PRESIDENT WOODROW WILSON - TYPED LETTER SIGNED 10/17/1917 - HFSID 78945

PRESIDENT WILSON, ADMITTING THAT HE HAS "SOME FEAR THAT YOU WILL REGARD ME AS A NUISANCE", ASKS HIS COMMISSIONER OF PENSIONS TO MAKE AN EXCEPTION TO A RECENT REGULATION, CONCLUDING "IT MIGHT BE WISE AS WELL AS GENEROUS TO DO SO".
 
WOODROW WILSON. Typed Letter Signed: "Woodrow Wilson" as President, 1p, 7x9. The White House, Washington, 1917 October 17. To Hon. Gaylord M. Saltzgaber, Commissioner of Pensions. In full: "I have some fear that you will regard me as a nuisance, and I understand and in principle approve of the regulation you have recently made with regard to denying transfers, but the enclosed application was made before your order was promulgated and Senator Hitchcock of Nebraska has so deep a personal interest in this particular case that I promised him that I would ask you if in the circumstances which I have just stated you would not approve of the transfer. My own judgment is that in these circumstances it might be wise as well as generous to do so." Civil War veteran GAYLORD M. SALTZGABER later served as Commander in Chief of the Grand Army of the Republic from 1923-1924. Democrat GILBERT M. HITCHCOCK had represented Nebraska in the U.S. Senate since 1911. He was an influential Senator who later served as Democratic Minority Leader (1919-1920). The Commissioner of Pensions was a political appointment and President Wilson, of course, could replace Saltzgaber if he wanted to, but here he uses his political and scholarly acumen to convince the Commissioner to do what is politically correct. Lightly creased. Shaded right edge. 1x2-inch purple stamp smudge at blank left margin.