[E1667-F]

https://edisondigital.rutgers.edu/folder/E1667-F

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Part Of: Edison General File Series -- 1916

[E1667-F] (E-16-67) Politics

This folder contains correspondence and other documents concerning local and national politics. Many of the items for 1916 relate to the U.S. presidential election. Included is correspondence with Guy Emerson, secretary of the Roosevelt Non-Partisan League, and other letters relating to Edison's initial endorsement of Theodore Roosevelt's candidacy for the Republican nomination; correspondence with George E. Creel and Democratic National Committee chairman Vance C. McCormick pertaining to his eventual decision to endorse incumbent Woodrow Wilson over Republican candidate Charles Evans Hughes; and correspondence regarding a joint endorsement by Edison, John Burroughs, Luther Burbank, and Henry Ford. Also included is a 9-page draft of an article by Creel in the form of an interview with Edison, which was submitted to the inventor for his approval in August and published in the New York Times and other newspapers in September (see Scrapbook Cat. 44, 455 in the Scrapbook Series).

Other documents pertain to Edison's testimony before the House Committee on Naval Affairs, his views on prohibition and women's suffrage, and his ideas on specific policy issues raised by W. Herman Greul on anti-efficiency legislation, by John W. Herbert on roads, by Robert E. Ireton on government control of railroads, and by Rep. Roscoe C. McCulloch on tariffs. Other correspondents include Secretary of War Newton D. Baker, Secretary of the Treasury William G. McAdoo, and Gustavo H. Schmidt, author of a published patriotic letter that Edison planned to distribute to all his German employees.

Approximately 30 percent of the documents have been selected. Among the items not selected are copies of printed documents sent to Edison such as various plans for international order, declined invitations and requests for the use of his name, and solicitations of his views and support on issues such as mosquito control and the need for a national leprosarium. Also not selected are numerous unsolicited letters expressing opinions, both positive and negative, about Edison's political views and his endorsement of Wilson. Most of these letters were not read by Edison and were marked for no answer or received form-letter replies.

Courtesy of Thomas Edison National Historical Park.

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