The inter ocean (Chicago, Ill. : 1872-1914)

As they walk toward the White House, all the hats fly off the heads of the railroad magnates as they see a large shoe kicking pieces of railroad tracks and trains up in the air from inside the White House. Caption: The railway representatives who proposed calling at the White House seem undetermined whether to do so or not.

comments and context

Comments and Context

The one-day meeting at the White House, earlier in March 1907, between President Theodore Roosevelt and J. P. Morgan, who was representing major railroad interests, including Edward Henry Harriman, resulted in few decisions or course-corrections — the magnates wanted an easing of governmental rules and regulations — but allowed the businessmen to be public about their points of view.

A large teddy bear hits the “New York Stock Exchange” with a big stick, sending several men flying out as well as “securities” and “stocks.”

comments and context

Comments and Context

This clipping in the White House scrapbook represents a measure of journalistic schizophrenia. The headline reports brokers “wild with joy” after the first collapses of the 1907 Wall Street Panic. Harold Tucker Webster’s cartoon, however, shows the bear — then, as now, the nickname for retreating market values — destroying the Stock Exchange.

Speaker of the House Joseph Gurney Cannon, Vice President Charles W. Fairbanks, Secretary of War William H. Taft, Elihu Root, Ohio Senator Joseph Benson Foraker, and Secretary of the Treasury Leslie M. Shaw also listen to a sound recording from a machine that has a sign that reads, “Drop a penny in the slot and hear the president decline the nomination for 1908.” Caption: President Roosevelt, during his visit in Chicago, on two occasions reaffirmed his declaration that he would not again be a candidate for the Presidency.—News Item.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1905-05-12