Harriman wants president to look at his sore thumb

Edward Henry Harriman holds up his thumb labeled “R.R. Regulation” and his arm, “Grab Arm,” to President Roosevelt saying, “It hurts something fierce, Mr. President!” Caption: Dr. Roosevelt: My, my! Edward, you’ll have to be very careful or you will have to have the whole arm amputated.

Comments and Context

The context of this cartoon by Jay Norwood “Ding” Darling of the Des Moines Register and Leader is the meeting the evening before at the White House between President Roosevelt and J. Pierpont Morgan, who spoke on behalf of major railroad concerns. While it was J. Pierpont Morgan who spoke for the railraod magnates, it probably was Union Pacific’s Edward Henry Harriman who had the loudest complaints.

The railroad trusts wanted laws and especially regulations eased. Through 1906 various reforms made consolidation more difficult, and railroad rates had to be lowered. The industry resented lower profits that might follow, but also argues that bank loans were harder to secure under new strictures. The president was not sympathetic to the arguments, but was intrigued by a “floated” suggestion that government “centralization” of the railroads might solved many problems. Among the results of this concept, advanced by the president of the Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific line, was guaranteed profits.

Darling featured Harriman as the most discomfited party in his cartoon. Roosevelt and Harriman previously had a cordial relationship, but in recent months exchanged some public disagreements. A few days after this cartoon, however, Harriman publicly accused Roosevelt of broken promises going back to the 1904 presidential election, and leaked supposedly damning correspondence to the Democratic New York World. Roosevelt fiercely defended himself, Harriman lost whatever favor he had at the White House (the pair never met again), and railroad negotiations ended. A few days later, a major financial panic hit Wall Street, subsuming the moguls’ concerns, and involving some of them.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1907-03-12

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