23 December, 1912.
Dear Dean Lewis:
The Executive Committee of the Progressive Party has asked me to help in the organization of the legislative bureau, part of your work. Of course you know that I am pretty well tied up here for the winter, but nevertheless I believe I can be of some service to you. If you could, I am willing to do so.
I was going to suggest that it seems to me absolutely necessary that you get at once a list of the heads of the legislative committees in every state in the country, that you also get a list of men whom you can depend upon in congress and who will be in congress next March also. It seems to me that there ought to be machinery established at once by which you can tell what bills are to be introduced in the different states and in the nation by members of your party. You ought then to keep a record of votes upon these bills (bills to mean joint resolutions, improved rules of the legislature, etc.). It would also be a good thing for you to gather at once a list of bills of a progressive nature introduced in congress in the last couple of sessions, such bills as the LaFollete-Brandeis bill, all bills relating to [page 2] trusts, money, the tariff, constitutional amendments, etc., etc., <(A good basis for future drafting)>. It eems to me that some good clerk ought to be set to work at once getting hold of this data, A card catalogue could be made for the names of legislative commitee men, and an upright filing system to be established for these bills and other material. I cannot emphasize this matter too much. It is necessary to get it speedily.
Yours very truly,
C McCarthy [signed]
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