Hearst, William Randolph, 1863-1951

John Mulholland voices his enthusiastic support for Theodore Roosevelt to run for president in 1912. Mulholland tells Roosevelt he can mobilize the unions in Ohio and use a confidential voter lists to help his campaign. Mulholland asserts that the country needs Roosevelt in this time of global social upheaval and says a progressive revolution is coming and it should be a “conservative progressive movement.”

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1911-12-21

The Boy Scouts of America, through a letter by the executive secretary James E. West, responds to criticism from labor unions and describes it as a product of two areas of misinformation. The first is the confusion of the Boy Scouts of America with the American Boy Scout, the latter being a youth military organization. The second concerns the Scout Manual, which was adopted from the English Scout Manual and contains misrepresentative language. The Boy Scouts of America rewrote their manual to respond to labor criticism. The Boy Scouts of America believe that no American would have issue with the organization once the true aim and scope of it is understood.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1911-12-18

Harry N. Lembeck provides a report on the 2009 annual meeting of the Theodore Roosevelt Association (TRA) held in Tampa, Florida. Lembeck notes the business meeting, including the election of officers, and he highlights the seven speakers at the meeting, providing a brief synopsis of each of their addresses. Lembeck also notes the conferring of the Bertha B. Rose Award and the USS Theodore Roosevelt Junior Officer Award. Thirty-seven photographs taken by Art Koch of the speakers, guests, and members of the TRA leadership accompany the text.

Collection

Theodore Roosevelt Association Journal

Creation Date

2010

Leslie H. Southwick provides a comprehensive history of the 1904 presidential election, surveying the Republican and Democratic candidates as well as those of the Socialist, Populist, and Prohibition parties. Southwick describes Theodore Roosevelt’s path to securing his election, touching on his service as Vice President, his political battles with Senator Marcus Hanna, and his selection of George B. Cortelyou as his campaign manager. Southwick also covers Alton B. Parker’s path to the Democratic nomination, highlighting the roles played by former nominees William Jennings Bryan and Grover Cleveland. Southwick describes the dull fall campaign, enlivened by the musings of Finley Peter Dunne’s fictional barkeeper, Mr. Dooley, which Southwick quotes frequently in the course of the article.

Photographs of the four candidates for president and vice president of the Republican and Democratic parties appear in the article, along with an electoral map of the election, and Homer Davenport’s famous cartoon endorsing Roosevelt.

Collection

Theodore Roosevelt Association Journal

Perry D. Floyd reviews Gore Vidal’s historical novel Empire, and while he expresses frustration at Vidal’s “deceitful lapses” and struggle to maintain fidelity to the historical record, Floyd finds the portrait of Theodore Roosevelt drawn in the novel to be quite sympathetic. Floyd highlights some of the other historical figures that Vidal has written about, such as Abraham Lincoln, and he contends that Vidal as a novelist is often able to illuminate historical figures in ways that historians and biographers cannot.

Collection

Theodore Roosevelt Association Journal

Creation Date

1987

Joe F. Decker studies Theodore Roosevelt’s use of language and focuses on some of his most colorful expressions and opinions, which was most often found in his correspondence. Decker says that Roosevelt tended to be more cautious with his language when speaking in public. He dwells on the object of much of Roosevelt’s invective, President Woodrow Wilson, but he cites numerous letters to various figures such as Amos Pinchot and Henry Cabot Lodge to give examples of Roosevelt’s use of language. Decker notes that Roosevelt was also willing to use animated language to poke fun at himself.

Collection

Theodore Roosevelt Association Journal

Creation Date

1986

Photograph shows 19 portraits of prominent orators (politicians and businessmen) superimposed over an audience comprised of men. Caption reads, “our prominent political orators in action. The efforts of these men will anchor the floating vote, make converts and win the election.”

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1908-08-29

In the “Book Notes” column, John A. Gable reviews two books that cover different aspects of the era of Theodore Roosevelt. He praises David McCullough’s The Path Between the Seas: The Creation of the Panama Canal, 1870-1914 for its “careful research, balanced judgment, and good prose.” Gable compares McCullough’s verdict on Roosevelt’s actions regarding the Canal with the work of other Roosevelt scholars, and he gives over much of his review to an extended quote from a letter McCullough wrote to President Jimmy Carter supporting passage of the 1977 Canal treaties.

Gable endorses, with some reservations, They Were Ragtime, a popular history of the United States in the Progressive era written by Warren Forma. Gable lists many of the personalities from entertainment, the arts, and the business world who populate Forma’s work, and he argues that the work is valuable for its look at popular culture in turn of the twentieth-century America. 

Boy Scouts of America’s April 17, 1911 newsletter contains seven articles. Ernest Thompson Seton compares the American Boys Scouts with the British Boy Scouts. The British scouts are more disciplined, whereas the American scouts are skillful at camping and have “greater lung power.” There is a discussion on doing a troop exchange. National Scout Commissioner Daniel Carter Beard discusses how scouts should regard men like Davy Crockett and Daniel Boone as heroes rather than Jesse James or Robin Hood-type characters. The Executive Board plans to establish a Scout Masters’ School at Silver Bay, New York, in conjunction with the Boys’ Workers Camp. The two new manuals are almost ready to be published. Lorillard Spencer is planning summer activities for New York scoutmasters. New Jersey scouts are cleaning up areas to prevent mosquitoes. Italian scouts are working on propagating universal peace.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1911-04-17

People opposing the efforts of Tammany Hall to “rob” New York City of $200,000,000 in the construction of a new subway are invited to a rally tonight at 8:00 p.m.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1909

In a speech at Cooper Union, John Brisben Walker revealed his conservative six-plank platform for the Democratic party, and seemed to support Joseph Wingate Folk as his candidate. The financial plank of Walker’s platform is endorsed by William Jennings Bryan.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1904-05-04

Daniel F. Dwyer, a prominent leader among railroad men in Jersey City who is known in labor and political circles, is forming a William Randolph Hearst Democratic Club in Jersey City.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1903-09-10

A Democratic donkey holds an axe and a shovel as it runs toward “Davis $40,000,000 Bar’l.” In the background is a tag for “Hearst $1,400,000.”

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1904-08

A number of men in the Democratic Party march forward: Grover Cleveland with his fishing rod, William Randolph Hearst with a small bag of money, William Jennings Bryan with a “Lincoln Neb.” drum, Alton B. Parker with the face of a sphinx, David B. Hill, Charles Francis Murphy, and George B. McClellan, who rides a Tammany tiger.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1904-06-30

Bees with the names of states surround a beehive in the shape of President Roosevelt’s head. In the background, William Randolph Hearst tries to use a net to capture some bees.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1904-04-21

A larger-than-life President Roosevelt rides toward “Chicago” and the “Republican National Convention for Teddy” flags, passing childlike William Randolph Hearst and Alton B. Parker, standing on either side of their mother, Dame Democracy.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1903-04-17

Grover Cleveland, who wears a “What and where am I?” feather; Arthur P. Gorman, who wears a “I am out in the cold” feather; and David B. Hill, who wears a “I am still a Democrat—very still” all hold down the lid on the “Democratic political pot.” Two lobsters—William Jennings Bryan and William Randolph Hearst—are inside. They each hold papers. Bryan’s reads, “Bryan the apostle of poverty. Income $50,000 a year.” Hearst’s reads, “God bless out home. Hear$t who pleads for the suffering poor while he enjoys his life on his mother’s $50,000,000.” There is a picture of Thomas Jefferson on the wall. Caption: Democratic chorus—”If they e’er take off the lid the worst will be yet to come!”

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1904-03

William Jennings Bryan, Alton B. Parker, Grover Cleveland, and William Randolph Hearst roll eggs on the White House lawn. One egg is broken. The other read: “Cleveland 3rd term,” “? Parker,” and “Trust busting Hearst.” President Roosevelt says from inside the White House, “You can play in my back yard.”

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1904-04-04

William Jennings Bryan, William Randolph Hearst, and Alton B. Parker are at the starting line of a race. Bryan wears weights on his legs that read “Kansas City platform” and “Chicago platform” and has a feather in his hat that reads, “I got a new job,” Hearst rides a “regular in both campaigns” barrel with deflated wheels, and Parker rides a donkey with “1896” and “1900” on his legs. David B. Hill gives Parker advice while Grover Cleveland watches Democratic National Committee Chairman James K. Jones write down odds. George Gray, Richard Olney, Arthur P. Gorman, and Dame Democracy watch from a covered box. Uncle Sam watches from behind.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1904-03-27

A woman wears a Rough Rider uniform and a “Roosevelt” hat while “Dame Democracy” attempts to select a hat. There are several options: “The ‘Dave Hill’: Any old price,” “The Parker: A new thing,” “The ‘Bryan’: In stock 8 years. Marked down from 16 to 1. Shop worn,” “The Cleveland: A star-eyed daisy.” “Dame Democracy” holds “The ‘Hearst’: Made of the yellowest material.” Caption: Miss Strenuous Republican to Dame Effete Democracy:—You seem to have trouble over your new Easter hat, my dear. Mine’s picked out, and it is the ruling style, I tell you!

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1904-03-20