Ice industry

The devil delivers a tiny piece of ice to a bloated businessman labeled “The Ice Man” wearing a fur coat and sitting on a heater in Hell. Caption: Satan — Yep, this is the biggest fifty pounds I can let you have. On account of the mild winter, ice is very scarce here!

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Comments and Context

Cartoonist L. M. Glackens scored a hat trick with his cover cartoon about ice deliveries in hot summer months. As a purely humorous cartoon, and in the days prior to electric home refrigeration, virtually every reader would appreciate the jab at ice deliveries literally shaving the weight of blocks for home ice boxes.

Cartoon showing Richard Croker, leader of New York City’s Democrat machine Tammany Hall, as a laborer carrying a block of ice labeled “Ice Trust” and a sheet of paper “N.Y Dock privileges;” he cries out, “Stop thief,” while himself being pursued by an angry mob of citizens.

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Comments and Context

Richard Croker, the boss of New York City’s corrupt Democratic machine Tammany Hall, ruled his domain so strongly that he even lived away from New York for three years — in England, where the Irish-born politician raised racehorses on an estate — controlling events through cables and assistants. However, in 1900 the city was in a crisis, a heat wave where ice prices doubled. The poor suffered, but the commodity was in the hands of one supplier, the American Ice Company, owned by Charles Morse. Among Croker’s emoluments were “gifts” of stock in the ice company, more properly the “ice trust,” or monopoly. The public was outraged, especially as Croker tried to hide behind criticism of trusts in general. He eventually quit politics, succeeded at Tammany Hall by Charles F. Murphy.

New York City Mayor Robert Anderson Van Wyck is drowning in a sea of ice blocks labeled “Ice Trust.” Richard Croker, holding a life preserver labeled “Tammany Machine Power,” is swimming toward him. Caption: Help me, Cassius, or I sink!

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Comments and Context

Judge Robert Anderson Van Wyck was easy to portray as a “clean” politician — old-line New York family; sitting judge — but as a Tammany puppet he was as corrupt as other Democratic mayors of the era in New York City. This cartoon delineates complicated political “currents” of the day, but also illustrates the fact that average readers were quite literate, perhaps more so than those of the twenty-first century. Politics: Tammany allowed the American Ice Company a monopoly in the city of New York. Boss Richard Croker and Mayor Van Wyck profited from stock kickbacks. When a heat wave threatened New York, a scandal erupted which threatened Van Wyck’s standing. The subtext: In Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar, Cassius recounted to Brutus how he had persuaded Caesar to swim the stormy Tiber River, but Caesar feared drowning and called out for help. The point of Cassius’s story was that Caesar could be manipulated and also was less than omnipotent. This cartoon portrays Van Wyck as being manipulated by Tammany and vulnerable politically.

President Roosevelt believes that the proper thing for him to do is to direct the Interstate Commerce Commission to look into the ice trust prosecution that Harry B. Kirtland wrote to him about. Roosevelt privately believes that Judge Reynolds R. Kinkade and Lyman W. Wachenheimer’s opinions in the matter have been of great value, but feels that he should not make any such public statement without being absolutely positive of the facts.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1906-07-16

President Roosevelt is delighted with the judgment in the ice trust matter. He would like to see John Clay Davies when he is in Washington, D.C.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1901-11-05

Memorandum outlines the history of the ice trust case and lawsuits involving Charlie Morse.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1901-1909

Harry B. Kirtland, attorney at law, has approached Negley Cochran, editor of the Toledo News-Bee, asking for information about the prosecution of the ice trust. Cochran wishes to support the prosecutor and the judge in the case. He has no reason to suspect Kirtland, but he believes the forces supporting the trust are powerful and unscrupulous, and he therefore writes President Roosevelt to confirm whether Kirtland is who he says he is, and whether he is acting in any capacity for Roosevelt.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1906-07-14

The matter of the ice trust prosecution in Toledo, Ohio, referenced by Harry B. Kirtland has been referred to the Interstate Commerce Commission.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1906-07-16

A man sits in an ice house, wearing a fur coat and a hat labeled “Ice Trust.” He is writing “Owing to the mild winter, we regret to say that ice next summer will be dearer than ever.”

comments and context

Comments and Context

J. S. Pughe’s cover cartoon was a platform for a predictable attack on trusts and their venality and price-fixing. A letter that is composed by the greedy monopolist prefigures a rate hike irrespective of actual free-market factors.