The trust promoter’s nightmare
Subject(s): Capitalists and financiers, Nightmares, Prisoners, Swindlers and swindling
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A man labelled “Trust Promoter” wakes up from a nightmare that shows a criminal labeled “Miller” and “520 per cent” breaking stones in a prison.
Comments and Context
Anticipating the “pyramid scheme” of Carlo Ponzi that attracted investors by promising windfall dividends — but urged investors to roll over their “profits” and only made payments from new investments — the Franklin Syndicate of William F. Miller of Brooklyn began when a gullible man invested ten dollars. In months Miller raked in thousands of dollars a day, witnesses noting piles of cash in closets and desks of his offices.
It seemed before long that the almost everybody — police, reporters, governments — knew about the scheme… almost everybody except gullible investors. As with schemes since the famous South Sea Bubble of the 1710s or, looking forward, Bernie Madoff, the scheme collapsed despite of people’s desire to believe obvious lies. A partner in the scheme, Edward Schlessinger, disappeared with loads of cash at the right moment. Miller was convicted and sent to prison, and eventually implicated his other partner, Robert A. Ammon, who likewise served prison time.
Such is the context of Pughe’s cartoon, but beyond the surface moral, the cartoonist’s point was to draw a parallel between common Franklin-Syndicate swindlers and those he identifies by the caption as “Trust Promoters.” During these years of industrial combinations, “watered” (overvalued) shares were a real danger to small investors, and the market in general. Details of such manipulations, virtually a how-to expose, were detailed in magazine articles and the book Frenzied Finance” by Thomas W. Lawson in the following years.
Collection
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs
Creation Date
1903-11-18
Creator(s)
Pughe, J. S. (John S.), 1870-1909
Period
U.S. President – 1st Term (September 1901-February 1905)
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:
The trust promoter’s nightmare. [November 18, 1903]. Library of Congress Prints and Photographs.
https://www.theodorerooseveltcenter.org/digital-library/o277636. Theodore Roosevelt Digital Library. Dickinson State University.
MLA:
Pughe, J. S. (John S.), 1870-1909. The trust promoter’s nightmare. [18 Nov. 1903]. Image.
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs. Theodore Roosevelt Digital Library. Dickinson State University. March 12, 2026. https://www.theodorerooseveltcenter.org/digital-library/o277636.
APA:
Pughe, J. S. (John S.), 1870-1909., [1903, November 18]. The trust promoter’s nightmare.
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs. Theodore Roosevelt Digital Library. Dickinson State University.
Retrieved from https://www.theodorerooseveltcenter.org/digital-library/o277636.
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. March 12, 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.
