VOLUME 82 June 13, 1908 to July 18, 1908 SERIES 2Last page indext. 8 14 22 32 47 54 58 75 109 146 161 223 224 241 253 310 341 349 417 439 460 464 500 Secretary of State. 52-108-149-282-299-338 " Treasury 3 " War - 19-58-109-201-237-245-246-271-314- " Navy 34-69-147-227-228-309-331 " Interior 200 " Agri. " C. and L. 254-304 Attorney General - 9-20-122-160-203-221-233-240-301-356-432 P. M. General 274-316-438 Civil Service Commission 500Automobile Congress 1 Allison. Senator 12 Abbott, Lyman 42' 55-412 Abott Ernest Hamlin 103 Austin O. P 269 Abbott. Lawrence F 452 ?? Outlook (editorship) Allison. Miss, Emma S. 491 Butler, E.H. 64 Bean, Robert S. 82-83-84-85 Baker, Ray Stannard 111 Bacon, Robert 149-173-333 Buxton, Edward North 195 Brent, Bishop. C.R 209 Bridges, Robert 225-251-418-429 Bishop, JB. 250 Borons, Geo Jnr 267 Bynnin, W.D. 276 Borinse, Jonathan Jr 302-360 Barnes, William Jr 307 Beyer, Thomas 332 Boyd. Mrs. Lucinda 343 Bridgman. Rev. H.A. 462 Bross. Ernest 484 Bigelow, Dr Wm S. 489 Cannon, Mr Mrs. Daniel, 11 Collis, Lloyd 422 Commissioners of D.C. 29 Crozier, Brig, Gen'l Com 431-492 Cowles, Mrs. W.S. 37-116-390 Churchill, Winston 38 Cranston, Bishop 59-124 Col. Dr. Henry W. 63 Corbin Lieut Gen H.C. U.S.A. 102 Cleveland Mrs. Groow. 119-420 Cohen. Wnc N. 135 Cadwalader. John L. 206 Chadwick Rear Admiral F.E. 293-360 Cruikshank, J.A 310 Chapman. Frank Jr. 338 Carman. Arington H. 340 Campbell. N. R 367 Cox. William F 371 Coville. Friderick V. 374 Collier. Robert J 386-444 C D Dulin, Miss Cecilia P. 14 D.C. Commissioners 29 Dixon, Samuel G 57 Dickson, Harris 73-490 Davenport, Homer 113 Dana, Richard, H. 170 Dinwiddie, William 242 Dennett Fred 265 Desborough, R. Hon. Lord. 272 DePauw, N.T. 298 Dolan. T.J. 324 Drinwell, Jms. Emmrick W. 330 Day. Dr D.T. 365 Davis, Arthur P 366 Estes Dana 120 Easley, R. Jnr 138 Egan, Maurice Francis 291 Elliott, Maj. Gen'l G.F. 329 Eliot, Pres. Chas W. 392E F Felding, A.A. 68 Fairbanks, Chas. W. 99-296 Fork, Gov John Frank 128 Fassett, J.S. 137 Firmey, EC. 377 Gary, E.H. 1 Grisham Otto 118 Galloway. Dr B.T. 263 George, Rev. Wm Potts 285 Gray. David 474G H Hitchcock, F.H. 4-41-157-405-456 Harris, Joel Chandler 15 Hopkins, Sen. A.J. 23-211 Hart, Albert B. 31 Hall, Basil D. 48 Hobson, R.P. 54-388 Hill, Jas. J. 60 Higginson Henry L. 82-83-84-85-141 Hamner, Dr G.P. 112 Homby, Maj. Jas. L. 123 Hopkins, Col. Archibald 136 Hall, Prescott F. Esq 139 Herrick, Myron T. 156 Hopkins, A.J. USS 166 Hutchinson. Henry Jnr. 187 Harris. Julian 188-295-312 Harlan. John Jnr 216-417 Herbert, Henry L. 249 Howard. Dr L.O. 261 Hapgood. Lyman 337 Hanger. G.W.W. 362 Hunt. Isaac L 419 Hunter. Capt. C.E 461 Hare, Bishop Wm Jnr 487 Iddings. Lewis. Jn[r] 23[5]I J Judge Advocate Gen'l of the Army. 146 Jenkins: Maj. John J. (M.C.) 279 Jones, L.C 411 Johnston. Sir. H.H. 440 Job. Herbert K. 464 Jackson. F.J. 476 James. Ellarton 488 Kankes, Baron 6 Kellogg, Frank B. 23 Kohlsaat, H.H. 36 Kostein, Maj F.N. 289 Kent William 306 Kennedy, John S. 345 Key, Com'dr A.L. U.S.N. 354 Kellogg, S.R 372K L Lyon. Cecil A. 5-207 Le Stourgeon, E.G. 5 Lodge, Senator 22-24-50-143-177-220 Luce, Rear Ad. S.B. 33 Landis. C.B. 61-100 Longworth, Mrs. N. 75-212 Lodge, Mrs. H.C. 80 Leech, J.S. 98-402-485 Landis C.B. [100] see above Laughlin, Frank C. 101 Lambert, Dr Alex 127-186 Lennon, John L. 153 Lounsbury. Dr T.R. 162 Low. Sith 165 Lonner. Geo Horace 185 Lawrence. Wm H. 287 Lindgren. Waldemar 364 Leighton. Jnr. O 368 Lilley. B.V. 413 LaFollette. Robert M. 425 Lenpp. F.E. 438 Luce. Rear Admiral S.B. 480 Lawrence. Newbold T 498 Moxey, E.P. (Bank Examiner) 9-10 Montague, [Gov] A.J. 28 Mohler. Dr 29 Munsey, Frank A. 67 Martin, Edward S. 74 Moore, Willis. L 258 Merriam Dr C. Hart 266-326 Melvin. Dr Alonzo D. 270 Mather. Robert 279 Merrell. Rear. Adm'l John P 339-455 Marlatt. CL. 375 Mahan. Rear. Adm'l. 406 Miles, Wm D. 446 Murray, Lawrence O. 448 Masterson. W.B. 463 M Mc McLaughlin, Rev. T.P. 51 McClure, S.S. 70-344 McCormick Medill. 106-107-449 McCamber. P.J. U.S.S. 297 McCook. Col. John J. 323 McGingor. Thos B. 445 Newberry, Asst Sec. 34-147-227-309-331 Northwestern Christian Ad 35 Needham, Henry Beach 218 North. S.N.D 259 Neil, Chas. P. 262N O Olmstead. Dr Victor H 268Platt, Senator 2 Patton Geo S. 82-83-84-85 Peabody, Rev Dr Endicott 163 Pierce. Frank 255 Patterson. Col. JH 319 Pringle. John D. 353 Potter. AF 373 Powers. LeGrand 378 Parker. E.W 379 Putnam. Geo Haven 407-451 Pinchot, Gifford 414 Potbury & Lee, 457 Reid, Whitelaw 76 Rose. John C. 105-328 Roche, Mrs. Lilly V. 126 Robinson, Mrs. Douglas, 129-178 Rhodes. James. Ford 140 Roosevelt. R.B. Jr 152 Rorder. Adolph. 172 Remington. Frideric 208 Reedy. Wm Marion 214 Renolds, James, B 230 Riis. Jacob A 273 Roche. Mrs. James. J. 387 Rixey. Sur. Gen'l P.M 426R S Shaw, Albert 26_50. Silliman, R.D. 53-427 Stewart, John A. 65 Shinn, G. Frank 66 Sherman, Jas. S. 71-164 Smith. Chas. Sprague, 104 Swift, Lucius, B. 116-493 Stinson, Henry L 131 Schick, Rev. Dr J. Jr. 142 Shiras, Geo 3rd 150 Schoenleiri, Frederick 159 Sewall, W.W. 168 Smith, Herbert Knox 181 Selons, Frederick C. 189 Simpson, Sloan 231 Selmes, Mrs. Patty, Jr. F. 236 Schiff, Jacob H 238 Sartons, Nelli G. 244 Smith, Geo Otis 260 Shonts, T.P. 281 Sartons, Capt. A 300 Sperry, Read. Admiral Chas. S. 311 Sanderson. A 334 Sternberg Baron H 359 Stewart, William Jr. 369 Smith, Hugh Jr. 376 Settlemier, C.R. 403 Sheldon, Geo R. 404 Strachey, J. Lor. 428 Thompson, D.D. 35 Trevelyan, Sir Geo Otto, 95 Tracey, Everts 117 Thayer Wm R. Esq 133 Twitchwill. F.E. 204 Taft, Wm H. 247-305-325--347-381-409-434-459-465-466-470-496 True, Dr AC 257 Takahina, Baron Kogoro. 308 Tracey, Geo W 481 Tardieu, Jr. Andre 497Vassiley, Nicholas D. 180 Voss, Miss. Edna R 342V W Wheeler, Benj. T 21-39-110-341 Williams, Hon. J.S. 27 Washington, Booker 62 Wright, Luke E. 72 Wood, Maj. Gen'l Leonard 78-336-482 Walcott Chas D. 96-284-346 Walsh. Dr Michael 130 Weller. Chas F 154 White, Horace 158 Whitefield. A.H. 171 White. W.A. 174 Wilson, Gen James. Grant 217 Winchester repeating Arms. Co. 223-382-494 Watson, James E 424 White, Henry 239 Wadsworth, J.W 415 Whitney, Dr Milton 256 Welchel Jasper E 370 Wiley, Dr H.W 264 Woods, Albert F 363 Whitney Casper 277-327 White Gaylord S. 357 Wilcox, Miss Mary 292Young. Lieut. Gen'l. S. B. M. 82-83-84-85Zelaya. J. Santos 469June 13, 1908. My dear Judge: Thru you I desire to express a hearty word of greeting and good wishes to the International Automobile Congress. I trust they will have a pleasant and successful meeting. With regard, believe me, Sincerely yours, Theodore Roosevelt Hon. E.H. Gary, President, Automobile Club of America, 71 Broadway, New York, N.Y.June 13, 1908. My dear Senator: I have your letter about the Government Printing Office. I entirely agree with you. No such action will be permitted. I will take up the matter at once. With regard, believe me, Sincerely yours, Theodore Roosevelt Hon. T.C. Platt, United States Senate.June 13, 1908. My dear Mr. Cortelyou: This is a school teacher who has taught my boys in the public school. Her case appeals to me very much. Can not you make her one of your temporary employees, under the currency law, for this summer? Can you let me know on Monday or Tuesday if this can be done? Sincerely yours, Theodore Roosevelt Hon. Geo. B. Cortelyou, Secretary of the Treasury.June 13, 1908. Hon. Frank H. Hitchcock, Chicago, Illinois. I have seen Mr. Williams and heard from Mr. Wight and have carefully considered what they have to say. I have told them it is not a case of which I have knowledge enough to interfere. I can only reiterate my hope that it will be treated thruout exactly on its merits. I have told them that I have no personal request whatever to make of them as to their attitude. Theodore Roosevelt. 5 June 13, 1908. My dear Colonel Lyon: My E.G. Le Stourgeon, of San Antonio, Texas, is an applicant for the position of Deputy Collector of Internal Revenue under the Collector. This is the place held by Moses Harris, who was one of the leaders in the bolt against you. Le Stourgeon was a member of my Regiment, is a very good man, and I shall be pleased if you can commit to endorse him to commissioner Capers. Col. Davis is a staunch endorser of him. With regard, and congratulating you on the way the Texas contest was settled, I am, Faithfully yours, Theodore Roosevelt Col. Cecil A. Lyon, Auditorium Annex, Chicago, Ill. June 13, 1908. My dear Baron Kaneke: I thank you now for the various telegrams and letters you have written me. I enclose you a copy of the bill which was finally enacted into law as regards our commission to your exposition. From it you will see that we have been able to meet the wishes you exprest, and I think I may say that we have met them exactly in the spirit that you desired they should be. Never before for any exposition have we made such an appropriation or made such provision so far in advance as in this case. Secretary Root and I devoted hours this winter in getting the bill thru in just such form that you, speaking for your Government and your countrymen, desired that it should be done; for I felt, as did Mr. Root, that from every standpoint it was important that America should take the lead, should set the pace, as regards this exposition, and should in the heartiest manner cooperate with your people to make the exposition one of the highest international importance - one that will reflect the utmost credit upon Japan. We have nominated the three beat man in the country for commissioners, two of them, Skiff, the Director of the Columbian Exposition at Chicago, and Frank D. Millet, the artist, being personal friends of ours and having had great experience in similar expo- 7 2 sitions; while the third, Loomis, was formerly Assistant Secretary of State, has held high diplomatic position, and has shown excellent executive ability and has occupied peculiarly close and trusted relations with the State Department, both under John Hay and since. I wish to have these commissioners, or some of them, go to Tokyo just as soon as their visit would be useful to you or to us. I of course desire that at the earliest practicable moment they shall be able to secure such location and provisions regarding space and the like as will enable us to utilize to the best advantage the appropriation which Congress has made and to justify in the eyes of Congress and our people the expenditure which we have persuaded them to authorize. I must trust largely to your judgment as to the time when it will be advisable and expedient for these commissioners, or some of them, to visit Tokyo. You know how genuine my regard and liking for Japan are. I very earnestly desire to see Japan make a great success of this, the first international exposition ever held in the Orient. Whatever I can do to contribute toward that success will be done. Messrs. Skiff and Millet have had great experience not only with our own expositions here but as American representatives at the Paris Exposition. It is possible that if they should soon go to Japan your people might derive some benefit from consultation with them.3 With regard to the Baroness and best wishes to all your children, believe me, Sincerely yours, Theodore Roosevelt Baron Kenturo Kaneko, Tokyo, Japan. Enclosure.June 13, 1908. My dear Mr. Attorney General: I send you herewith a letter from United States District Attorney Stimson in regard to the services of Bank Examiner Moxey. Mr. Moxey has rendered such exceptional service, not only in this the Morse matter in New York, but in the Walsh matter at Chicago, that I direct that his salary be first at $25 per day and expenses. I do not regard any other of the bank examiners to being in his class, so there can be no claim made of discrimination as to salary. Sincerely yours, Theodore Roosevelt Hon. Charles J. Bonaparte, Attorney General. Enclosure. [*10*] June 13, 1908. My dear Mr. Moxey: Your services have been of such exceptional value, not only in the prosecution of the Walsh cases in Chicago but in the Morse bank cases in New York, and in many others, that I desire to write you this line of personal acknowledgment. You are one of those officials who by their service reflect honor on this Government. You have reason for genuine pride in the letter District Attorney Stimson has given you. With all good wishes, believe me, Faithfully yours, Theodore Roosevelt Mr. Edward P. Moxey, Real Estate Trust Company Building, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania [*9*] 11 June 15, 1908. My dear Mr. and Mrs. Cannon: I have just received a very nice letter about you and your family from someone who must be himself a good man and who signs himself "A Friend of the Family." I want to congratulate you both and your fifteen children and say how glad I am that they are doing well. That is the kind of family I believe in; and I am so glad that the sons and daughters are turning out as they seem to be turning out. I congratulate both of you, and especially the mother. Sincerely yours, Theodore Roosevelt Mr. and Mrs. Daniel Cannon, Geneve, Illinois.12 June 15, 1908. My dear Senator: There is no reason why you should not make public my letter to you of June 5th. I did not deem it well for me to write you for publication before the result of the primaries was announced. I have felt grave concern over the division in Iowa, and a strong desire that it should not proceed to disastrous lengths. My relations with you and Senator Dolliver have been uniformly close and pleasant. I have been able to work with both of you for a common and - the betterment of our political, industrial and civic conditions. But I have also been on excellent terms with Governor Cummins, and I have felt that fundamentally, so far as I could judge from his public expressions, he and I believed in much the same policies and that there was no possible reason why we should13 not work together. With all good wishes, believe me, Sincerely yours, Theodore Roosevelt Hon. W.B. Allison, U.S.S., Dubuque, Iowa. P.S. Will you make this letter public at the same time you publish my letter to you of June 9th?June 15, 1908. To whom it may concern: Miss Cecilia P. Dulin has been a teacher in the Force School in the class which our son Quentin has attended, and Mrs. Roosevelt and I desire to express our very high appreciation of Miss Dulin's tact, knowledge and capacity as a teacher. While winning her pupils' affections she yet kept discipline over them and they studied hard while at the same time being devoted to her. Not only do I believe that she would make an excellent school teacher anywhere, but I feel it so strongly that if we needed a governess we should be very glad to have her in our house. We have an abiding faith that she could do well in any employment she chose to try. Theodore Roosevelt15 June 14, 1908. Dear Uncle Remus: The enclosed letter is for publication if you deem it wise and not if you do not deem it wise. How are you and your son and Marquis and all the rest of them? Give them all my warm regards. I send the enclosed not only for myself but for my two sides, Archie Butt and Fitzhugh Lee. Faithfully yours, Theodore Roosevelt Mr. Joel Chandler Harris, Atlanta, GeorgiaJune 15, 1908. Dear Uncle Remus: Here is something in which I would like to get the assistance of Mr. Billy Sanders, the sage of Shady Dale, and of all the readers of the Home Magazine and of all who think as the editors of the Home Magazine evidently do think. Last Saturday, in the late afternoon, when it had grown a little cool. I was riding with two of my aides, Captain Fitzhugh Lee, and Captain Archie Butt of your own State and my Mother's State of Georgia. The mare I was on by the way was named Georgia, and a good mare she is, too, well behaved, and a good jumper. We were taking our horses out to exercise them over some jumps. We had just been listening to the really superb singing of the men's chorus of the Arion Singing Society, an organization of citizens of German birth or parentage, who were about to go abroad to appear at certain courts and elsewhere in Europe, and who had wisht to sing in the White House as a farewell before starting on their foreign journey. Among other things they had, at my request, sung "Dixie" (as well as the Old Kentucky Home and the Suwanee River). While riding we were talking over the fact that Dixie was far and away the best tune (and the best military tune, that we knew, not even expecting Garry Owen), and that it 152 had won its way until it was the tune which would bring everybody to his feet with a yell in any audience in any part of the country; and we were bemoaning the fact that there never had been any words which were in any way adequate to the tune, and dwelling on the further fact that it was such a fine battle tune - the best battle tune of our army. Captain Butt then added that just as Dixie stood alone among tunes, so we had in Julia Ward Howe's great Battle Hymn of the Republic the very finest and noblest battle hymn possest by any Nation of the world, a hymn that in loftiness of thought and expression, in both words and tune, lent itself to choral singing as no other battle hymn did in any country; and he added that there was not a sectional line in the hymn, not a word that could awaken a single unpleasant thought in the mind of any American, no matter where he lived and no matter on which side he or his father had fought in the great war. I told him I entirely agreed with him, and that, just as Dixie was becoming the tune which when played excited most enthusiasm among Americans everywhere, so I hoped that sooner or later all Americans would grow to realize that in this Battle Hymn of the Republic we had what really ought to be a great National treasure, something that all Americans would grow to know intimately, so that in any audience anywhere in the land when the tune was started most the audience should be able to join in singing the words. We then grew to wondering if this good result would ever be achieved, and we thought it would be worth while to write to18 3 you. We know that any such movement can come, if at all, only because of a genuine popular feeling, and with small regard to the opinion of any one man or any particular set of men; and it can only come slowly in any event; but we thought it might be helped on a little if what we had to say was published in your magazine. I append a copy of the Battle Hymn. Faithfully yous, Theodore Roosevelt Mr. Joel Chandler Harris, Atlanta, Georgia.19 June 15, 1908. To the Secretary of War: Please have the Corps of Engineers submit to the Attorney-General for his information all stipulations and specifications in connection with the approval of plans for dams to develop water power. Theodore Roosevelt20 June 15, 1908. My dear Mr. Attorney-General: I have sent to the Secretary of War the following communication: "Please have the Corps of Engineers submit to the Attorney-General for his information all stipulations and specifications in connection with the approval of plans for dams to develop water power." Would you mind having Woodruff, who is detailed with the Interior Department, give you his judgment upon all matters of this kind submitted from the War Department? Sincerely yours, Theodore Roosevelt Hon. Charles J. Bonaparte, Attorney-General. 921 June 15, 1908. My dear President Wheeler: Your letter is really interesting, and I have given it to Taft. I am not interfering in the Vice Presidential nomination. With regard, believe me, Sincerely yours, Theodore Roosevelt Dr. Benj. I. Wheeler, Auditorium Annex, Chicago, Illinois.22 June 15, 1908. Hon. H.C. Lodge, Auditorium Annex, Chicago, Illinois. What are rumors that Burrows has ordered reference to postal savings banks struck from his speech and that the leaders are against the injunction plank? It seems to me they should realize that it will be very damaging not to insert these two planks. Taft is committed to them over and over again and it would simply mean that he would have to stand for them in his letter or acceptance and then put us in the damaging position of an incongruity between the platform and the candidate. Please telegraph me the facts. Strong protests were made to us against Sherman as Vice Presidential candidate for the very reason that it was believed we could not afford to put on any member of the House who would be held in any way responsible for failure to act this last session on these very matters among others. Theodore Roosevelt Taft thinks, and it seems to me he is right, that all discussion about Vice Presidency might well be postponed until after platform is adopted and President nominated. I am not committed for or against any candidate.23 June 16, 1908. Hon Frank B. Kellogg Chicago, Illinois. (Same telegram to Hon. Albert J. Hopkins, U.S.S., Chicago, Ill.) I hope you will be utterly unmoved by the artificial and worked up clamor about the injunction plank. It is engineered by the Manufacturers' Association just as they engineered during the last session an attack upon all child labor legislation and an attack upon the employers' liability bill. It does not represent a particle of real feeling except where it is based upon complete misunderstanding. We are not advocating an anti-injunction plank at all, but a singularly moderate and reasonable provision which in its essence merely asks that judges shall think before they act, but which does not in any way hamper their action when once they have thought. In other words the plank's chief value is that it shows our willingness to be just and our purpose to call the attention of the courts to a bad habit into which some judges have fallen. We have no more expectation of satisfying the extreme labor agitator than of satisfying the equally extreme representatives of the Manufacturers' Association, but we wish to be right and to make it so evident that we are right as to enable honest and fair-minded labor men and honest and fair-minded employers and property owners heartily to join with us on the basis of justice to all American citizens. Theodore Roosevelt24 June 16, 1908. Hon. H.C. Lodge, Auditorium Annex, Chicago. Telegram received. I not merely would oppose but have in most open and efficient fashion opposed it to the Gompers injunction plank, but I think it very necessary that we should have not a colorless but a moderate plank, and that is what the plank is as published. Certainly Taft has shown in actual work on the bench his entire fearlessness in using injunctions when necessary. For the last two years, including his speech at Bath, which everyone so heartily approved, Taft has been taking the very positions he now takes on this injunction matter. I have not the slightest expectation of placating or gaining the ultra-violet labor men, but I do want in the first place to put in a plank which will enable the labor men who would naturally be with us to feel that they have a justification for staying with us; and in the next place on the highest ethical grounds I hope that the Republican Party will take the position which is right, and that in my judgment is the position which Taft has taken in this matter. It is just as weak and unwise to yield to the demands of the Manufacturers Association when they are wrong as to yield to the demands of Gompers when he is worng. Our action would not satisfy the extremists on either side and I should be exceedingly sorry if it did. The Manufacturers [22]25 2 Association has been just as violent against child labor and employers liability legislation as against this plank. Theodore Roosevelt.26 June 16, 1908. Dr. Albert Shaw Auditorium Annex, Chicago, Illinois. Please see Kellogg and Hopkins and show them this telegram and ask them to show you the telegrams I have just sent them about the injunction plank. THEODORE ROOSEVELT. (President's private account)27 June 16, 1908. My dear Mr. Williams: It is a pleasure to deal with a man who combines the three qualities of ability, good-nature, and a strongly developed sense of humor! I have therely enjoyed your letter. Give my warm regards to Mrs. Williams. Sincerely yours, Theodore Roosevelt Hon. John Sharp Williams, House of Representatives.28 June 16, 1908. My dear Governor: I have your letter of the 15th instant. I entirely agree with you; and Booker Washington, you may be interested in knowing, takes the same view. It will be a real pleasure to see you here at any time before June 19th. Sincerely yours, Theodore Roosevelt Hon.. A.J. Montague, Mutual Building, Richmond, Virginia.29 June 16, 1908. Gentlemen: I have just been consulting with Dr. Mohler of the Department of Agriculture. He informs me that he has never in his experience here known of the many cases of rabies among dogs as at present, and he regards the danger as real - especially to children, in view of the fact that tomorrow the public schools close and the children will then be out on the streets. It is my judgment, based upon the opinion of those most competent to express such an opinion, that what is needed is provision for the muzzling of dogs while at large for the next six months. I think your Commission should pass this resolution immediately. Will you let me know if the Commission intends to pass such a resolution, and if it does not, what are the reasons which outweigh the reasons why it should be passed? Action, in my judgment,30 should be taken without a day's delay. Sincerely yours, Theodore Roosevelt The Commissioners of the District of Columbia, Washington, D.C. 31 June 16, 1908. My dear Hart: Secretary Root influenced me to take the stand I did from what I said should be done in the Constantinople matter, because as he asserted, Mr. Barton and Dr. Patrick had misrepresented the facts so that the action I directed was directed under a misapprehension as to what the facts were. Examination seems to show that Dr. Patrick, tho very unwise, and tho having shown that it is very unsafe to follow her or to accept her judgment, was influenced only by her desire to justify and appeal for funds for the college, and it does not appear that she merely concealed from us the actual condition of affairs. But from what the State Department inform [sic] me now it does appear that Mr. Barton did not represent the facts to me as they occurred. I was given clearly to understand that the equities were all on the side of Mr. Barton and Dr. Patrick and the Girls' College. It now appears that the Girls' College is in no place mentioned in the 32 transaction, that Mr. Barton's name alone appears in it, and that he gave the customary guaranty not to use the property for educational or other public purposes. This being so, it is obvious that there is no sacrifice on the part of the college and that it has no right whatever in the matter, and therefore that it would be entirely improper on our part to take any action in the way of bringing duress on the Sultan. I thought you ought to know these facts, for of course you were taken in just as I was. With warm regards, believe me, Faithfully yours, Theodore Roosevelt Professor Albert Bushnell Hart, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts.33 June 16, 1908. My dear Admiral: I have just received your article and return it herewith. I see no reason why you should not print it in any technical journal if you desire to do so. I think you had better be given this permission without my reading it, otherwise I would be held accountable for every little phrase in it. With all good wishes, believe me, Sincerely yours, Theodore Roosevelt Rear Admiral S.B. Luce, U.S. Naval War College, Newport, R.I. Enclosure. 34 June 17, 1908. To Assistant Secretary Newberry: Please confer with Secretary Taft and have on the Isthmus as near as may be twelve hundred marines in connection with the approaching elections. As the commander of the force to confer with both Secretaries Root and Taft, so as to secure his instructions from them. I do not believe there will be the least need of using these men; but as there is an apparent purpose among the Panama factions, on the part of one side to carry the election by fraud, and on the part of the other to attempt a revolution if it is so carried, we should have a sufficiency of force to enable us to act as may be necessary; and of course the larger the force is the less chance there is of bloodshed. Incidentally, will you please ask the commander of marines on the Isthmus to report to me in full about the liquor sold on the Isthmus to the men and as to its effect on the men? Theodore Roosevelt35 June 17, 1908. My dear Mr. Thompson: I have your letter of the 15th. Here is a speech I delivered about Lincoln. It does not contain much about him, because in most of my speeches I am not engaged in the biography of the people of the past or in paying tribute to them, nearly as much as I am in trying to draw a lesson from their lives & work; and the lesson I try to draw from Lincoln's life is one which is peculiarly needed nowadays. If you care for this I will sign any part of it you indicate. Will you also get from the public library in Chicago the so-called Federal Edition of the works of Abraham Lincoln, published by G.P. Putnam's Sons? I wrote an introduction to this, and I will sign any part of it that you desire if you prefer it to the speech I enclose. Sincerely yours, Theodore Roosevelt D.D. Thompson, Esq., Editor, Northwestern Christian Advocate, Chicago, Illinois. 36 June 17, 1908. Dear Kohlsaat: Taft is reading the letter of yours now and chuckling over it heartily. We are going to elect him with a swoop; but we must all work on the assumption that it is a very hard contest. Faithfully yours, Theodore Roosevelt Mr. H.H. Kohlsaat, Chicago, Illinois.[*37*] June 17, 1908. Darling Bye: Kermit and Archie were overjoyed to see you at Groton. I am so glad you could get up there. I am even more pleased that you and Sheffield are going to Quebec with blessed old Will; and I do not believe that he is prouder than I am about his flying his flag as admiral. I do not think there is any danger of a stampede [at Chicago]; but it is just one of those things that had to be stopt in time, because if it once got going it would be too late to stop it, and I suppose that is the explanation of Cabot's use of my letter, which I am inclined to think was [???] wise. Your loving brother, Theodore Roosevelt Mrs. W. S. Cowles, Farmington, Connecticut.38 Personal. June 17, 1908. My dear Churchill; I like "Mr. Crewe's Career" so much that I must write to tell you so. If you and Mrs. Churchill are to be in my neighborhood soon, pray let me know. There are a number of problems mentioned in the book which I should like to discuss with you. Sincerely yours, Theodore Roosevelt Mr. Winston Churchill, Windsor, Vermont.39 Personal & Confidential June 17, 1908. My dear President Wheeler: What a wise letter yours of the 15th is! That is an adjective that can not often be used with propriety, but it exactly fits your judgment on this convention. You have summed up admirably the situation as regards Taft's strength as a candidate, and the wrong estimate thereof. I am myself a little surprised at the conservative temper of the delegates -- what you well call the "old commercial conservatism" of that Republicanism which dominated the party for many years and culminated in Hanna and which was as totally unlike the Lincoln Republicanism of the party's first decade as the latter was [from the] unlike Tammany Democracy or socialistic populism. I think that the cause is to be found in the fact that there was no fight, on a principle, made in choosing the delegates. Before they were chosen the reactionaries had made up their minds that I could be beaten only by their accepting Taft, and accordingly they put all their40 strength into getting men of their stamp who would nevertheless be avowedly for Taft, and as of course this prevented any fight, they naturally got a rather ultra-conservative set of delegates. Hughes' selfish indifference to all considerations excepting his own welfare have, I suppose, prevented New York getting her nominee [?] [V?]. Really it seems to me as tho Dolliver or Cummins would be the most available of all the possible men who have been suggested, as conditions really are. But I have carefully avoided taking sides for or against anyone, and this statement is for you personally. With warm regards, believe me, Faithfully yours, Theodore Roosevelt President Benjamin Ide Wheeler, Auditorium Annex, Chicago, Illinois.41 June 17, 1908. Hon. Frank H. Hitchcock, Chicago, Illinois. (Send both to Coliseum and Auditorium Annex) Please see telegram I sent Kellogg yesterday about injunction plank. I feel it would be a grave mistake not o put it in. We ought no more to yield to the extremists of Manufacturers' Association than to the extremists of the Labor party. My aim is not to satisfy the extremists but to take a position that is right and which all just men should be able to support. To fail to remedy real grievance is to play into the hands of the socialists and the violent extremists of all kinds. I hope the injunction plank will be put in and if it is not I hope Mr. Taft will put it in his latter of acceptance anyhow. THEODORE ROOSEVELT.42 June 17, 1908. My dear Dr. Abbott: May I venture a suggestion in connection with what you say of the meeting of Christian socialists - those clergymen, or whoever they were? The longer I have lived the more indifferent I have become to any effort to frighten me by calling a given doctrine socialistic, and the less attention I have paid to what I can not help regarding as mere fetichism, of holding up as a bogey either "individualism," or "socialism," treated in vacuo, so to speak, and apart from all surroundings. But the longer I have lived the more profoundly I have grown to distrust and disbelieve in the men and the doctrines who and which in a special and peculiar sense are considered as embodying socialism. Have you read a little book on English Socialism of Today by Arnold Foster? It is not quite right on all points, but I am bound to say that it is much more nearly right than any socialist publication that I have come across. Now, what especially impresses me in this book of Foster's is his exposure both of the utter looseness of thought of the average agitator who calls himself a socialist, and the mischief he does. This is exactly what I should feel in connection with the gathering of which you spoke. I am perfectly willing to admit that most of the people who attended the meeting43 2 were well-meaning, and that so far as they were not well-meaning they were simply seeking after the notoriety or prominence which men of feeble character can only get by taking part in a movement like this - just as a man like Robert Hunter, for instance, who is both weak and untruthful, can not possibly get recognition anywhere except by doing as he has done. But these men as a whole, as far as I can see, do only a little good, and do some real harm. In so far as these socialists wake up serious [people] who are short-sighted and force them to think of the evils of modern life, they do good. But most of what they do is merely to add to the mass of aimless discontent; and to give it a wrong aim; and to hold up men and principles to admiration, whereas these men are really of bad character and their principles mischievous. For instance, this special body of clergymen did but one thing that attracted popular attention, and that was to welcome Debs and make him their idol. What the different individuals said made little impression, and what they meant, still less. The lasting impression was conveyed by their action. Have you ever seen Debs' paper, The Appeal to Reason? On its merits it should be kept out of the mails', for it is an appeal, not to reason but to hatred and malice; and again and again it contains open incitement to --------------------------------- "We have not kept it out, because to do so would I think work more mischief than the paper itself does. 44 3 murder, while it always justifies murder. I enclose you a letter I wrote to the Attorney General at the time that Debs was championing Moyer and Haywood, and I show therein that in his paper he chuckled over and approved of the murder of Steunenburg. To praise and champion Debs, to condone his faults, is precisely like praising and championing Tweed and condoning Tweed's faults. Civilization can not more get along permanently with one type of men at the head than with the other type. The well-meaning or ill-meaning clergymen and others who now champion Debs stand on a par with the New York voters of one of the tenement house districts who after Tweed was exposed sent him to the State Senate. They sent him to the Senate on the ground that he had stolen from the rich men, but was the poor man's friend. It is among them, and their successors, and those like them, among whom you will find support for Debs on the ground that, tho he advocates murder, that tho he does preach envy and hatred and malice, and incites to violence, he is yet entitled to the support of all kinds of people of mushy morality because he is for the opprest and against the oppressor. What those parlor socialists, these clerical socialists, need is a little clearcut morality and clear-cut common sense. They are not helping what is good; they are helping what is bad. They are obstacles and not helps to those who really are, in honest and common-sense fashion, endeavoring to do away with privilege, with inequality and injustice, and to work for the betterment of our people and 45 4 especially for the betterment of those who are least fortunate. A high-sounding platform, on which Debs is nominated, means no more than the moral platitudes of the platform on which Tweed was nominated. The unspeakably wicked Jacobians delighted in the leftist sentiments. Hand in hand with this socialistic movement - or, to speak more accurately, as part of it - there goes an only partially concealed crusade against domestic morality. One of the allies of Hunter and these clergymen is a man named John Russell Coryell. He is recently been lecturing under their auspices, as, for instance, in an address to the "liberty congregation" at Lyric Hall. The front page of the publication containing this address (which is itself called "Making a Revolution," and is a companion-piece to other entitled "The Rent Strike," etc.) contains advertisements of other pamphlets by the same speaker which embrace titles like "Love and passion," "Sex-Union and Parenthood," "What is Seduction?" and "A Child of Love." I got these pamphlets, which are published by a publishing company which calls itself the publishers of "liberal literature in general." Under the thin disguise of standing for a movement for social reform, these different pamphlets and others like them are largely mere pieces of pornographic literature; just as Debs' paper and speeches are largely mere pieces of the literature of criminal violence. One of these parlor socialists the other day, in addressing a girls' college, told them that "motherhood was the curse of women." Miss Jane Addams, in her recent book, shows lamentably by her own utterances the effects of belief in the socialism which bases itself upon Tolstoi (himself a sexual degenerate, whose "Kreutzer Sonata" is a fit supplement to his "My Religion," for erotic perversion very frequently goes hand in hand with a wild and fantastic mysticism). 46 5 It seems to me that those of us who are most interested in the campaign against privilege, most interested in securing genuine liberty, genuine justice and fair-dealing, and at least a measurable approach to equality of opportunity, are the very men of all others upon whom it is most incumbent to stand with robust and fearless sanity against the socialistic hysteria of these clergymen, and of the party which has Debs at its head, the party of Robert Hunter, and Moyer, and Haywood, and Jack London; and incidentally of almost all of the anarchists, for you may notice that the socialists and anarchists, altho in theory and on academic grounds not in accord, have in practice adopted the red flag as a common symbol and cheerfully work together. We must not allow ourselves to be put into the position of the New York Sun and Evening Post, and of excellent men like Nicholas Murray Butler who have unfortunately grown to adopt this position; we must never take the position of defending, or refraining from fighting, the grave and real abuses of the social and industrial system of today; but we must also set our faces like flint against the preachings, the practices, and the leadership which would merely lead to trying on a vaster scale the experiment of the Paris Commune - an experiment which would not only be hideous in itself, but which would, in the reaction, perpetuate all the worst abuses which it was nominally supposed to remedy. Nine tenths of my fighting has been against the men of enormous wealth, and their henchmen in the world of business, of politics, of the lawyers, of the newspapers, who do their bidding; I am fighting47 6 privilege, whether in law, or erected in business or social life thru lack of law; at this moment I am trying my best to get the Republican convention to put in a moderate injunction plank, so as to make evident that we mean to do justice to the workman, and to prevent a sense of wrong driving him into the ranks of envious discontent; but the Debs type of socialist points the way to national ruin as surely as any swindling financier or corrupt politician. Sincerely yours, Theodore Roosevelt Rev. Dr. Lyman Abbott, The Outlook, 287Fourth Avenue, New York. Enclosure48 June 17, 1908. My dear Mr. Hall: I have your letter of the 16th instant. You make it very difficult for me, [to do as I must do]. I prized and admired your father. I deeply sympathized with his work; but I simply cannot write an introduction because I do not know enough of his work to make the introduction of the slightest value. You have no idea how many letters and introductions I am asked to write; and I have to refuse, save in the very rare cases where the introduction is based upon knowledge which would make it mean something of itself, and merely because it happens to have the name of the President to it. Now, I am sure you will see at once that I simply have not the knowledge to write on such subjects as the Eastern Soul or the Oriental Conscience. Your father was deeply interested in me because he could tell me of these matters. I could not49 tell him and I could not an outsider, for I simply do not know them. With real regret, believe me, Sincerely yours, Theodore Roosevelt Mr. Basil Douglas Hald, Synton, Westport Point, Mass.50 Copy. THE WHITE HOUSE, Washington. June 18, 1908. Hon. H. C. Lodge, Chairman, Republican National Convention. Chicago, Ill. I am proud of and deeply touched by your really noble speech. It seems to me to cover the whole situation. Of course publish my telegram to you and the letter to Judge Dayton at any moment when or if you think it necessary. I think you have stated my personal relation to the matter in the best possible shape. Taft is with me as I am dictating this telegram. THEODORE ROOSEVELT. 24 (President's private account) June 18 1908. Albert Shaw, Kaiserhof Hotel, Chicago, Ills. Hope you will see John Mitchell and urge him to accept position of Chairman of the Trade agreement department of National Civil Federation, I believe he could do invaluable service, not only for labor but for capital; not only for the wageworkers, to whom he is so devoted, but to the whole people of the United States, if he would accept, and I feel if he possibly can it is his duty to accept. His peculiar position would render him able to work if he accepted this chairmanship that no other man could do. THEODORE ROOSEVET. (Charge President).51 June 18, 1908. My dear Father McLoughlin: That is mighty nice letter of yours and I want to say how pleased I am that you are going to erect at Fort Slocum such a building as you describe. As you say, a chapel could only be used on Sunday, whereas in this building, what I firmly believe will be work good for their souls as well as for their bodies will be done for the soldiers all the time. Indeed, my dear Father McLoughlin, I did not need your assurance that you would do all in your power to make better men not only of the Catholic soldiers, but of all who are willing to accept of your ministration. With all good wishes, believe me, Faithfully yours, Theodore Roosevelt Rev. T.P. McLoughlin, Church of the Blessed Sacrament, New Rochelle, N.Y.52 June 18, 1908. To the Secretary of State: Please note the enclosed statement. In May the total Japanese immigration was nearly 900, as against nearly 2300 in May last year. This represents a marked falling off, but it is not nearly as great as the falling off from other countries, Austria-Hungary, Italy, and Russia, for example. I do not feel that satisfactory results have been achieved yet, and I think the Japanese Government should be notified in the plainest manner that they have nothing to expect but a Japanese exclusion law unless the figures soon begin to show a totally different complexion. Theodore Roosevelt Enclosures53 908. June 16, 1908. My dear Mr. Silliman: I am in receipt of your letter of the 17th instant. I agree with you. I have been doing my best to have a moderate injunction plank put in the platform for the very reasons you give. I liked your letter so much that I have shown it to Taft. Sincerely yours, Theodore Roosevelt R. D. Silliman, Esq., 40 Wall Street, New York, N.Y.54 Personal. June 18, 1906. My dear Congressman: I have just received the book, and I am sure I shall read it with interest and I am also sure my boys will. It was very good of you to send it to me. Sincerely yours, Theodore Roosevelt Sen.. Richmond Pearson Hobson, House of Representatives, Washington, D.C.55 June 18, 1908. My dear Dr. Abbott: I am very much amused to find in the issue of the Outlook which I have just received, (and which crossed my letter) an article by Mr. Bruce on socialism, which I think comes mighty near to expressing just what my views are. It seems to me that what Mr. Bruce says as to the dangerous situation which the advocates of socialism, altho many of them with the best intentions, are creating applies peculiarly to a man like Hunter, and to people like these Christian socialists of whom you spoke, who deify Debs. The high-sounding platitudes of Hunter and Debs and their fellows can be matched by the high-sounding platitudes of Robespierre and Marat. Remember that when I speak of Robespierre and Marat in comparison with these others I am using [scientifically] exact language. Robespierre was of course a man of more ability than Hunter and of these various socialistic clergymen, but he was fundamentally of exactly the same type. Marat was a scoundrel of the Moyer or Haywood type. Debs comes in between them, but nearer Marat than Robespierre. In its early stages I believe firmly that the French Revolution was not only beneficial but absolutely necessary. But by the end of the 1790 it had begun to do work that was almost purely evil, and the Marats, Robespierres, Dantons and the like rep- [*42*]56 2 resent that phase of the movement which largely, although by no means wholly, undid and offset the good effect. I have sent you my open letter to Spreckels - a letter which was asked for by Spreckels and Heney because they are trying under very adverse circumstance to fight the men of high social position, of high standing in the business world, who have jumped to the defense of Calhoun and the other rich scoundrels, just as Hunter and Debs in a similar spirit of class consciousness jumped to the defense of Moyer and Haywood. I have tried consistently to make it evident that I stand against both sets of wrongdoers. By the way, when I spoke of Nicholas Murray Butler in y previous letter I was thinking of his cordial endorsement of Mallock, who, as Bruce in the review in the Outlook has so well shown, completely vitiates and destroys the whole effect of his work by his conspicuous non-recognition of the evils calling for remedial action. I hope soon to see you at Oyster Bay. Faithfully yours, Theodore Roosevelt Rev. Dr. Lyman Abbott, The Outlook. 287 Fourth Avenue, New York, N.Y.57 June 18, 1908. My dear Dr. Dixon: I have received, thru Secretary Walcott of the Smithsonian Institution, a copy of the First Annual Report of the Commissioner of Health of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. Please accept my thanks for your courtesy in sending the book, and believe me, Sincerely yours, Theodore Roosevelt Dr. Samuel G. Dixon, Commissioner of Health, Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.58 June 18, 1908. To the Secretary of War: I approve your recommendation, which itself approves the report of Governor Magoon and of the experts employed to examine church property, to the effect that the purchase of the property of the Roman Catholic Church in the Archdiocese of Santiago de Cuba be completed at the price of $360,900. I return all the papers herewith. Theodore Roosevelt Enclosures. 1959 June 19, 1906. Dear Bishop: I will look up the matter of the Newport, Kentucky, postmastership at once. Thank you for your personal allusions to me. Faithfully yours, Theodore Roosevelt Bishop Earl Cranston, The Ontario, Washington.60 June 19, 1906. My dear Mr. Hill: I have your letter of the 17th. When I see you I shall tell you what the matters are that cause me real concern in connection with Colonel Symons' record in the Puget Sound country. With regard, believe me, Sincerely yours, Theodore Roosevelt James J. Hill, Esq., 32 Nassau Street, New York, N.Y.61 June 19, 1906. My dear Mr. Landis: That is a mighty nice telegram of yours and I thank you for it. With all good wishes, believe me, Faithfully yours, Theodore Roosevelt Hon. C. B. Landis, Delphi, Indiana. 62 June 19, 1908. My dear Dr. Washington: I like your note about Root so much that I have sent it to him, for I know it will please him. With regard, believe me, Sincerely yours, Theodore Roosevelt Principal Booker T. Washington, Tuskegee Institute, Alabama.63 June 19, 1908. My dear Dr. Coe: I must send you a word of personal thanks and congratulations. Give my regards to your wife and three boys, and with all good wishes to yourself, believe me, Sincerely yours, Theodore Roosevelt Dr. Henry Waldo Coe, Marquam Building, Portland, Oregon.64 June 19, 1908. My dear Mr. Butler: Just a line of personal acknowledgment and thanks for your thoughtfulness in wiring. With all good wishes, believe me, Faithfully yours, Theodore Roosevelt Mr. E. H. Butler, Buffalo Evening News, Buffalo, N.Y.65 June 19, 1908. My dear Stewart: You have been one of the friends whose friendship has meant a great deal to me. I value your telegram as an unneeded, and yet welcome, proof of your loyalty and good sense. With hearty thanks, believe me, Sincerely yours, Theodore Roosevelt Mr. John A. Stewart, Rooms 1204-5, 135 Broadway, New York, N.Y.66 June 19, 1908. My dear Mr. Shinn: Your letter is such a nice one that I must write you a personal line of acknowledgment. I do not feel about the nomination as you desire I should, but I want you to realize that to have you, and my fellow citizens like you, regard me as you do counts with me more than any other possible reward. Sincerely yours, Theodore Roosevelt Mr. G. Frank Shinn, 304 West State Street, Trenton, N.J.67 Private June 19, 1908. My dear Mr. Munsey: Mr. Shaw has just come in to see me to congratulate me on the outcome yesterday, and it reminds me of something I want to say to you. In the first place, let me say how I have enjoyed my relations with Mr. Shaw. You know that in him you have a man with whom I will always speak with absolute freedom on every subject. In the next place, my dear Mr. Munsey, let me thank you most heartily for your sincere and loyal friendship. I have been deeply touched by it, and I shall always keep the memory of it. Sincerely yours, Theodore Roosevelt Mr. Frank A. Munsey, Care Mr. Edgar D. Shaw, The Times, Washington, D.C.68 June 19, 1908. My dear Mr. Felding: I am particularly pleased at this word of congratulation from the colored men of Tennessee,. With all good wishes, believe me, Sincerely yours, Theodore Roosevelt Mr. A. A. Felding, Knoxville, Tennessee.69 June 19, 1908. To the Secretary of the Navy: Lieutenant Nelson of the submarine service is well known to me and is one of the best young officers in the service. I am told he has applied for shore leave and that he has had some ten years’ arduous work on sea. He does not know that I am interested in him, but having gone down in the submarine with him and having been a personal witness of the kind of work he does, I would like [it] you to know[n] that I take this interest in his case. Of course I do not wish any favor shown him at the expense of any one more deserving. But if he can properly be given the shore leave he desires I shall be glad. Theodore Roosevelt [*34*]70 June 19, 1908. Dear Mr. McClure: I have your letter of the 18th instant. You very much surprise me by the attitude you take. I enclose you marked copies of what I have said about the injunction matter; also Taft’s Cooper Union speech. Frankly, I do not think this reference to the matter can be answered. Sincerely yours, Theodore Roosevelt Mr. S. S. McClure, McClure’s Magazine, 44 East 23rd Street, New York. Enclosures [*34*]71 June 19, 1908. Hon. James B. Sherman, Republican Convention, Coliseum, Chicago, Ill. Accept my hearty congratulations and my earnest good wishes for the success of the ticket of Taft and Sherman. THEODORE ROOSEVELT. (President's private sect.)72 Personal. June 19, 1908. My dear Governor: Can you get on here within the course of the next few days? I shall want you to take office on June 30th or July 1st, and on the former date I would like to see you at Oyster Bay with Taft, and I should like to have you with him for three or four days before you come down to see me, so that there may be continuity in the management of the Department. Give my very warm regards to Mrs. Wright. Out of the abundance of caution and because our opponents will of course industriously try to cause all the trouble they can about everything, including your appointment, I suggest that you say as little as possible on any public subject until you see me. You can hardly imagine, my dear Governor, what a pleasure it is to me to have you in my Cabinet. Sincerely yours, Theodore Roosevelt Hon. Luke E. Wright, Memphis, Tennessee.73 June 19, 1908. My dear Mr. Dickson: I have your letter of the 17th. Do come right to Oyster Bay with that stinging snake. I would be more pleased to have it than any beast or reptile in Africa! For Heaven's sake don't let any accident happen to it! Come out and take lunch with me at Oyster Bay next Tuesday at 1:30 o'clock, and then tell me about the Metcalfes and Major Holm, and all the rest. Now take extra care of that snake and bring it out. If we actually get possession of a snake which has a genuine sting in the tail - a genuine sting which can be worked in and out - we have made a tremendous advance in the knowledge of natural history. Sincerely yours, Theodore Roosevelt Mr. Harris Dickson, The Shoreham, Washington, D.C. Take train leaving [?] the [?] about 10 [?] arriving Oyster Bay 12.0074 June 19, 1908. Dear Dan: That is a very nice letter of yours and I am very glad to get it. Give me the first chance you have to see you and I will tell you all about it. Faithfully yours, T.R. Mr. Edward S. Martin, Madison, Conn.75 June 19, 1908. Darling Alice: I loved your telegram. I look forward to seeing Nick and you and hearing about the whole thing. There were moments when it must have been exciting. It seems to me that everything went off in very satisfactory shape. With love to Nick, Ever yours, T R Mrs. Nicholas Longworth, Cincinnati, Ohio.76 June 19, 1908. My dear Reid: That was a curious remark of Kipling's. I do not know quite what he meant by calling the people of South Africa halfbreeds and comparing them to the Filipinos. I have always been certain that the Boer element there would get the upper hand in some way, because it is really the strongest element and is rooted in the soil; but I have also always hoped that the Africanders would gradually acquire the English tongue and culture as their own and that they would remain part of the Empire. Mrs. Roosevelt and I were both greatly interested in your last two letters, and we were really glad to hear just what you wrote us about your daughter's marriage and your future son-in-law. He must be a fine fellow. Give him my warm regards. Well, as you have seen, Taft's nomination went thru all right and he got the seven hundred and odd votes that I had prophesied. I had to do some lively work to prevent a stampede for me. I should be greatly obliged if you would speak to whomever is the proper man in the Government and tell him that I am going to Africa next April; that I am not a game butcher and indeed have a horror of anything like slaughter; but that I should like to be allowed77 2 to kill, and to have my son Kermit kill, one good specimen of each of the rarer animals, of course paying for the licenses, etc., just as any one would; and then if it is allowed, under such circumstances, for me to go in some one of special reserves I should be glad.* But after all, I am quite contented if I get what the New Bedford whaling captain was asked to give the mate - "ci-vility, and that of the damnedest commonest kind." I am already in correspondence with Selous and Edward North Buxton, who, I think, can give me the information necessary to get me started. If it would make the Government feel that they wished a good excuse to allow me to shoot some of the rarer game, that is, one specimen of each even if [?] in the reserves, they can be told I shall be collecting for the National Museum here in Washington, to which I shall give my trophies. Do not bother yourself about this; but if you can without inconvenience talk it over with the proper Cabinet officer, I should be obliged. With great regard, Sincerely yours, Theodore Roosevelt *My intention is to go regularly [?] to collect specimens for the National Museum here and to take along a field taxidermist; my work will be [?] scientific; I shall kill only what is really needed; so that I think it will be fair to [?] [?] Hon. Whitelaw Reid, The American Ambassador, London, England.78 June 19, 1908. Dear Leonard: I have just received your interesting letter. Luke Wright will now be Secretary of War. I know your relations with him are good. Will you write him at once, saying you do so at my request, in the matter of those reservations? If you think there is anything special that I ought to say in my last message to Congress about the army, give it to me. But remember that I want to make this last message short, the sentences general, and to refrain from minute detail. I am delighted that you are having such a pleasant time with Mrs. Wood on your trip to Europe. If ever two people deserved it you are the two. A year hence I trust I shall be in Africa traveling and doing a mild amount of big game shooting. I think I shall take Kermit with me; and the following spring, if things go right, I 79 [inverted] shall hope that Mrs. Roosevelt and Ethel can meet me on the Nile. Then I should like to take three or four weeks' trip in northern Italy and southern France, ending with a week or two in England -- but only if I find it possible absolutely to avoid being presented at any court or meeting any of the big politicians, I am not going to be made a ra[r]ee show of, and if I find there is no other way to avoid it I simply won't go to foreign countries. With love to Mrs. Wood, believe me, Faithfully yours, Theodore Roosevelt P.S. As to Fitzgerald and his fellow slanderers, what they really need is a thrashing; but it is difficult to know just which of the innumerable lies or slanders I have to face are worth notice. Major General Leonard Wood, Care of War Department. 80 June 19, 1908. Dearest Nannie: Sturgis Bigelow wrote us the other day giving us all the news and telling us all about you. We were so glad to hear from him. Now (I wish to send you just a line, primarily to say how admirably I think Cabot handled the peculiarly delicate and difficult work at Chicago. In point of judgment, taste and power it would be literally impossible to better either his words or his actions. He was in a peculiar sense the guardian not only of the national interests but of my own personal honor; and to do his full duty as guardian it was necessary for him effectively to thwart the movements not merely of my foes but of the multitude of my well-meaning friends who did not think deeply or who were not of very sensitive fibre. It was absolutely necessary that any stampede for me should be prevented, and that I should not be nominated; for now that it is over we can confess to one another that it would have been wellnigh impossible for me to refuse [from] the nomination, and perhaps ruin the party thereby, if the nomination had actually been made. And yet if I had accepted, my power for useful service would have forever been lessoned, because nothing could have prevented the wide diffusion of the suspicion that I had not really meant what I had said, that my actions did not really square with the highest and finest code of ethics -- and if there is any value whatever in my career, as far as my 81 2 countrymen are concerned, it consists in their belief that I have been both an efficient public man, and at the same, a disinterested public servant. We loved having all of you with us at diner, and sitting out on the portico afterwards in the summer evening, the last night you were in Washington. The weather has been beautiful this spring. In fact, I think it has been the most beautiful spring and early summer we have seen in Washington, and Edith and I have enjoyed it to the full. We have ridden a great deal together, and on the afternoons I did not ride I have played tennis and Edith has usually come around afterwards to superintend the cold tea for the players. I have never known the grounds to be more beautiful, nor the flowers and the flower-bearing trees more lovely. Massachusetts Avenue is now fragrant with the scent of the lindens. Edith and I breakfast and lunch on the south portico and dine on the west terrace; and after breakfast and lunch we usually stroll around the grounds. I do not believe any one else has ever enjoyed the White House as we have enjoyed it, and now we are ready to leave it without a pang, with plenty of interest and pleasure ahead of us.* Have you read Murray's book on the History of the Greek Epic? If not, it is well worth your while reading it. You probably know some of his poetic translations of the old Greek dramatists. Goodbye, dear Nannie. Every lovingly yours, Theodore Roosevelt Mrs. H.C. Lodge, Nahant, Mass. *Of all persons that cheerful small pagan Quentin remarked thoughtfully today "There is a little hole in my heart when I think of leaving the White House"!82 June 19, 1908. Gentlemen: I thank you for your really valuable paper, and appreciate cordially your public-spirited willingness to do the work anyhow, and I feel that it is exactly as valuable as if you had been at West Point in an official capacity. I have called your report to the special attention of the new Secretary of War. May I ask that you personally write him, saying you do so at my request, and ask careful attention to this report? I cordially agree with the recommendations you make as to the purchase of the property. I am not entirely content with the academic regime at either West Point or Annapolis. I am not sure that we do not put too much stress upon more scholastic attainments, especially upon mathematics. I know that if I were at this amount to raise a cavalry division I would not care a rap if a man was familiar with mathematics or not, in picking him out for command. Sincerely yours, Theodore Roosevelt Lieut. Gen. S. B. M. Young, Mr. Geo. S. B. Patton, Mr. Robert S. Bean, Mr. Henry L. Higginson.83 June 19, 1908. Gentlemen: I thank you your really valuable paper, and appreciate cordially your public-spirited willingness to do the work anyhow, and I feel that it is exactly as valuable as if you had been at West Point in an official capacity. I have called your report to the special attention of the new Secretary of War. May I ask that you personally write him, saying you do so at my request, and ask careful attention to the report? I cordially agree with the recommendations you make as to the purchase of property. I am not entirely content with the academic regime at either Wear Point or Annapolis. I am not sure that we do not put too much stress upon more scholastic attachments, especially upon mathematics. I know that if I were at this moment to raise a cavalry division I would not care a rap if a man was familiar with mathematics or not, in picking him out for command. Sincerely yours, Theodore Roosevelt Lieut. Gen. S. B. M. Young, U.S.A., retired, Mr. Geo S. Patton, Mr. Robert S. Bean, Mr. Henry L. Higginson. 84 June 19, 1908. Gentlemen: I thank you for your really vauable paper, and appreciate cordially your public-spirited willingness to do the work anyhow, and I feel that it is exactly as valuable as if you had been at West Point in an official capacity. I have called your report to the special attention of the new Secretary of War, May I ask that you personally write him, saying you do so at my request, and ask careful attention to this report? I cordially agree with the recommendations you make as to the purchase of the property. I am not entirely content with the academic regime at either West Point or Annapolis. I am not sure that we do not put too much stress upon more scholastic attainments, especially upon mathematics. I know that if I were at this moment to raise a cavalry division I would not care a rap if a man was familiar with mathematics or not, in picking him out for command. Sincerely yours, Theodore Roosevelt Lieut. Gen. S.B.M. Young, U.S.A., retired, Mr. Geo. S. Patton, Mr. Robert S. Bean, Mr. Henry L. Higginson.85 June 19. 1908. Gentlemen: I thank you for your really valuable paper, and appreciate cordially your public-spirited willingness to do the work anyhow, and I feel that it is exactly as valuable as is you had been at West Point in official capacity. I have called your report to the specially attention of the new Secretary of War. May I ask that you personally write him, saying you do so at my request, and ask careful attention to this report? I cordially agree with the recommendations you make as to the purpose of property. I am not entirely content with the academic regime at either West Point or Annapolis. I am not sure that we do not put too much stress upon more scholastic attainments, especially upon mathematics. I know that if I were at this moment to raise a cavalry division. I know that if I were at this moment to raise a cavalry division I would not care a rap if a man was familiar with mathematics or not, in picking him out for concern. Sincerely yours, Theodore Roosevelt Lieut. Gen. S.B.M. Young, U.S.A., retired, Mr. Geo. S. Patton, Mr. Robert S. Bean, Mr. Henry L. Higginson. 86 June 29, 1908. My dear [????]: Well, the completion is near and Taft the ? in a platform which I honestly support. No one can prophesy in politics, ? ? I can not be sure that we shall ?, but the ? I believe Your ?? most certainly it will when ? in the country if he is not [elected]. ?m anything Washington and ? I believe that Taft as President will ? with any other man who has ever been in the White House. It has been a serious contest, for I have had to fight tooth and nail against being remembered? myself, and in the best? ?? it has needed every available effort to my part to prevent a break ? the delegation?, which would have meant a stampede for me and my administration? I could not have prevented it at all unless I had thrown myself heart and soul into the business of nominating Taft and had ? to the country that he stood for exactly the same principles and policies that I did, and that I believed with all my heart and soul that under him we should progress steadily along the road this administration has [traveled]. He and I view public questions exactly alike. In fact, I think it has been very rare that the public men have ever been so much at ? in all the essentials of their beliefs and practices87 2 When I made my announcement three years ago last November, just after the election, that I would under no circumstances again be a candidate, I of course acted on a carefully-thought-out and considered theory. Having made it not having given my word to the people at large as to what I would do, and other men, including you, having entered the field as the strength of this statement of mine, I never felt the slightest hesitancy, the slightest wavering, as to the proper course to follow. But the developments of the last year or two have been so out of the common that at times I have felt a little uncomfortable as to whether my announced decision had been wise. But I think it was wise; and now I want to give you my reasons in full. In the first place, I will freely admit what there is to say against it. I have a good deal of contempt for the type which Mirabeau condemned in Lafayette as the "Cromwell-Grandison" type, for those who, like Dante's Pope, are guilty of "il gran refiuto." I do not like any man who flinches from work, and I like him none the better if he covers his flinching under the title of self-abnegation or renunciation or any other phrase, which may [mean?] merely weakness, or else that he is willing to subordinate great and real public interests to a meticulous and fantastic [???bility] in which he is concerned chiefly for the sake of his own shriveled soul. (There is very much to be said in favor of the theory that the public has a right to demand as long service from any man who is doing good service as it thinks will be useful; and during the last year or two "I am a trifle uncertain as to the correctness of the Italian. 88 3 I have been rendered extemely uncomfortable both by the exultation of my foes over my announced intention to retire, and by the real uneasiness and shagrin felt by many good men because, as they believed, they were losing quite needlessly the leader in whom they trusted, and who they believed would bring to a successful conclusion certain struggles which they regarded as of vital concern to the national welfare. Morever, it was of course impossible to foresee, and I did not foresee, when I made my public announcement of my intention, that the then leadership I possest would continue (as far as I am able to tell) unbroken, no has especially been the case; and that the people who believed in me and treated me and followed me would three or four years later still feel that I was the sum of all others whom they wisht to see President. Yet each I think has been the ? and therefore, when I felt obliged to insist on retiring and abandoning the leadership, now and then I felt ugly qualms as to whether I was not refusing to do what I ought to do, and abandoning great work on a more fantastic point of honor. These are strong reasons why my course should be condemned; yet I think that the counterveiling reasons are still stronger. Of whom when I spoke I had in ? the precedent set by Washington and childhoood under class, the precedent which recognizes the fact that, as there labors in the Presidency more power than in any other office in any great republic or constitutional monarchy of modern times, it can only be kept? fine above by having the people as a whole accept as axiomatic the position that no one can hold it for no more than a limited time. I don't 89 4 think that any harm comes from the concentration of powers in one man's hands, provided the holder does not keep it for more than a certain, definite time, and then returns to the people from whom he sprang. "In the great days of the Roman Republic no harm whatever came from the dictatorship, because great tho the power of the dictator was, after a comparatively short period he surrendered it back to those from whom he gained it. On the other hand, the history of the first and second French Republics, not to speak of the Spanish-American Republics, not to speak of the Commonwealth, in Seventeenth century England, has shown that the strong man, and even the strong man who is good, may very readily subvert free institutions if he and the people at large grow to accept his continued possession of vast power as being necessary to good government. It is a very unhealthy thing that any man should be considered necessary to the people as a whole, save in the way of meeting some given crisis. Moreover, in a republic like ours the vital need is that there shall be a general recognition of the moral law, of the law which, as regards public men, means belief in efficient and disinterested services for the public rendered without thought of personal gain, and above all without the though of self-perpetuation in office. I regard the memories of Washington and Lincoln as priceless heritages for our people, just because they are the memories of strong men, of men who can not be accused of weakness or timidity, of men who I believe were quite as strong for instance as Cromwell or Bismarck and very much stronger than the Louis Napoleon type, who, nevertheless, led careers marked by disinterestedness just as much as by strength; who, like Timoleon and [Manion?] , in very deed, and not as a mere matter of oratory or fine writing, put the public good, the good of the people as a whole, as the first of all considerations. 90 5 Now, my ambition is that, in however small a way, the work I do shall be along the Washington and Lincoln Lines. While President I have been President, emphatically; I have used every ounce of power there was in the office and I have not cared a rap for the criticisms of those who spoke of my "usurpation of power" ; for I know that the talk was all nonsense and that there was no usurpation. I believe that the efficiency of this Government depends upon its possessing a strong central executive, and wherever I could establish a precedent for strength in the executive, as I did for instance as regards external affairs in the case of sending the fleet around the world, taking Panama, settling affairs of Santo Domingo and Cuba; or as I did in internal affairs in settling the anthracite coal strike, in keeping order in Nevada this year when the Federation of Miners threatened anarchy, or as I have done in bringing the big corporations to book -- why, in all these cases I have felt not merely that my action was right in itself, but that in showing the strength of, or in giving strength to, the executive, I was establishing a precedent of value. I believe in a strong executive; I believe in power; but I believe that responsibility should go with power, and that it is not well that the strong executive should be a perpetual executive. Above all and beyond all I believe as I have said before that the salvation of this country depends upon Washington and Lincoln representing the type of leader to which we are true. I hope that in my acts I have been a good President, a President who has observed well of the Republic; but most of all, I believe that whatever value my service may have comes even more from what I am than from what I do. ) I may be mistaken, but it is my belief that the bulk of my country- 91 6 man, the men whom Abraham Lincoln called "the plain people" - the farmers, mechanics, small tradesmen, hard-working professional men - feel that I am in a peculiar sense their President, that I represent the democracy in somewhat the fashion that Lincoln did, that is, not in any demagogic way but with the sincere effort to stand for a government by the people and for the people. Now the chief service I can render these plain people who believe in me is, not to destroy their ideal of me. They have followed me for the past six or seven years, indeed for some years previously, because they thought they recognized in me certain qualities in which they believed, because they regarded me as honest and disinterested, as having courage and common sense. Now i wouldn't for anything in the world shatter this belief of theirs in me, unless it were necessary to do so because they had embarked on a wrong course, and I could only be really true to them by forfeiting their good will. For instance, if they made up their minds that they would repudiate their debts, or under a gust of emotion decided to follow any course that was wrong, I could show loyalty to them only by opposing them tooth and nail, without the slightest regard to any amount of unpopularity or obloquy. But this of course isn't what I mean when I say I do not want to shatter their belief in me. What I mean is that I do not want to make them think that after all i am actuated by selfish motives, by motives of self-interest, that my championship of their cause, that my opposition to the plutocracy, is simply due to the usual demagogs desire to pander to the mob, or to the no more dangerous, but even more sinister, desire to secure self-advancement under the cloak of championship of popular rights. Of course I may be wrong in my belief, but my belief is that a great many honest people in this country 92 7 who lead hard lives are helped in their efforts to keep straight and avoid envy and hatred and despir [sic] by their faith in no end in the principles I preach and in my practice of those principles. I would not for anything do the moral damage to these people that might come from shattering their faith in my personal disinterestedness. (A few months ago three old back-country farmers turned up in Washington and after awhile managed to get in to see me. They were rugged old fellows, as hairy as Boers and a good deal of the Boer type. They hadn't a black coat among them, and two of them wore no cravats; that is they just had on their working clothes, but all cleaned and brushed. When they finally got to see me they explained that they hadn't anything whatever to ask, but that they believed in me, believed that I stood for what they regarded as the American ideal, and one rugged old fellow put it, "We want to shake that honest hand." Now this anecdote seems rather sentimental as I tell it, and I do not know that I can convey to you the effect the incident produced on me; but it was one of the very many incidents which have occurred, and they have made me feel that I am under a big debt of obligation to the good people of this country, and that I am bound not by any unnecessary action of mine to forfeit their respect, not to hurt them by taking away any part of what they have built up as their ideal of me.) It is just as I would not be willing to hurt my soldiers, to destroy my influence among men who look up to me as leader, by needlessly doing anything in battle which would give the idea that I was not personally brave; even tho some given risk might seem a little unnecessary to an outsider. However certain I might be that in seeking or accepting a third term I was actuated by a sincere desire to serve my fellow countrymen, I am very much afraid that multitudes of thoroly 93 8 honest men who have believed deeply in me, (and some of whom, by the way, until I consented to run might think that they wisht me to run) would nevertheless have a feeling of disappointment if I did try to occupy the Presidency for three consecutive terms, to hold it longer than it was deemed wise that Washington should hold it. I would have felt very differently, and very much more doubtful about what to do, if my leaving the Presidency had meant that there was no chance to continue the work in which I am engaged and which I deem vital to the welfare of the people. But in Taft there was ready to hand a man whose theory is what I hope mine is; and if we can elect him president we achieve all that could be achieved by continuing me in the office, and yet we avoid all the objections, all the risk of creating a bad precedent. There, my dear Sir, George! I am afraid there is a good deal of ego in this letter, but I wanted you to feel just what it was that actuated me in the course I have followed, and I think you will understand me. When I get thru the presidency next year I am going for ten months or a year to Africa, and I am already in consultation with Edward North Buxton and Selous about the details of my trip. As I wrote to Selous, my aim is to visit the Pleistocene and the world "as it lay in sunshine unworn of the plow" ; to see the great beasts whose like our forefathers saw when they lived in caves and mete one another with stone-headed axes. I do not want to do my butchering, but I would like to get a few trophies. Probably all to be put in the National Museum here at Washington. My second son will go with me, and if I come out by the Nile the following spring I94 - 9 - shall hope to meet Mrs. Roosevelt and my younger daughter there. I should then greatly like to spend a few weeks in North Italy, France and England, but i shall not try to if I find I have to be presented at the various courts, meet the sovereigns, prime ministers, and others. When I am thru with the Presidency I am thru with it, definitely and once and for all. The second my successor takes the oath of office I become a private citizen, and then I wish to go down stream among the Earthen pots and not among the brazen pots. For instance, I should be delighted to meet the Kaiser if I could meet him now and talk with him and consult with him as the head of one great country can ought to talk and consult with the head of another, but I have not the slightest desire to meet him when I am thru with the Presidency. On the contrary I should very much object to doing so. I should think it would bore him, and I know it would bore us. In fact, I should go nearly crazy if I were obliged to make numbers of formal visits to people of merely titular interest; and I should mind even more the fact that they, poor creatures, were suffering because from a mistaken sense of duty they thought they ought to see me. If I can visit England without having my own ambassador or anyone else call on me, without being expected to see anybody I didn't already know, I should love to come. I should love to meet you and Salous and Button and Arthur Lee, and to see the English lanes in spring, and stop at English country inns], and see a cathedral here and there; and if just before, provided it were not too hot, I could have seen some of the hill-towns in Italy and seen some Provencal towns and some of the French cathedrals, and have gotten to Paris for a day in the Louvre - why this95 10 is what I should like most of all to do. But if all this is impossible, and I have to go thru the dreary farce of unspeakably foolish formal entertainment at the cost of people in whom I take not the slightest real interest, why I shall come straight back from Africa to the United States. Faithfully yours, Theodore Roosevelt Sir George Otto Trevelyan, Wallington, Cambo, Northumberland, England.96 Oyster Bay, N.Y., June 20, 1908. My dear Dr. Walcott: About the 1st of April next I intend to start for Africa. My plans are of course indefinite, but at present I hope they will be something on the following order: By May 1st I shall land at Mombasa and spend the next few months hunting and traveling in British and German East Africa; provably going thence to or toward Uganda, with the expectation of striking the Nile about the beginning of the new year, and then working down it, with side trips after animals and birds, so as to come out at tidewater, any, about March 1st. This would give me ten months in Africa. As you know, I am not in the least a game butcher. I like to do a certain amount of hunting, but my real and main interest is the interest of a faunal naturalist. Now, it seems to me that this opens the best chance for the National Museum to get a fine collection not only of the big game benefits, but of the smaller mammals and birds of Africa; and looking at it dispassionately, it seems to me that the chance ought not to be neglected. I will make arrangements in connection with publishing a book which will enable me to pay for the expense of myself and my son. But what I would like to do would be to get one or two professional field taxidermists, field naturalists, to go with us, who should prepare and send back the specimens we collect. The collection which would thus go to the [Natural History Museum?] be of unique value. It would, I hope, include97 - 3 - rhinoceros, giraffe, hippopotamus, many of the big antelopes, possibly elephant, buffalo, and lion, together with the rare smaller animals and birds. I have not the means that would enable me to pay for the one or two taxidermists and their kit, and the curing and transport of the specimens for the National Museum. But as I say, I doubt if the National Museum would ever again have the chance to get a collection which would be from every standpoint as interesting. Of course the actual hunting of the big game I would want to do myself, or have my son do; but the specimens would all go to the National Museum, save a very few personal trophies of little scientific value which for some reason I might like to keep. Now, on the National Museum arrange, in view of getting these specimens, for the services of one or two field taxidermists, and for the care and transport of the specimens? Could the money be provided without Congressional action? If not, I would try to get Congress to act by authorizing the expenditure of the comparatively small sum necessary; or it may be that I would be able to get the Carnegie Institute to help. I shall send a copy of this letter to Mr. Root, because of his connection with the Carnegie Institute. If the National Museum can't do anything in the matter, I may communicate with the American Museum of Natural History of New York; but of course, as ex-President, I should feel that the National Museum is the museum to which my collection should go. With high regard, Sincerely yours, [Theodore Roosevelt] Chas D Walcott, Smithsonian Institute, Washington, D. C.98 Oyster Bay, N.Y., June 20, 1908. My dear Mr. Leoch: I call your attention to the enclosed letter from Congressman Landis, Chairman of the House Committee on Printing, dated June 18, 1908; and to the resolution of the Joint Committee on Printing of May 25, 1908. This resolution has my entire approval. I am not willing to run the slightest risk of a repetition of the troubles that have occurred within the past few years, and I hereby direct that you govern yourself in accordance with the resolution of the Joint Committee on Printing of May 25, 1908, and comply with the requests it therein [?] of the Public Printer. Sincerely yours, Theodore Roosevelt Hon. J. B. Leoch, Public Printer. Enclosures 99 Oyster Bay, N.Y., June 20, 1908. My dear Mr. Vice-President: I wish I could accept, but it is simply out of the question. I cannot undertake another engagement of any kind or sort, and especially just at that time. Of course I will write a letter, as you desire. When do you wish it? Faithfully yours, Theodore Roosevelt Hon. Charles W. Fairbanks, Vice-President of the United States, Indianapolis, Indiana.100 Oyster Bay, N.Y., June 20, 1908. [*61*] My dear Mr. Landis: I am exceedingly pleased to receive your letter of June 18th. I heartily approve of the resolution of the Joint Committee on Printing of May 25th last, and I have directed the Public Printer to govern his conduct in accordance therewith, as you will see from the copy of my letter to him which I enclose. Sincerely yours, Theodore Roosevelt Hon. C. B. Landis, House of Representatives. Enclosure101 Oyster Bay, N.Y., June 20, 1908. My dear Judge: I very genuinely appreciate your letter. Your friendship and support have always meant a great deal to me. The gubernatorial situation causes me in a good deal of concern. I am not yet prepared to express an opinion. With high regard, Sincerely yours, Theodore Roosevelt Hon. Frank C. Laughlin, Supreme Court, Appellate Division, First Department, New York.102 Oyster Bay, N.Y. June 20, 1908. My dear General Corbin; That is a mighty nice act of yours, and I appreciate it. With warm regards to Mrs. Corbin, believe me, Faithfully yours, Theodore Roosevelt Lieutenant General H. C. Corbin, U.S.A.,retired, Highwood, Chevy Chase, Maryland.103 Oyster Bay, N.Y. June 20, 1908. Dear Abbott: I have your letter of the 19th instant. When your father comes back, won't you and he, and if possible your brother, come out and take lunch with me some day? Sincerely yours, Theodore Roosevelt Mr. Ernest Hamlin Abbott, The Outlook, 287 Fourth Avenue, New York.104 Private Oyster Bay, N.Y., June 20, 1908. My dear Mr. Smith: Many thanks for your letter. I feel just as you do about the national ticket. I also absolutely agree with that you say as to the Governship. I don’t yet want to commit myself to any one man. I thoroly agree with you as to the type of man who should be nominated. Sincerely yours, Theodore Roosevelt Mr. Charles Sprague Smith, The People’s Institute, 318 East 15th Street, New York.105 Oyster Bay, N.Y., June 20, 1908. Dear Rose: Your letter was a peculiar gratification to me, because you were one of the first men with whom at least ten years ago I discust the policy of reform without revolution. You have exactly my theory. We need a strong executive; a man of strength in a position of strength; but we need to have that man occupy the position only for a limited term. I have exprest much the same idea in a letter I wrote Trevelyan, and I enclose you a copy of it. With warm regards to Mrs. Rose, Faithfully yours, Theodore Roosevelt After all, the [?] [?] [?] [?] [?] [?] [?] [?] [?] the [?] [?] [?] [?] [?] Hon. John C. Rose, 626 Equitable Building, Baltimore. Enclosure106 Oyster Bay, N.Y. June 22, 1908. Memorandum for Mr. McCormick: The telegram came in a much mangled condition.107 Oyster Bay, N.Y. June 20, 1908. My dear McCormick: Loeb, who is a hardened skeptic and cynic, states he thinks the joint telegram from you and Nick must have been sent from a club. By inference he thinks it must have been sent late at night. I, who am neither a skeptic or a cynic, don’t agree with him. Seriously, I am really pleased with the telegram, and am mighty glad to have it. Faithfully yours, Theodore Roosevelt Mr. Medill McCormick, Chicago, Illinois.108 Oyster Bay, N.Y., June 20, 1908. [*52*] My dear Mr. Secretary: I enclose herewith the copies of the President’s letters to Sir George Trevelyan, and Secretary Walcott of the Smithsonian Institution. With high regard, Sincerely yours, Wm. Loeb, Jr., Secretary to the President. Hon. Elihu Root, Secretary of State, Clinton, N.Y. P.S. I also enclose a copy of your telegram of today to Secretary Taft. Enclosures109 58 June 20, 1908. (Sent from Philadelphia) Hon, William H. Taft, Care Charles P. Taft, Cincinnati, Ohio I am troubled by something you said about the claim of friendship and past service in the choice of Chairman. There is no reality in the friendship that presses such claims. Such considerations [xxx] should have no weight. The time has not come for distributing honors, or for gratifying your friends' wishes or even your own wishes. You are simply leading in a hard and doubtful fight, and it is your duty to the party which has nominated you to select the most efficient instrument possible in order to win, no matter what disappointment you may cause or how much you may dislike to cause it. Any true friend of yours will recognize this. My own opinion is very strong that you ought not to decide this question for a week or so, partly because in some quarters the compliment of consultation will be useful, and more because you ought to look over the whole field and see where the strength and weakness are when both you and the party have settled down from the convention excitement and you have struck into the cold morning-after judgment. Give my love to Sherman if he is with you. ELIHU ROOT.110 Oyster Bay, N.Y., June 22, 1908. [*Private*] [*39*] My dear President Wheeler: I feel precisely as you do about the nomination of Sherman. My own idea was strongly to get Dolliver or Cummins, as long as we could not get Hadley of Missouri, because I expect Taft to carry the East anyhow, whereas I am doubtful about the country west of the Mississippi – indeed, about some of the States just east of the Mississippi, where the radicals feel exceedingly suspicious of anything that looks like reaction. Thanking you for your letters, which were very interesting, I am, Sincerely yours, Theodore Roosevelt President Benjamin Ide Wheeler, University of California, Berkeley, California.111 Personal. Oyster Bay, N.Y., June 22, 1908. My dear Mr. Baker: I have your letter of the 20th. I know David Grayson already, but I had no idea that he was you. I value the book and thank you for sending it to me. I shall read it with real interest as I have already read much of it. Sincerely yours, Theodore Roosevelt My. Ray Stannard Baker, East Lansing, Michigan.112 Oyster Bay, N.Y., June 22, 1908. My dear Dr. Hamner: I have your letter of the 19th. What weight my opinion on the state of facts you set forth would have with the Pension Bureau, I am very doubtful. I fear it would not have any; but I will gladly call the attention of the Commissioner of Pensions to your case if you apply for a pension, and will tell him all I know about you, all of which is to your credit. I am sorry that you should have had such sickness. Sincerely yours, Theodore Roosevelt Dr. G.P. Hamner, Rivermont, R.F.D.4, Lynchburg, Virginia.113 Oyster Bay, N.Y., June 22, 1908. My dear Davenport: That is a mighty nice letter of yours. You are a trump ! Now, come out here some time and let me see you. Sincerely yours, Theodore Roosevelt Mr. Homer Davenport, Morris Plains, N.J.114 [*37*] Oyster Bay, N.Y., June 22, 1908. Darling Bye: Yes, Cabot did splendidly at that Convention. I am very much pleased with the result; and now, as regards myself, I am already looking away from politics and toward Africa. When I am thru with a thing I am thru with it; and as long as I have power to work I want to turn heart and soul to the next bit of work to be done. With the life I have led it is unlikely that I shall retain vigor to a very advanced age, and I want to be a man of action as long as I can. I do not want to take the African trip as a mere holiday, and I am trying to arrange, and hope to succeed in arranging, that I shall go on a regular scientific trip representing, say, the National Museum, with one or two professional field taxidermists to cure the trophies and ar-115 arrange for their transport back to this country. Give my regards to Harry Platt. I believe from all I know that he is a good fellow. Love to dear little Sheffield. All our boys are now back here. Ted seems to have done well and I am pleased with him. He is glad to get of out of college and glad to get to work. I am pleased, for instance, to find the amusement with which he greets the suggestion of people that he should go to Africa with me instead of holding down his job here. Your loving brother, Theodore Roosevelt Mrs. W. S. Cowles, Oldgate, Farmington, Connecticut.116 Oyster Bay, N.Y., June 22, 1908. Dear Swift: I am really pleased to receive your letter of the 19th. Now everything must be done to carry Indiana. With warm regards, believe me, Faithfully yours, Theodore Roosevelt Mr. Lucious B. Swift, 41 American Central Life Building, Indianapolis, Indiana.117 Oyster Bay, N.Y., June 22, 1908. My dear Mr. Tracy: I am really interested in that token, and amused with it. What curious points of similarity there are in the campaigns! That penny might have been designed by the New York Sun. With many thanks, believe me, Sincerely yours, Theodore Roosevelt Mr. Evarts Tracy, 244 Fifth Avenue, New York.118 Oyster Bay, N.Y., June 22, 1908. My dear Mr. Gresham: I am exceedingly pleased to receive your letter and to learn that you are to support Taft. What you tell me about the labor man is important. I have taken the liberty of at once sending it to Taft. With cordial regards and thanks, believe me, Sincerely yours, Theodore Roosevelt Mr. Otto Gresham, 100 Washington Street, Chicago, Illinois.119 Oyster Bay, N.Y., June 24, 1908. Mrs. Grover Cleveland, Princeton, New Jersey. Your telegram shocked me greatly. Mrs. Roosevelt joins in very deep and sincere sympathy. I have of course abandoned my intention of starting today for the New London boat races, so that if the funeral is either Thursday or Friday I can attend. I can also attend if it is Sunday, but if it is Saturday a number of men are coming here from various parts of the country on a busines engagement which I cannot well break. Will you direct some one to wire me when the funeral is to be, and where? Theodore Roosevelt (Official)120 Oyster Bay, N.Y., June 23, 1908. My dear Mr. Estes: I am genuinely shocked to find that the young sculptor you brought down to Washington gave an interview to the papers in which he actually profest to quote a private conversation I had with you. Of course what he said was utterly inaccurate; but entirely apart from this, it was simply an unpardonable act on his part under these circumstances to quote the President. I feel that you ought to have him at once repudiate any interview he has had, and make him in some way understand the grossness of his offense against good taste and every rule of gentlemanly conduct. Indeed, my dear Mr. Estes, I do not think he ought to be allowed, in view of this conduct, to have anything to do with the Portsmouth statue so far as I am concerned. I of course spoke freely, as one gentleman to another, when you came to see me, and it was unpardonable that this man you121 brought with you should affect to quote the conversation or allude to it in any way. What he said was entirely inaccurate; but whether inaccurate or not, the offense on his part is great. I never addressed any remark to him at all. My whole conservation was to you. I did not even know his name, yet he repeats this conversation as if it was an interview with me. Sincerely yours, Theodore Roosevelt Dana Estes, Esq., Brookline, Massachusetts. 122 Personal Oyster Bay, N.Y., June 23, 1908. 20 My dear Bonaparte: I entirely agree with you. Let us appoint Purdy at once. Send me his recess commission at the proper time. To permit Nelson to dictate the man whom I shall appoint as judge is preposterous. I am very doubtful of the advisability of putting another Tennessee Democrat in the administration when we have Luke Wright in the Cabinet, especially as you have Fowler, from Tennessee, already in your office. My feeling is that I should like to follow your judgment in the matter, making the first consideration having the right type of man, but so far as you can consistently with this, paying consideration to politics and geography. Senator Warner had a man is whom he was much interested, named Brown, who struck me as very good man. Do you know anything about him? What would you think of District Attorney Lewis, of Virginia? I should think it would be a first-class appointment in point of character, locality, and reputation, if you think he was the necessity ability. Faithfully yours, (signed) Theodore Roosevelt Hon. Charles J. Bonaparte, Attorney General.123 Personal Oyster Bay, N.Y., June 23, 1908. My dear Major Hornby: It was exceedingly kind of you to send me your book on Somaliland. I do intend to visit Africa, but I am doubtful whether I shall be able to get to Somaliland. I hope to do some hunting, but at present my expectation is to make my main object the collection of natural history specimens for our National Museum. I envy you your sport, especially in Unyora. I should particularly like to get one bull elephant. With many thanks, Theodore Roosevelt Major M. L. Hornby, Indian Army, Army and Navy Club, Pall Mall, London, England.124 59 Oyster Bay, N.Y., June 23, 1908. My dear Bishop: I am in receipt of your letter of the 22nd and return the enclosure herewith. I wish I could grant that request, but, my dear Bishop, on thinking it over I am sure you will see why it is impossible for me to do so. Originally no such requests were granted by the President or State Department. Then in cases just like this we began to have them granted by the state Department. Such a multitude then came in that the result is not that good men like Bishop Burt do not care for the State Department letter, but want me to make exceptions in their favor. Of course if I make exceptions for men I do not know at all, I simply have to stop making exceptions and have to write for everyone. I have had to refuse absolutely to write any of these letters for people I do not know; and indeed, as a matter of fact, for the last year I have had to refuse to125 Write them for people I do know, on account of the volume of requests that come in. With regard, believe me Sincerely yours, Theodore Roosevelt Bishop Earl Cranston, The Ontario, Washington, D.C. Enclosure.126 Oyster Bay, N.Y. June 23, 1908. My dear Mrs. Roche: I have your letter of the 21st instant. Indeed I should be delighted to receive the " History of [???]." and I thank you for remembering me. As for my letters to Mr. Roche, would you be willing to send them to me? I will then go over them and return them all to you, indicating what there is in any of them that should not be published. Of course I wrote very intimately to your husband. With high regard and deep sympathy, from both Mrs. Roosevelt and myself, Believe me, Sincerely yours, Mrs. Lily V. Rouche, 43 Elmwood Street, Newton, Massachusetts.127 Oyster Bay, N.Y., June 23, 1908. Dear Alex: Can’t you come out here for a night or two some time between July 6th and 17th? Ever yours, Theodore Roosevelt Mr. Alexander Lambert, 36 East 31st Street, New York. P.S. Do you know anything about my Louisiana bearskin? Whom should I write to about it? 128 Oyster Bay, N.Y., June 23, 1908. My dear Governor: I thank you for your letter, and appreciate it. I wish that I could accept, but it is out of the question. Will you convey our warm regards to Mrs. Fort? This year we are accepting no invitations. I am mighty glad you feel just as I do about the out- come of the National Conventions. Faithfully yours, Hon. John Franklin Fort, Governor of New Jersey, Trenton, N.J. 129 Oyster Bay, N.Y., June 23, 1908. Darling Corinne: It was very good of your and Douglas to telegraph me. I was extremely well pleased with the Convention. I think Cabot’s handling of it was masterly. It was a great load off of my mind when the nomination was finally made; although for some months I have been confident that we would nominate Taft. Still it was not possible to be absolutely sure that there would not be a hitch. Give my love to Douglas. Faithfully yours, Theodore Roosevelt Mrs. Douglas Robinson, 422 Madison Avenue, New York, N.Y.130 Oyster Bay, N.Y., June 23, 1908. My dear Dr. Walsh: That is a mighty nice letter of yours and I have taken the liberty of sending it to Taft. Believe me, my dear sir, I appreciate what you are doing. With hearty regard, believe me, Sincerely yours, Theodore Roosevelt Dr. Michael Walsh, 203 Ninety-second Street, Brooklyn, N.Y.131 Oyster Bay, N.Y., June 23, 1908. Dear Harry: I am more amused than I can say at getting your letter and finding out who it was. Now do remember hereafter that when I haven't my spectacles on I can see no human being. I can't tell a white man from an Indian. I would not recognize my own sons ten feet off. And I can't wear spectacles in bathing: We are driven nearly frantic by parties of picnickers who, if they happen along when we are in swimming together come up with wild enthusiasm, certain that Mrs. Roosevelt and I and the children, while swimming or standing on the beach in drenched bathing, will be glad to hold an impromptu levee. I have found that with these ardent picnickers, the time I was swimming was just the one time that I had to be absolutely firm in refusing to shake hands or spend the time in genial conversation. I hadn't the vaguest idea who you were, 132 nor had Mrs. Roosevelt. I simply took it for granted that you were one of the ordinary picknickers or holiday makers with whom we have exactly such experiences. Hereafter, if you see me without my spectacles, be sure to proclaim your identity. Now won’t Mrs. Stimson and you come over to lunch with us Saturday next at 1:30? I expect Taft and Luke Wright. Sincerely yours, Theodore Roosevelt Hon. Henry L. Stimson, United States Attorney, New York, N.Y.133 Personal. Oyster Bay, N.Y., June 14, 1908. My dear Mr. Thayer: I have your letter and enclosure of the 22nd. First, let me say how pleased I am that you have arranged the Ferrero matter. I hardly know what to make of your proposition about Lincoln and Darwin. My horseback judgment is a little against it, but it might be easily reversed on second thoughts. I trust I need hardly say that I am a very believer in the closest and best of understandings between the United States and Great Britain; but I think it is an error to insist that Americans an Englishmen are really the same people. A great many Americans, indeed I think most Americans, including you and me, for instance, are partly or wholly of non-English blood. We are a separate people. We are more closely bound to the English than other people; but we are not the same as they are, and we have bound with other peoples; but we are the same as they are, and we have bonds with other people too. Sometimes an effort to insist upon too much simply invites a revulsion of feeling. I should be a little afraid lest such an effort as that you desire to have made would not prove acceptable either in the United States or in Great Britain. Lincoln was the greatest English-speaking stateman of the last century and Darwin the greatest English-speaking scientific man of the last century; but you might well find that many Englishmen would not care to commemorate Lincoln as being all that 134 2 We Americans are sure the world will ultimately decide him to be; and on the other hand I have no doubt that there are many excellent churchgoing people who still consider it a mark of orthodoxy to shy off from Darwinism, and who feel that his name should not be coupled with Lincoln's, while there are a great many other citizens of the country who would object to having the two names coupled so closely together because they do not feel that there is such identity between the two peoples as such coupling would imply. I will most gladly do something I can to honor Darwin's memory, but I am sure that this is the best way in which that object will be obtained, or am I sure that it would help with either object which you have in view, and which I heartily sympathize - the dreaming closer together of American and English peoples, and their recognition of their kinship and common destiny. Sincerely yours, Theodore Roosevelt Mr. R. Thayer, Esq., Magnolia, Massachusetts. 135 Oyster Bay, N.Y. June 24, 1908. My dear Judge: That is a mighty nice letter of yours; I prize it. With all good wishes, believe me, Faithfully yours, Theodore Roosevelt Hon. Wm. N. Cohen, 22 William Street, New York, N.Y. 136 Oyster Bay, N.Y. June 24, 1908. My dear Colonel: That is a mighty nice editorial of yours; and will thank Mr. McLean for publishing it? With regard, believe me, Sincerely yours, Theodore Roosevelt Col. Archibald Hopkins, 1826 Massachusetts Avenue, Washington, D.C.137 Oyster Bay, N.Y. June 24, 1908. My dear Fassett: I thank you for your letter. It will be a pleasure to see you here at any time, as you know. Faithfully yours, Theodore Roosevelt Hon. J.S. Fassett, Strathmont, Elmira, N.Y.138 Oyster Bay, N.Y. June 24, 1908. My dear Easley: That is very good news. I think in the place Mitchell takes he can do far-reaching service to the whole country. With regard, believe me, Sincerely yours Theodore Roosevelt Mr. R. M. Easley, 281 Fourth Avenue, New York, N.Y.139 Oyster Bay, N.Y. June 24, 1908. My dear Mr. Hall: Would you object to my showing your letter to Senator Lodge? I have a very high regard for Secretary Straus and it is exceedingly difficult for me to believe that there has been the slightest conscious failure on his part to enforce the immigration law. Lodge is very anxious that it should be enforced with the utmost strictness, and if the Immigration Commission under him cannot make the investigation that you desire, then I shall have to think very seriously as to how it should be made. Sincerely yours, Theodore Roosevelt Prescott F. Hall, Esq., 60 State Street, Boston, Massachusetts.140 Oyster Bay, N.Y. June 24, 1908. My dear Rhodes: I shall keep your letter to show my children for I value it very highly. It was good of you to write me. I was glad to see the clipping you included. Now, I shall inflict upon you a copy of a letter I sent to Trevelyan who has been a good deal puzzled to know what I did not run again. With hearty regards and thanks, believe me, Sincerely yours, Theodore Roosevelt Mr. James Ford Rhodes, Ravenscleft, Seal Harbor, Maine. Enclosure.141 Oyster Bay, N.Y. June 24, 1908. 86 My dear Major Higginson: That is a very interesting letter of yours and I shall take the liberty of showing it to Luke Wright. Now, come on with Perkins whenever you can. Let me know in advance what day is convenient for you. Then if the children have filled up the house, I will get you both to spend the night; but if we have not the room I will have you both out to lunch instead. Sincerely yours, Theodore Roosevelt Major H. L. Higginson, 44 State Street, Boston, Massachusetts.142 Oyster Bay, N.Y. June 24, 1908. My dear Brother Schick: That is a very nice letter from you. I value it and prize it. When I leave Washington I shall regret few things more than leaving your church, where I think I can say I have been a pretty regular attendant; and tell Mrs. Schick and Johnnie that among the things I shall always keep in mind are the 60 second conversations I have with them immediately after my entry into church, when I lean over and talk to them as they sit in the pew in front, and usually have to tell Johnnie something that either Archie or Quentin has done. Faithfully yours, Theodore Roosevelt Rev. Dr. J. M. Schick, 1405 Fifteenth Street, N.W., Washington, D.C.143 50 Oyster Bay, N.Y., June 24, 1908. Dear Cabot: Yes, I shall have to wait for that talk until you come back; but I was mighty glad to get your letter. I shall take up the ship business with Luke Wright on Saturday, altho you did not enclose the memorandum you mention. (On every side I hear of the great success you made as Chairman.) Loeb tells me that various people returning from the convention told him how well your voice carried; whereas on the contrary Burrows was not heard at all. I am very much pleased to learn how well Crane did. Certainly he contrasted with Gallinger and John Kean. I saw the incident of your twirling the young man with the megaphone. (Here Loeb interjects that he wishes you had broken his neck. It appears he knows the gentlemen and is prejudiced against him.) In short, (you rendered a great public service, and you also rendered me a personal service.) I think we are in good shape, but of course I wish I know more of the extent of the radical movement west of the Alleghenies. I believe the Pacific Coast is all right, and the Rocky Mountain States, barring, perhaps, Montana and Nevada. But I await with some concern further information about the States in the upper Mississippi Valley. Sherman's nomination I think helps us in New York by interesting the organization; but144 2 In the upper Mississippi valley he is considered identified with Cannon and I have been disturbed by the extent of the hostility to and the revolt against Cannon. Whether there is any chance of our carrying Kentucky, Tennessee, or North Carolina, I do not know. If Bryan is nominated as I suppose is sure, we shall carry Maryland, I think, without a doubt, and then of course there is a small chance to Virginia. But what I am looking forward to getting information about is the district in the upper Missippi River Valley, from Indiana to Nebraska and Minnesota. Meanwhile, I am developing my African trip along satisfactory lines. I hope to be able to make it a scientific expedition on behalf of the National Museum; that is, I will pay absolutely for the expenses of Kermit and myself, but I will get the National Museum to send a couple of field taxidermists with us. They will collect specimens, under my direction. They will skin and cure the big game we shoot, and the museum will pay for them, their equipment and attendants, and for the transport of the trophies home. Everything I shoot will then go to the National Museum. I would a great deal rather have a scientific trip, which would give it a purpose and otherwise, than simply a prolonged holiday of mine. I am no longer fit to do arduous exploring work, and this will probably be about the last time I shall be fit even for the moderate kind of trip I have planned. But it seems to me that there is something worth doing to be done along the lines I have laid out - something that is still the work of a man of action; and I should like145 3 to retain a man of action as long as possible. Of course everything I can do for Taft's success will be done; but after all, most of what I can thus do has already been done, and I do not wish to become officious or busybody. Taft and his chosen friends must run the complain, and I will help so far as the President property can help. Barring a cataclysm, I am pretty well thru the great stress of my work as President, or at least the hardest work and most intense worry. With love to dear Nannie, and a pleasant Voyage, Ever yours, Hon. H C. Lodge, U.S.S., Nahant, Massachusetts.146 Oyster Bay, N.Y. June 24, 1908. To the Judge Advocate General of the Army: I am in receipt of the Department’s letter of the 22d instant concerning William Buwalda, and return the enclosures herewith. I do not wish to disturb this sentence at present; but it is perfectly clear to me that the case is one deserving of punishment; that the man should be dishonorably discharged and suffer some term of imprisonment; but it seems to me that the amount is altogether too severe. What is your opinion as to whether six months’ imprisonment would not be sufficient? The officers and men of the army should hold an offense like this in peculiar horror; but for that very reason I do not wish by having too heavy a penalty imposed, to change their feeling into one of sympathy for the offender. Enclosure.147 Oyster Bay, N.Y. June 25, 1908. 69 My dear Mr. Newberry: I am puzzled by the case of Osborn. The fact that at the time of his promotion seven years ago he was also found to be in arrears in his debts, would go to show that he is chronically lax as regards meeting his financial obligations. I know the members of the board, moreover, and when two line officers such as Clover and Bryan so evidently feel that the man is morally unfit, I am convinced that he is not a man to whom we need show clemency. On the other hand, it appears that he was injured in line of duty in the fact of the enemy, and that he performed his duty creditably in command of a gunboat in actual war. For this reason I am inclined to be as lenient to him as possible; tho I do not think it is to be the interest of the navy that he should be retained on the navy list.148 Would it not be possible to make an arrangement whereby he would be retired, of course providing that his debts shall be paid before he is retired? Sincerely yours, Theodore Roosevelt Hon. Truman H. Newberry, Acting Secretary of the Navy. Enclosures 149 108 Oyster Bay, N.Y., June 26, 1908. Hon. Robert Bacon, State Department, Please forward, Washington, D.C. Referring to your telegram to Loeb about failure to hear from Mexican. Please wire to Mexican Embassy making appointment for next Monday. Come out yourself any way and explain to Embassy that if the Senator does not come next Monday I shall not be able to arrange to see him. THEODORE ROOSEVELT. (Official)150 Oyster Bay, N.Y., June 25, 1908. My dear Shiras: I am delighted to receive your letter and those copies of the magazine and see your really extraordinary picture. Kermit shall study them for purposes of profit. I am particularly pleased that you are making genuine headway in your book. Do remember, my dear fellow, what I have so insisted upon to you and Hart Merriam even at the cost of seeming to be rude; viz: that to have the capacity to do a monumental piece of work and then not to do it leaves the next result just exactly as if you had no capacity at all. My own outdoor work in hunting and natural history has been of an exceedingly commonplace and ordinary type compared to you, and I have made it count for a great deal simply because I have utilized each experience in a way in which anyone could utilize it if the man chose. So it will be with my African trip.151 I am too old and have not the physique to enable me do work of the first class, and I shall have to depend upon making so much out of second-class work – that is, work which almost anyone could do if he chose – as to make the result of value. Kermit has long been interested in camera work. He is going in to see Chapman’s cameras and get some hints about their use. With all good wishes, believe me, Faithfully yours, Theodore Roosevelt Hon. Geo. Shiras, 3rd, Stoneleigh Court, Washington, D.C.152 Oyster Bay, N.Y., June 25, 1908. Dear Bertie: In those appointments we have confirmed ourselves to government officials, to me with a peculiar knowledge of the Panama situation. I doubt if we could appoint any one not a government official, but what special qualification has Mr. Tainter which would enable him to be of use in fixing the value of lands in Panama? With warm regards to Mrs. Bertie, believe me, Faithfully yours, Theodore Roosevelt Mr. R. B. Roosevelt, Jr., 90 West Street, New York, N.Y.153 Oyster Bay, N.Y., June 25, 1908. My dear Mr. Lennon: It was a pleasure to do what I did, both for your sake and for the sake of your uncle, whom I thoroly like. Now, all I want from you is to have you make a first-class American citizen, and show that Uncle Sam’s service turns out good stuff. With all good wishes, believe me, Sincerely yours, Theodore Roosevelt Mr. John L. Lennon, 87 Brook Avenue, Boston, Mass.154 Oyster Bay, N.Y., June 25, 1908. My dear Mr. Weller: Your leaving Washington was a real loss to the National Capital, but I wish you all success in your new work in Pittsburg. Will you present to Mr. English, the returning President of the Chamber of Commerce, the expression of my hearty appreciation as an American citizen of the work he has done not only for Pittsburg but for the whole country? He appreciates, as our big business leaders are sure in steadily increasing measure to appreciate, the fact that henceforth no American business community can afford to neglect to look ahead – in other words, can afford to neglect both providing for the material needs of the future, and for the moral no less than the physical betterment of all our people, the people in the tenement house districts and in the factories just as much as155 the people on the small farms. Pray give me personal regards to Mr. English, and also express to his successor my earnest good will for the future. Sincerely yours, Theodore Roosevelt Mr. Charles F. Weller, 923 H Street, n.w., Washington, D.C.156 Oyster Bay, N.Y., June 25, 1908. My dear Governor: I hope you realize yourself what a very kind and friendly letter you have written. I thank you for it. Now, as to the management of the campaign, I do not wish to intrude or to give advice unasked, for I know by experience that even a malevolent enemy is not much more bothersome than a thoroly well-meaning and friendly, but officious, busybody. But anything I can do will, as a matter of course, be done. Sincerely yours, Theodore Roosevelt Hon. Myron T. Herrick, Cleveland, Ohio.157 Oyster Bay, N.Y., June 25, 1908. My dear Mr. Hitchcock: Yes, I think you followed the only course possible in the way that matters ultimately turned out. I congratulate you most heartily on the admirable way you carried out the whole campaign, proceeding the convention and during the convention. You are to be congratulated from every standpoint. With all good wishes, believe me, Sincerely yours, Theodore Roosevelt Hon. Frank H. Hitchcock, Washington, D.C.158 Oyster Bay, N.Y., June 25, 1908. My dear Senator: That is a very nice letter of yours and I appreciate it. Later I may have to see you to talk over matters in this State. With regards to Mrs. White, believe me, Faithfully yours, Theodore Roosevelt Hon. Horace White, White Memorial Building, Syracuse, N.Y.159 Oyster Bay, N.Y., June 25, 1908. My dear Mr. Schoenlein: I was glad to receive your letter. Will you extend my hearty congratulations to your daughter, Mrs. Eichenberg? I hope the twins, both boy and girl, will do well and be sources of pride and joy to their mother and father. With all good wishes to you, believe me, Sincerely yours, Theodore Roosevelt Mr. Frederick Schoenlein, 357 West 59th Street, New York, N.Y.