Big business

President Roosevelt writes his son Kermit about a poem by Edwin Arlington Robinson and encloses pictures of Roosevelt and Ted jumping their horses. Roosevelt mentions that the excitement over the conspiracy, revealed by Senator Boies Penrose while drunk, has died out. He adds that big business in New York is against him and Republican Senator Joseph Benson Foraker is leading the fight. Roosevelt closes by mentioning speeches he has to finish and Archie.

Collection

Harvard College Library

Creation Date

1907-04-11

Creator(s)

Roosevelt, Theodore, 1858-1919

“The Yellow Dog” sits on a plank on the shore of a body of water, with its left foreleg around the shoulders of a much smaller man labeled “Corrupt Business,” watching the sunset in the distance. The dog looks back over its shoulder at the viewer.

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Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1906-03-28

Two well-dressed men labeled “High Finance” and “Big Business” are startled by the throng of petty criminals, some labeled “Card Sharp, Safe Cracker, Second Story Man, [and] Flat Robber,” who push their way ahead to a building labeled “Anything Incorporated and No Questions Asked.”

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Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1906-03-14

A person labeled “Bossism” sits in a chair, with many bandages labeled “New York, New Jersey, Penn. [and] Ohio.” On the table next to him is a medicine bottle labeled “Cashtoria.” He is being attended to by a well-dressed man labeled “The Big Interests” pretending to be a doctor. Caption: Old Doctor Dough — Keep quiet a while longer and I’ll pull you through.

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Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1905-11-29

A large elderly man labeled “Life Insurance” holds a cornucopia filled with documents labeled “For the Beneficiaries.” Next to him sits a large dog with collar labeled “Supt. Insurance,” and in front is a group of diminutive figures, a woman in mourning, an elderly man holding the hand of a young child, and a nurse holding an infant. In the background are a group of businessmen labeled “Corruption.”

comments and context

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1905-10-04

Nelson W. Aldrich and John D. Rockefeller sit at a keyboard from which the strings are connected to seats in Congress, in session at the U.S. Capitol. Rockefeller is holding a “Prompt Book” as Aldrich plays the instrument. The men are illuminated by the flame of an oil lamp labeled “Standard Oil.”

comments and context

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1905-03-15

A “Standard Oil” storage tank appears as an octopus with many tentacles. It is wrapped around the steel, copper, and shipping industries, as well as a state house and the U.S. Capitol, and one tentacle is reaching for the White House.

comments and context

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1904-09-07

Two cameo scenes are separated by a telegraph pole labeled “Western Union.” On the left is a civic meeting claiming that “We must uphold our Public Morals and Civic Decency” where seated on a stage are businessmen labeled “Flagler, Schiff, Jessup [sic], Depew, Rockefeller, Hyde, Morgan [and] Sage.” On the right are the same men sitting in a room where they are straining to hear the report of the “Annual Statement” regarding “Sundry other profits from our Subterranean wires increase this total applicable to dividends by $5,000,000” over the din of coins spilling from a cornucopia connected to a telegraph pole and overflowing a barrel labeled “Western Union Pool Room Receipts.” Visible through a window are many buildings labeled “Pool Room.”

comments and context

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1904-06-01

Marcus Alonzo Hanna, in a small sailboat with sail labeled “Under no circumstances will I consent to become a candidate,” sails past a rocky coastline. Two female sirens with the lower torso of chickens, one playing a lyre labeled “Wall Street Interests” and the other holding a paper labeled “Trust Influence,” try to lure him onto the rocks.

comments and context

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1904-02-17

Two businessmen sit in an office discussing the success of the local trolley service. Caption: Visiting Magnate — Is your new trolley-line a success? / Local Magnate — Not as great as we hoped. Nearly half the passengers can get seats.

comments and context

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1904-01-27

President Roosevelt stands at a flag-draped podium on the right, pointing to two men on the left, each with a foot on a female figure labeled “Law” lying on the ground. One man has papers labeled “Dishonest Corporations” and the other has papers labeled “Union Tyranny” and notes extending from his pockets labeled “Bribe” and “Graft.” On the front of the podium at which Roosevelt stands is a quotation: “If alive to their true interests, rich and poor alike will set their faces like flint against the spirit which seeks personal advantage by overriding the laws, without regard to whether this spirit shows itself in the form of bodily violence by one set of men or in the form of vulpine cunning by another set of men.” – President Roosevelt’s Speech, Sept. 7.

comments and context

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1903-09-30

A female figure labeled “Prosperity” holds a cornucopia labeled “Legitimate Business” overflowing with coins and papers labeled “Increased exports, Good crop reports, Higher wages, Larger R.R. earnings, [and] Trade ascendancy.” She is rising from the flames of “Watered stocks, Wildcat schemes, Mad speculation, Undigested securities, False values, [and] Overcapitalization.”

comments and context

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1903-08-05

John D. Rockefeller, Jr., wearing a huge crown and robe, stands on an oil storage tank labeled “Standard Oil” and glares at the viewer. The crown is adorned with railroad cars, oil tanks, and the names of four railroad companies: “Lehigh Valley R.R., St. Paul R.R., Jersey Central R.R., [and] Reading Rail Road,” and topped with a dollar sign.

comments and context

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1901-02-27

Theodore Roosevelt sends his regard to George A. Duffield’s friend Mr. Stanger and agrees with Duffield that this is a fight against big business and corrupt politics.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1912-06-03

Creator(s)

Roosevelt, Theodore, 1858-1919

Lincoln Steffens writes to President Roosevelt to put some facts and conclusions on record that they have come to together. Steffens clarifies that Roosevelt is not responsible for any articles that Steffens writes, and illuminates the course of an interview that he had with Roosevelt–having an open conversation with him and offering him every chance to correct any errors that may have slipped into the record of the interview. Steffens reiterates a point that he had raised to Roosevelt in the interview that he was trying to get him to think more deeply on political criticism in the United States, and to reflect on the actions of the government and the ways in which it is able to relate to corporations and trusts. Steffens has always respected Roosevelt, in spite of their disagreements, and looks forward to speaking to him in person soon.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1908-06-09

Creator(s)

Steffens, Lincoln, 1866-1936

The writer of the article draws parallels between corruption and graft in politics and the corrupt practices that allow big businesses to accumulate and control most of the money in the country. The article quotes heavily from an article in Everybody’s Magazine by Lincoln Steffens that criticizes the few rich businessmen who control most of the capital of the country. 

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1911-02-10

Creator(s)

Unknown

Sheet music for “Strenuous times,” an instrumental march. The cover depicts an armed Uncle Sam rounding up various commercial and industrial trusts such as oil, cattle, and railroads. The trusts are represented as large men in top hats.

Collection

Dr. Danny O. Crew Theodore Roosevelt Sheet Music Collection

Creation Date

1906

Creator(s)

Needham, W. L.

A disheveled Uncle Sam sits at a messy table in a restaurant after a wild party where too much alcohol has been consumed. There are overturned chairs, and a man labeled “Capital” lies on the floor beneath one end of the table. An overturned bottle labeled “Overspeculation” spills contents labeled “Overissue of Securities.” Another bottle is labeled “Overbuilding.” Bottles on the floor are labeled “Waste” and “Overproduction,” and a spill is labeled “Overestimation of Natural Resources.” Wax from a candle on the table is labeled “Overconfidence” and a bottle next to Uncle Sam is labeled “Overcapitalization.” Lying on the floor at the other end of the table, among overturned chairs, is a man labeled “Labor.” On the table above him is a spill labeled “Overspending,” and a box of cigars labeled “Overbuying” is spilling its contents on the floor. In a broken mirror on the back wall are the words “National Vanity,” and printed on a window is “Rationalism.” Caption: Uncle Sam — “And this is Thanksgiving Day!”

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1910-11-23

Creator(s)

Keppler, Udo J., 1872-1956

An over-sized man labeled “The Individual” casts a shadow labeled “Incorporation” which is caused by a light, on the left, held by a “Corporation Lawyer” and a “Corporation Legislator.” On the right, a female figure labeled “Dept. of Justice,” carrying a shield and a fasces, assails the shadow. Caption: “Whatever of wrong there is, is not the fault of the Corporation, but of the officials in charge of it. And for the individual committing the offense there should be punishment.”–Alton B. Parker.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1910-11-02

Creator(s)

Keppler, Udo J., 1872-1956

A man labeled “Producer,” laden with farm produce, is stopped on one side, and a man labeled “Consumer” is stopped on the other, by a masked man between them labeled “Food Speculator” who is pointing handguns labeled “Cold Storage” at both. They have been ambushed on the “Road of Supply and Demand” and the middle-man is now going to profit from both the producer and the consumer. Caption: Good guns in bad hands.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1909-10-06

Creator(s)

Keppler, Udo J., 1872-1956