Meat industry and trade

President Roosevelt is driving a “U.S. Government” automobile with Secretary of War William H. Taft seated next to him in the front and Uncle Sam in the back seat. Behind them is the aftermath of their reckless driving: a “Panama” wagon, a “Cuban Revolution” man, and a “beef” cow. They have just run over a man labeled “Brownsville affair” and are headed for a “Storer” chicken. Caption: T. R.: “Anything in sight Bill?”

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1907-02

President Roosevelt, dressed like Moses, comes down the hill with “drastic inspection laws” in the shape of the Ten Commandments. He kicks the “beef trust” golden calf, while Speaker of the House Joseph Gurney Cannon, dressed as a “high priest,” puts his hands up. The golden calf is on an altar of “potted ham,” “potted chicken,” “corned beef,” and “canned goods.” Meat packers surround the statue.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1906-06-06

Uncle Sam opens a “meat packing report” pot and holds his nose. President Roosevelt looks on and says, “It’s up to you, Uncle.”

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1906-06-06

In the upper righthand corner, three beef trust men stand under an “immune” sign and hold a paper that reads, “Judge Humphreys—you can go scott free.” In the main cartoon, President Roosevelt has a “report on packing houses” on his desk as three “beef trust” men grovel at his desk. A “square deal publicity” big stick leans against the desk. Caption: (The packers who smiled over Judge Humphreys’ ruling in March now have something else to think about.”

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1906-05-29

President Roosevelt, Speaker of the House Joseph Gurney Cannon, Indiana Senator Albert J. Beveridge, and Commissioner of Corporations at the Department of Commerce and Labor James Rudolph Garfield James Rudolph Garfield lead a “beef trust” minotaur to a “publicity” pond. There is “the muckrake” alligator on the shore.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1906-05-29

A “meat packer” and a “beef trust” man sit outside of the White House covered in bandages. The “meat packer” asks, “Aren’t you glad Bryan wasn’t elected?”

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1906-06-12

President Roosevelt puts a “substitute bill” in a suitcase as a “beef trust” hand sneaks a similar looking “Beveridge bill” suitcase into the room through a secret door. The “big stick” leans up against a desk.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1906-06-16

President Roosevelt fights a “Chicago compressed cooked corned beef” minotaur that stands outside of the “beef trust labyrinth.”

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1906-06-13

President Roosevelt is surrounded by a number of percussion instruments: “railroad rates” cymbals, a “sugar trust” bass drum, “beef trust” and “standard oil” timpani, a “race suicide” rope tension snare drum, a “muckrakers” triangle instrument, and a “drug trust” drum.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1906-05-12

President Roosevelt points revolvers toward several items: a “beef trust” bull, a “railroad rebate” locomotive, and a “Standard Oil” can. Meanwhile, John Findley Wallace runs toward the “subway.”

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1905-07-02

President Roosevelt whittles a “R. R. rate regulation” big stick to add to his pile of big sticks: “tobacco trust investigation,” “beef trust investigation,” and “Standard Oil investigation.” Uncle Sam hands him an “enforcement of existing laws” big stick. A man labeled “the trusts” stands behind a corner and watches.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1905-05-08

President Roosevelt wears several weapons and walks toward a number of wild animals. He leaves behind the “big stick” and several scrolls: “protocol,” “Santo Domingo treaty,” “report beef trust,” “Panama,” and “Venezu[ela] dispute.”

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1905-04-02

A “beef trust” bull with “low prices” legs and “high prices” horns jumps toward a “consumer” man. A “cattle raiser” jumps backward. President Roosevelt holds a lasso and rides toward the bull. The United States Capitol building is in the background.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1905-01-08

President Roosevelt rides an elephant and tries to lasso a number of locomotives: “freight lines,” “rebate system,” and “Beef Trust Refrigerating Line Car Co.” A “small shipper” man lies on the ground.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1904-12-25

A highlighted article in Leslie’s Weekly notes the support President Roosevelt is receiving for renomination in 1908 in spite of his protestations against running for another term. Other articles on the page include criticism of Senator Henry Cabot Lodge for joining the outcry against the meat-packing industry and an evaluation of the election of 1860 which saw Abraham Lincoln come to the presidency. On the verso is the cover image of a nearly finished battleship.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1906-07-12

This book chronicles the relationship between John Goodall and Theodore Roosevelt. Goodall met Roosevelt in 1884 at the local Stock Men’s Association meeting. Later, Roosevelt worked for Goodall as a cowhand. When Roosevelt was president, he offered Goodall a position as Livestock Superintendent of Indian Agencies at Large.

Collection

Dickinson State University

Creation Date

1931

A large, possibly conjoined figure labeled “Meat Trust” sits on a building labeled “Packing House.” The more benevolent half, facing left, is offering advice to a man labeled “Farmer,” and the more mean-spirited half, facing right, is telling the same farmer, now with cattle in tow, that he has no option but to accept the price offered for his cattle. Caption: Before. The Meat Trust (to a small farmer) — “My friend, why don’t you raise a few cattle each year? The price of beef is high. You will make good money.” After. The Meat Trust (to same small farmer) — “The price I offer for your cattle is low, is it? Well, you may take it or leave it, my friend. There is nobody else for you to sell to.”

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1913-10-15

President Roosevelt writes his son Kermit to convey a note the Rector at Groton School sent about Kermit’s decision to remain there for his last year. Roosevelt also discusses his opinion of the meat packers. He closes with his opinion of how his legislation will do in Congress and what he feels will be the public perception of him.

Collection

Harvard College Library

Creation Date

1906-06-13

Vignettes show how livestock is treated before being slaughtered and sent to the butcher.

Comments and Context

The Packingtown neighborhood of Chicago — its real name — was largely unknown to most Americans until the actual vast slaughtering and packing landscape of the major meat companies gained notoriety as the setting for Upton Sinclair’s sensational book The Jungle. 

Not wanting that impression to linger with American consumers, the five major meat packers that comprised the Beef Trust responded with planted articles, advertisements, testimonials, and such. And cartoonists like Puck‘s L. M. Glackens followed suit with predictable commentary and satire.

A butcher labeled “The Beef Trust” stands behind a counter in a butcher shop. Around him are meat products labeled “Potted Poison, Chemical Corn Beef, Bob Veal Chicken, Tuberculosis Lard, Decayed Roast Beef, Deodorized Ham, Embalmed Sausages, [and] Putrefied Pork.” A verse from the Bible appears below the counter: “Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink.” Matthew VI:25.

Comments and Context

Carl Hassmann’s cover cartoon in Puck is of a recent thematic preoccupation in the weekly — not intending to amuse, and advocating for a cause rather than a party. At the muckraking height of scandals and exposes of the Beef Trust, the meat-packing industry, adulterated foods, and dangerous patent medicines, a stereotypical grimy butcher might have converted readers to vegetarianism, but at least stoked the campaigns for Pure Food and Drug laws.

Bob veal, by the way, sometimes passing as chicken, is today banned in places. It is the meat of baby cattle between two hours and two days old. The meat is, predictably, tender. In traditional Roman cuisine, and making a comeback in some Roman restaurants, pajata is a dish made from baby veals’ intestines containing only chyme (partially digested mother’s milk), tied as little sausages and served with rigatoni.