Your TR Source
President Roosevelt tells Secretary of the Treasury Shaw that he has just read a brief on Treasury operations since Shaw took office five years prior. Roosevelt congratulates Shaw on a job well done, noting that many forget that “the Secretary of the Treasury stands between” the American people “and business disaster.”
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1906-12-07
President Roosevelt is eager for Senator Lodge to visit so they can discuss several matters. On economic matters, Roosevelt intends to do what he outlined in his acceptance letter, though he is unsure of how to deal with reciprocity and the ship subsidy. In terms of appointments, senators and congressmen shall name the men but Roosevelt will set the standard. He hopes to appoint good men in the South, regardless of race, but preferably Republicans.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1901-10-11
Message given by President Roosevelt to Congress at the beginning of the second session of the Fifty-seventh Congress in which Roosevelt describes his legislative priorities for the year.
Sagamore Hill National Historic Site
1902
On the occasion of his inauguration, the New York Times re-examines President Roosevelt’s record of the past three years, and asks, can the nation expect an even bolder Roosevelt in the years to come? Roosevelt’s policies and actions of the past three years are subjected to a critical analysis.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1905-03-04
Theodore P. Shonts milks a cow labeled “Canal Commission” that is feeding on a mixture of hay and money labeled “Appropriation.” Shonts has a bucket labeled “Progress” between his knees. Secretary of State William H. Taft stands in the background holding a pitchfork. Up a hill on the right is an outbuilding labeled “U.S. Treasury” full of hay.
J. S. Pughe’s cover cartoon in Puck is a virtual lesson in cartoon iconography — hay-barn, fodder, milk, funds. The actual context is the figures and the dialog-caption, addressing a rather continuing challenge in the construction of the Panama Canal, centered in the Culebra Cut.
Uncle Sam raises a red signal flag labeled “Big Crops” and “Prosperity” and a yellow signal flag labeled “Business” and “Confidence” over the U.S. Capitol building. In the background, delegations from several states are cheering.
Puck Magazine, which was a half-hearted opponent of Republican President Roosevelt’s re-election, offers a placid celebratory cartoon by Grant Hamilton. Hamilton had taken a leave from the Republican doppelganger of Puck, Judge Magazine, in order to oppose Roosevelt, but here acknowledged Roosevelt’s thumping victory, although jubilant crowds are in the faint distance.
President Roosevelt appears as a knight on horseback carrying a lance labeled “Reciprocity” over his shoulder with a sack labeled “Campaign Funds” hanging from it. In the background is a giant ogre labeled “Infant Industries” sitting against a castle with a club labeled “Dingley Tariff” nestled against his right arm. Over the castle is flying a banner of “High Protection,” and a despondent maiden labeled “Fair Trade” is standing at the top of a tower.
Invoking an earlier cartoon, when Puck was more charitable about President Roosevelt’s goals and challenges, the “after” part of this composition suggests that Roosevelt extorted campaign contributions from trusts, and that represented his design from the start.
An ostrich labeled “Republican Party” tucks its head in a hole labeled “‘Stand Pat’ Policy” as a tornado advances from behind with dark clouds labeled “Tariff Reform.”
The Republican Party’s attitude toward tariff reform is depicted in this cartoon by Pughe as one of foolish or willful neglect, with sure disaster as the price. Yet with President Roosevelt at the helm, it is generally the case that avoidance of dealing with the tariff issue was a calculated risk.
President Roosevelt, as a knight on horseback, carries a lance labeled “Reciprocity” and faces a giant ogre labeled “Infant Industries” and leaning on a club labeled “Dingley Tariff.” In the background on the left is a castle flying a banner “High Protection” and with a maiden labeled “Fair Trade” standing at the top of a tower. Caption: And so the knight promised to take up his late lord’s lance and carry on the fight.
This is a brilliant cartoon by Keppler, wholly reliant on its surfeit of labels and slightly inaccurate as to history. That is, it predicts that the new president, Theodore Roosevelt, would take up the late President William McKinley’s lance and battle against high tariffs. McKinley’s views on may issues evolved, but as a Protectionist, his ideas about Reciprocity — fair trade with nations, one by one — were tepid. Roosevelt, who admitted that he never fully understood tariffs and economics, would prevent his Republican Party from enacting any tariffs, upward or reductions, during his presidency. He know that every administration that did so (e.g., the previous four) suffered from the polarized public debates. His successor, William Howard Taft, presided over both a high-tariff act and reciprocity treaties, both leading to electoral defeats. With a few changed labels — for instance, trusts and monopolies instead of high tariffs and protected industries — the cartoon better could represent a major theme of the Roosevelt presidency.
Yale professor and university president Arthur Twining Hadley looks through a huge magnifying glass trained on a laborer labeled “Trust Employee.” However, what Hadley sees through the lens is a “Trust Slave” linked by a ball and chain to “Trusts.” On the ground, at Hadley’s feet, is a piece of paper stating “Dangers of trusts and imperialism. Prof. Hadley.”
comments and context
Many journals of opinion, editorialists, and political cartoonists between the 1880s and early ‘teens decried the rise of trusts and the increasing stranglehold of monopolies on American business. Many powerful cartoon statements were published. However, there was an ambiguity when deference was paid to the prosperity, booming world trade, low prices, and high wages in many industries, brought about by industrial combinations known as Trusts. In a widely-noted speech in 1901, President Hadley of Yale attacked the ills sustained by the living standard of the working class. This was one area, in Puck‘s view, where Trusts had a beneficial effect.
President Roosevelt is shown breaking through a ring labeled Prosperity on a horse, dressed as a Rough Rider, as men representing the trusts scramble out of his way.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1902-08-27
President Roosevelt is seen holding a mallet that he has just used to ring a large bell which is now ringing out words of prosperity. Cartoon is regarding the economic prosperity the United States enjoyed under Roosevelt’s administration.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1902-08-25
Transcripts of two letters endorsing William M. Babbott’s ideas for economic questions in America. Babbott would enclose these in a letter to Theodore Roosevelt many years after these letters were received.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1901
On behalf of Theodore Roosevelt, his secretary thanks Irving Fisher for writing to Roosevelt about the Haiti Currency Commission plan.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1912-03-22
President Roosevelt thinks Ambassador White’s view as to what he should do in connection with the presidential campaign is proper. Roosevelt tells White that Henry Cabot Lodge’s handling of the convention was very good. He also believes that the presidential campaign will be difficult, as many plutocrats think there is not much difference between the policies of Roosevelt and Taft on the one hand, and William Jennings Bryan on the other.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1908-06-30
Thomas E. Watson’s recent letter touches and concerns President Roosevelt. Roosevelt writes that it is of little consequence what happens to any one man, but of very great consequence that the “plain people” are relieved from suffering, without their relief ever being equated with the lessening of our principles. He struggles the most with the currency issue, but is grateful for Watson’s good opinion. Issuing money in a limited amount could achieve the purpose Watson proposes, but it could also lead to people assuming there will be an indefinite issuance of money.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1907-12-21
President Roosevelt lays out his thoughts about the tariff to Speaker of the House Cannon, suggesting that Congress ought to take up the tariff law because it has been eight years since it was passed. Roosevelt proposes that the Senate Committee on Finance and the House Committee on Ways and Means put together a joint commission to discuss the tariff question and report at a special session of Congress as soon as possible.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1904-11-30
President Roosevelt writes to Joseph Gurney Cannon, Chairman of the Notification Committee, to formally accept his nomination as the Republican presidential candidate and to approve the platform adopted by the Republican National Convention. In the letter, Roosevelt provides a comprehensive defense of his foreign and domestic policies and outlines what he believes are the major differences between the Republican and Democratic parties in the upcoming election. Roosevelt discusses, among other topics, his position on international relations, antitrust legislation, tariffs, the gold standard, pensions for Civil War veterans, the military, civil service, commerce, agriculture, taxation, and self-government in the Philippines.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1904-09-12
President Roosevelt thanks General Wood for sharing his perspective on the conditions in Cuba. Secretary of War Root feels as strongly as Wood on the tariff issue.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1901-11-11
John W. Beckman sends Theodore Roosevelt a small booklet, believing it explains a fair basis for economic arrangements. He asks for Roosevelt’s opinion and expresses admiration for his leadership.