymaster General to take charge of the bureau. I suggest therefore that you let your resignation take effect on that date. It is, however, my desire, as well as that of the Secretary, that you remain on active duty as president of the board representing the pay corps in connection with the pending inquiry as to legislation affecting the commissioned personnel of the navy until that board shall have completed its duty, which may continue, I am informed, until the meeting of Congress. Sincerely yours, Theodore Roosevelt Rear Admiral H.T.B. Harris, U.S.N., Retired, Paymaster General U.S. Navy, Washington, D.C.361 87 Private Oyster Bay, N.Y., September 9, 1906. My dear Sir George: I was very sorry to learn from your letter of the death of your sister. Pray accept my deep sympathy. I am ashamed to have been the cause of making you write a long letter at such a time. But I want to thank you for giving me the first clear idea I have had as to the reason why so many Englishman whose judgment I respect distrust Balfour. To me, levity and cynicism in a public man seem well-nigh as objectionable as corruption itself. The man who regards politics merely as a game is but one degree less noxious to his country than the man who attempts to make something out of his public life for his own personal advantage. Last winter I re-read the Phineas Finn series of Trollope's novels, and it seemed to me that they, perhaps unconsciously, gave a rather startlingly clear exposition of the reasons why a government of well-educated gentlemen, of good social standing, some of them rich and none of them in actual poverty, but few of them having any real convictions or feeling deeply upon subjects vital to the welfare of the country, may be at bottom as objectionable as, altho superficially much more agreeable than, a body of demagogs or corruptionists. Every sober-minded public man who takes his responsibilities seriously must heartily agree with Gladstone and Peel in their abhor-362 2 horance of a policy which, for the sake of temporary political advantage, lightheartedly abandons the effort to make outgo average less than income. This year, thank Heaven, I got thru with twenty-eight millions to the good, which just balances up for the preceding year. For my five years I am well ahead and would be still further ahead if we had not paid fifty millions for the Panama canal out of our annual income instead of issuing bonds, which, considering that it is a permanent investment, I should have preferred to do. I am a good deal concerned as to the practical method of putting a stop to the expense incident to the increase of armaments. I should bitterly regret seeing England or America left at the mercy of any great military despotism, or unable to check any military barbarian. I have no sympathy with those who fear to fight in a just cause, and who are not willing to prepare so that they can at need fight effectively. But neither have I any sympathy with those who would lightly undergo the chance of war in a a spirit of mere frivolity, or of mere truculence, and I hate to see the budgets of civilized nations burdened with constantly increasing cost [on vieing] because they vie with one another in the matter of armaments. I recognize the great difficulty of coming to an agreement as to their limitations; but it does seem to me that it would be possible to come to some agreement as to the size of ships. If we could agree that hereafter no battleship of say over fifteen thousand tons should be built, I do not believe that it would result in any more battleships being built than if the limit were not agreed to, and the363 3 result would be a great diminution in expense. At the moment I am concerned in foreign matters over two things- Newfoundland and Cuba. The difficulty in Newfoundland is one to which both the British Empire and the United States are specially liable- the fact that one is a federal republic and the other a federal empire, and that therefore the central government is at times [?????] to be greatly worried by the actions of some local government in international affairs. When the Italians were lynched at New Orleans, for instance, this Government found itself responsible to the Italian Government for what had been done by citizens when it could in no way control. We finally paid as a matter of grace a large sum to the Italian Government, which was the proper thing to do; and I am as a matter of principle, sorry to say that the lynching had a most healthy effect in a local situation which was becoming unendurable. But the affair illustrated the difficulty in which this Government might at any time find itself because of an outrage committed by some one State as regards a foreign power. So it is in regard to the Newfoundland matter. The Newfoundland Legislature has past[sic] acts as regards our fishermen which practically nullify the treaty advantages conferred upon them by the British Government. I have far too keen a sense of our own limitations as a national government to fail to recognize similar limitations in Great Britain; but I am really at my wits'[sic] end how to combine showing this consideration [while] with at the same time not abandoning the interests of our fishermen. In Cuba, what I have dreaded has come to pass in the shape of a revolt or revolution. We of course kept everything straight and decent 364 - 4 - in the island while we were running the government, and for the four years that it has been independent the push that we gave enabled them to go on along the same path. Now a revolution has broken out, and not only do I dread the lose of life and property, but I dread the creation of a revolutionary habit, and the creation of a class of people who take to disturbance and destruction as an exciting and pleasant business, steadily, althe intermittently, to be followed. In confidence I tell you that I have just been notified by the Cuban Government that they intend to ask us forcibly to intervene in the course of this week, and I have sent them a most emphatic protest against their doing so, with a statement that I am not prepared to say what I will do if the request is made. On the one hand we can not permanently see Cuba a prey to misrule and anarchy; on the other hand I loathe the thought of assuming any control over the island such as we have over Porto Rico and the Philippines. We emphatically do not want it; and the nothing but direct need could persuade us to take it, once that we did so we should firmly convince most nations that really we had been intriguing to put ourselves in possession of it. As a matter of fact, what I have been ardently hoping for has been not that we should have to reduce Cuba to the position of the Philippines, but that the Philippines would make such progress that we could put them in the position of Cuba. All this is of course for your private eye and represents merely the fact that I have to blow off steam by making a wail to somebody365 5 I guess I can work it out all right somehow, but I do not yet quite see how. Don't you like Murray's translation of the "Electra"? It was sent me two or three days ago, and it reminded me somewhat of Fitzgerald's paraphrase of the "Agamemnon," which I re-read in consequence. Sincerely yours, Theodore Roosevelt Sir George Otto Trevelyan Wellington, Cambo, Northumberland, England.366 Personal Oyster Bay, N.Y., September 10, 1906. My dear Abbott: I have your letter of the 9th instant. I do not see what power I have in the premises. I can not step the board or avert the threatened wrong, whatever it may be. The only way I can suggest is to apply for an injunction. I have felt that the President ought to have been given absolute power, which he would exercise of course in delegated shape to handle the schools as well as to handle local government of the District of Columbia. Congress, however, is always jealous of the executive authority, and as you know is heartily encouraged therein by the man loudest in their professions for good government. Accordingly, Congress conferred the appointment of the board in the judiciary – always, in my judgement, an367 undesirable proceedings. The President has no power whatever in the matter save in the way of recommendations to Congress. All that I could do would be, if a sufficient case was brought before me, to bring the matter to the attention of Congress. Sincerely yours, Theodore Roosevelt Mr. Earnest Hamlin Abott, Cornwall-on-Hudson, N.Y. 368 [298] Personal Oyster Bay, N. Y. , September 10, 1906. Dear Bob: I am more and more imprest by your suggestion about Root, the I greatly wish we could have an hour's talk with him before he went to Cuba. If he could stop in Havana and make a serious address to the people, calling attention to the fact that those who bring about revolution and disturbance are in reality doing their best to secure the intervention and domination of the United States and are in the profoundest way unpatriotic to the cause of Cuban independence, he might accomplish a great deal. It may be impossible to wait, however, until he can get there, and when you come here next Saturday or Sunday we will have to consider whether it is not desirable for me in some shape or way, whether in a formal letter to the Cuban Congress or otherwise, to speak a solemn warning stating that we do not want to intervene, but that they will leave we no alternative if they reduce the country to a condition of revolutionary anarchy. It may be that such a warning would make some of the revolutionists pause. In any event it would clear our skirts. Cannot you wire to Steinhart to tell Palms to use in the most effective fashion all the resources at his command to quell the 369 revolt? Sleeper is evidently a wretched and worthless creature; and Morgan needs to be told that he has mist[sic] the great chance of his diplomatic life by not being on the spot. At the first symptom of disturbance in Cuba he should have been hurrying to his post. I send you the enclosed from Steinhart, which please look thru carefully, and treat it as confidential. Steinhart is wrong about immediate intervention; but it may be worth while considering whether an emphatic warning to the people of Cuba as to what revolutionary disturbances will surely entail in the way of intervention would be a good thing. I will speak to you about this next Saturday. Meanwhile cable to Steinhart for his private information that it would be out of the question for us to intervene at this time; but that we are considering whether or not to send a word of emphatic warning as to the certainty that intervention will come in the end unless the people are able to patch up their difficulties and live in peace. Let him convey this confidentially to Palms, but not publish it. Let him, however, publish the authorized statement that the article in La Lucha purporting to give a statement by the Herald as to my view on the Cuban situation is without one particle of foundation and represents simply a tissue of deliberate and malicious inventions. Sincerely yours, Theodore Roosevelt per Wm L Jr Hon. Robert Bacon, Acting Secretary of State. Enclosure.370 Oyster Bay, N.Y., September 10, 1906. My dear Mr. Gilman: I would gladly do as you suggest were it not for the fact that I am asked to subscribe to so many worthy causes and for monuments to so many worthy men that I have to simply decline to do it in any one case because I should hurt the feelings of people in other cases. I have done in this case what counted for a great deal more than a subscription; I have been securing action by the Government authorities in the matter, having been in communication with Dr. Abbott, and now intend to communicate the matter to Congress. This will achieve your purpose without exposing me to the difficulty I would have if I contribute to one and do not contribute to other worthy objects. With great regard, believe me, Sincerely yours, Theodore Roosevelt Mr. Daniel C. Gildman, Northeast Harbor, Maine.371 Oyster Bay, N.Y., September 10, 1906. My dear Lady Stafford: I have just received the grouse and I want to thank you most heartily for them. If you an Mr. Kennard stop in Washington, do let me know so that we may have the pleasure of seeing you. Sincerely yours, Theodore Roosevelt Cora, Countess of Stafford, Ballston Spa, N.Y.372 368 Oyster Bay, N.Y., September 11, 1906. Bacon, Acting Secretary State, Washington. The matter of the letter is very serious. If I decide to send it at all I shall want your frank judgment on the style and shall send it to you and possibly also to Taft in cipher tomorrow. Meanwhile announce tomorrow that the ships have gone to protect American interests and also notify Quesada as you suggest, [???] that there be no more outrages on American property or persons; and make public this announcement together with the news about the ships tomorrow. THEODORE ROOSEVELT. (Official)373 350 Oyster Bay, N.Y., September 11, 1906. My dear Mr. Secretary: There is a further matter I wish to speak about in connection with the oil business. As well as I can now remember, of all the complaints made it seems to me that the only one for which there was any justification was that, in connection with the form of the contracts. Reputable people are protesting to me that while they were delighted to sing a contract with any fixed conditions, they objected to singing a contract where the party of either part was permitted to vary condition in any fashion he choose. Of course there may be nothing in this complaint at all, but I would like to know the facts. Will you please send me the forms of contracts? Sincerely yours, Theodore Roosevelt Hon. E. A. Hitchcock, Monadnock, New Hampshire.374 Oyster Bay, N.Y., September 11, 1906. Sir: I hereby appoint you a member of the United States Geographical Board as the representative of the Forest Service, Department of Agriculture. Theodore Roosevelt Mr. Overton W. Price, Associate Forester, Department of Agriculture.375 Oyster Bay, N.Y., September 11, 1906. My dear Senator Cockrell: That is first class. I can not make a suggestion to improve what the Interstate Commerce Commission is doing, and I am mightily pleased at the way you are going about it. With high regard, Sincerely yours, Theodore Roosevelt Hon. F. M. Cockrell, Interstate Commerce Commission, Washington, D.C.376 292 Personal Oyster Bay, N.Y., September 11, 1906. My dear Mr. Secretary: You are handling those packing men exactly right. I am greatly pleased, and thank you for telling me what you have done. I am concerned as to what you say as to the Congressional situation even in Iowa. We have some unfortunate issues to meet. Prohibition in Maine had nothing to do with the national Republican party, yet it caused us a mighty unpleasant time in getting our four Congressman. In Iowa you know the causes of our trouble even better than I do. In Illinois it will simply be the sagging back after the phenomenal victory of two years ago. In Ohio it is the fight against the Senators in the rank and file of the party. It is a similar fight against Penrose in Pennsylvania. In New York it is a general discontent, and above all a bitter fight against Platt and Odell. After all, while these are the only local mat-377 matters, we in the general government will suffer. In addition, I do not think that Congress was quite wise in their treatment of the labor people. After Gompers issued his circular attacking Congressmen it was too late to do anything but make a resolute fight; but I think more wisdom on the part of Speaker Cannon and the Labor Committee in Congress would have averted a good deal of this trouble. It is a bad business to solidify labor against us. I need hardly tell you that I believe in refusing any unjust demand of labor just as quickly as I would refuse any unjust demand of capital; but great care should be taken when assuming a position antagonistic to labor on one point to make it clear as a bell that we are not as a whole antagonistic, but friendly, to labor. Sincerely yours, Theodore Roosevelt Hon. James Wilson, Secretary of Agriculture, Washington, D.C.378 Oyster Bay, N.Y., September 11, 1906. My dear Mr. Schneebeli: I have your letter of the 10th instant. The trouble is that so many Congressmen ask me to write individual letters that it is evident that I shall have to refuse to write any individual letter or else I shall have to write one of every Congressman, which of course would be ridiculous and do harm and not good. Don’t you think that my letter to Mr. Watson covered the case? That was a letter written to help in the election of a Republican Congress, and that of course means to help in the election of each nominee of a Congressional Republican convention. How could I be more definite than I was in that letter! It showed on its face that it was a letter not specially for Mr. Watson but for the whole Republican Congress.379 Believe me, that I hate to seem churlish and not to respond to a personal appeal, but I am sure you will understand how impossible it is for me to respond to one and not to others, and that if I responded to all it would simply turn the whole matter into a jest. With regard, Faithfully yours, Theodore Roosevelt Hon. G .A. Schneebeli, M.C., Nazareth, Penna.380 326 Personal Oyster Bay, N.Y. September 11, 1906. My dear Strachey: I thought your article in the Spectator anent my spelling order contained so much that is good that I want to write you to say that I think you hardly realize what my action itself was. I send you herewith a pamphlet showing just what was done. With nine-tenths of your article I am not only heartily in agreement, but in such agreement that I would be quite content to rest the justification for what I have done upon it, for you will see that I have done but very, very little! I am rather amused, however, to find that you are prepared to go further than I am on certain points, and yet suddenly revolt at such a word as "program", which has practically been adopted here in America. You suggest an international conference, and say that my action will not have as much effect as would the summoning of such a conference. Most assuredly it won't, because my action was not anything like as strong as the action of summoning a conference would be. I do not regard the time yet as ripe for a conference. I firmly believe that the great majority of the changes that I have authorized will by the middle of the present century be regular, ordinary, commonplace English. Doubtless there will be a few which the public will from reason or caprice reject; and their decision will necessarily be final in the long run.381 2 I was not trying to dictate to anyone I was trying to do what I could in aid of what seemed to me a proper movement of a body of scholars by adopting, not words that I personally had picked out, but words that they had [personally] picked out as being those which were in process of change at the moment, and [where] as affording examples as to which it would be wise to have the changed furthered. Personally I would not have picked out all the words they chose; but I did not feel like exercising any independent judgement of my own in the matter, just because I did not want to seem to dictate. There are Englishmen, like Professor Skeat and Dr. Murray, who will agree with me in this matter, just as there are Americans, like Professor Lounsbury and President Butler, who will agree with me - Professor Lounsbury being without exception the greatest and most profound scholar we have on this side of the water; and no Englishman can object to what i have done with more rabid ferocity than many Americans do - a ferocity which certainly does not irritate me, and which, frankly I can say hardly even amuses me. Faithfully yours, Theodore Roosevelt Mr. J. St. Loe Strachey, The Spectator, 1 Wellington Street, Strand, London, W.C., England.382 349 Personal Oyster Bay, N.Y., September 11, 1906. My dear Shaw: That is a mighty strong letter of yours. I have sent it to Hill and asked him to return it when he has read it, and it may be that I shall submit it to several of our tariff reform friends, especially from Massachusetts-that is, on the supposition that you do not object. I am not prepared to say that I entirely agree with you, but I do not see how the stand-pat position could be put with greater force and clearness or in more convincing shape; and I do entirely agree with you that it is nonsense to expect any action whatever prior to the next Presidential election. The one question about the tariff where I would be most inclined to differ with you is that referring to the popular feeling. Beveridge, for instance, writes me that what he calls the "Joe Cannon and Congressional Committee attitude" on the tariff is a damage, and that our people can not stand it. As Tom Reed so admirably put it, there is a great tendency in every "deestrick" to believe in the unmade tariff law. I think this year the issue can be met simply by not saying "stand pat" in an offensive way; that is, by expressing a willingness to revise the tariff whenever it is necessary, but at the same time cautioning people against jeopardizing our general prosperity by such383 2 a revision until they are absolutely convinced that it is necessary. In my own judgment, at the time of the next Presidential campaign we shall have to commit ourselves to revising the tariff, because I think popular sentiment will demand it; and moreover, there is some justification for the view that after twelve years it is a good thing to have the schedules looked over. If, for instance, what some steel men say is true, namely, that a heavy cut could be made in steel duties with absolutely no effect, it should be done, if only for the look of the thing. I got the agricultural implement makers-that is, those western reciprocity people, to agree not to try to do anything this year; but they say they are perfectly willing to have a cut on their own implements and warned me fairly that after this Congressional campaign was over they should begin a serious fight for revision-a fight which of course will need to be taken into account in connection with our attitude in 1908. All of this is of importance only if we carry the House. If the Democrats carry the House nobody can tell what shape the fight will take. Now, a word as to my pet iniquity, the coinage, which I am getting Saint Gaudens to start. I am afraid I shall have some difficulty with the Mint people, who are insisting that they can not [make] cut the coins as deep as they should be made. I enclose you a specimen, and I direct that Mr. Barber have the dies made as Saint Gaudens, with my authority, presents them. Mr. Barber is quoted as saying that they could not384 3 [make] cut them as deep as this. We then applied to Tiffany and Gorham, the two great silversmiths and jewelers of New York. Mr. Kunz of Tiffany, and Mr. Buck of Gorham's, at once stated that their houses could without difficulty at a single stroke make a cut as deep as this. Mr. Barber must at once get into communication with Tiffany and Gorham, unless he is prepared to make such a deep impression without such consultation. Will you find out from him how long it will take, when the full casts of the coins are furnished you by Saint Gaudens, to get out the first of the new coins-that is, the twenty-dollar gold piece, which is the one I have most at heart? All I want to know from Mr. Barber is how long it will take to make them, and the cost; and if there is likely to be a long delay and seemingly too much expense I shall want him to communicate with Messrs. Buck and Kunz. But if he has to communicate with them I should regard it as rather a black eye for the Mint and a confession of inferiority on their part to Tiffany and Gorham. Will you communicate all this to the Mint people? Sincerely yours, Theodore Roosevelt Hon. L.M. Shaw, Secretary of the Treasury, Washington, D.C. Enclosure 385 358 Personal Oyster Bay, N.Y., September 12, 1906 My dear Bonaparte: If Walker’s case is the same as that of young Matthews, of course you have no alternative but to treat it in the same way. I shall hold up the appointment of Deputy Surveyor Campbell until after election, and then you and I can decide what should be done. I have written to Hanna, as you suggested. Handle the Louisiana and Tennessee business just as you propose. I am more and more inclined to think that I will go down on the Connecticut, if she can be made ready, and let Taft take the Louisiana. Faithfully yours, Theodore Roosevelt, Hon. Charles J. Bonaparte, Secretary of the Navy.386 321 Oyster Bay, N.Y., September 12, 1906. Personal. Dear Moody: The enclosed letter and clippings explain themselves. For some weeks I have been hearing that Fagin has been behaving so badly as to make it probable he is a little out of his head. If there is any color for removing him I wish to remove him at once. That he ought to be removed there is not the slightest shadow of doubt; and if there is any technical reason whatever I wish to take advantage of it unless the ethical reasons are so overwhelming. Sincerely yours, Theodore Roosevelt Hon. William H. Moody, Attorney General, 84 State Street, Boston, Mass. Enclosures. Enclosure is a letter from Representative Longworth recommending removal of the United States Marshall Fagin.387 376 Oyster Bay, N.Y., September 12, 1906. My dear Secretary Wilson: Mr. Thomas E. Wilson will call upon you in reference to certain protests he has to make as to the particular kind of label on canned goods for export in three cases. I of course do not know what may be said on the other side, and I wish you to write me with entire freedom and frankness and accept what I am about to say as being merely my impressions of the case as it strikes me at the moment. Mr. Wilson's first complaint is that of being required to leave off the word "Bologna" from sausages, on the ground that it is not made in Bologna. I think on this he is right. Bologna sausages are not commonly understood to be made in Bologna any more than Castile soap is understood to be made in Spain. It would be nonsense to refuse to allow a person to use the term "Castile" unless the soap was made in Spain. So it would seem to me to be nonsense to refuse to allow people to use the word "Bologna" before "sausage" if, as a matter of fact, it is the same sausage as people call Bologna sausage. Not one in a thousand persons knows where Bologna is-and I personally am not that one. In the next place he wishes to use the words "canned roast beef" instead of calling it "canned boiled beef," although the latter would388 2 be nearer the exact fact. Here again it seems to me that the object can be attained by allowing the use of the words "canned roast beef," provided there is put on the outside of the can a statement of what the actual preparation is-which, as I understand it, is that it has been boiled for fifteen minutes and then steam-roasted for three hours. Finally, there is the desire to use the words "silver leaf" or "lily leaf" lard in the shape of using them as "silver leaf brand" or "lily leaf brand," it being claimed that these forms of words are now accepted simply as trademarks and that to use the word "brand" will show that they are being used simply as trademarks. I am not as clear about this as about the two other cases, but there would seem, offhand, to be a good deal of justice in the contention that they could be used with the word "brand" so as to make it evident that they are merely trademarks-the inspection of course showing that the lard is pure. Will you let us know about these three matters as soon as it is convenient, writing me with absolute frankness? Sincerely yours, Theodore Roosevelt per Wm. L. Jr Hon. James Wilson, Secretary of Agriculture.389 372 Oyster Bay, N.Y., September 12, 1906. Confidential. Dear Bob: The issuing of such a manifesto by me is so important that I must take a little time to consider it. I do not see that any grave inconvenience can come from waiting until after Friday. Taft will be with me on that day, and he knows something about these tropic people. Could you conveniently get here that day also, by preference for lunch, and stay here over Sunday? If you do not wish this then I will see you Saturday. I have a rough draft of my letter prepared, but I want to go over it very carefully. It will be extremely easy to make a serious blunder in such a case. I hope that Meyer has notified you that he is on his way to St. Petersburg. He has only four or390 five months more to stay in Russia and so no great hardship is involved. I fear that with these outbreaks going on you will have to cable him that it is better that he should be in Russia. I greatly wish we had some big men at Havana. I wonder whether it might not be well to send Magoon there from Panama to give us a report on the situation. Sleeper does not amount to anything at all; and even Steinhart does not count for much. Where is Morgan? Morgan has missed the chance of his life; and I want our diplomats to understand that when they take holidays they must keep a sharp lookout and start for their posts the instant there seems to be the slightest chance for any kind of disturbance. I think that if Meyer had not started you had best telegraph him to start. Ever yours, Theodore Roosevelt Hon. Robert Bacon, Acting Secretary of State. P.S. Your telegram repeating Meyer’s cable just391 Received. In view of it I suppose we can hardly order him back – although, privately, I think he ought to go, doctor or no doctor.392 received. In view of it I suppose we can hardly order him back – although, privately, I think he ought to go, doctor or no doctor.393 118 Oyster Bay, N.Y., September 12, 1906. My dear Senator Hale: Referring to your letter to Mr. Loeb and your telegram to me of today, I have only gone into the Curran case superficially. From the statements of the Treasury Department the case against him has a bad lock, and if they are borne out by the facts he will of course have to be removed. But equally of course, he will be given every opportunity for his defense, and if his defense is satisfactory, he will be retained. Could you or Senator Frye get down in October to Washington so that I might go over the matter with you, Secretary Shaw, and Assistant Secretary Reynolds. By the way, until I saw your letter to Mr. Loeb I had never heard a suggestion that you or any other member of the Maine delegation was in any shape or way identified in backing up the smugglers394 on the border. Well, you did not do quite as well as I had hoped in Maine, but I am mighty glad that we pulled thru anyhow. Sincerely yours, Theodore Roosevelt Hon. Eugene Hale, U.S.S., Ellsworth, Maine.395 236 Personal Oyster Bay, N.Y., September 12, 1906. My dear Mr. Hanna: It seems to me that in view of the political situation in Maryland it would be a wise and graceful thing to show consideration to Mr. Jackson, and I wish that Mr. Pusey would himself offer to postpone taking office until November 15th. Will you see Mr. Pusey about this? I should like to have the proposal come from him. Sincerely yours, Theodore Roosevelt Hon. John B. Hanna Chairman, Republican State Central Committee, 741 Calvert Building, Baltimore, Maryland.396 Oyster Bay, N.Y., September 12, 1906. My dear Mrs. Cocks [Cocke]: I have just received through my cousin, Emlen Roosevelt, the message on behalf of you and your brother and sister that I was at liberty to cut down those cedars. I want to thank you, and through you your brother and sister, for this kind and neighborly act. Believe me that I appreciate it. I hope when I get them cut down that you and they will come up here some afternoon and let me show you from the piazza just the difference it makes in the view. Again thanking you, and hoping it will be in my power some time to reciprocate your kindness, believe me. Sincerely yours, Theodore Roosevelt Mrs. Lena Cocks, Oyster Bay, N.Y.397 262 Oyster Bay, N.Y., September 12, 1906. My dear Senator: How can you bear to taunt me with an impossibility? There is nothing I should like better than to spend not three days but a week up in Corbin Park, and I would pay you just four times the average guide wages strictly on your merits as a guide. But it is impossible. By the way, my boy Ted was up there last year and got a boar and an elk. Maine did not do quite as well as Vermont. But still we got through. With many thanks, believe me, Sincerely yours, Theodore Roosevelt Hon. Redfield Proctor, U.S.S., Proctor, Vermont398 274 Personal Oyster Bay, N.Y., September 12, 1906. My dear Mr. Fairley: I hate more than I can say to have to respond in the negative. But if I publish that letter for Phil Stewart I shall be asked for letters for every other candidate running for Governor, and I can not give such a letter in one case and refuse it in others. Surely the people of Colorado must know that he is my close and intimate friend and adviser, personal, and political alike, and that I have followed his judgment as I have followed the judgment of but very, very, few men, whether or not holding public position. Show this letter to Stewart and ask him for me whether we cannot get quotations of letters of mine to him before, which could be properly used; or better still, if he won’t find out from Alex Lambert, who is now away from New York, whether I have not399 spoken of Stewart in the past in a way that will give the chance of gaining what you desire. Sincerely yours, Theodore Roosevelt Hon. D. B. Fairley, Chairman, Republican State Central Committee, Post Office Box, 850, Denver, Colorado.400 Private Oyster Bay, N.Y., September 12, 1906. My dear Mr. Harper: I thank you for your letter, but alas! my dear sir, with the Cuban revolt, and the trusts and questions affecting corporations and labor, the Panama Canal, Indian matters, the Congressional election, and a good many other things needing my constant and practical attention, I simply have not the time to go into the Burr Matter. Have you ever reads Burr’s journal, which he kept for his daughter! It is the journal of a man who is morally capable of any iniquity. In the matter of treason I do not myself think him worse than some of the men who at the time landly condemned him; but I think that you will find that my sentence was literally accurate and that he was acquitted on a technicality; and while I could not now give you the authorities, I know that I was clearly convinced that the was ready401 to go into either the conquest of Mexico, or a part of it, or else into a scheme to separate the West, according as circumstances might turn out. Sincerely yours, Theodore Roosevelt Mr. Samuel A. Harper, 134 Monroe Street, Chicago.402 290 Oyster Bay, N.Y., September 12, 1906. Dear Cabot: I agree absolutely with what you say. I want on the bench a follower of Hamilton and Marshall and not a follower of Jefferson and Calhoun; and what is more I do not want any man who from frivolity, or disinclination to think, or ignorance, or indifference to popular needs, goes wrong on great questions. I am going to see Taft and Day together as soon as I return to Washington and go over most carefully with them the whole Lurton business. In view of the fact that the question of liquor or temperance always works to our harm, and that the liquor men and temperance people invariably subordinate all greater issues to the one in which they are immediately interested, I think we came out very well in Maine. Littlefield was the easiest mark the labor men could have tackled, and it was very hard saving him because he has in times past essayed to rise by trampling down others. That is, he has done in a modified way the McCall act of trying to appear great by criticizing his associates in the House, the President, and all others. It is the cheapest way that I know of striving to get a reputation for independence, and is never resorted to by a really fine man. But of course the issue came in a way that rendered it more important to save Littlefield than almost anyone else who was up [in] for Congress. I had sent you the Hapgood correspondence before receiving your letter. It is only rarely that one can get at a conceited and insincere jack of the advanced mugwump type, because usually it doesn't pay to shoot at him; but this particular time I did take solid satisfaction out of hanging even so small a hide on the fence. I have been over Winston Churchill's life of his father. I dislike the father and dislike the son, so I may be prejudiced. Still, I feel that both the biographer and his subject possess some real farsightedness, especially in their appreciation of the shortcomings of that "Society" which had so long been dominant in English politics, and which produces in this country the missionary and the mugwump; yet they both possess or possest such levity, lack of sobriety, lack of permanent principle, and the inordinate thirst for that cheap form of admiration which is given to notoriety, as to make them poor public servants. Ever yours, Theodore Roosevelt Hon. H.C. Lodge, U.S.S., Nahant, Mass. (See P.S.)404 PS. I have asked Shaw to stop all proceedings in reference to appraiser's store site until after I have an opportunity to go over the matter with you after my return to Washington.