United States Senator
In January 1909, Root was elected a U.S. Senator from New York, and served from March 4, 1909, to March 4, 1915. He was an active member of the Senate Committee on the Judiciary. He chose not to seek re-election in 1914. During and after his Senate service, Root served as President of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace from 1910 to 1925.
In a 1910 letter published by the New York Times, Root supported the proposed income tax amendment, which became the Sixteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution:
It is said that a very large part of any income tax under the amendment would be paid by citizens of New York....
The reason why the citizens of New York will pay so large a part of the tax is New York City is the chief financial and commercial centre of a great country with vast resources and industrial activity. For many years Americans engaged in developing the wealth of all parts of the country have been going to New York to secure capital and market their securities and to buy their supplies. Thousands of men who have amassed fortunes in all sorts of enterprises in other states have gone to New York to live because they like the life of the city or because their distant enterprises require representation at the financial centre. The incomes of New York are in a great measure derived from the country at large. A continual stream of wealth sets toward the great city from the mines and manufactories and railroads outside of New York.
Read more about this topic: Elihu Root
Famous quotes containing the words united states, united, states and/or senator:
“The real charm of the United States is that it is the only comic country ever heard of.”
—H.L. (Henry Lewis)
“I thought it altogether proper that I should take a brief furlough from official duties at Washington to mingle with you here to-day as a comrade, because every President of the United States must realize that the strength of the Government, its defence in war, the army that is to muster under its banner when our Nation is assailed, is to be found here in the masses of our people.”
—Benjamin Harrison (1833–1901)
“Mr. Christian, it is about time for many people to begin to come to the White House to discuss different phases of the coal strike. When anybody comes, if his special problem concerns the state, refer him to the governor of Pennsylvania. If his problem has a national phase, refer him to the United States Coal Commission. In no event bring him to me.”
—Calvin Coolidge (1872–1933)
“Wags try to invent new stories to tell about the legislature, and end by telling the old one about the senator who explained his unaccustomed possession of a large roll of bills by saying that someone pushed it over the transom while he slept. The expression “It came over the transom,” to explain any unusual good fortune, is part of local folklore.”
—For the State of Montana, U.S. public relief program (1935-1943)