Theodore Roosevelt 1903 Typed Letter Signed as President - Excellent Content
** My first trip was the one on the train bearing his [President McKinley] body from Buffalo to Washington and thance to Canton **
26th President. Typed letter signed “Theodore Roosevelt” AS PRESIDENT, two pages, 6.75" x 10.5", Oyster Bay, New York, August 27, 1903. Addressed to J[ohn]. C. Shaffer of the Chicago Evening Post on White House stationery. With "Personal" at upper left corner of page one. Roosevelt writes to Shaffer to thank him for an editorial regarding the Miller case, discusses recent consultations regarding radical currency legislation, and defends the presidential train service. It reads, in full:
"I was much pleased with your excellent editorial on the Miller case. Why any human being should desire me to issue a further statement about that case I cannot imagine. My two letters covered the matter in its entirety. The action was taken exactly in accordance with those two letters.
Is there any chance of your being east this year? I should like to see you.
In financial matters, after exhaustive consultation with the representatives of all the various interests I could reach in the west and in the east, I find that the general opinion is strongly to the effect that it would be far more dangerous to do anything revolutionary as regards our currency than to do nothing. If possible, we should have one or two simple remedial measures, but surely no more at this time. The best and soundest business men do not believe in asset banking; and even where they feel there are matters that can be improved they differ among themselves radically as to what steps should be taken for improvement. For example, most of them say there should be a measure of automatic elasticity in the currency, it being even more important to have power to contract the currency than to expand it; but there is complete disagreement as to how this end should be reached.
By the way, I do not know whether you have noticed the attack made upon me by the Sun about the special train service on my trips. Of course, in this matter I have followed exactly what was done by President McKinley. My first trip was the one on the train bearing his body from Buffalo to Washington and thance to Canton. As a matter of fact the railroads have all competed eagerly for the privilege of taking the President on these trips, alike in the Presidencies of Harrison, Cleveland, McKinley, and myself. Of course, the trip is not taken by the man at all, but by the President. Equally, of course, such a trip could have been taken by either one of the four of us to save on these terms as no man not a millionaire could pay for such a trip out of his own pocket. In New York, public officials are forbidden to ride free on railroads. In New Jersey, the railroads are required to carry them free. In my action I followed the custom set by my three predecessors; and if I had not followed the custom I should have had to give up any idea of making these trips at all. The only difference has been that whereas President McKinley took his Cabinet along I did not. Aside from that I followed to a line his plan, and on my Pacific Coast trip simply carried out and completed the trip he had begun and left undone.
William A. Miller was a foreman at a government printing office who was expelled from his union in May 1903 for providing information to a member of the House Appropriations Committee that was used to injury the union's interests. His expulsion from the union was used by his superiors as justification for his dismissal and he was fired shortly thereafter. The situation escalated and President Roosevelt intervened. While he supported the right for unions to exist, he took issue with the union's authority superseding that of the civil service regulation. Ultimately, Miller was reappointed to his job at the bindery, and certain labor associations threatened to pull their support from Roosevelt's reelection campaign the following year.
Several words (approximately 25) in TR’s own hand.
Both pages are affixed to a mounting board to the overall size of 13.75" x 11". Dampstaining along bottom margin. Typeset light but legible.