To the William Howard Taft Papers. Volume 1
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THE L I 13 R A R Y 0 F CO 0.: G R 1 ~ ~ ~ • P R I ~ ~ I I) I ~ \J T ~' PAP E R ~ J N 1) E X ~ E R IE S INDEX TO THE William Howard Taft Papers LIBRARY OF CONGRESS • PRESIDENTS' PAPERS INDEX SERIES INDEX TO THE William Ho-ward Taft Papers VOLUME 1 INTRODUCTION AND PRESIDENTIAL PERIOD SUBJECT TITLES MANUSCRIPT DIVISION • REFERENCE DEPARTMENT LIBRARY OF CONGRESS WASHINGTON : 1972 Library of Congress 'Cataloging in Publication Data United States. Library of Congress. Manuscript Division. Index to the William Howard Taft papers. (Its Presidents' papers index series) 1. Taft, William Howard, Pres. U.S., 1857-1930. Manuscripts-Indexes. I. Title. II. Series. Z6616.T18U6 016.97391'2'0924 70-608096 ISBN 0-8444-0028-9 For sale by the Superintendent of Documents, U.S. Government Printing Office Washington, D.C. 20402 - Price $24 per set. Sold in'sets only. Stock Number 3003-0010 Preface THIS INDEX to the William Howard Taft Papers is a direct result of the wish of the Congress and the President, as expressed by Public Law 85-147 approved August 16, 1957, and amended by Public Laws 87-263 approved September 21, 1961, and 88-299 approved April 27, 1964, to arrange, index, and microfilm the papers of the Presidents in the Library of Congress in order "to preserve their contents against destruction by war or other calamity," to make the Presidential Papers more "readily available for study and research," and to inspire informed patriotism. Presidents whose papers are in the Library are: George Washington James K. Polk Chester A. Arthur Thomas Jefferson Zachary Taylor Grover Cleveland J ames Madison Franklin Pierce Benjamin Harrison James Monroe Abraham Lincoln William McKinley Andrew Jackson Andrew Johnson Theodore Roosevelt Martin Van Buren Ulysses S. Grant William H. Taft William H. Harrison James A. Garfield Woodrow Wilson John Tyler Calvin Coolidge The microfilm of the Taft Papers became available in 1972. Positive copies of the film may be purchased from the Chief, PhotodupIication Service, Library of Congress; Washington, D.C. 20540. A positive print is available for interlibrary loan through the Chief, Loan Division, Library ofCongress. Contents Volume Page Provenance.......................................................................... 1 V Description of the Papers ........................................................ 1 xi Reel List .............................................................................. 1 xv How to Use This Index ......................................................... 1 xxviii Uncommon Abbreviations ...................................................... 1 xxxi Subject File Titles ................................................................. 1 1 Index................................................................................... 2 1 iii Introduction Provenance Mischler tells me that he had placed in the attic, temporarily, a box containing the thirty volumes of my speeches. These can be easily located, as T NOON on March 4,1913, the administra they are properly tagged. I wish you would have tion of William Howard Taft, 27th President these sent to me separately, as I do not want to A of the United States, came to a close. Later get them mixed up with the rest of the shipment. I that day he and Mrs. Taft left Washington for an shall make room for them here at the Hotel Taft, extended rest in Augusta, Ga. For the first time while most of the remainder of the shipment I can since 1887, when at the age of 29 he became ajudge have stored at a storehouse here in New Haven. of the Superior Court of Ohio, Mr. Taft was free of I do not think I ought to burden the White House the responsibilities of public office. Still in the future with these things, and therefore want them sent was the crowning glory of his life, his service as to me. Please see that all of these boxes are Chief Justice. In the meantime an active private life properly marked as to their contents, so that I was at hand. Before leaving the White House Presi can get anything out of storage here that I may dent Taft had accepted a professorship at his alma desire from time to time and will have no difficulty mater, Yale University. On April 1, welcomed by locating it. 1 some 3,000 students and faculty, he arrived in New In due course the papers arrived safely. An Haven to assume his duties as Kent Professor of accompanying inventory showed that Taft family Constitutional Law. correspondence was also included. The papers Mr. Taft's teaching schedule at Yale afforded him remained in New Haven until 1919-20, when they ample opportunity for outside lectures and writing. were returned to Washington to be deposited in the He would engage heavily in both activities. There Library of Congress. were also thoughts of an autobiography. For these purposes the great mass of personal papers which I he had accumulated during the years of public Throughout his life William Howard Taft was service were indispensable. These were still in the systematic in retaining his correspondence and work White House. Once established in his new residence, ing papers. Taft family tradition and his own sense of the former President wrote to Rudolph Forster, history impressed upon him the importance of the executive clerk at the White House, requesting that written record as the most reliable guide to an under the papers be sent to New Haven. His letter supplies standing of past events and personalities. Indeed, the . first general description of the scope of the his own experiences as lawyer and judge made him collection: skeptical of oral accounts, espeCially those recalled I have just written to Will Herron and Major long after the event. Addressing the American Anti Rhoads about having the thirty boxes of law quarian Society in October 1912, President Taft books, which I understand are in the attic of the reminded his scholarly audience that evidence in Executive Office, shipped to me. In addition to documentary form was an essential ingredient in these, I also wished shipped to me the boxes of establishing the facts. In the same speech he also files in the attic containing the letters written by supported the idea of a National Archives Building me while I was Secretary of War up to the time I to house the public records of the National Govern came to the White House on March 4, 1909, as ment, not merely for preservation but for classifi- also the boxes containing the le!ter press books in which my letters during that time were press copied. Hendricks is very familiar with them and This essay was written by Paul T. Heffron, specialist in 20th can help out a good deal. Then I want sent to me century political history, Manuscript Division, Library of Congress. the correspondence I received during the time I I William H. Taft to Rudolph Forster, April 5, 1913. William was President, together with the letter press copy Howard Taft Papers, Library of Congress (here,flfter cited as books in which my replies were copied. Taft Papers). v cation and indexing in the interest of historical more accurate and detailed account of the diplo investigation.2 matic relations of Great Britain than the official· Other actions during his Presidency stand as files. The only way in which historians· can get at testimony to Mr. Taft's concern for the proper this is through the good offices of the families of management and preservation of the evidentiary the deceased Ambassadors and Foreign Secretaries sources of the Nation's life. Notable in this con in whose archives they may be preserved.4 nection was the President's Commission on Economy This statement represents the accepted customary and Efficiency, appointed in 1910. Extensive studies law, so to speak, on Presidential papers. The corpus and recommendations were made by the Commission of papers produced, received, and retained in the on such subjects as maintaining Government Executive Office may be taken by the President at archives, paperwork management, and the disposal the end of his administration. Although Mr. Taft of useless files. One result ofthe Commission's work was unaware of it at the time of his Columbia was the institution of a new filing syst~m in the lecture, not all the papers belonging to his adminis White House and a reorganization of the papers tration had in fact left the White House. Two years there. later his secretary, Wendell M. Mischler, received Indicative too of Mr. Taft's interest in establishing an interesting piece of news from Rudolph Forster, correct archival procedures is his Executive order still in his position at the White House: of March 16, 1912, requiring: We have just had a thorough. house-cleaning . that befo~e reporting to Congress useless here at the Executive Office and a lot of President files of papers to be disposed of. lists of such Taft's personal papers came to light, among them papers should be submitted to the Librarian of his father's commission as Secretary of War or Congress in order that the several Executive Attorney General, his own commission as Gover Departments may have the benefit of his views nor General of the Philippines and the like. These as to the wisdom of preserving such of the papers papers evidently were mixed in with a lot of our as he may deem to be of historical interest. 3 permanent records at the time the office was Among the numerous academic lectures which rebuilt in 1909, and hence they were not at hand Mr. Taft gave in the postpresidential years, one in when Mr. Taft's belongings were collected and particular sheds light on the making of a Presidential sent to New Haven.5 collection. In the second of a series of lectures The newly discovered group of Taft papers was delivered at Columbia University in October 1915, dispatched to New Haven to join the original ship Mr.