Scope and Content Note
The papers of Victor Murdock (1871-1945) span the years 1824-1971, with the bulk of the material concentrated in the period 1909-1940. The papers are organized into seven series: Family Papers , General Correspondence , Federal Trade Commission , Writings , Miscellany , Addition , and Oversize .
The Murdock Papers document his career as a congressman and his leadership of Republican insurgents who, with their Democratic allies in 1910 succeeded in contesting the power exerted over the House of Representatives by Speaker Joseph Cannon. There is also material concerning Murdock's activities on behalf of Theodore Roosevelt (1858-1919) during the former president's campaign for the presidency as the candidate of the newly-formed Progressive Party (1912). Many letters deal with the Progressive Party during the years 1915-1916 when Murdock served as chairman of the party's national committee. A larger number, however, reflect the political phase of Murdock's career on the state and local level, including extensive correspondence with his constituents in Kansas. Among the prominent Kansans who corresponded frequently with Murdock regarding the political scene in the state are Henry Justin Allen, William Augustus Ayres, Arthur Capper, Jonathan McMillan Davis, J. N. Dolley, Henry Joseph Haskell, Alfred M. Landon, David D. Leahy, Clyde Martin Reed, Walter Roscoe Stubbs, and William Allen White.
The Federal Trade Commission series includes correspondence, memoranda, and reports for the period 1917-1924 when Murdock served on the commission. Prominent is material relating to the commission's investigation of the meatpacking industry for violation of antitrust laws, the evidence from which was compiled and published for use by Congress and the public. Correspondents in the files include J. Franklin Fort, William B. Colver, and Huston Thompson.
An extensive series of Family Papers contains files ranging through five generations, from Victor Murdock's grandfather, Thomas Murdock, to his grandson, Victor Delano. Of special interest are papers from his father, Marshall M. Murdock, a senator in the early Kansas legislature and founder of the Wichita Daily Eagle, and his brother, Marcellus M. Murdock, publisher of the Eagle and editor of the paper during Victor's absence in Washington from 1903 until 1924. There are a small number of Victor Murdock's speeches and articles and the manuscript of “It May Chance of Wheat,” a series of articles written for the Eagle, published in book for in 1965.