Dalzell, John, 1845-1927

Joseph Deutsch criticizes a recent piece of legislation that, while aiming to provide greater protections for patent holders, has the unintended effect of making the United States government liable to pay potentially large sums of money for the upkeep of parts of its military infrastructure, and restricts it ability to develop government owned telegraph, telephone, or railroad services.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1911-08-02

President Roosevelt holds a “Roosevelt Speller revised edition” and crosses off the second “f” in “the tariff” on the chalkboard. Andrew Carnegie says, “That wasn’t on my list!” while Speaker of the House Joseph Gurney Cannon tries to pull Roosevelt back. Secretary of the Treasury Leslie M. Shaw says, “The unkindest cut of all.” Pennsylvania Representative John Dalzell lies flat on the floor while a “steel trust” and Rhode Island Senator Nelson W. Aldrich cover their faces.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1906-09-01

An article in The American Review of Reviews reflects on the current political situation in Congress, especially lamenting that both houses are controlled by powerful cliques who work in their own interests, often at the expense of legislation that would benefit the people. In particular, tariffs and appropriations for the construction of battleships are discussed. The author also speculates about the outcomes of the Republican and Democratic National Conventions and the upcoming presidential campaign, as well as the necessity of a good man to run the Republican convention.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1908-05-21

On March 4, 1905, President Roosevelt is inaugurated in Washington, D.C., with much celebration and fanfare. Roosevelt rides in an open landau on Fifteenth St. NW, escorted by mounted Rough Riders. Secret Service men and detectives walk on either side of the carriage. Roosevelt tips his hat to the crowd. Sitting beside him is Senator John C. Spooner of Wisconsin, Chairman of the joint Congressional Committee on Inaugural Ceremonies. Opposite, but not clearly visible, are Senator Henry Cabot Lodge of Massachusetts and Representative John Dalzell of Pennsylvania, members of the committee. Second sequence consists of long shots of Roosevelt taking the oath of office on a platform erected on the east front of the Capitol. Chief Justice Melville Weston Fuller administers the Presidential oath of office, and Chief Clerk of the Supreme Court James Hall McKenney holds the Bible. The platform is decorated with plants and garlands and a large banner with the American eagle on it hangs from the center of the railing. West Point cadets and Annapolis midshipmen are assembled below the platform.

Collection

Library of Congress Motion Picture, Broadcasting and Recorded Sound

Creation Date

1905-03-04

Joseph Gurney Cannon, holding a rifle, stands with John Dalzell and Nelson W. Aldrich, operating a moonshine still at the opening to a cave in a wilderness area. A retort is connected to a barrel labeled “‘Still’ Legislation.” On a rock in the foreground is a shadow of a bust portrait in profile of Theodore Roosevelt. Caption: Or, the moonshiners of Capitol Hill.

Comments and Context

This January 1909 cartoon — published in advance of President Roosevelt’s presidential retirement in March — nevertheless showed the influences still held by the president, a check on then schemes of Old Guard leadership in Congress.

Cartoonist L. M. Glackens depicts Republican leaders as moonshiners, and the shade of Roosevelt representing a Revenue Agent on their trail.

A runaway pig labeled “The Tariff Issue” drags Joseph Gurney Cannon behind it. They are being chased by John Dalzell, Nelson W. Aldrich, Sereno Elisha Payne, and J. S. Sherman. An overturned cart labeled “Steel Trust” has spilled its contents of steel railroad rails. Andrew Carnegie, wearing a kilt, stands next to the cart waving his hat and gesturing to the congressmen. In the background is a large crowd, some in pursuit, and the U.S. Capitol.

Comments and Context

After the Republican party’s sweeping victory in the 1908 elections, the major goal of the party establishment, after the oath-taking of William H. Taft, seemed to be the passage of a tariff bill. It had been a decade since the last revision of import duties (the Dingley Act of 1897), and the tariff was a hot topic in the campaign.

By general consensus, the public desired and expected lower rates, with the assumption that lower prices in markets would result. But the “hungry” managers of a proposed tariff bill in the Republican Congress were comprised of men whose careers were devoted to higher rates and “protected” industries and monopolies.

A troop of soldiers wearing red coats, some labeled “Clothing Trust, Franchise Grabber, Food Trust, [and] Land Trust,” march past Daniel Chester French’s sculpture, “The Minute Man.” Among the soldiers are Nelson W. Aldrich wearing a miter and carrying a flag decorated with an emblem of a crowned hand pointing thumb-down in a squashing gesture, John Dalzell, J. S. Sherman, and Sereno Elisha Payne. Joseph Gurney Cannon is pictured kissing the boot of a fat officer labeled “Privilege” riding on a horse. In the background, more red coats are ransacking “The American Home” and tearing down the American flag.

Comments and Context

Udo J. Keppler’s Fourth of July cartoon was a scathing indictment of the American economy, 1909, and specifically a gallery of politicians and business leaders he portrayed as dismissive of patriots and patriotism.

Various trusts and monopolies are pictured as generic, overblown villains; but the identifiable figures are singled out for special censure — especially the Speaker of the House of Representatives Joseph Gurney Cannon kissing the boot of Special Privilege; and the banner of Nelson W. Aldrich (leader of Senate Republicans) bearing the symbol of a crowned hand pressing its thumb down. In the distance, the American flag — upside-down, a distress signal — is being torn down.

A chef labeled “Special Privilege” holds a large platter on which rests a huge turkey with the face of Theodore Roosevelt. He is about to place the platter on a table around which sit several men labeled “Cannon, Rockefeller, Archbold, Haskell, Payne, Dalzell, Elkins, Sherman, Foraker, Harrimen, Day, Rogers” and Nelson W. Aldrich.

Comments and Context

The “Teddy-Turk” cartoon by Udo J. Keppler in Puck was the magazine’s strongest — in fact one of its only — comments on the election just concluded.

It is a tribute to President Roosevelt’s power and influence that Puck‘s post-mortem commentary would neither mention nor portray the candidates in the late campaign, president-elect William Howard Taft and William Jennings Bryan. Neither is there a mention of any issues of the campaign… beyond Puck‘s targeted enemy of both parties and all citizens, “Special Privilege.”

Joseph Gurney Cannon, as the cruel, autocratic Sultan of the Turks, Abdülhamid II, sits on a throne, smoking a hookah labeled “Obstruction,” as two men, in the background, dressed as Turks labeled “Payne” and “Dalzell,” suffer from a chill or other deprivation.

Comments and Context

Udo J. Keppler, a brilliant caricaturist, seldom practiced the iconic method of representation — a large head on a small body. But in the exception, and despite the thematic statement that Speaker of the House Joseph Gurney Cannon’s odious character could be suggested by hoary facial features as well as by actions or labels.

In an event, Cannon’s was a face that Keppler loved to draw, like that of ebullient President Roosevelt and icy Vice President Charles W. Fairbanks. Also, through the years Keppler’s portrayal of the Speaker revealed more seedy desuetude and arrogance. His two factotums in the drawing are subservient powers in Cannon’s court: Sereno Payne, a tax-writing master; and John Dalzell, a House veteran who managed to be a conduit to Roosevelt’s White House.

President Taft balances a cone of papers, labeled “Administration” and showing the Republican elephant, on his nose. Struggling to get in the cone is “Ballinger” while already inside are “Elkins, Hitchcock, Wickersham, C. Taft, Crane, Dalzell, Cannon, Payne (holding on to a large question mark labeled “Tariff”), Aldrich, [and] Sherman.” Rolled-up papers in the cone are labeled “Standpat Legislation” and “Cost of Living Investigation.” Also in the cone, a dog labeled “Regulars” and a cat labeled “Insurgents” are fighting.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1910-08-31

A wave labeled “Republican Voters’ Revolt” crashes into the dining room of a ship where “Cannon, Payne, Taft, Knox, Sherman, Root, Aldrich, Woodruff, Dalzell, Crane, Wickersham, Lodge, Parsons, Hitchcock, Depew, Hale, Elkins, Ballinger, Smoot, Penrose, [and] Cox” are dining, and upsets a dish of “Party Plums,” as well as a bottle of “Stalwart Grog.” Caption: “We were crowded in the cabin, / Not a soul would dare to sleep; / It was midnight o’er the waters, / And a storm was on the deep.”

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1910-04-20

A comet labeled “Allds Investigation” strikes a planet labeled “Albany Legislature,” causing it to explode among planets labeled “Aldrich, Penrose, Payne, Vreeland, Dalzell, Cannon, Hitchcock, Woodruff, Ballinger, Root, Platt, Depew, Parsons, Sherman, Bliss, Black, Cortelyou, Odell, Lodge, Hale, [and] Elkins.” A lone planet showing the face of Theodore Roosevelt hovers on the far right. Caption: A comet that has cut loose in the Republican constellation.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1910-03-09

Several Republicans with presidential aspirations and/or delegates to the Republican National Convention in Chicago, and a young boy holding a pillow labeled “Stand-Pat Press,” stand around “Stand-Pat” King Canute on the seashore with cliffs at their back, as he commands the rising tide of “Tariff Revision.”

Comments and Context

Samuel Ehrhart returned to Puck’s political-cartoon pages with a standard use of the King Canute legend, frequently employed by cartoonists; it was a misuse, actually, because the real story of Canute is not that the king tried to command the waves to recede, but to illustrate to his court that his powers were not unlimited.

In any event Ehrhart had a chance to reconnect Puck with partisanship, as it had been addressing generic issues with force but without regard to party positions or specific personalities to this point in the 1908 campaign. In this cartoon, the king is a generic figure but his retinue is, exclusively, high-tariff Republican proponents from the Senate and House.

President Roosevelt wants a House Resolution to authorize or endorse the Cuban Reciprocity Treaty, as reported from the Senate.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1903-02-25

After speaking with Speaker of the House Cannon, President Roosevelt has been thinking about the immigration bill and wishes that Cannon could support it and encourage others to support it. Roosevelt believes the opposition to the bill comes from people who look to obtain masses of cheap labor, as well as steamship companies. Roosevelt believes that in spite of agitation among German and Scandinavian populations against the bill it would not affect immigration from either region. Roosevelt admits that the bill is not drawn up as he himself would have done it and enumerates several changes he wishes were in place. Overall, Roosevelt wishes for an immigration bill to stem the flow of cheap labor, allowing wages to rise, and to focus on admitting people of good character who will improve the communities that they join. In a handwritten note, Roosevelt recognizes that the Pure Food bill and the Naturalization bill must be considered first but hopes to be able to have all three bills pass.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1906-05-27

President Roosevelt has written to Senator Allison, Senator Nelson W. Aldrich, Secretary of the Treasury Leslie M. Shaw, Speaker of the House Joseph Gurney Cannon, and Representative John Dalzell about the possibility of tariff negotiations with Germany taking place in Berlin. Roosevelt has decided to have Ambassador Charlemagne Tower take up the matter. He asks Allison to write a full set of instructions for Tower as soon as possible.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1905-09-27

President Roosevelt asks Secretary of the Treasury Shaw if it is preferable to send a skilled man to Germany to negotiate the tariff matter. Roosevelt wants to avoid a tariff war and keep relations with Germany as friendly as possible. 

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1905-09-18

Not wanting any misunderstandings, President Roosevelt emphasizes to Rachel Sherman Thorndike he never promised to send Minister Alexander M. Thackara to Paris. He will look into the Hamburg matter.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1905-02-06

President Roosevelt thanks Rachel Sherman Thorndike for the letter, and has tried to investigate the matter regarding Alexander M. Thackara. He discusses his thoughts regarding the appointment and promotion of people at American consulates, and promises that he will try to help Thackara, although he must also consider other candidates who are highly qualified for promotion.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1905-01-10

President Roosevelt has already spoken to Pennsylvania Representative John Dalzell about the tariff matter and asks Connecticut Representative Hill to talk to his delegation about it. The president also asks for suggestions about what to say about finance in his upcoming message.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1904-11-10