WILLIAM HOWARD TAFT | William Howard Taft writes to Secretary of Agriculture James Wilson regarding malfeasance and personnel changes at the Bureau of Chemistry

Property from the Collection of Elsie and Philip Sang

WILLIAM HOWARD TAFT

CARBON COPY LETTER WITH CORRECTIONS, SIGNED ("WM H TAFT") AS TWENTY-SEVENTH PRESIDENT, TO SECRETARY OF AGRICULTURE JAMES WILSON, REGARDING MALFEASANCE AND PERSONNEL CHANGES AT THE BUREAU OF CHEMISTRY 

Eight pages (10 1/2 x 8 in.; 266 x 204 mm) on carbon paper, Beverly, Massachusetts, 14 September 1911, with scattered emendations in pencil throughout, labeled "For afternoon papers | Sept 15" in pencil on first page; secured at upper left with metal fastener, light horizontal crease, rust mark where previously paper-clipped, scattered wear to edges, marginal loss to last leaf not affecting text. 

"I return herewith the papers which you have submitted to me in the matter of the report of the Committee on Personnel of the Department of Agriculture, in which after summarizing the evidence adduced before them, they recommend that Dr. H. H. Rusby, Pharmacologist in the Bureau of Chemistry, be dismissed from the service; that Dr. L. F. Kebler, Chief of the Drug Laboratory in the Bureau of Chemistry, be reduced from his present position, and Dr. H. W. Wiley, Chief of the Bureau of Chemistry, and Dr. W. D. Bigelow, Assistant Chief of the Bureau, be given an opportunity to resign."