Box 5

Scope and Contents From NY/Columbia University; he has accepted the fellowship teaching at Columbia and provides details of what it entails; suggests activities for his parent's 25th wedding anniversary; assures his father that Beth is happy and doing well financially (despite William's suspicions); weighs in on Rosalyn's plan to work in New York as a medical technician and Herbert's failure to gain admission to Annapolis; discusses his financial status and future job opportunities with Columbia vs. other...

Scope and Contents From Columbia University (where he is teaching); updates on his sisters; discusses work with Rex Tugwell on the Domestic Allotment Plan; deciding whether to teach at Columbia again or take a job as an Assistant District Attorney in NY; mentions the banks in NY are closed; discusses the new presidential administration and financial matters; lectures his father for writing to Rex Tugwell and criticizing his farm plan; he moved (1933) to Washington DC to work on economic bills with Tugwell (and...

Scope and Contents From Washington, DC; discusses Sen. Wagner and his work; Leon's opinion that the Depression was ending too soon; he felt the country did not get to a state which would have caused real reform; reveals that a book by Rex Tugwell, Our Economic Society and its Problems, was written almost entirely by him (Leon); re. Sen. Wagner's work (and Leon's) on an anti-lynching bill; approval of the Wagner Bill; confession that he does not know much about the country's agricultural problems as his focus...

Scope and Contents From Washington, DC; advises his parents not to discuss various aspects of his work with Sen. Wagner with their friends (esp. the fact that Leon writes speeches for Wagner); description of several legislative quarrels involving "Mr. Frank"; re. passage of the Labor Relations Bill; mulling over the idea of accepting a position as General Council for the National Labor Board; re. his research on low cost housing; letters cease during period surrounding his mother's death (Sept. 29, 1935);...

Scope and Contents From Washington DC and New York City; discussion and advice to William re. Herbert's desire to leave medical school; discussion and advice on other family matters and finances; his personal opinions about Washington politics (as an insider); mentions working night and day to draft the housing bill; some discussion about his social life; mentions visits with Rosalyn and her new husband, Milton Schreiber; speculates about Sen. Wagner running for Governor of New York; commentary on upcoming...

Scope and Contents From Washington DC; urges his father to take better care of himself and not work so hard on the farm; discussion of property in Beaufort (buying, selling, etc); reports about his government work and on his sisters who (now both married) are in Washington DC and New York; he as been appointed a General Council (the youngest ever) to a banking committee in Washington; mentions conversations he had with President Roosevelt re. financial provisions of the housing bill; describes an address he...

Scope and Contents

From Washington DC; most letters typed on Dept. of the Interior, United States Housing Authority letterhead; commentary in support of FDR; mentions trying to get his brother-in-law, Joe Rosenfarb, a better job within the government (in labor relations?); details of his work with U.S. Housing Authority; urges his father to give up a few activities and take it easy (as William has now taken up cotton ginning on top of farming).

Scope and Contents

From Washington, DC; many typed on letterhead from Federal Works Agency, United States Housing Authority; mentions that he has been remiss in writing, but the telephone has taken the place of letters to some extent; comments on family happening; Beth and Joe have had a baby and Leon has married (1940) Mary Dublin; discusses Herbert's entrance into the U.S. Naval Medical Corps; most letters implore William to visit Washington, DC.

Scope and Contents Sent from Washington DC; writes that Mr. Straus has resigned as Administrator of US Housing Authority and Leon is now the Acting Administrator; "confidential" disclosure that he is working with those closest to FDR, "on the whole matter of housing reorganization"; mentions/counsels his father on how to handle (or stay out of) problems his sisters are having with their health and marriages; refers to Herbert who is in the Navy Medical Corps; discusses his views about enlisting (Leon was...

Scope and Contents Letters this year provide fewer details about Leon's career and focus more on a variety of family problems; counsels WK on financial matters and possible ways to retire (or at least slow down); advice on managing properties tied to the estate of Rosa Keyserling; advises his father not to send letters of advice or admonishment to Milton Schreiber re. his marital problems with Rosalyn; discusses Rosalyn's physical condition; suggests ways WK can liquidate parts of his estate, and improve...