Back at work

President Roosevelt sits at his desk writing an extensive message as a young body turns a large wheel of paper. On the wall are mounts of a “black bear” and a “bob cat” and beside Roosevelt’s desk is his suitcase and his rifle.

comments and context

Comments and Context

President Roosevelt returned to Washington from a speaking tour of the Midwest and South, punctuated by a two-week bear hunt, on October 19, 1907. At the tail end of his railroad swing north, “short selling” by men who had hoped to corner the copper market resulted rather in their bankruptcy, and that of brokerage houses, other commodity firms, and banks.

When Roosevelt was back at his desk, meeting on the financial situation, and preparing an address, dominoes were falling on Wall Street and there was a full-fledged panic, an event that usually preceded an economic Depression. On October 24, the date of this cartoon, the president conferred in the White House with many of his closest advisers, including Elihu Root, Philander C. Knox, James Metcalf, and James Rudolph Garfield.

The Panic, when it resembled a literal panic, was manifested by wild scenes on the curb outside the New York Stock Exchange (the place became so familiar a site for discussions and deals that it literally gave birth to the rival American Stock Exchange. Roosevelt empowered his new Secretary of the Treasury, George B. Cortelyou, to intervene in any way he saw fit; and the latter eventually planned, with financier J. P. Morgan, to avert a Depression and save the economy.

Cortelyou authorized twenty-five million dollars of federal funds to prop up failing banks, but as Morgan increased his involvement, that proved insufficient. The banker can be credited with saving the situation, and his personal foresight and influenced cannot be calculated. He fairly dragooned other bankers and business leaders to buy stocks and bonds, float loans, and issue assurances to calm the markets. In today’s parlance, he sometimes had to “knock heads together” to address crises that cascaded. He even resorted to locking doors of meetings and issuing immediate demands.

Whether ironic or appropriate, President Roosevelt was the final puzzle-piece at the end of the Panic that had unfolded before him, after a few short but intense weeks. He was asked to “approve” — in fact, not to pursue an anti-trust case — the merger of U. S. Steel and Tennessee Iron and Coal… and before the markets opened on Monday, November 3. He agreed.

A Depression was averted. Roosevelt’s compromise became an issue in Senate hearings (largely initiated by Republican Stand-Patters in the Senate who wanted to thorns in Roosevelt’s side); and in the 1912 Bull Moose campaign, where his fidelity to trust-busting was questioned. Morgan’s representative in the negotiations, George W. Perkins, became a trusted Roosevelt adviser over the following decade. And some of the flaws in the American economic system were addressed in subsequent Progressive legislation, and even (without Roosevelt’s endorsement, however) the Federal Reserve Act.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1907-10-24

Creator(s)

Wilder, Ralph, 1875-1924

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