Keep cool sonny, this is a big country

Uncle Sam sits in a chair smoking a pipe as a man labeled “California” and “States Rights” pleads with him. On a map of the United States in the background, an explosion appears over California; and newspapers in the foreground display headlines like “President’s Message Stirs Up Storm in San Francisco” and “California Dissatisfied.”

comments and context

Comments and Context

The year 1906 was possibly the busiest of President Roosevelt’s presidency. It was the high-water mark of the Muckrakers, the journalists, authors, and reformers who explosively attacked corruption in American business and finance. Congress passed many reform laws, and the administration promulgated many regulations, in many areas of American life from conservation to corporate affairs. The president engaged himself in battles with trust moguls like Edward Henry Harriman (whom the president called an unfit citizen); and other magnates like John D. Rockefeller had to defend themselves in lawsuits. Roosevelt’s own affairs included the Simplified Spelling and “Nature Fakir” crusades; and the controversy over dismissed Black soldiers in Brownsville, Texas, occupied his attention.

Another matter seems minor in retrospect, at least as a part of the president’s agenda, and indeed other presidents might have let it run its own course: anti-Japanese agitation on the West Coast.

Roosevelt, however, did pay attention, and spent time and diplomatic efforts to resolve the situation. Much was “behind the scenes,” as far as the public knew.

Anti-Japanese agitation, as part of larger anti-Asian prejudice, was rife on America’s Pacific coast states. There were anti-Chinese feelings, too, but China itself was too weak to mount protests, and immigrants were spread out in railroad-laying areas or confined themselves to tight urban ghettos. The Japanese, on the other hand, also labored and farmed, but were entrepreneurs as well. Their businesses encroached on American activities (or so the Americans thought or feared), leading to discrimination, offenses, and, sometimes, riots.

Worse still — which evolved the situation from one of injustice to diplomatic crisis demanding the president’s notice — the sophisticated government in Japan took offense at prejudice and violence. It registered protests and threatened retaliation in forms ranging from trade sanctions to reciprocal restrictions on Americans (chiefly businessmen and missionaries) in Japan.

Roosevelt had to balance the concerns of Americans, for instance employment friction, and the ugly and violent xenophobia — much of which, ironically, was initiated by first-generation Americans or recent immigrants from Ireland.

Politicians played their “race cards” to secure loyal votes from nativists; and a particular thorn in Roosevelt’s side was publisher William Randolph Hearst, whose chain of West-Coast newspapers continually stirred anti-Japanese prejudice. Few Japanese could read English, and Hearst could sell papers by stirring controversies.

The president expended pressure on California lawmakers and parties of influence; attempted to mollify the Japanese (the Great White Fleet’s port-call in Japan was designed as a sign of American respect); and alternated between public and private appeals to seek justice.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1906-12-10

Creator(s)

Van Leshout, Alexander J. (Alexander Josef), 1868-1930

Language

English

Period

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

Page Count

1

Production Method

Printed

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