President Theodore Roosevelt Appoints Victor H. Metcalf Secretary of Commerce and Labor
Metcalf’s on-site report to TR on the San Francisco earthquake sparked significant Federal aid to help the city rebuild
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An extremely uncommon Cabinet appointment, the first of TR that we have had
Victor H. Metcalf was a Congressman who served from 1899 to 1904. In Congress he served on the Naval Affairs and the Ways and Means committees, where he pressed for the construction of a large battleship navy. His legislation...
An extremely uncommon Cabinet appointment, the first of TR that we have had
Victor H. Metcalf was a Congressman who served from 1899 to 1904. In Congress he served on the Naval Affairs and the Ways and Means committees, where he pressed for the construction of a large battleship navy. His legislation for reclamation of arid lands by irrigation put him in touch with President Theodore Roosevelt, who liked the idea so much he inserted it into his party’s platform in 1904.
President Roosevelt appointed Metcalf Secretary of Commerce and Labor in 1904. He was only the second person to hold that post, which was created in recognition of the importance and magnitude of the nation’s commercial and industrial growth and expansion. His department contained the Bureau of Manufactures, the Bureau of Statistics, the Bureau of Navigation, the Bureau of Standards, the Coast and Geodetic Survey, the Lighthouse Service, the Inspection of Immigrants, the Seal Fisheries of Alaska, the Steamboat Inspection Service, the Bureau of the Census, and more.
Document signed, large folio, Washington, December 7, 1904, naming Metcalf Secretary of Commerce and Labor. The document is countersigned by John Hay as Secretary of State.
In the post of Secretary of Commerce and Labor, TR sent Metcalf to San Francisco in 1905 as an intermediator between the San Francisco school board and 91 Japanese students who were refused entry to public schools. A compromise was reached whereunder the students were permitted into the schools. As President Roosevelt’s personal representative, Metcalf traveled to San Francisco after the 1906 earthquake and fire to survey the damage. He issued a lengthy report to the President, who provided significant Federal aid to help the city get through the crisis and rebuild. Metcalf served until December 12, 1906, when he was appointed Secretary of the Navy. During his term there, he oversaw the world cruise of the Great White Fleet.
Appointments to presidential cabinets are quite uncommon, this being the first of TR that we have ever had.
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