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President Roosevelt greets and thanks a crowd in Ottumwa, Iowa. He speaks of the prosperity of Iowa and how the law can help to preserve that prosperity. He also speaks about his cabinet members, over half of whom are from Iowa, and remarks on his travels through the state.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1903-04-28
President Roosevelt greets an audience at the Capitol in Des Moines, Iowa. He speaks of the “invaluable work” done by Congressman Colonel Hull. He also thanks the veterans of the Civil War for their service and his comrades from 1898 and the fifty-first Iowa.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1903-04-28
President Roosevelt speaks to a crowd in Alliance about citizenship and prosperity. He also speaks about character, praising the citizens as the “representatives of the greatest classes that go to make up American life.” He also discusses the law.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1903-04-25
President Roosevelt greets a crowd in South Dakota. He praises the pioneers and the veterans, especially for their character. Roosevelt also speaks of the need for the “old pioneer virtues,” good laws, and education.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1903-04-25
Theodore Roosevelt sits on top of a Republican party elephant with a rate bill under his arm. Roosevelt is facing a man labeled Allison, who is standing under an arch labeled full court review.
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs
1906-05-08
Two figures stand above the “senatorial pool” armed with fishing equipment. Theodore Roosevelt holds a large pole with a can labeled “bait amendments” by his side. Next to him, holding a pitchfork with a net strung in it, is the figure of Benjamin Tillman, a democratic senator from South Carolina. In the pool are a number of creatures, including a frog labeled “statehood bill,” a fish labeled “Santo Domingo,” a crocodile labeled “Philippine tariff bill,” and a large turtle with the head of a steam locomotive labeled “the railroad rate bill.” Roosevelt’s fishing pole has hooked under the lip of this turtle’s shell.
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs
1906-02-25
A figure with the head of a steam locomotive leans back in a chair and reads over a scroll of paper labeled “railroad rate bill.” The bottom of the bill continues down to the floor and out of sight with many further pieces of paper labeled “amendment.” To the right stands the figure of Theodore Roosevelt, looking on and leaning on his “big stick.”
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs
1906-02-06
A man, possibly Joseph Pulitzer, dressed as a jester and holding papers labeled “Income Tax Law,” stands before a woman labeled “Democracy” sitting in a chair labeled “Congress.” “Democracy” holds a quill pen in her hand and appears to be pondering whether to sign the bill. In the background, a man with a ballot box for a head and with one finger raised tells her not to sign the bill.
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs
1894-02-07
Four men dance gleefully in front of gigantic figures of “Columbia” and “Europa” who are holding hands across a body of water. At the feet of the figures are suffering, poverty-stricken peoples, with silent factories behind them. The four men are Benjamin Harrison, pointing to himself, John Sherman with a sign that states “The Sherman Bill Did It!”, William McKinley holding a sign that states “The McKinley Bill Did It!”, and Thomas B. Reed pointing to McKinley. Caption: Chorus of Republican Leaders–Hooray! We’ll make all the political capital we can of this – it’ll help the Grand Old Party!
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs
1894-01-17
An angel labeled “National Credit” with wings labeled “Sound Financial Policy” and “Repeal of Sherman Silver Law” rises above the flames of the wreck of the “U.S. Treasury.” Among the wreckage lie William McKinley bowled over by the “McKinley Bill,” John Sherman being crushed under the weight of large silver coins, Green B. Raum sitting in an empty safe labeled “U.S. Treasury,” with Benjamin Harrison and Charles Foster hanging onto the safe, and William A. Peffer among the lumber on the left.
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs
1893-09-27
Uncle Sam climbs out of a flood of silver coinage toward elevated ground labeled “Repeal of the Sherman Law by the 53rd Congress” using a rope labeled “Public Opinion.” He is carrying a female figure labeled “Business Interests.” Waves labeled “Sherman Silver Purchase Act” crash in the background, while overhead the sun, as a gold coin labeled “Twenty Dollars,” shines brightly.
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs
1893-09-13
William McKinley, Benjamin Harrison, and John Sherman are pictured as old women in mourning among gravestones labeled, “Here lies our dear McKinley Bill. Ruthlessly assassinated in the flower of its youth by the tariff reform bandits of the 53rd Congress,” “Sacred to the memory of the Federal Election Law, annihilated by the guerrillas of the 53rd Congress. R.I.P.,” and “Here lies the Sherman Silver Law. Cruelly done to death by G. Cleveland. We bear our loss with fortitude.”
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs
1894-09-12
President Roosevelt believes that the purpose of good government is to produce decent men and women. Without virtuous citizens, a modern military and a modern democracy will not succeed. Roosevelt points to the veterans of the American Civil War as role models in virtue and courage. He concludes by noting the character qualities that are essential in public and private life.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1902-09-02
President Roosevelt greets and thanks the citizens of Joliet, Illinois. He discusses the law, civil life, and citizenship. Roosevelt also discusses the lessons of self-respect and respect for others.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1903-06-03
President Roosevelt speaks to the citizens of Denison, Iowa, about the recent natural disasters in Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, and Georgia. He also discusses the need for integrity in the administration of the law and in public officials.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1903-06-02
Print shows a man labeled “Organized Labor” climbing the steps to a building labeled “Law, Prosperity, [and] Order,” when a bomb labeled “Dynamite Argument” explodes in his face.
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs
1899-08-30
An elderly man labeled “The Law,” with a long beard and holding a broken gun labeled “Fines,” peers at a group of bloated criminals standing and sitting on the porch of “The Jolly Grafter’s Inn, Successor to Ye Stern Justice” who are laughing at the old man before them. Those on the porch are labeled “Big Offender, Respectable Crook, Handy Judge [with a glass of] Judicial Favors, Corporate Lawyer [with mugs of] Legal Aid, Tax Dodger, Special Privilege, Insurance Grafter, Corrupt Business, Rail Road Merger, [and the] Oil, Coal, [and] Beef Trust[s].” On a table is a newspaper labeled “The Daily Graft,” and growling at the man is a dog labeled “Subsidized Press.”
Puck had fought cheek-to-jowl with reform politicians, Muckraking journals, and President Roosevelt over most of the recent years, week after week. In this crowded center-spread cartoon, J. S. Pughe expressed the utmost cynicism about laws and regulations that were hard-fought and hard-won in 1906.
A child-like figure labeled “American Industry,” supported by an infant walker on wheels labeled “High Protection,” holds in one hand a bottle of “Payne Aldrich Baby Food” and in the other a rattle shaped like the U.S. Capitol dome. On the tray of the walker is a broken elephant, an eagle, a bull moose, and a donkey. Caught underneath the support is an Uncle Sam doll. Caption: His delusion is that he cannot walk alone.
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs
1912-07-31
A gigantic, two-faced man, wearing a money-bag crown with “$” around it, sits on a U.S. Custom House on the shore of U.S.A. He is holding up two pieces of paper. One is addressed “To American Working Men” and states “Preserve the high tariff and protect yourselves from the competition of foreign cheap labor. The tariff maintains for you the American standard of living.” The other, addressed “To Foreign Labor,” states “Come over to free America and work. High wages and steady employment. You will make more here in a week than you can there in a month.” Gathered on the shores are American laborers and foreign laborers. Caption: The tariff protects the American worker from competition with foreign cheap labor abroad, but not from competition with foreign cheap labor here at home.
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs
1912-03-13
An animated letter “K” labeled “Schedule” (Schedule K of the Payne/Aldrich Tariff Act) sits at a table spread with food and wine labeled “Benefits of Protection” and offers a bone labeled “Starvation Wages” to a diminutive man labeled “‘Protected’ Labor.”
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs
1912-03-13