Description
“The fortunes amassed through corporate organization are now so large that the might of the “sovereign” must be invoked to restrain them.” (New York Times, 1905)
Signed by President Theodore Roosevelt, his Fifth Annual Message to the Senate and House of Representatives, delivered on December 5, 1905.
Slim octavo, [6], 56pp, [7]. Publisher’s light blue cloth, title stamped in gilt on front cover, ruled in gilt. Top edge gilt, uncut and unopened leaves. Light soiling to cloth covers, solid text block. Housed in custom gray cloth clamshell, title in gilt on black morocco label.
Signed by President Roosevelt on the front free endpaper: “Theodore Roosevelt / Dec 15th, 1905.”
A scarce work, the only recorded example of the 1905 address to be sold on the public market.
Theodore Roosevelt’s Fifth Annual Message (Dec. 5, 1905) advocated for stronger federal regulation of interstate commerce, led by empowering the Interstate Commerce Commission to set maximum railroad rates, end rebates, open railroad accounts to inspection, and improve rail safety. He urged action on labor (employers’ liability inquiries), addressed immigration by discouraging undesirable steamship-driven inflows and encouraging better distribution, and touched on conservation and pensions (including caring for Confederate graves and for the Life-Saving Service). President Roosevelt also reviewed progress on the Panama Canal and called for sustained funding.
In foreign policy, he reaffirmed the Roosevelt Corollary framework in the Western Hemisphere, emphasizing peaceful intentions while maintaining readiness to act to preserve order.
Roosevelt concluded: “In the long run the one vital factor in the permanent prosperity of the country is the high individual character of the average American worker, the average American citizen, no matter whether his work be mental or manual, whether he be farmer or wage-worker, business man or professional man.”
