Your TR Source
Harry S. Armstrong asks Theodore Roosevelt to write a letter to be distributed in Louisiana and beyond, to encourage farm emigration and investment there. Armstrong suggests specific points Roosevelt might address, including the political independence of Louisiana, as well as the attractiveness of the countryside and the fertility of the soil.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1914-12-18
Emma Virginia Mount McCullers sends Theodore Roosevelt photographs of her 20 children. Emma McCullers and her husband have been married for 28 years and are farmers. A friend of Roosevelt’s in Anniston suggested Emma McCullers send a photograph of her 20th child to Roosevelt, so she is sending photographs of all 20 children.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1911-12-18
Paul V. Collins thanks Peder Hjelmstad for his letter, which they will publish without the mention of Hjelmstad’s choice of presidential candidate. Collins asks Hjelmstad what the farmers of North Dakota think of Theodore Roosevelt. Hjelmstad apparently replies on the bottom of the original letter stating that if Roosevelt were to declare himself as a candidate, he would most likely win the farmers of North Dakota, but since he is neither running nor endorsing another candidate, Hjelmstad believes La Follette will win North Dakota.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1911-12-14
Paul V. Collins gives Theodore Roosevelt the names of the men who submitted an article on reciprocity to be published in The Outlook and confirms that Roosevelt gave the men a word limit for the article. Collins writes of his experience trying to get the editor of the Saturday Evening Post to print an article contrary to the line the magazine had already taken on reciprocity and says most publications have only printed one side of the story. Collins thinks there is likely to be a “stampede” at the Republican National Convention and Roosevelt will be nominated.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1911-12-14
John L. Davis informs Theodore Roosevelt the people want him to be the next president because he is able to meet with kings and emperors as well as farmers. Davis believes the voters will pick Roosevelt, if they have the chance.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1911-12-12
President Roosevelt admires Thomas J. Norton’s letter on farmers and will endeavor to have it published. Roosevelt promises to look into the other matter that Norton mentioned, although previous considerations have repeatedly decided against it.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1908-08-24
Although President Theodore Roosevelt believes that farmers are better off than before, the increase in their well-being has not kept pace with the nation as a whole. The government has successfully focused resources on crop production but “good crops are of little value to the farmer unless they open the door to a good kind of life on the farm.” To this end, Roosevelt asks Gifford Pinchot if he will serve on a “Commission on Country Life.”
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1908-08-10
President Roosevelt asks Gifford Pinchot to pass on his best wishes for the success of the National Irrigation Congress and his belief in the important work of their movement.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1907-08-27
Gilson Gardner praises Theodore Roosevelt’s recent article. He has been collecting public opinion, and most farmers are against President William H. Taft.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1911-10-08
John B. Leaman writes to The Outlook for the address of The United Stores Association. He also asks for a suggestion or opinion to be written about how to handle the issue of farm produce, consumers being lied to, and unnecessary middlemen.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1911-10-04
John B. Uhle was surprised by Theodore Roosevelt’s comments in a recent article in The New York Times. In the article, Roosevelt claimed he was unable to speak on how farmers are attempting to gain part of middlemen’s profits. Uhle states farmers are using cooperation as their strategy, but this is not the correct course. Uhle believes the primary purpose of farming is supplying the consumer, not raising food. According to Uhle, the food distribution system needs to be reorganized, and this should not be the responsibility of the farmer.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1911-09-27
Paul V. Collins hopes to visit Theodore Roosevelt in New York sometime in the fall or winter. He will be speaking at the State Grange meeting at the Corn Palace in Mitchell, South Dakota, and at the First National Conference on Social Center Development with the Extension Division of the University of Wisconsin. He doesn’t believe that the current administration realizes how Northwestern farmers are feeling and mentions that papers are not discussing the issue. He did recently read a related article in the Minneapolis Tribune.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1911-09-21
Paul V. Collins informs Theodore Roosevelt that Minnesota and Dakota farmers opposed Canadian reciprocity, citing economic losses and betrayal by the administration, and describes efforts to organize a Farmers’ League for protection of agricultural interests.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1911-09-13
Paul V. Collins expresses to Samuel W. Church that he has no interest in political office, as his role as editor gives him greater influence than elected positions.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1911-09-12
Three men struggle under tariff burdens–“on the salaried man,” “on labor,” and “on farmer”–as the “one cent newspaper publisher” refuses to pick up the “tariff on wood pulp.”
This unsigned cartoon by W. A. Rogers, who recently had switched affiliations from Harper’s Weekly magazine to the daily New York Herald, drew this cartoon during a period of intense debate about United States tariff rates and import duties. It might appear to depict a family quarrel about arcane tax and trade matters, but it was a very contentious issue at the time.
President Roosevelt gestures at “Dr. Roosevelt’s peerless, political panaceas” with “satisfaction guaranteed or your vote refunded.” There are jars for “labor unions,” “the trusts,” “the farmers,” “tariff revisionists,” “railroads,” “the newspapers,” and “employers.”
C. R. Macauley’s cartoon of President Roosevelt as a snake-oil salesman peddling rostrums — pandering to various constituencies — was standard fare for any cartoonist in any campaign, regarding any politician of any party. Roosevelt frankly admitted to cultivating support from many corners and even engaging in political give-and-take — with “due regard for opportunism” yet never sacrificing righteousness (as he said in a 1914 court case in which he was sued for libel by a machine politician).
President Roosevelt, dressed like a farmer, holds chicken feed in his hand and looks down at the squawking chickens.
Cartoonist Joseph Harry Cunningham, in the Roosevelt-friendly Washington Herald, assigned no political motive to the president-as-farmer; nor implied anything about current debates or pending legislation regarding agricultural issues.
William Jennings Bryan dressed as a farmer holds a “list of missing issues”: “Grindstone (Swollen Fortunes), Cider Press (Railroads), Yoke (Trust Regulation), Dinner Bell (Plutocratic Domination).” As he hears a dinner bell with a tag that reads, “I’m a victim of a plutocratic conspiracy,” Bryan says, “That sounds like my old bell.” In the background is the White House.
Cartoonist Kirk L. Russell, endeavoring to have his work look like that of Clifford Kennedy Berryman, whose role he assumed on the Washington Post, was perceptive in this cartoon. The theme it depicted was one of gradual development, not an overnight event, and had two aspects, captured by Russell.
President Roosevelt, dressed like a farmer, sows seeds from a bag labeled “$40,000 Peace Prize” with a bird “Peace” on his head. In the background is a fence labeled “American Industry.”
The background this cartoon is the recent announcement by President Roosevelt that he would assign the monetary award from his Nobel Peace Prize committee to “social and industrial” justice. The intention was sufficiently vague that the funds only gathered interest for a dozen years, never connected to a foundation or specific project (many charitable groups during America’s participation in the Great War ultimately received the apportioned funds).
President Roosevelt writes to his son Kermit about the funeral of former President McKinley’s widow Ida McKinley. He then describes his trip on the train out west as he passed through Ohio, Pennsylvania, Indiana, and Michigan. Roosevelt closes by saying he needs to talk to Kermit about his hunting trip.
1907-06-01