Part Of: Edison General File Series -- 1915

[E1567-F] (E-15-67) Politics

This folder contains correspondence and other documents concerning local and national politics. Among the documents for 1915 is a letter from former Edison associate Frank K. Dolbeer concerning the campaign to pardon or commute the sentence of Leo M. Frank, who had been condemned to death for the murder of Mary Phagan and who would later be lynched by a mob in Georgia after his sentence was commuted to life imprisonment. Also included is correspondence relating to prohibition, women's suffrage, Republican Party politics, and agricultural policy. A letter by West Orange Mayor Farnham Yardley, one of Edison's neighbors in the private residential community of Llewellyn Park, indicates his support for the candidacy of William F. Nehr, manager of the Cylinder Record Manufacturing Division of Thomas A. Edison, Inc., who was running for the town council on a fusion ticket. Edison's draft responses on the incoming letters indicate his support for women's suffrage, his equivocal attitude toward prohibition, and his belief that there was "not enough certainty" to warrant Frank's execution.

Approximately 25 percent of the documents have been selected, including all items with substantive marginalia by Edison. The unselected material consists primarily of unsolicited correspondence with no substantive response from Edison.

Courtesy of Thomas Edison National Historical Park.

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