MESSAGE OF THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES COMMUNICATED TO THE TWO HOUSES OF CONGRESS AT THE BEGINNING OF THE FIRST SESSION OF THE FIFTY-NINTH CONGRESS (SIGNED)

Washington DC: Government Printing Office, 1905. First Edition. Hardcover. Very Good Minus. Small Quarto (9 1/2 in. x 6 1/2 in.). Red, pebbled cloth-covered boards with gilt design and gilt lettering bordered by double gilt rule, repeated on rear board. Top edge gilt. Rubbing to extremities, particularly at top and bottom of spine and corners, which are nudged. Contains the text of Theodore Roosevelt's message, transmitted to the 59th Congress at its commencement, on Dec. 5th, 1905, after his election to a second term. The congressional session lasted from Dec. 4, 1905 - Mar. 3, 1907.

Association copy inscribed by President Roosevelt to journalist, reformer and political organizer Ralph M. (Montgomery) Easley, dated December 18, 1905, and signed. ("To Ralph M. Easley with the regards of Theodore Roosevelt, Dec. 18, 1905"). Easley's bookplate to front pastedown endpaper.

Easley (1856 -1939) was the Director of the American political reform group, the National Civic Federation which Easley envisioned could "serve as a medium of sympathy and acquaintance between persons and societies who pursue various and differing vocations and objects, who differ in nationality, creed, and surrounding [and] who are unknown to each other." Essentially the NCF existed fundamentally to broker disputes between labor and capital.
Easley tirelessly spent much of his life advocating and working for political and economic change, vigorously fighting back against the excesses and hegemony of the giant trusts. "During the 59th Congress, President Roosevelt busied himself with several wide-reaching peace agreements and initiatives. Most notable of these, the Treaty of Portsmouth—brokered and negotiated by Roosevelt and top U.S. diplomats—formally ended the Russo-Japanese War when it was signed on September 5, 1905..." "...Republicans swept the 1904 elections, increasing their control of the House while retaining their hold on the Senate and White House. President Theodore Roosevelt read the election victory as a mandate to double down on the progressive agenda he began to implement in his first term. Roosevelt felt that the efforts to curb monopolies and trust through anti- trust prosecutions were insufficient to deal with the problem and therefore sought to increase Federal regulation of interstate commerce..." "...The newly fortified Republican majorities in Congress got right to work building on Roosevelt's progressive legacy. Responding to widespread public demands for new and stricter legislation to curb railroad malpractices, President Roosevelt in December 1905 called on Congress to broaden and strengthen the authority of the Interstate Commerce Commission. Six months later, Congress passed the Hepburn Act, which granted the Interstate Commerce Commission railroad enforcement powers to set "reasonable" rates subject to a broad review by the Supreme Court..." (Wikipedia).