This folder contains correspondence and other documents concerning local and national politics. Also included are items relating to political issues such as prohibition and women's suffrage. Among the documents for 1917 are letters pertaining to a failed effort by attorneys Frank L. Dyer, Delos Holden, and George F. Scull to secure Edison's endorsement for the appointment of John R. Taylor, a lawyer who had once defended his motion picture camera patent, to the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. A letter from J. W. Hudspeth, a former employee of the Delaware Lackawanna & Western Railroad, seeks Edison's support for legislation to train and deploy African American troops in the U.S. Army. Other correspondents include President Woodrow Wilson, U.S. Senators Joseph S. Frelinghuysen and Furnifold M. Simmons, Edison's chief engineer and personal representative Miller Reese Hutchison, and electrical engineer Ralph D. Mershon.
Approximately 25 percent of the documents have been selected. The unselected items include invitations and requests for Edison's support or opinions, along with enclosed printed matter, which received no answer or a routine reply stating that Edison was away indefinitely on government work.
[E1773AA], Letter from Ralph Davenport Mershon to Thomas Alva Edison, February 21st, 1917 1917-02-21