Investors beware!
Subject(s): American Stock Exchange, Capitalists and financiers, Drowning, Trusts, Industrial, Whirlpools
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Investors are drowning in rough seas labeled “Wall Street” and “Speculation,” and a top hat labeled “Ingenuous Investor” is caught in a whirlpool labeled “Iron and Steel Trust.”
Comments and Context
The story behind this cartoon was one of longer and more serious complication than a short-lived panic, actually the first Wall Street “panic,” as opposed to actual economic depressions. It was a case of wealthy financiers struggling, and small companies and individual investors getting crushed as they wrestled. James J. Hill, the railroad magnate, partnered with J. P. Morgan for regional rail monopoly in the United States northwest, but were countered by financier Jacob Schiff and Edward H. Harriman, who by circumstance of acquisitions was a railroad baron himself, controlling the Union Pacific. Harriman attempted a stock raid, weakening the position of smaller railroads, leading to sell-offs, failures, and a general Wall Street panic, the first of its kind. When the dust settled, Hill, Morgan, and Harriman agreed to combine and form the Northern Securities Company. The ugly effects of the 1901 panic, as much as “bigness” of the Northern Securities Company itself, is what led to the Roosevelt Administration’s anti-trust suit the following year, a fact infrequently noted by history.
Collection
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs
Creation Date
1901-04-10
Creator(s)
Period
Vice President of the United States (1901)
Repository
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division
Page Count
1
Record Type
Image
Resource Type
Rights
These images are presented through a cooperative effort between the Library of Congress and Dickinson State University. No known restrictions on publication.
Citation
Cite this Record
Chicago:
Investors beware!. [April 10, 1901]. Library of Congress Prints and Photographs.
https://www.theodorerooseveltcenter.org/digital-library/o275831. Theodore Roosevelt Digital Library. Dickinson State University.
MLA:
Dalrymple, Louis, 1866-1905. Investors beware!. [10 Apr. 1901]. Image.
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs. Theodore Roosevelt Digital Library. Dickinson State University. February 26, 2026. https://www.theodorerooseveltcenter.org/digital-library/o275831.
APA:
Dalrymple, Louis, 1866-1905., [1901, April 10]. Investors beware!.
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs. Theodore Roosevelt Digital Library. Dickinson State University.
Retrieved from https://www.theodorerooseveltcenter.org/digital-library/o275831.
Cite this Collection
Chicago:
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs. https://www.theodorerooseveltcenter.org/collection/library-of-congress-prints-and-photographs. Theodore Roosevelt Digital Library. Dickinson State University.
MLA:
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs. Theodore Roosevelt Digital Library. Dickinson State University. February 26, 2026. https://www.theodorerooseveltcenter.org/collection/library-of-congress-prints-and-photographs.
APA:
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs. Theodore Roosevelt Digital Library. Dickinson State University. Retrieved from https://www.theodorerooseveltcenter.org/collection/library-of-congress-prints-and-photographs.
