Factories

The waterfalls at Niagara Falls are being diverted to provide power for the factories that have been built along the river ahead of the falls, leaving a cliff and a series of pipes where the water used to be. New tourist attractions, such as a barrel jump chute and a “Whirlpool” carousel, have been developed to take advantage of the dry riverbed.

comments and context

Comments and Context

Relatively forgotten in history (except in the environs of Niagara Falls) and in Theodore Roosevelt’s disputes and presidential victories, is the controversy over Niagara Falls that roiled in 1906. It is interesting, beyond its long-range significance, as an example of Roosevelt’s winning skills in such matters.

A man labeled “Employer’s Union” and a man labeled “Workingman’s Union” drink a toast while sitting on the back of a man sprawled on the ground, clutching papers labeled “Bribes” and “Broken Contracts.” His hat nearby is labeled “Walking Delegate.” There are factories in the background.

comments and context

Comments and Context

Several employers unions and associations established themselves in the first years of the new century. They were logical and legitimate responses to the growth of labor unions in numbers of members and contract recognition. Except for such associations’ descendants as the National Association of Manufacturers — groups that eventually focused more on trade and regulations than labor negotiations — they never evolved as cartoonist Pughe envisioned.

Charles M. Schwab, holding a moneybag labeled “Schwab,” stands next to Andrew Carnegie who is sitting on the ground, holding a moneybag labeled “Carnegie” and with a basket labeled “$10,000,000 for Scotch Universities” overflowing with money next to him. Schwab gestures toward factories on the left as he addresses Carnegie. In the background, on the right, is a line of old men wearing caps and gowns and carrying “Diplomas” under their arms, emerging from a building labeled “University.” Caption: Schwab (to Carnegie). — This is the school most people must go to, and the one that has always turned out the biggest men. That other school is for the few and is already turning out too many doctors, ministers, lawyers and clerks. Don’t you think we ought to improve conditions in our school rather than in that other one?

comments and context

Comments and Context

Of interest in this Puck cartoon is the manner of Pughe’s caricatures of the titans of finance. At one time, Puck and other reform periodicals cast critical eyes on men of extreme wealth, the implication being that their fortunes were gained as the result of market manipulation or crushing of competitors. When the wealthy became philanthropists, in effect recycling their gains, they were portrayed more kindly, as in this cartoon. 

View depicting the industrial character of the Georgetown waterfront. Factory buildings and numerous smokestacks are visible lining the river. Caption reads, “Neg No. 25463.”

Collection

Theodore Roosevelt Island National Memorial

Creation Date

1930

President Roosevelt thanks Frédéric Mistral for the book and medal. Roosevelt and Edith Kermit Carow Roosevelt are pleased with the book because they have possessed a copy of it for nearly twenty years and are glad to have a new copy with a personal inscription by Mistral. Roosevelt applauds Mistral for teaching the lesson that “the things that really count in life are the things of spirit.” While factories and railways are good, what matters most are “homely, work-a-day” and “heroic virtues.” A second typewritten copy is included with a note explaining that the letter was sent in Roosevelt’s handwriting.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1904-12-15

Gifford Pinchot was sorry not to see Theodore Roosevelt again in Pittsburgh. Pinchot had to give a talk at the Game Protective Association. Meeting men outside the factories as they enter, quit, or go to lunch seems to be working well.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1914-07-07

Ambassador Meyer is reporting to President Roosevelt the state of affairs in Russia after having found St. Petersburg quiet. Meyer traveled throughout Russia, Poland, and the Ukraine. The letter examines the situations in many different cities and other topics including removing Jews from Russia, revolution and revolutionaries’ tactics, a pheasant shoot, military escorts, history, travel, and Russian construction quality.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1906-10-28

Advertisement depicting The Dispatch and its contribution to the growth of the city of Lexington, North Carolina where the newspaper is based.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1911-09

A special edition of the Jemison Magazine discussing various aspects of Corey, Alabama, a “model city” expressly planned for employees of the new industrial factories of the area. It features an article on Theodore Roosevelt’s visit and speech on March 10, 1911.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1911-04

A group of people sit outside of a “soup house,” a factory is “closed,” and a savings bank is “suspended.” Caption: What happened in 1893.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1904-08-16

A portly laborer carrying a full dinner pail and a “Bank Book” in his coat pocket stands on the roadway with factories spewing smoke in the background. On the left a sign states, “Voluntarily Increased Wages Thanks to Cleveland,” and on the ground a sign states, “Reduced Wages Thanks to McKinley.” On the right a sign states, “High Wages and Steady Employment Under Cleveland,” and on the ground a sign states, “Strikes and Lockouts Under McKinley.” Caption: “The McKinleyites poked lots of fun at me a while ago, ‘cos I voted for Cleveland; but I’m doing the laughing now!”

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1895-05-22

Uncle Sam as Tantalus is bound with ropes to posts labeled “High Protective Tariff” and “Free Silver Agitation” by two men labeled “Protected Manufacturer” and “Silverite.” The men are preventing Uncle Sam from satisfying his desire for “Prosperity,” depicted as a female figure holding a cornucopia, separated from Uncle Sam by an “Ocean of Politics,” and standing among factories spewing smoke along the waterfront.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1897-06-02

A fat businessman, reclining on a large coin, basks in the bright light of “Special Privilege” while dreaming of castles in the air. On the other side of the coin is factory life in dark and polluted Pittsburgh, where factory workers struggle to flip the coin blocking the light from their city and their lives. Caption: Pittsburg, the citadel of protection.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1909-09-22

Trade union laborers, some in chains labeled “High Tariff” and “Tariff,” and one standing on a block labeled “Trade Unions,” are being auctioned by a man labeled “Protectionist Statesman” to capitalists and manufacturers, including Cyrus W. Field and William H. Vanderbilt. In the background is a row of factories. A sign states “Quotations. Average wage for skilled workman $7 a Week or $359 a Year.” Caption: “Going – going – lower – lower!”

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1884-01-02

A man labeled “Warden,” armed with “Warrants,” carries measuring devices and a sheet of paper that states “Fish, Game, Forestry and Food Laws.” He stands next to a young tree, a calf, and a pond with fish and a lobster. On the right are two young, poorly dressed, and underfed children passing through a doorway into a building labeled “Entrance to Factory.” Inside are other children working with machinery. Caption: The government protects young fish, young oysters, young terrapin, young lobsters, young beef, and young trees. Is it not about time the same solicitude was shown for young human beings? They are more important than trout, or lobsters, or even forests.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1913-02-05

A man labeled “Protected Monopoly” lies on a bench in an Egyptian temple next to a large bloody sword labeled “Closed Mills” with which three man, labeled “Labor,” have been slain. Each lies next to papers labeled “No Orders the Prices Come Down, Cancelled Orders, [and] Consumer Balks.” At one end of the temple are the faces of “Sherman, Aldrich, [and] Payne.” In the distance are factories.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1911-02-15