“I told you so.”—E. Harriman

President Roosevelt puts his arm around Edward Henry Harriman as they both say, “Comrades, comrades.” In the background, there is an axe through the “Sherman Anti-Trust Law.”

comments and context

Comments and Context

One of the earliest notable acts of President Roosevelt’s administration was the suit against the Northern Securities Company. Although financier J. P. Morgan was affected, the rivalries of railroad barons Edward Henry Harriman and James J. Hill were exacerbated and threatened; and attempts to cooperate (or collude) were stymied by what became known as Roosevelt’s “trust-busting.”

The Northern Securities suit was filed in 1902, and as late as 1912 the Supreme Court continued to weigh in against Harriman’s Union Pacific railroad, although Harriman died in 1909.

Harriman’s involvement with Republican politics and the growing enmity between the railroad tycoon and the president of the United State ultimately led Roosevelt to brand Harriman an “undesirable citizen.” Yet in late 1908 this cartoonist could portray Roosevelt and Harriman as comrades.

The inspiration for the cartoon was one of the many bombshells — bold policy initiatives — in Roosevelt’s Annual Message to Congress two days previous, as well as his evolving position in monopolies and his definition of trust-busting. Fully mature in the 1912 Progressive Party campaign, but evident in his address, was his conclusion that there are good and bad trusts, that not all monopolies are harmful, and that national government be permitted to oversee and regulate combinations, and not wantonly dissolve them.

From his Annual Message:

“As regards the great corporations engaged in interstate business, and especially the railroad, I can only repeat what I have already again and again said in my messages to the Congress, I believe that under the interstate clause of the Constitution the United States has complete and paramount right to control all agencies of interstate commerce, and I believe that the National Government alone can exercise this right with wisdom and effectiveness so as both to secure justice from, and to do justice to, the great corporations which are the most important factors in modern business. I believe that it is worse than folly to attempt to prohibit all combinations as is done by the Sherman anti-trust law, because such a law can be enforced only imperfectly and unequally, and its enforcement works almost as much hardship as good. I strongly advocate that instead of an unwise effort to prohibit all combinations there shall be substituted a law which shall expressly permit combinations which are in the interest of the public, but shall at the same time give to some agency of the National Government full power of control and supervision over them. One of the chief features of this control should be securing entire publicity in all matters which the public has a right to know, and furthermore, the power, not by judicial but by executive action, to prevent or put a stop to every form of improper favoritism or other wrongdoing.

The railways of the country should be put completely under the Interstate Commerce Commission and removed from the domain of the anti-trust law.”

These proposals by Roosevelt were not exactly consonant with Harriman’s views, but to a cartoonist the superficial irony was difficult to resist.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1908-12-10

Creator(s)

Unknown

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