Your TR Source
Theodore Roosevelt reviewed President Taft’s letter with the editors of The Outlook. Roosevelt supports Taft’s efforts to secure free trade with Canada, even if an agreement damages the Republican Party in the short term. Letterpress original and copy.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1911-01-12
The Boston Daily Advertiser requests permission to publish a public policy statement that was requested by the Whitney delegation during a visit with President Roosevelt in regards to continental free trade.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1905-11-17
A Chinese play is being acted on a small stage with Joseph Gurney Cannon and Nelson W. Aldrich offering two small doll-like figures labeled “Small Dealer” and “Consumer” to a dragon labeled “High Protection” manned by two men labeled “Special Privilege” and “Graft.” J. S. Sherman, John Dalzell, and Sereno E. Payne play musical instruments on the left side of the stage. On the back of the stage is a Buddha icon labeled “Greed.” In the foreground, at the foot of the stage, are Chinese men labeled “Lumber Trust, Paper Trust, Steel Trust, [and] Beef Trust.” On the far right, beneath a sign that states “Box Reserved for Amer. Protective Tariff League,” is a Chinese man labeled “Chas A. Moore” holding a tray with two small figures labeled “First Voter.”
“Like a Chinese Play, It Goes On Forever” is an abecedarian and awkward variation on “trusts bad, politicians subservient, consumers powerless” themes. Cartoonist Frank A. Nankivell, who had lived part of career in Japan, had a difficult job in approximating Asian pictograph lettering, and he relied on stereotypes of culture and attire for the cartoon.
William H. Taft offers a spoonful of “Square Revision” to an over-sized child labeled “Infant Industries,” telling her that if she does not take the medicine, the “Free Trade” bug-a-boo will get her. Hanging on the wall above is a sign that states, “An ounce of revision is worth a pound of cure.”
The advice of President-Elect William H. Taft to American monopolies — that a reasonable downward revision of tariff duties on imported goods would forestall the more radical adoption of free trade or virtual abolition of tariffs — was never tested. When the sixty-first Congress took its seats in March of 1909 it immediately set about a severe increase in duties. This was not expected by the electorate, generally, nor by Taft, who bore much of the criticism.
Magazine article praising the late William McKinley for his agricultural policies, particularly those protecting the domestic sugar industry.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1901-09-14