GEORGE W. WICKERSHAM - TYPED LETTER SIGNED 12/28/1928 - HFSID 315948

GEORGE W. WICKERSHAM
Former U.S. Attorney General declines invitation to speak at honorary dinner, and sends his apologies, signs in black ink
Typed letter signed: "G. W. Wickersham" in black ink. 1 page, 6x9½. December 28, 1928. New York City, New York. In full: "My dear Mr. Allen: I greatly appreciate your kind invitation to attend the dinner to be given in honor of Dr. Nansen on the evening of January 26th, and to speak on that occasion. I would greatly like to accept, but I have to speak in Philadelphia on the evening of the 24th, and in Boston on the evening of the 28th, and I really do not feel equal to preparing another speech to make on the 26th. I, therefore, beg that you will accept my excuses, and believe that it is with real regret that I must decline your invitation. Yours faithfully". George W. Wickersham (1858-1936), a prominent corporate lawyer, was U.S. Attorney General (1909-1913) under President Taft. He successfully prosecuted many corporations under the Sherman Antitrust Act. In 1929, he was appointed by President Hoover to head the National Commission on Law Observance and Law Enforcement, which came to be called the Wickersham Commission. It concluded in its final report of 1931 that the federal machinery for enforcing criminal law in the United States was inadequate. He was President of the Council on Foreign Relations (1933-1936). Normal mailing folds. Pencil notes in unknown hand. Staples in bottom margin. Small stains in bottom margin. Lightly stained on verso. Otherwise, fine condition.