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

“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.

Comments and Context

In the first half of 1906 the insurance-industry scandals and revelations continued in the daily press, moved somewhat to aftermaths like resignations of executives, flights to Europe, and continuing revelations.

The structure of corruption was being revealed to the public, not only interlocking directorates and numerous payoffs (industry leaders to each other; and “forgiven loans” and exaggerated consultation fees to politicians on boards). The insiders’ term “yellow dog funds” referred to secret accounts of money reserved for bribes and payoffs; “slush funds,” as later generations would call them.

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.”

Comments and Context

This cartoon by Udo J. Keppler addressed less the riff-raff class of criminals depicted in the drawings, and more the “white-collar” criminals similar to the two shocked businessmen at the lower right, and the types referred to in the caption.

Many factors contributed to a “squeeze” New Jersey felt, neglected by New York City and Philadelphia, the two major business centers between it sat. Rather than benefit from its proximity, it was drained, and even exploited, by domestic and world commerce, and by the importance of those cities. Waterways and rail lines tended to make New Jersey a vast highway instead of a business-megalopolis as its leaders envisioned.

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.

Comments and Context

Cartoons like Keppler’s were cyclical — observing, or celebrating, the possible demise of bossism and political corruption — through the years, precisely because “reform” waves were likewise cyclical. In 1872 presidential candidate Horace Greeley railed against the corrupt administration of Ulysses S. Grant: “Throw the Rascals Out!” They were not thrown out.

Thomas Nast’s cartoons helped defeat Tammany Hall in elections, 1872, and send William Marcy “Boss” Tweed to jail. But Tammany bounced back. At least twice in young Theodore Roosevelt’s career he was credited as crippling Tammany Hall; in 1894 and 1902 reform / fusion mayors elected in New York City only to wait, ultimately, for the next wave of reformers to have better luck.

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

The indiscretions and reports of corruption common to most large American businesses in 1905, in the midst of the Muckraking Era, reached the insurance industry as well. Public concern was accelerated by the well-publicized orgiastic ball thrown by the heir to the Equitable Life Insurance fortune, the putative next director, James Hazen Hyde. In addition to the public’s reaction to conspicuous consumption and loose moral atmosphere at the ball were rumors that its extravagant expense was charged to the Equitable.

But dissatisfaction with insurance companies’ practices were emerging anyway. The practice of the tontine was under suspicion. Despite reforms over the subsequent century, it is still employed by some companies — basically a system of paying moneys and receiving annuities, but the company’s profits, and unpaid deposit accounts, re-invested into the company’s fund. Many people considered a variety of what became known as a Ponzi scheme.

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

The subtext of cartoonist Keppler’s cartoon, or meanings beneath the obvious depiction of two of the powerful men in the United States, and American politics, are many.

Interestingly, perhaps self-consciously, the cartoon echoes one of the most famous drawn in 1889 by his father Joseph Senior, founder of Puck. It was “Bosses Of the Senate,” the chamber drawn in more detail, but lorded over by anthropomorphized, giant moneybags.

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

The rapid growth of John D. Rockefeller’s Standard Oil Corporation was astonishing, especially since it commenced barely more than a generation before this 1904 cartoon by Keppler. Oil and its derivatives like kerosene and gasoline rapidly became staples and necessities of American life. At one time Rockefeller controlled more than 90 per cent of American oil extraction (until Standard Oil was ordered by the courts to break up into many entities). With adjustments, Rockefeller is still reckoned to have been the richest American in history.

Understandably — whether viewed from legitimate self-interest or greed — Standard Oil (in 1904 almost the sole constituent member of the “Oil Trust”) had interests beyond pumping oil in many areas of American life. Rockefeller owned or controlled virtually everything from magazines to politicians. Additionally, in the fashion of J. P. Morgan and other financiers, he had begun to organize his empire along “vertical” lines — owning everything from means of production to retail deliveries.

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

This cartoon requires explanation beyond the depiction of prominent and greedy business tycoons of the day. In May of 1904, shortly before Ehrhart’s cartoon was drawn, the Western Union Telegraph system, which was an essential element of commerce and communication, curtailed the transmission of race track information, including facilitating gambling transactions.

Western Union received substantial income from this business, but it yielded to pressure from moralists and pressure groups. The telegraph trust had another reason to pull back from its association with gambling houses and betting parlors. In many cities where gambling was legal there nevertheless arose an unholy alliance between betting parlors (particularly of the parimutuel variety), saloons, and telegraph agencies. Western Union increasingly was uncomfortable with its de facto partners.

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

This cartoon by Joseph Keppler Junior is a major example of supreme irony, and unavoidable exigencies of the publishing business.

As a political cartoonist, it perfectly portrays the last-ditch effort that Ohio Senator Marcus Alonzo Hanna might have “launched” for the presidency, an office once held by his protege William McKinley, and sought by himself. His ambitions were mostly trumped by the overwhelming popularity of Theodore Roosevelt within the party and across the nation. Also, a Republican rival in Ohio, Senator Joseph B. Foraker, squeezed Hanna into declaring for or against Roosevelt’s renomination a year earlier; and he was obliged to endorse President Roosevelt.

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

The cover cartoon by cartoonist Nankivell can be read as a humorous complaint about crowded public transit — a critique that probably will always be fresh.

However, the caption-writer added a “bite” to the cartoon, a subtext of commentary for Puck readers, and a window into contemporary issues for later researchers. The men in conference are not referred to as “presidents” or “managers.” They are identified as “magnates” — implicitly moguls, monopolists, or managers of trusts.

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

Theodore Roosevelt, before during, and after his presidency was consistent on issues of the day — remarkably so, in that without citation of time and place, historians can be challenged to attribute many of his pronouncements as being from his twenties or then end of his life.

The remarks quoted in Keppler’s cartoon can have no truer application of this considerate of Roosevelt’s policies. He opposed unfair dominance in society at large, or in local controversies, by either labor or capital from their status alone. He consistently held that favor to, say, the middle class, implied prejudice against other strata in society. Roosevelt frequently stated that the sin of envy is as sinful as that of greed.

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

Puck was never in the business of promoting or electing Republicans, but it did always claim to be independent. In the early years of the Theodore Roosevelt presidency, the traditionally Democratic-leaning magazine proved its fair-minded approach by praising the policy initiatives and successes of the new president. It should be recognized that in the eyes of many eastern Democrats, the national party control by William Jennings Bryan was odious, and by general consensus Roosevelt’s policies indeed attracted unprecedented support throughout society.

Keppler’s center-spread cartoon could fairly serve as a campaign poster for the Republican Party — less than a year before its presidential nominating convention — and its list of accomplishments and trampled old practices could have suggested the question, “Are you tired of wining?” Roosevelt’s early achievements were remarkable in scope and effect.

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

What is not said or shown in this cartoon is the reality of “Trust Question.” John D Rockefeller, Jr., managing most of the family business, as it were, not only controlled a monopoly on oil, but many railroads needed to transport and market that oil. It was necessary that he make alliances with various railroad barons; which led to rate-fixing schemes. Steel was needed in countless enterprises, so partnerships were struck with Andrew Carnegie and other steel magnates, including, in turn, coal trusts. Financing for these activities was needed, and the J. P. Morgan was intimately involved in commercial enterprises. The United States was threatened to be run by the trusts as much as the national government or private enterprise, an urgent situation addressed by Theodore Roosevelt when he became president. 

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Two tramps dressed in cast-off and ill-fitting clothes discuss how to kill the “Trusts” through “Social Ostracism.” On the left is a well-dressed matronly woman wearing a robe labeled “The 400” and sitting on a throne. On the right is a man labeled “Trusts,” holding strings attached to businesses, as well as ships and railroads, in which the “Trusts” hold controlling interests. Caption: The Trusts have got to be ostracised, but who [is goin]g to do it? Society won[‘t and] Capital won’t, so there’s nobody to do it but us!

Comments and Context

President Arthur T. Hadley of Yale University delivered a speech in Denver, in January 1900, in which he proposed that the solution to abuses by monopolies and trusts in the United States was not legislation but “ostracism.” The remedy widely was criticized. Hadley was paired with Populist / Democrat William Jennings Bryan, often in mocking terms, for the futility of their advocacies. Further, John D. Rockefeller, an iconic monopolist, recently had gifted Yale with four million-dollar bequests. Dalrymple contrasts — or compares — the social pariah of high-society types (“the 400”) whose social morals are imputed to be as low as the economic ethics of monopolists. Depicted in their dignity, they are impervious to the designs of tramps to “ostracize” them and Hadley’s prescription is held to ridicule.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

William Jennings Bryan stands in front of a tree labeled “Business,” looking up at three men, labeled “Manufacturing Trust,” “Labor Trust,” and “Farmer Trust,” on a limb labeled “Combination” that they are cutting off with a saw labeled “Agitation.” The “Manufacturing Trust” is furthest out on the limb, but both the “Labor Trust” and the “Farmer Trust” are also on the side of the limb being cut off. Caption: Bryan–Hurry up with the saw and give that fellow a fall!

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1900-01-24

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

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

George W. Perkins encloses an editorial for President Roosevelt’s attention. The consolidation of mineral wealth and transportation systems is bringing them close to public ownership.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1901-11-15

Paul Dana argues against governmental regulation of trusts.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1901-11-15

The creation of the Northern Securities Company is another step towards the consolidation of the nation’s railroad system. The new entity is almost a monopoly west of the Mississippi River. If railroad consolidation and organization continues the government will be in a perfect position to assume control.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1901-11-14