The Papers of Harry Sauthoff cover the period from 1919 to 1929, with the majority of the material pertaining to the years 1924 to 1929, during his terms as a state senator. Included are general correspondence; and various court hearings dealing with divorce, property settlements, and security cases. Boxes 1 and 2 also contain correspondence and miscellaneous materials relating to various state investigations; legislation concerning minimum wage laws, child labor laws, elections, and taxation; and material on the La Follette for President Committee, of which Sauthoff was the secretary.
The Papers also include records of the investigation of the sale of bonds and securities by the investment firm of Wildeman and Company conducted by the Securities Division of the Railroad Commission of Wisconsin. Sauthoff was the representative for Wildeman and Company at the hearings. The collection contains two folders (Box 1) and one volume (Box 4) pertaining to the Smith-Ekern inquiry of 1925, which dealt with the investigation by a special senate committee, of which Sauthoff was chairman, into the charges made by W. Stanley Smith, Commissioner of Insurance, against Herman L. Ekern, Attorney General, that Ekern took advantage of his official position to aid his private interests and that Ekern had been negligent in cases referred to him by the insurance department. The collection has been arranged alphabetically by subject matter.
