Skip to main content
 Sub-Series

Sub-Series I: Legislative Correspondence by Subject,, 1959-1965.

Dates

  • 1959-1965.

Scope and Contents

Legislative Correspondence by Subject includes the principal files of correspondence received by HAW on legislative matters from constituents and others for the periods 1960 - 1964 and, in part, for 1959 and 1965. (For other periods, see the other sub-series of LEGISLATIVE/ISSUE CORRESPONDENCE. Also, see Related Series below.)

Mass transportation is perhaps the best represented single topic in Legislative Correspondence by Subject, reflecting HAW's leadership role in this area. This material emphasizes commuter rail systems both in New Jersey (including extensive material related to Morris County commutation and the Erie Lackawanna Railroad) and from around the country (e.g., Atlanta, Boston, Milwaukee, New York, San Francisco). Bus lines, highways, hydrofoils, ferries, and other commuter options are discussed.

Commercial/business issues are well-represented, found across several categories of material. Imports, exports, tariffs, foreign competition, and patent protections impacting agriculture, textiles, pharmaceuticals, small business, and other industries are a few of the business issues found here.

Several other topics are also well-represented in this sub-series: aging, including the emerging Medicare bill; civil rights, including the Act of 1964; higher education funding; tax reform; nuclear testing and disarmament; and compensation & benefit policies for veterans, senior citizens, and civil service employees. There are several folders of 1964 correspondence concerning Vietnam.

Material on migratory labor, another issue on which HAW took a leadership role in the early 1960s, is not well-represented here, likely because the original incoming correspondence remained with the Senate. The bulk of the folders on this topic consist only of carbons of subcommittee outgoing correspondence, though there are some staff notes, draft bills, and other material.

In addition to the original constituent correspondence, the files include the carbon copy of HAW's response. Carbons of HAW-initiated correspondence, including letters to editors and other legislators are in these files. Though not extensive, incoming correspondence from other legislators can be found in this sub-series.

Language of Materials

From the Collection:

Undetermined .

Physical Description

(18 cubic feet)

Arrangement

Arrangement is alphabetical by subject.

The single set of correspondence from 1959 - 1964 was imposed by the archivist during processing. As shipped to the Federal Records Center by HAW's office, there was no consistency among all the original files as to specific years covered and not all legislative correspondence files for a period were necessarily shipped together. In reconstructing the sub-series, the archivist collapsed the various legislative correspondence folders into one set covering the entire 1959 - 1964 period. Nevertheless, the subject categories and organization reflect original order.

Most of the folders are categorized as "General" (e.g., Aging: General). This is the original term as applied by HAW's office to the core folders of the sub-series. All material, substantive or not, was placed in the General folders unless the staff saw reason to open a file on a specific subject under the primary category. Material associated with a specific sub-category will typically be found in the General folders as well (e.g., correspondence on Vietnam will be found in both Foreign Policy: Vietnam and in Foreign Policy: General). Further, a continuing exchange of correspondence between HAW and a correspondent on a particular subject may or may not have been stapled together by HAW's staff; it appears that, for the most part, the staff merely filed correspondence as received. Researchers are advised to look through various General folders and perhaps sub-categories to find related documents.

The Miscellaneous: General folders primarily include correspondence covering multiple substantive topics. For 1961 - 1962, these folders also include legislative correspondence that appears not to have been filed by HAW's office in their appropriate category folder.

The dates used in the container list are from the carbon copies of HAW's correspondence. They do not necessarily reflect the dates of all documents in the folder.

Container 432 includes those files with legal size documents that were separated from the rest of the sub-series.

Related Series

· In 1959, HAW's office maintained a short-lived SUBJECT CORRESPONDENCE filing system which included legislative correspondence, among other types. Some 1959 correspondence was carried forward into the new Legislative Correspondence by Subject files, but much can be found in the SUBJECT CORRESPONDENCE series.

· From 1959 - 1964, Legislative Correspondence by Subject was one of three sets of correspondence files in HAW's office. The other two were DEPARTMENTAL CORRESPONDENCE and GENERAL CORRESPONDENCE. Some correspondence of a legislative/issue nature can be found in those contemporaneous series. Further, because sharp distinctions could not always be drawn between correspondence types by HAW's staff, the same or similar issues and correspondents can often be found in various series (e.g., Agriculture, Defense, and Small Business have both departmental and legislative correspondence categories, with resulting scope overlap).

· For the period 1965 - early 1972, HAW's office combined the legislative, department, and general correspondence categories into one filing structure; see CENTRAL CORRESPONDENCE for much of the legislative correspondence from that period. Some legislative correspondence from 1964 and earlier was carried forward into the CENTRAL CORRESPONDENCE files.

Appraisal and Discard Information

All substantive material was retained. A couple feet of material, mostly from the Miscellaneous category, was discarded. This consisted of routine requests, for copies of bills and other legislation-related material, letters unanswered by HAW ("NARs," or No Answer Required), HAW outgoing correspondence returned by the post office, uncategorized letters with no subject focus, and other non-substantive matters.

General

Index Terms

Given the extensive number of "General" folders, an effort was made to identify and index key themes. These terms were applied within the time constraints of processing and to folders that contain many specific topics. By no means do the index terms reflect the entire contents of a folder.