I. PUBLIC LETTERS
 
            Typical examples of "official" public letters
are such as
were written by President Roosevelt to Cordell Hull as
Secretary of State on questions of foreign policy and which
are currently appearing in Mr. Hull's publication of his
Memoirs. The originals of such letters are or should be in
the regular governmental department files as government
property. An outstanding example of the "non-official"
public letters is the exchange of correspondence between
F.D.R. and President Hoover early in 1933 before Mr.
Roosevelt took the oath of office as President.
 
              It is submitted that as to all letters
properly classified
as public letters, F.D.R. never acquired any common law
property right to control their publication and consequently
no rights passed to the personal representatives. It seem
clear that as to all official letters F.D.R. was acting as
an agent, servant or employee of the government, and, under
the established exception to the general rule, all property
rights thereto belonged to the government from the
beginning. As to all public letters which are not strictly
official, there was simultaneous
publication which automatically carried with it all rights
to subsequent republication.
 
              Mr. Roosevelt apparently came to the same
conclusion during his lifetime as demonstrated by the
position taken by his
in the publication of his two sets of "The Public Papers and
Addresses". Some letters, referred to in the forewords as
"published letters", are reproduced in these volumes. The
correspondence with President 
 
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