http://hdl.handle.net/1813/22047 2013-05-19T04:12:43Z 2013-05-19T04:12:43Z Straight, Willard http://hdl.handle.net/1813/22060 2011-06-14T16:07:45Z 2011-01-17T00:00:00Z

Title: Reel 12: Diaries, 1908 to November 11, 1918 Authors: Straight, Willard Description: The first four books on the reel are an account of a journey Straight and a companion made in the summer of 1908. Traveling by train, by boat, and on horseback, they explored a portion of Northern Manchuria along the Korean and Siberian borders to assess the agricultural and commercial possibilities of the region. Straight recorded his observations in these diaries. There is no diary for the late months of 1908 and early 1909. Entries in the Peking diaries, from August 1909 to March of 1912, vary greatly in length, but they contain detail about his work and persons with whom he was negotiating. The regular diary ceased when the Straights left Peking. For a few weeks in 1915 and again in the spring of 1916 Straight kept diaries of business trips he took to Europe, the first for the J. P. Morgan Company and the second for the American International Corporation. These accounts were ostensibly prepared for his son Whitney. The final diary was kept by Major Straight from 11 December 1917 until 17 November 1918. The reel ends with some miscellaneous bound material, a record of Straight's childhood, an account of a trip from Peking to the Great Wall in 1903, and the original illustrations Straight drew for J. O. P. Bland's Houseboat Days in China, published in London by Edward Arnold in 1909, and reissued in 1919 by William Heinemann in London and Doubleday, Page and Company in New York

2011-01-17T00:00:00Z Straight, Willard http://hdl.handle.net/1813/22059 2011-06-14T16:18:27Z 2011-01-17T00:00:00Z

Title: Reel 11: Diaries, November 9, 1901 to August 15, 1908 Authors: Straight, Willard Description: The diaries vary in character and extent. The early books are not day-by-day records but occasional comments on his experiences, bits of self-analysis, and attempts at fiction based on his observations. Later Straight often pasted in his diary carbon copies of detailed letters he wrote to friends. The diaries for the Russo-Japanese War period also contain a number of sketches. In Mukden he kept a fairly systematic diary, recording his activities and naming his visitors and associates. There are occasional gaps, and some entries are very brief.

2011-01-17T00:00:00Z Straight, Willard http://hdl.handle.net/1813/22058 2011-06-14T16:16:23Z 2011-01-17T00:00:00Z

Title: Reel 10: Willard Straight manuscripts and printed matter Authors: Straight, Willard Description: The reel begins with a continuation of Straight's personal manuscripts, translations and verse. The greater part of the reel is made up of copies of documents and printed memoranda and agreements relating to his work in Seoul, Mukden, and Peking, beginning with trade and customs in Korea and Manchuria and followed by various railway agreements and loan proposals for Chinese currency reform and reorganization. The reel ends with bound material, printed copies of Straight speeches about the loan negotiations and bound manuscript material relating to his study of the Chinese language.

2011-01-17T00:00:00Z Straight, Willard http://hdl.handle.net/1813/22057 2011-06-14T16:10:33Z 2011-01-17T00:00:00Z

Title: Reel 09: 1924 letters and other manuscript material Authors: Straight, Willard Description: The letters of 1924 were written, for the most part, by persons who had received copies of Herbert David Croly's biography of Willard Straight, and many contain recollections of Straight's life. A few notes were originally addressed to Croly. The book was published in April in New York by The Macmillan Company, and the first edition was largely distributed among Straight's friends and acquaintances. Some names that appear on the reel are Corinne Robinson Alsop, Mabel Boardman, Fairman Rogers Dick, Louis Agassiz Fuertes, Herbert C. Hoover, Peter Augustus Jay, and Philip James McCook. The correspondence ends with two 1925 notes and a few undated items. Next on the reel are a group of passports, appointments and other documents. These are followed by memoirs from forty persons. These vary in length from a paragraph quotation to a 41-page article, and most are typed copies. Excerpts from George Marvin's Mukden diary from 14 August to 28 December 1907 are followed by excerpts from Mrs. Straight's letters to Beatrice Bend from 2 October 1911 to 25 June 1912. Most of these were written in Peking. The last portion of the reel is made up of articles written by Straight.

2011-01-17T00:00:00Z Straight, Willard http://hdl.handle.net/1813/22056 2011-06-14T15:58:57Z 2011-01-17T00:00:00Z

Title: Reel 08: 1919-1923 Authors: Straight, Willard Description: A number of letters in 1919 suggest the form Mrs. Straight's announced gift to Cornell University might take. On January first an Ithacan proposed "a splendid building dedicated to the memory of Major Straight and thoroughly equipped for the enjoyable employment of the leisure time of all Cornell students." Jeremiah W. Jenks suggested founding a chair at the University in Far Eastern studies, Neil Gray and Jacob Gould Schurman discussed scholarships, and Olaf M. Brauner, on the last of October, suggested fellowships, an art gallery, or a college of fine arts. Letters from Jo Davidson in the fall of 1919 discuss a plan to beautify the cemetery at Suresnes, but the project was later abandoned for lack of official approval. An undated critique of an article written about Straight by J. O. P. Bland is filmed at the end of 1919, along with another recollection by an Oswego friend. Many letters enclose contributions to a proposed memorial volume. An E. V. Morgan letter of 7 April 1920 encloses his memoir and another by Maurice Casenave, and he refers to copies of Straight's letters he had had typed, with certain deletions. A letter dated April thirteenth was written by a medium, and enclosed messages believed to have come from Willard Straight. A letter enclosed under the date of 14 May 1920 lists Straight's dispatches to the State Department that might contain biographical material. Letters in early 1921 concern a showing of Straight's drawings and paintings in March, and there are a few notes from William Gibbs McAdoo and James E. Eraser in regard to a statue to Alexander Hamilton that Mrs. Straight had commissioned. The Figure was placed outside the United States Treasury in Washington anonymously, though two letters from Arthur H. Vandenberg in July urged that Mrs. Straight be identified as the donor. A letter from China on 22 November 1921 and another in January comment on changes in Peking since 1912. The Willard Straight Post of the American Legion issued a statement on 21 September 1921 opposing preferential treatment of veterans in the New York State Civil Service. Early in 1922 the Post sought essays on its members' war experiences as advice to young men in the future. Some of these essays are filed at the end of 1922. Many writers in 1922 respond to the announced plan to erect Willard Straight Hall, a student union building, at Cornell. Livingston Farrand, president of the university, wrote on 5 July 1922 to discuss plans for the use and management of the building.

2011-01-17T00:00:00Z Straight, Willard http://hdl.handle.net/1813/22055 2011-06-14T15:57:02Z 2011-01-17T00:00:00Z

Title: Reel 07: December 2-31, 1918 Authors: Straight, Willard Description: Letters of condolence are in chronological order, with correspondents on the same day arranged alphabetically. Writers include Straight's army and business associates, his college friends, and many persons who had known him in the Far East. On the third Harold J. Laski wrote, "Willard seemed to me one of the half a dozen men of distinction in America who really found himself in the sheer joy of service," and on December fourth Emory Roy Buckner wrote, ". . . the sorrow is not confined to a few, but is shared by almost an army of people who knew and admired and loved him ..." Daniel A. de Menocal, a Peking associate, wrote on the eleventh, "There is no man with whom I have ever come in contact for whose qualities of character I have such admiration. I feel that we have all lost from amongst us the best personal example that we had to follow." Some tributes from organizations are included among the letters. Some prominent persons represented on the reel are Norman Angell, William Cameron Forbes, Felix Frankfurter, Learned Hand, Florence Jaffray Harriman, Walter Lippmann, Charles Merz, Ernest Peixotto, Frances Perkins, Eleanor Roosevelt, and Henry L. Stimson.

2011-01-17T00:00:00Z Straight, Willard http://hdl.handle.net/1813/22054 2011-06-14T16:01:13Z 2011-01-17T00:00:00Z

Title: Reel 06: September 1917 -December 1, 1918 Authors: Straight, Willard Description: Most of the correspondence in late 1917 relates to the War Risk Insurance project Straight was assigned to administer in France. Letters document a controversy with Washington officials over details of his plan of operation. A letter from Shanghai on November eighth concerns Straight's business interest in China and refers to his proposal to buy back his old Peking house. Croly and A. W. Fiedler, Straight's secretary, reported on home-front matters in 1918, and Straight wrote frequent and detailed letters to his wife. In early February he wrote recommendations for members of his insurance staff, as he prepared to leave the project and enroll in the army staff college at Langres. On 13 February he complained to James A. Logan that the army was "controlled by men too long a part of the regular army peacetime machinery, not flexible enough ... to solve wartime problems of transport and communication." On the same day he wrote his wife that he had come to believe in universal service and "a changing, not a permanent, personnel." A memorandum from General William Mason Wright of the Fifth Army Corps on 29 July 1918 enclosed several officers' comments on the liaison pamphlet Straight prepared. The last word from Straight is a long cable to Croly on November seventh urging sup¬port for Wilson and the League of Nations. Straight died of pneumonia in Paris on December first, a victim of the 1918-1919 influenza pandemic. The remainder of the correspondence is addressed to Mrs. Straight, though most of it concerns him. First are a group of letters addressed to her before his death, 1910-1918. These are followed by a list of callers at the Hotel Crillon at the time of Straight's death and funeral. The last items on the reel are a group of cables and telegrams sent in December and the first of some 800 letters of condolence.

2011-01-17T00:00:00Z Straight, Willard http://hdl.handle.net/1813/22053 2011-06-14T15:53:41Z 2011-01-17T00:00:00Z

Title: Reel 05: December 1911 - August 1917 Authors: Straight, Willard Description: The first part of the reel is made up of correspondence during Straight's last months in China. On 22 December Straight confided to McKnight that he would prefer to deal with the most reactionary Manchu than with the rebel leader WuTing-fang. Telegrams sent the Straights at the holidays provide an index to their closest friends. On 12 January 1912 Straight wrote a memorandum of a conversation with Prince Pu Lun, and on the twentieth he wrote another about the objections of Russia and Japan to the Chinese Currency Loan Agreement. On February first Straight wrote William James Calhoun, U.S. minister to Peking, about talks he had in Shanghai with Dr. Chen Chin-tao, Thomas F. Millard, Sze, T'ang, and others. On the fourth he wrote the J. P. Morgan Co. an analysis of attempts by the Chinese to establish a stable government. On 24 February he summarized for Bland the loan negotiations with China, and praised American policy in the Philippines. A letter to Grenfell on 3 March describes the burning and looting of Peking that sent the Straights and other foreigners to the American Legation for safety. The passport issued for their journey through Siberia is dated 20 March 1912. A printed summary of negotiations for a Chinese reorganization loan is dated 23 June. Letters to Bland, Maurice Casenave, Fletcher, McKnight, Dr. Paul S. Reinsch, James Augustus Thomas and Charles T. Whigham attest to Straight's continued interest in Chinese investment, and on 14 November 1912 he spoke about the Chinese loan negotiations before an audience at Clark University. On 7 March 1913 Straight sent Paul M. Warburg a memorandum on American diplomacy, and on 9 December he wrote Daniel A. de Menocal that the American Group felt the Chinese should offer them any contemplated railroad loans, since their Chinchou-Aigun agreement had been disregarded. The few Straight letters in 1914 concern the National Foreign Trade Council, the development of India House as a club for men associated with foreign trade, and the plan to start publishing the New Republic in the fall. The first letter from editor Herbert Croly is dated 29 November 1914. Copies of Straight's letters through the next months indicate his continuing interest in the development of the magazine. Letters in the fall of 1915 explain his resignation from the J. P. Morgan Company and his move to the American International Corporation. Among letters written on shipboard on 17 March 1916 is Straight's note to George Kennan enclosing a nine-page article on E. H, Harriman's interest in the Far East. A Croly letter the next day mentions Vincent Massey and Lionel Curtis and their association with groups in Canada and England studying foreign policy. In March Straight and Thomas Nelson Perkins reported from London to Charles A. Stone about numerous foreign investment projects. After returning to the United States, Straight wrote letters to James Bryce and Gilbert Parker about the American attitude toward Britain. On 23 October 1916 he wrote a letter to appear in the New Republic disassociating himself from the magazine's endorsement of President Wilson. Notes in January 1917 refer to a report on the mobilization of the National Guard. On February fifth Straight wrote Dr. Reinsch of his hopes for American-Japanese cooperation in a Chinese canal project, and on the first of August he wrote Croly, "I'm about the only person still interested in fostering this idea of internationalizing Chinese finance — which is, I believe, the only safeguard for China's future."

2011-01-17T00:00:00Z Straight, Willard http://hdl.handle.net/1813/22051 2011-06-14T16:13:23Z 2011-01-14T00:00:00Z

Title: Reel 04: November 1910 - November 1911 Authors: Straight, Willard Description: Reel 4 November 1910 -November 1911 The Chinchou-Aigun railway loan was the subject of many letters in the late fall of 1910; discussions in London, Paris, and St. Petersburg were reported in letters to the Group and to Dorothy Whitney. On 7 January 1911 Straight wrote a memoir of E. H. Harriman for his widow, and he addressed letters to Lord ffrench, Frank McKnight, and E. V. Morgan in the first months of the year. Obstacles to a currency loan agreement—rumors of Japanese involvement, provincial unrest, an attractive loan offer from a competitor, and an outbreak of plague — are detailed in the correspondence. An account of the signing of the Currency Loan appears in letter number 175 to the J. P. Morgan Co. on 17 April. The final agreement for the Hukuang Railways Loan was signed in Peking on 20 May. More loan documents appear in the summer of 1911, along with congratulations on Straight's engagement to Miss Whitney. Letters from Peking following the Straights' marriage and their return to Peking in October describe the political climate in the northern capital, as rumor and fear put many Manchus to flight before the approach of revolutionary forces. Edward C. Grenfell wrote on 17 November of meeting Dr. Sun Yat-sen and one of his generals in London.

2011-01-14T00:00:00Z Straight, Willard http://hdl.handle.net/1813/22050 2011-06-14T16:05:35Z 2011-01-14T00:00:00Z

Title: Reel 03: April 1909 - October 1910 Authors: Straight, Willard Description: Reel 3 April 1909-October 1910 In April Straight completed a memorandum on the navigation of the rivers of China, Korea, and the Russian Far East. Filed under the date of its signing, 11 May 1909, is a copy of an agreement between China and Russia concerning the organization of municipalities on the lands of the Chinese Eastern Railway. A State Department letter on May first refers to "oral directions by the Secretary of State to continue the study of the possibility of an advantageous introduction of American capital into China." An agreement between Straight and J. P. Morgan and Co., Kuhn, Loeb and Co., the First National Bank of New York, and National City Bank of New York is dated 14 June 1909. Copies of telegrams through June chronicle the effort to have the United States admitted to an international consortium of bankers. In the weeks preceding Harriman's death in early September, Straight sent him a number of letters and cables. On October second he signed the preliminary agreement for the construction of the Chinchou-Aigun Railway. Through the next twelve months Straight wrote more than fifty letters to the J. P. Morgan Company and Henry Pomeroy Davison. Dorothy Payne Whitney became a regular correspondent in 1910, and, though her letters do not appear, copies of Straight's letters to her contain much detail about his work. Copies of a number of documents relating to the Chinchou-Aigun loan appear under the date of 30 April 1910. Memoranda concerning the Hukuang railway loans appear in late May. Straight's contract with the American Group dated 10 June 1910 doubled his salary of the previous year. Summaries of interviews Straight conducted in St. Petersburg with the Russian ministers of war, finance, and foreign affairs and with M. Stolypin, minister of the interior and Premier, appear among the papers of late June. A letter addressed to Frank H. McKnight by E. T. Williams concerning the State Department's view of the rail¬way project is dated 9 August 1910, and a letter from newsman Joseph Ohl on September seventeenth sought to keep Straight abreast of developments in Peking. Many notes to Miss Whitney appear in the later months on the reel.

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