The big ones go to Jersey — why can’t the little ones?

Two well-dressed men labeled “High Finance” and “Big Business” are startled by the throng of petty criminals, some labeled “Card Sharp, Safe Cracker, Second Story Man, [and] Flat Robber,” who push their way ahead to a building labeled “Anything Incorporated and No Questions Asked.”

comments and context

Comments and Context

This cartoon by Udo J. Keppler addressed less the riff-raff class of criminals depicted in the drawings, and more the “white-collar” criminals similar to the two shocked businessmen at the lower right, and the types referred to in the caption.

Many factors contributed to a “squeeze” New Jersey felt, neglected by New York City and Philadelphia, the two major business centers between it sat. Rather than benefit from its proximity, it was drained, and even exploited, by domestic and world commerce, and by the importance of those cities. Waterways and rail lines tended to make New Jersey a vast highway instead of a business-megalopolis as its leaders envisioned.

To counter this challenge, New Jersey determined to attract business — at least business capital — by becoming an early version of a tax haven. As the states increased interstate commerce and needed to incorporate as national entities, New Jersey offered lax provisions and regulations for companies and trust-combinations. The state imposed a zero corporate tax on business activities and profits. An illustration of this policy’s success was the fact that John D. Rockefeller, after Standard Oil of Ohio, his early base, and before he was ordered to split the trust into forty-one companies, worked through Standard Oil of New Jersey.

In 1898 little Delaware, feeling similarly hemmed in along the Boston-Washington line, also made itself a tax and incorporation haven, the “Switzerland of America,” a status it largely has retained through the years.

New Jersey in 1906, however, still had the identification of being a magnet of corporate concentration (and intrigue, somewhat); when added to the vice that attends the peripheries of many big cities, Keppler had an easy, and not wholly hyperbolic, target.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1906-03-14

Creator(s)

Keppler, Udo J., 1872-1956

Period

U.S. President – 2nd Term (March 1905-February 1909)

Repository

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division

Page Count

1

Record Type

Image

Resource Type

Cartoon

Rights

These images are presented through a cooperative effort between the Library of Congress and Dickinson State University. No known restrictions on publication.

Citation