Disturbing the meeting

President Roosevelt walks into a meeting with “‘my policies’ band” drum and a “message to Congress” cymbal, disrupting the speaker, New York Governor Charles Evans Hughes.

comments and context

Comments and Context

If President Roosevelt had an ulterior motive in timing the release of a major policy paper on the same day that New York Governor Charles Evans Hughes had announced an important speech bearing on his own immediate political future, The New York World saw through it, and cartoonist C. R. Macauley delineated the “coincidence” in clear terms.

Nevertheless Roosevelt’s message was long in preparation, and covered many subjects, particularly trusts, labor, and corporations. He summarized the text and its reception in a letter to his son Kermit on February 2, 1908. It is a remarkable document, relatively neglected by historians, especially those who suggest that Roosevelt’s evolution to progressivism accelerated only in 1910-1912, and was propelled by Herbert Croly’s book The Promise of American Life. Policies that Roosevelt advocated or “floated” in 1908, and especially in this message, foreshadowed his New Nationalism of 1910 and even some of the Bull Moose platform and Woodrow Wilson’s administrative agenda.

In fact, in testament to its political flavor, it immediately was praised by Democrat William Jennings Bryan, and criticized by Nicholas Murray Butler, president of Columbia University and prominent conservative Republican.

Among his proposals, Roosevelt called for an employers’ liability act, workers’ compensation for injured government workers, restrictions on court injunctions in labor disputes, increased federal regulation of railroads and corporations, and — echoing national concerns over the recent Wall Street Panic — federal oversight of securities transactions.

In view of the scope and importance of the message, few newspapers sublimated it to headlines, or even Page One placement, to Governor Hughes’s speech.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1908-02-01

Creator(s)

Macauley, C. R. (Charles Raymond), 1871-1934

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