See if you can hit the apple, Mr. Roosevelt

President Roosevelt holds a bow with an arrow labeled “Tariff Revision” and two other arrows in his mouth, “Income Tax” and “Inheritance Tax.” Just beyond him is a man labeled “Trusts” with a large apple labeled “The Tariff” on his head. The man has the arrows, “Anti-rebate,” “Anti-trust” “Railroad Rate Law,” and “Pure Food” in his chest, and he is saying, “The most unkindest cut of all!” Caption: “See if you can hit the apple, Mr. Roosevelt.”

comments and context

Comments and Context

Both President Roosevelt and Secretary of State Elihu Root went public with ideas about economic and governmental reforms that shocked many people in the Republican Party and on Wall Street. Chief among these were theoretical considerations of a national income tax and a national inheritance tax. These concepts previously had been relegated, and rejected, by many Americans as Populist or even Socialist dogma.

The year 1906 had been one of tremendous ferment in politics and the economy — laws, regulations, Muckraking agitation, arrest of corporate leaders, elections of reformers. Roosevelt inspired some of these movements; he was pressured by some of them; and he did have a fear of revolution if mild reforms did not anticipate unrest. As he included some of these ideas in Annual Message in December, he made sure that Root, who agreed with the thrust of these reforms, went public too — thus removing some of the sting felt by conservative Republicans and financiers.

Many politicians expected the president to advocate for lower tariff rates, reciprocity, or “Fair Trade;” Roosevelt barely touched on these subjects and only in the context of the country’s new overseas possessions, and proceeded instead to address trust busting, railroad rate legislation, pure-food regulations and other reforms of the past year. And he implied that more reforms were on their way.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1906-12-15

Creator(s)

Darling, Jay N. (Jay Norwood), 1876-1962

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