This series covers all the bills that Mansfield introduced during his time in the House of Representatives. They include the 78th to the 82nd Congress. The series contains a broad range of materials relating to all aspects of legislation. The number of bills introduced by Mansfield increases with each Congress as the gains seniority. The bills also grow more substantive and related to national policy issues.

The series contains copies of each bill introduced and correspondence relating to the bill. When a bill was introduced in more than one session, the folder generally contains all previous drafts of the bill. Many folders have original working drafts of bills that include notes and revisions in Mansfield's hand. The folders also contain newspaper clippings and numerous letters from constituents, interest groups, and Congressional colleagues. A number of the bills are personal relief bills introduced on behalf of constituents in need of help. They provide a glimpse of the hardships many Montanans faced during World War II and its aftermath. Many cases relate to immigration difficulties and the struggles of veterans. There are letters from various government agencies, particularly the War and State departments, relating to relief cases. The relief folders often contain photographs and effusive thank-you notes.

The folders contain Mansfield's speeches to Congressional committees and on the House floor. There are several handwritten working drafts of speeches that include Mansfield's corrections. Planned testimony on pending legislation and specific pages from the Congressional Record are included as well.

Letters from constituents relating to pending bills offer insight into the political and economic opinions of Montanans during this era. A number of bills relate to federal land management, Native American policies, and large federal work projects in Montana. These folders contain numerous maps, blueprints, and photographs relating to specific projects. Of particular interest is the vigorous support for mining, flood control, and irrigation.

The rest of the series is comprised of Mansfield's replies to constituents, reports to congressional committees, telegrams, press releases, and memorandums. There are also copies of public laws after legislation was passed, letters from Senator James Murray, newsletters from constituent interest groups, and legal documents from various cases.

This series consists of material relating to all the legislation Mansfield's office handled during his time in the House of Representatives. The series is inclusive and covers a broad range of bills in both the House and the Senate. While the series does not contain every piece of pending legislation during this time, any bill that related to Montana or Mansfield's committee assignments is included. The series generally consists of correspondence, committee reports, copies of the pending bills, and newspaper clippings.

More specifically, the folders contain a predictable sequence of documents throughout the series. In general all material relating to a specific piece of legislation is contained in a single file, though some bills, like the Smith-Connolly Bill of 1943, take up several folders. The information contained in the series covers a broad spectrum of issues and includes virtually any subject that might have relevance to Mansfield's tenure in the House. Included in the files are bills relating to wildlife conservation, veteran's benefits, housing, the Kerr Commission, Civil Service, Armed Forces, coal, World War II, agriculture, mining, timber, and foreign relations. A file typically will have all the information on a particular bill, though this covers a broad sweep of documents. The majority of the series consists of correspondence. The letters are predominantly from constituents and interest groups with concerns over the effect of a specific piece of pending legislation. The constituent letters provide a reflection of the concerns of average Montanans during and following World War II. They project an intimacy between Mansfield and Montana citizens that seems a remarkable reflection of both Mansfield's appeal and a more communal era in Montana politics. The letters from interest groups reveal the key players in Montana politics, particularly the strong voices of farmers, ranchers, loggers, and miners. Groups representing these constituencies are very well represented in this series and their letters appear in virtually every folder. A copy of each bill being considered is included in the relevant file and both previous and subsequent drafts of the bill often appear. Some of the bills have Mansfield's handwritten notes, offering his objections or suggestions. Reports to House and Senate Committees and copies of Committee hearings accompany specific legislation. To supplement reports and testimony, interest groups often produced their own reports to convince Mansfield and his Congressional colleagues of the merits of their particular viewpoint. The rest of the series is rounded out by letters and memorandums from Congressional colleagues, press releases, Mansfield's speeches and testimony, newspaper clippings sent by constituents, telegrams, and reports and letters from federal agencies.

This series contains information relating to Montana projects and concerns while Mansfield was a member of the House of Representatives. The files include material linked to legislation and more general information relating to constituent concerns and federal policies and works projects affecting Montana. The folders usually contain information of specific interest groups in the state. A single file typically has letters, legislation, reports, and newspaper clippings relevant to an interest group and spanning the whole era in which Mansfield was in the House.

The majority of the material focuses on either Montana interest groups or public works projects. In addition to these two categories, folders relate to specific businesses, government agencies, and issues in Montana. Many folders have copies of any legislation that a particular group expressed interest in or concern about. Besides copies of bills, there are numerous reports from various federal agencies with information about mining, airports, dams, flood control, labor, and agriculture. The extent of specific files is a gauge of the importance of various groups and issues in Montana. For example, the Bureau of Reclamation's flood control work on the Flathead River occupies an entire box, while the West Yellowstone Airport folder contains only a few letters from constituents and the Department of Commerce. Groups like the Montana Wool Growers Association, the Montana Farmer's Union, and the Mining Association of Montana have thick files filled with letters from members advocating support of their groups. Public works also receive support from constituents, and there are numerous letters urging Mansfield's backing for legislation and appropriations of federal projects.

The series is rounded out with newsletters and policy directives from interest groups. There are letters from Congressional colleagues, cabinet members, and various other officials from both the federal and Montana government. Of particular interest are letters from Secretary of Interior Harold Ickes on mining policy. There are copies of Mansfield's press releases and newspaper clippings submitted by constituents in almost every folder, providing a gauge of public opinion on a range of issues. Blueprints, photographs, petitions, and telegrams are present as well.

Much of the material here relates to material in other series, including Legislation, Projects, Federal Agencies, and Case Mail. Since this series is relatively short, it may be a good starting point in a search for materials and topics that may appear in several places in the collection.

This series contains material relating to both the House Committee on Foreign Affairs and Mansfield's own congressional interest in foreign matters. Material in the series concentrates on the years 1947 to 1949, but includes lecture notes presumably from courses Mansfield taught at the University of Montana prior to 1943.

The country files in the series encompass a broad range of subjects relevant to individual nations. There are copies of foreign affairs bills from the House and the Senate. Loans and other foreign aid provide much of the material in individual folders. Letters in the country files include correspondence between Mansfield and various ambassadors and State Department officials. Letters from companies and constituents with strong interests in specific countries are also well-represented in these files. Other letters are from government organizations including the War Department, the State Department, the Army, and the Marine Corps. There are reports from government agencies on specific foreign relations challenges like the Panama Canal. United Nations reports also appear in the series, and congressional hearings and committee reports accompany legislation. There are notes in Mansfield's hand from committee hearings. Items from the Congressional Record pertaining to specific countries are also included in folders for individual countries. Proposals for large quantities of foreign aid spending elicited the most vehement responses. A given spending measure typically drew letters of both criticism and praise; many Montanans expressed displeasure with Congress' willingness to spend money overseas when domestic problems persisted. Foreign nationals and American expatriates also wrote Mansfield to support or decry a particular policy or proposal. Country files also contain newspaper clippings, magazine articles, American and international publications, and press releases.

This series also contains information on specific political issues like the demobilization of troops in China, Burma, and India following World War II. These folders contain many of the same types of materials as the country files. In addition, there are presidential press releases, citizen petitions, telegrams, and photographs. There are also folders with information and documents concerning Mansfield's official trips abroad. This series chronicles the beginning of Mansfield's career-long involvement in foreign policy and provides insight into the constituent opinions and congressional concerns about foreign affairs during and after World War II.

This series covers a variety of federal agencies during Mansfield's tenure in the House. The material provides an excellent sample of the range of concerns and interests that a member of Congress faces. The folders contain material as mundane as the delivery of Christmas packages to troops and as critical as the food situation in Germany in 1945 and trimming manpower from the Marine Corps. The bulk of the series focuses on relatively basic issues like individual deferments and discharges from the Army.

The series contains information on the whole array of federal agencies, but the more visible and critical agencies receive more attention. As expected during this time period, the Army and Armed Forces files are extensive. They contain numerous letters from constituents on a variety of war-related topics. Most plead for emergency furloughs or deferments for friends or family members, hinting at the impact the war had on Montana families. There are also letters voicing concern over federal wartime policies like rationing and price supports for agriculture. Reports from various branches of the armed service appear throughout these folders. Besides deferments, there are numerous files concerning court martials, discharges, dependent benefits, and GI benefits. Reports and correspondence from the War Department, the State Department, the National Security Agency, and the Veteran's Administration round out these boxes. They address Reserve Officers Training Corps and training issues, prisoner of war exchanges, military contracts, and local draft boards.

Many other non-military agencies are also represented. Due to the extent of federal land in Montana and the importance of agriculture, the departments of the Interior and Agriculture figure prominently. The Federal Power Commission's proposal to import natural gas from Canada sparked controversy and elicited letters from around Montana. Small business owners seem particularly likely to voice concerns over federal agency policies. Their letters offer a nice survey of the range of small businesses in Montana in the late 1940s and the early 1950s. There are also letters between Mansfield and various agencies. Congressional hearings reports and copies of legislation are scattered throughout the series. Letters from congressional colleagues and interest groups accompany nearly every folder. The series also contains blueprints, photographs, copies of federal regulations, telegrams, press releases, and newspaper clippings.

The materials offer an excellent window on the complexity of the federal government. It also highlights the constant demands placed on members of Congress and the need for legislators to balance the demands of constituents with the demands of governing the nation.

This relatively brief series serves as a catchall for information from Mansfield's House years that apparently did not logically fit anywhere else in the files. The information contained here might best be described as documentary rather than substantive. Many of the boxes include up to sixty folders that consist of little more than a single letter or two relating to the folder's subject. Several boxes contain nothing more than constituent requests for government publications while others contain information on organizations, advertising for campaigns, federal policies, and press releases.

More specifically, the series contains numerous requests for Agricultural Yearbooks from Montanans. Boxes Five, Six, and Seven include only a chronological sequence of such requests stretching from 1947 to 1954. The bulk of the letters come from individual Montana farmers and ranchers, though a number of interest groups and universities also ask for Yearbooks. The primary value of these boxes is a strong picture of the state of agriculture in Montana during this period and the wide range of farms and ranches scattered across the Big Sky. Their letterhead provides an informal survey and chronicle of farming in this era. Another box includes only information on newspapers in the state. Most of these files are focused on ensuring Mansfield wide campaign advertising coverage in Montana and generally contain two letters: one from Mansfield's office inquiring about advertising deadlines and rates and a reply from the individual newspapers with the information. The Organization and General boxes contain more varied documents including letters soliciting Mansfield's membership, newspaper clippings, reports from interest groups, constituent letters regarding specific policies or legislation, and articles Mansfield authored for publication. Of particular interest are the organizations that Mansfield belonged to and letters relating to his activities in those groups. Of note are the American Legion, the Marine Corps League, and the Ancient Order of Hibernians. He was solicited by organizations ranging from the Friendly Sons of Saint Patrick to the National Farmers' Union to the Sidewalk Cowboys Association of America. The letters provide an indicator of the coalition of interests that supported Mansfield, in particular labor, Catholic, veterans, and Irish organizations. In the General box there are also files that cover specific appointments for judges, international trade treaties, dams, political action committees, the Red Cross, and the problems with un-sliced bread during World War II. The boxes with newspaper and radio station information offer and excellent view of media in Montana in the 1940s and 1950s and proof of the importance of newspapers statewide. The remainder of the series is an odd assortment of letters from constituents, federal agencies, newspaper clippings, copies of hearings before Congressional Committees, and requests for interviews.