Honesty

Edward Henry Harriman, in the Scottish Highlands, stands with arms and sword raised next to a diamond-shaped rock labeled “Flim-Flam Finance” balancing on a pointed base. Harriman is confronting Theodore Roosevelt and his band of Scotsmen, William H. Taft, Charles J. Bonaparte, Frank B. Kellogg, James Rudolph Garfield, and Milton Dwight Purdy. Caption: Fitzjames Harriman (to Teddy Dhu) — Come one, come all! This rock shall fly from its firm base as soon as I!

comments and context

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1907-09-11

Theodore Roosevelt, as an old washer-woman, scrubs a young boy labeled “Flim-Flam Finance” with soapy water from a pot labeled “Honesty Soap.” Three faces are visible in the puddles forming on the ground: Edward Henry Harriman, John D. Rockefeller, and possibly Henry Huttleston Rogers, a key Standard Oil figure. Caption: (Regards to Pears’ Soap).

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1907-09-04

Creator(s)

Keppler, Udo J., 1872-1956

A crowd of capitalists on Wall Street flees a volcano labeled “Common Honesty” erupting in the background. They are carrying packages labeled “Secret Rate Schedules, Rebate Agreements, Watered Stocks, [and] Frenzied Accounts.”

comments and context

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1907-05-22

Theodore Roosevelt exhibits himself as a tattooed man, with text that entwines his body and states “Under no circumstances will I be a candidate.”

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1912-04-10

Creator(s)

Keppler, Udo J., 1872-1956

Theodore Roosevelt, dressed as George Washington, holds an axe labeled “1912 Candidacy,” and, with his left hand on his chin, he ponders chopping down a cherry tree which has a quote carved into it that states “‘The wise custom which limits the president to two terms regards the substance and not the form, and under no circumstance will I be a candidate for or accept another term’ T.R. Nov. 9, 1904.”

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1912-02-14

Creator(s)

Glackens, L. M. (Louis M.), 1866-1933

President Roosevelt writes Edward Sandford Martin that he is grateful for a speech he refers to as “impassioned public exhortation.” He cannot believe there are people who called the speech commonplace. On the back is a clipping from a newspaper reading, “The worst crime in the Nation is dishonesty in public or private life, and there is no excuse for dishonesty, whatever the other attributes may be.”

Collection

Harvard College Library

Creation Date

1903-06-11

Creator(s)

Roosevelt, Theodore, 1858-1919

President Roosevelt has had meetings with journalists looking to expose public graft and corruption, but has become frustrated with them because of their “unbridled license and unfair denunciation” of many people in public office which has failed to have any merit. Roosevelt is expected to speak out against these sorts of accusations at his Decoration Day speech to the Army and Navy Union at Norfolk, Virginia. The author expects Roosevelt to speak regarding his own belief that most people are honest, and to challenge the writers who have attacked people in public office, despite the fact that his own administration has not been the target of these journalists.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1906-04-07

Creator(s)

Raymond