Hill, James J. (James Jerome), 1838-1916

Simon Cordery examines the relationship between Theodore Roosevelt and the nation’s railroads. Cordery highlights some of the significant episodes in Roosevelt’s life made possible by train travel like his trip to the  Dakota Badlands in 1883, his exhausting campaign tour as a vice-presidential candidate in 1900, and his “Great Western Tour” as president in 1903. Cordery notes Roosevelt’s affection for the railroad workers and his disdain for their employers. Roosevelt saw the employees, with their difficult and dangerous jobs, as embodying the strenuous life while he wanted to curb the economic and political powers of their bosses. Cordery highlights the Northern Securities Case which dismantled a combination of railroads on the northern Great Plains and the debate over whether the railroads should provide free travel to the president. 

The article features nine photographs, including three of Roosevelt and trains, and two political cartoons. 

Max J. Skidmore recounts the establishment of the Theodore Roosevelt International Highway which stretches from Portland, Maine to Portland, Oregon, and encompasses much of what is known today as U.S. Highway 2. Skidmore focuses much of his attention on the completion of the final stretch of the highway at Marias Pass in Montana in 1930 and the subsequent construction of a granite obelisk monument to Theodore Roosevelt at the Pass. Skidmore highlights the Roosevelt family members in attendance at the monument’s dedication in 1931 and again at its rededication in 1991. A photograph of the obelisk monument supplements the text.

Collection

Theodore Roosevelt Association Journal

Creation Date

1997

The June 17,1911 edition of Collier’s. The articles “Coming and Going,” “North Dakota,” “Are They Dead?,” and “Guidance,” are marked in a square shape. 

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1911-06-17

Lee C. Spooner believes Americans share the sentiment that poverty can and must be abolished and proposes how this can be accomplished, primarily by turning competition into cooperation. He argues that the laborers are the enemy of the republic, as they either turn to crime or revolution. To feel the responsibility of citizenship, the laborer must first own property. Spooner proposes they be granted a one-acre, suburban tract of land with a house through a federal initiative. Next, the prohibition of liquor will prevent laborers from wasting their earnings. Instead, they can then invest their earnings in federally regulated trusts. This redistribution of wealth will bring “socialism by purchase” and the end of poverty.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1911-04-19

President Roosevelt pets a cat with New York Senator Thomas Collier Platt’s face as he holds a “list of smoothed downers” in his other hand: “Morgan. Hill (J. J.) Gould. Harriman. Addicks. Black. Odell. Payn. Platt.” On the wall is a sign: “Oyster Bay. Notice. Smoothing down done with neatness and despatch. T. R.”

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1904-07-17

President Roosevelt is dressed as an angel and blesses Louis Frisbie Payn. Beside Roosevelt is a “list of the forgiven”: “Morgan. Hill (J. J.) Gould. Harriman. Addicks. Platt. Black. Odell.” The door reads, “White House private—admittance by invitation only. T. R.”

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1904-07-01

A showman points to President Roosevelt, who holds a sword in his teeth and stands on a Republican elephant, which is on top of a flattened J. Pierpont Morgan and “J. S. Hill.” Roosevelt shoots off part of the elephant’s trunk and tail. A sign to the right reads, “Continuous performance—The strenuous one.”

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1904-02-05

Uncle Sam puts his hand on President Roosevelt’s shoulder as Uncle Sam holds a paper that reads, “states pledged for Roosevelt.” Various men are around them: James J. Hill, Perry S. Heath, a “grafter,” and “Wall Street.”

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1904-01-19

President Roosevelt celebrates his forty-ninth birthday with a variety of friends. In the upper left hand corner at the piano are New York Governor Charles Evans Hughes and Thomas Fortune Ryan singing, “Oh let us be joyful.” Booker T. Washington tells Henry Watterson, “Henry, I hope you’ll come down and visit me at Tuskegee.” Senator Joseph Benson Foraker says to Secretary of War William H. Taft, “I heard a good story today, Will.” Speaker of the House Joseph Gurney Cannon and Vice President Charles W. Fairbanks look at a picture of George Washington, and Fairbanks says, “That picture makes me sad. It reminds me of cherries.” William Randolph Hearst, James Roscoe Day, and Secretary of State Elihu Root look at a book of “Snapshots in New York.” William Jennings Bryan and Grover Cleveland play a game of checkers, and Bryan says, “After you, Grover.” J. Pierpont Morgan watches over the game with his hand on Bryan’s back. Henry Huttleston Rogers, F. Augustus Heinze, and Thomas William Lawson sit together. Lawson says, “Rogers, my boy, you must come over to Boston and visit me.” John D. Rockefeller points at Kenesaw Mountain Landis’s chest while President Roosevelt presents a bouquet to James J. Hill as William J. Long looks on. Finally, James T. Harahan, Edward Henry Harriman, and Stuyvesant Fish read “Snap Shots Along the Illinois Central.” Harriman remarks, “Very nice album, Stuyvesant, is it not?”

comments and context

Comments and Context

There are contexts behind this cartoon by John T. McCutcheon of The Chicago Tribune that might not be apparent to modern researchers. The first is somewhat evident by reading the dialog balloons between figures in the pairings or clusters. Almost appropriate for an April Fool’s cartoon instead of something closer to Halloween is the ironic juxtaposition in every case — political opponents or business rivals exchanging niceties. In fact, insights might be gained by reading the nature of their “about-face” encounters.

President Roosevelt cuts another notch—”federal control of railroads”—in his big stick that already has several notches: “meat inspection,” “canal,” “R.R. rate regulation,” and “pure food.” In the background are James J. Hill, J. Pierpont Morgan, and Edward Henry Harriman holding knives with a banner behind them, “Angry R.R. magnates in their one act come by, entitled. We’re always agin the president.”

comments and cont

Comments and Context

Seldom does a political cartoon simultaneously hit the mark in the presentation of an idea, or explanation of a situation in the news, and convey real humor (if such was intended). The otherwise little-known St. Louis cartoonist Elmer C. Donnell achieved both in this textbook-explication of President Roosevelt, his reform agenda — “his policies” — and relationship and reactions of America’s most prominent trust magnates of the day.

Three pilgrims (Edward Henry Harriman, J. Pierpont Morgan, and James J. Hill) look toward the Sphinx that has President Roosevelt’s head. Caption: The Pilgrims Who Sought an Oracle Find a Sphynx

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1907-04-01

President Roosevelt is decked out with boxing gloves, prepared to hit a boxing bag with a face on it. In the foreground is a large weight labeled, “R.R. statistics,” and a teddy bear about to swing a club at a train. A man checks the calendar and three men are pictured on the wall, including J. Pierpont Morgan, Edward Henry Harriman, and likely James J. Hill.

comments and context

Comments and Context

Following the meeting between President Theodore Roosevelt and J. Pierpont Morgan, representing major railroad executives, on March 12 in the White House, and many other discussions since January on matters of concern to the industry, the president was understood to be preparing a speech on the subject.

On the “then” side stands a short President Roosevelt holding a paper that reads, “Railroad Regulation Proposition.” Surrounding him are railroad magnates that are saying, “Oh, I must smile,” “‘Tis to laugh!” and “Hee haw!” On the “now” side stands an extremely tall Roosevelt with railroad magnates bowing at his feet.

comments and context

Comments and Context

Two days after a notable White House meeting between President Roosevelt and J. Pierpont Morgan, representing the nation’s major railroad interests, cartoonist Clifford Kennedy Berryman drew this cartoon about the adjusted perceptions of power-figures in the momentous legislative and regulatory wrangles over consolidation, routes, and rates.

Various prominent citizens including, President Roosevelt and multiple senators, justices, and cabinet members, state their support of endowing a department of political science in Western Reserve University in memory of the late Senator Marcus Alonzo Hanna.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1905-01-27

Newspaper article supporting President Roosevelt’s antitrust policy, including an anecdote about Roosevelt easily and rapidly ending a conference with a concerned J. Pierpont Morgan.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1902-05-11

Theodore Roosevelt reflects on the importance of leadership and service in a democracy. He argues that great leaders should be recognized and compensated adequately for their service, whether in government or industry. Among farmers’ cooperatives and laborers’ unions, unless leadership is encouraged and compensated, the organizations will attract leaders that are second-rate. Great leaders are needed in the arts and sciences as much as in other fields of endeavor.

Collection

Harvard College Library

Creation Date

1917-05

At the Republican National Convention in Chicago, Illinois, Theodore Roosevelt is passing the pike of “Policies” to William H. Taft, as “The New Mahout,” sitting on the “G.O.P.” elephant. Seen through the left lens of Roosevelt’s spectacles, labeled “Before Taft is Nominated,” are James J. Hill, J. Pierpont Morgan, Thomas Fortune Ryan, John D. Rockefeller, Edward Henry Harriman, Joseph Gurney Cannon, Joseph Benson Foraker, and Nelson W. Aldrich looking very somber. Seen through the right lens labeled “After Taft is Nominated,” the same group is cheering. In the lower right, Roosevelt refuses another curtain call. On the lower left he offers “Taft Bitters” to a cowboy. Across the bottom is Roosevelt’s familiar toothy grin.

Comments and Context

Forsaking harsh criticism of the Republican Party, or President Roosevelt or the imminent nominee William H. Taft, the nominally Democratic magazine Puck instead had it cartoonist L. M. Glackens devote this Convention Issue’s centerspread drawings to topical humor and light commentary.

Cleverly framing the genre cartoons in a motif of Roosevelt’s trademark pince-nez spectacles and toothy grin, Glackens perhaps subconsciously wished to hold on to cartoon icons as long as possible before Roosevelt retired.

Moses, holding the Ten Commandments, is confronted by an angry mob of capitalists, businessmen, and politicians, some shaking their fists at him. Caption: Chorus of “Conservatives” – Dangerous, socialistic, un-American doctrines!

Comments and Context

This powerful indictment of endemic corruption at the upper levels of American society was drawn by Udo J, Keppler, whose father Joseph (founder and chief cartoonist of Puck) had addressed the same issues with classic drawing like They Can’t Stand the Light, showing United States Senators shrinking from spotlights in the dark. But his son’s cartoon — of this evergreen subject — encompassed more than political corruption.

In fact only four of the major, identified figures are national politicians; the majority are business leaders, a magazine editor, and even a university president. Keppler unwittingly reinforced the view that lawlessness and compromised morality had spread throughout American life.

Theodore Roosevelt stands on a hill in the background, as two large bears labeled “Interstate Commerce Commission” and “Federal Courts” break up a crowd of Wall Street capitalists and stock market manipulators, causing them to scatter in all directions. The men include Charles S. Mellen, William K. Vanderbilt, Henry Huttleston Rogers, J. Pierpont Morgan, James J. Hill, George Jay Gould, John D. Rockefeller, James McCrea, William H. Newman, Edward Henry Harriman, and Joseph Benson Foraker.

Comments and Context

Cartoonist Udo J. Keppler, and Puck magazine, editorially, stretched theology, or at least the province of Biblical allusions, in this cartoon “Elisha Roosevelt.” The brief passage from II Kings 2:23-24 recounts the story of Israelite prophet Elisha, having succeeded Elijah and seeing him bodily taken into the clouds, is unsure of his ability to be God’s anointed prophet.

Even more skeptical are a ragtag group of scoffers (sometimes misidentified as “children,” but Keppler called them “bad boys” with gray hair) who mock Elisha. As they really are mocking God, whose sovereign choice was Elisha, the Lord sent two ravenous bears to scatter the skeptics.

Theodore Roosevelt, as a hayseed from “Oyster Bay,” is being greeted by Edward H. Harriman, as J. Pierpont Morgan and James J. Hill look on from around a doorway in the background. Caption: “Well, if this ain’t Uncle Ted Roosevelt! How’s all the folks at dear old Oyster Bay?”

Comments and Context

If not for the caption (“They take him for…”) and the winking expression and false beard of the out-of-town hayseed “Uncle Ted” Roosevelt, one might think Udo J. Keppler’s cartoon suggested that President Roosevelt was naive and susceptible in the hands of the nation’s most powerful magnates Edward H. Harriman, James J. Hill, and J. P. Morgan.

The events behind the smiles and almost silly depictions in this cartoon were far fiercer. The Interstate Commerce Commission was contemplating the dissolution of Harriman’s Union Pacific Railroad (partly on the basis of its substantial stake in the Southern Pacific line). Harriman and Morgan went to Washington to protest, not before the ICC but to the president himself. Afterwards there were two versions of what was said, promised, and alleged in the meeting. Among the fallout was Roosevelt publicly calling Harriman an “undesirable citizen,” and Harriman promising never to contribute to Republican campaign in the future. Hill is pictured in the cartoon as a Northern Pacific railroad magnate, friendly rival of Harriman.