Roland Sletor Morris
Roland Sletor Morris was a U.S. diplomat and politician. He was the American ambassador to Japan from 1917 to 1920.
On Sept.20, 1917, a special dinner event was held to honor Morris in new position as U.S. Ambassador to Japan. This event was attended by six hundred guests, including most members of Philadelphia judiciary and other active civic members of the city. The speakers at this diplomatic gathering included: Thomas B. Smith Mayor of Philadelphia, Aimaro Satō Japanese Ambassador to the U.S., Frank Lyon Polk, Alexander Mitchell Palmer, Robert von Moschzisker, William Potter. Other prominent guests included U.S. Senator Boies Penrose and U.S. Senator Philander Chase Knox. The event took place at the Bellevue-Stratford Hotel, in Philadelphia.
The 1917 Program/menu to this event is shown as an illustration to the right:
He collaborated with Thomas Garrigue Masaryk during the first world war in a question of Czechoslovak legions. In 1934, he lost the Pennsylvania Democratic U.S. Senate primary to Joseph Guffey, who was subsequently elected.
He was one of the founding partners of the law firm of Duane Morris, in Philadelphia.
He and his wife Augusta Twiggs Shippen West Morris, relative of both Levi Twiggs and Edward Shippen, are buried at Laurel Hill Cemetery in Philadelphia.
