What was Theodore Roosevelt's personal opinion of Nikola Tesla? That is the question I was hoping would be answered by the correspondence between TR and Tesla which I kindly received from the Tesla library in Serbia.  Tesla wrote TR twice.  TR never acknowledged Tesla. I did not find what I was looking for but I will tell you what I did find.

First for my perspective. How could a president that was widely publicized as the most opinionated person in America on any issue in the news or literary world or scientific world never have said anything about Nicola Tesla? 

TR and his sister Corinne were very close. Most of the letters I received are between TR sister Corinne and Nikola Tesla. Corinne had a cordial relationship apparently or Tesla was on the societies contact list. But he was well known in the Roosevelt family and would've been a topic of discussion at sometime.

There are two documents from Tesla address to TR. One official typed letter & one personal hand written letter. 

1903, Theodore Roosevelt  was president . Tesla writes and points out his inventions, achievements & hope for the future.  Tesla also  protest the way that he is being treated by people exploiting his inventions. He asked for his excellency’s  help. Tesla had not fully learned the English language. There is no response from the president which is out of character for TR. 

The second letter is from 1918 Nicola Tesla sent a letter of sympathy  when TR’s son was killed in the war. TR died six months later and never responded.

Why is the record clean. TR never even mention Tesla's name? it's like Tesla didn't exist, A famous person writes the president and asks for help and no response.  What was TR's reason for not addressing Tesla publicly. The only speculation that seems to be a possibility is: TR did not believe Tesla was being exploited. And was taken in by the propaganda of the current wars.

But why the news blackout from TR. The best that could be said about TR in this situation is that maybe he did not know if Edison or Tesla was right or wrong and chose to say nothing. In any event what I can document is TR made a big mistake and Tesla was destroyed financially. Tesla could've been the Elon Musk of the day. 

If this were the case TR never realized his mistake. TR would have apologized if TR remain true to his nature. Whatever personal evidence there was of TR's opinion of Tesla must be destroyed or lost.  it would be a phenomenal find if a letter to someone exists. 

TR is one of my heroes and there is a definite possibility that he unwittingly played a role in stopping another of my heroes, Nikola Tesla’s,  greatest achievement, the wireless transmission of electricity. imagine an electrical grid without telephone poles. There would be no weather related outages due to damage power lines and transmission stations.