Baer, George F. (George Frederick), 1842-1914

Owen Wister is pleased with the overwhelming support of the country for President Roosevelt, which was evidenced by his strong showing in the election. While “deeply moved” by the President’s destiny, Wister is very disappointed in the treatment Roosevelt has received from the “educated gentlefolk” of the country, his own class, which should have supported Roosevelt but did not. When he hears the President being impugned, Wister shares his “impregnable conviction” of Roosevelt’s character. He assures Roosevelt that despite these naysayers, the “great national heart” beats for him.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1904-11-17

Harold Baer says that his uncle George F. Baer, president of the Philadelphia and Reading Railroad, is one of the largest contributors to the campaign fund of Alton B. Parker. Due to George Baer’s reputation, this can be printed to good effect.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1904-11-03

The message has been delivered to George F. Baer.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1902-10-01

Senator Hanna had several meetings with leaders of the Anthracite Coal Strike and does not feel that there will be a settlement in the near future. He also reviews the political situation in Ohio. He hopes that President Roosevelt can attend the wedding.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1902-09-29

A frenzy of activity is underway as many politicians and capitalists join the labor forces to construct the Panama Canal. Theodore P. Shonts, chairman of the Isthmian Canal Commission, is standing on the right, holding a whip, and directing the laborers. In the background, large groups of men labeled “Order of Walking Delegates, The Idle Rich, Amalgamated Aldermen, [and] Insurance Presidents Union No. 6” are waiting, with tools, to be called into action. Caption: Let our superfluous citizens do the work.

comments and context

Comments and Context

S. D. Ehrhart’s expansive cartoon in Puck seized upon the news of labor challenges in the Culebra Cut portion of the Panama Canal construction, and built an elaborate cartoon-fantasy about people in politics, the social world, and finance being put to work at manual labor.

George F. Baer and John Mitchell share a pipe labeled Arbitration.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1902-10-26

Series of three cartoons covering the settlement of the Anthracite Coal Strike, from the Pittsburgh Dispatch, the Boston Herald, and the Minneapolis Journal. In the first, the “G.O.P.” elephant, with bandages on its head and leg, sits in a chair, smoking a cigar and drinking wine. Caption: Able to sit up and take a little light nourishment since the end of the coal strike. In the second, the “G.O.P.” elephant and team face “The 1904 National Campaign” with “Pres. Roosevelt’s Success in Coal Strike Settlement” in the background. Caption: Prospects not so gloomy. In the final cartoon, George F. “Baer” sits with John “Mitchell,” smoking the “Arbitration” pipe. Behind them are posters proclaiming “Coal to burn – the strike is over” and “Use the President’s arbitration brand.” Caption: His first smoke.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1902-10-26

Cartoon depicts George F. Baer, representing the coal trust, as a giant bear trampling over the people and the miners as President Roosevelt stands against him.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1902-10-14

President Roosevelt asks a well-dressed gentleman, “Baer,” to leave his case labeled “Divine Right” outside on his way to the “Conference.” Cartoon is regarding the presidential conference on the 1902 Pennsylvania coal strike.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1902-10-03

President Roosevelt agrees with Owen Wister’s thoughts. Roosevelt is grateful to the American people even though he has had a great deal of work as president. Roosevelt notes his cabinet has been a huge support to him and is glad he owed the election to “Abraham Lincoln’s ‘plain people.'” The president expresses his frustration with certain journalists and newspapers who criticize Roosevelt about having too close of a connection with “the wicked” but who ignored Alton B. Parker’s “hand-in-glove intimacy” with James J. Hill, William F. Sheehan, and Thomas Taggart. Roosevelt acknowledges he has made mistakes, but many of the criticisms leveled at him are due to ignorance.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1904-11-19

President Roosevelt would like to speak with Secretary of War Root on several matters, particularly an article by Walter Wellman which suggests that Roosevelt kept Grover Cleveland off the Anthracite Coal Strike Commission due to fears of making Cleveland a “Presidential possibility.” Roosevelt insists that the operators rejected Cleveland.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1903-06-25

Louis B. Livingston examines why President Theodore Roosevelt chose retired general John McAllister Schofield to command the troops needed to seize coal mines during the anthracite coal strike of 1902. Livingston chronicles Schofield’s military service, and he details his command of troops during five labor disputes during the late nineteenth century. Livingston contends that Roosevelt was drawn to Schofield’s exemplary record, his support of Army reforms, and the restraint he showed during previous strikes. Livingston suggests that Roosevelt’s threat to seize the mines moved the parties, the mine owners and the United Mine Workers, to accept arbitration. Livingston also explores other aspects of the strike negotiations such as Roosevelt’s poor relationship with General Nelson Appleton Miles and the degree to which Roosevelt kept his plans to seize the mines if necessary a secret. 

Four illustrations and a photograph supplement the text.

Collection

Theodore Roosevelt Association Journal

President Roosevelt describes his negotiations with the representatives of the owners of the coal mines and with John Mitchell of the United Mine Workers during the 1902 coal strike. Roosevelt informs Winthrop Murray Crane that the stubborn position of the owners was threatening to unleash violence, and he describes how the make up of the commission designed to negotiate a settlement was finally agreed upon by both parties. 

Collection

Theodore Roosevelt Association Journal

Creation Date

1902-10-22

President Roosevelt describes to Senator Lodge the difficulties he has had in negotiating the composition of the commission to examine the Anthracite Coal Strike. The mine operators did not want a representative of labor included. Roosevelt discovered the importance of labeling and perception, however, in that they would protest his appointment of Bishop John Lancaster Spalding as “eminent sociologist” and the addition of a representative of labor, yet they would happily accept the representative of labor being labeled an “eminent sociologist” and the addition of Bishop Spalding.

Collection

Massachusetts Historical Society

Creation Date

1902-10-17

Leading anthracite businessmen do not believe that there will be a strike. If a strike does occur, a large operator promised that Senator Hanna would not be allowed to interfere in order to further his political aspirations.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1902

Collection of responses from coal companies to the conference requested by John Mitchell and the United Mine Workers of America.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1902

David T. Day requests that copies of the proceedings on the Anthracite Coal Strike conference be sent to him.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1902-10-08

Commissioner of Labor Wright summarizes the events of the 1902 Anthracite Coal Strike.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1903-11-19

Finley Peter Dunne puts a comedic spin on his congratulations to President Roosevelt at the conclusion of the Anthracite Coal Strike.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1902-10-23

Note with five suggested actions that can be taken to lessen tensions surrounding the Anthracite Coal Strike.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1902-10-31