Monopolies

Senator Marcus Alonzo Hanna, wearing a sign “Please help the poor,” and J.P. Morgan, carrying a model ship labeled “Leyland S.S. Lines,” stand at the end of a pier with the “Ship Yard” behind them. They hold out their hats, one labeled “For a shipping subsidy,” to Uncle Sam standing in front of the U.S. Treasury. An enormous ocean-going steamship, flying a banner “American built ships,” floats offshore in the distance. Caption: Uncle Sam. — You are already building up a monopoly without help; – why should I pay you a subsidy?

comments and context

Comments and Context

Dalrymple’s cartoon states well the widespread opposition to shipbuilding subsidies. Political rivalries, even within his own Republican Party, resulted in frustrations for Senator Hanna, who lobbied for Cleveland manufacturers. A rising tide of anti-monopoly sentiment likewise frustrated J. P. Morgan in his goal to dominate another business sector. The “McKinley Prosperity,” including bumper crops producing materials the world desired, encouraged efforts to increase American maritime trade and ships to convey goods to the world, and return with raw and manufactured goods. Public sentiment recognized that shipbuilders were doing quite well without government handouts. Morgan, always on the lookout for handouts if he could secure them, eventually, with complicated commercial and legal machinations, allied his interests with English firms and received subsidies from the British government. Included in his efforts was the cooperation of Bruce Ismay, later a survivor and vilified figure in the Titanic disaster, and the purchase of the White Star Line, which built the Titanic.

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!

comments and context

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.

At a table set for a meal, President William McKinley, on the left, and William Jennings Bryan, on the right, each offer up a steaming plate of bloated male figures labeled “Commercial Trusts,” to a much larger man sitting between them. The man wears a napkin tied around his neck labeled “Labor Trust” and holds a knife and fork. Caption: Both candidates promise to serve up the little trusts to the big one.

comments and context

Comments and Context

This cartoon shows a familiar scenario in American politics at the mid-point in presidential elections. The issues and figures change, but rivals often make appeals to — or pander to — the same potential voting groups. Laborers, the rising middle class in 1900, represented a sizable portion of the electorate, even if individual or industries had influences in their spheres. 

Attorney General Knox drives the Republican elephant, carrying President Roosevelt, on the road of prosperity, knocking a car labeled Grinding Monopoly off the road. Caption: Roosevelt to Knox–Keep the elephant along the line of common sense regulation, Knox, but clean out the illegal combinations.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1903-04-03

Uncle Sam helps President Roosevelt split a log labeled with various monopolies and trusts. Roosevelt’s mallet is labeled the “Attorney General” and his wedge “The Law.”

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1902-08-07

A mountain lion and bear look on as President Roosevelt, dressed as a hunter, walks past them following a set of prints labeled “Trusts.” Caption: The Mountain Lion – Say, Brer’ Bear, ain’t you glad you’re not the trusts?

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1902-08-26

Transcripts of two letters endorsing William M. Babbott’s ideas for economic questions in America. Babbott would enclose these in a letter to Theodore Roosevelt many years after these letters were received.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1901

President Roosevelt informs Edward Henry Harriman that there are several matters concerning trusts and politics that they need to discuss after Roosevelt returns from the northwestern trip.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1902-09-15

Theodore Roosevelt accuses William Jennings Bryan of misquoting a statement Roosevelt made regarding the Steel Trust. Roosevelt provides evidence of his actual statement and requests that Bryan issue a public retraction.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1912-10-22

Theodore Roosevelt’s secretary communicates Roosevelt’s regrets that he will not be able to keep his appointment with H. B. Jayne. He also disputes Jayne’s statement that Roosevelt wants to “destroy the Standard Oil Company” and other trusts without preparing to replace it. Roosevelt’s position is to control “big business,” not to destroy it. The secretary also addresses Jayne’s statement that the Pacific Coast requires definite declarations, by giving specific examples of when Roosevelt did make specific declarations and requesting that Jayne read the Progressive Party platform.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1912-08-22

Theodore Roosevelt’s secretary thanks Joseph Leis for the pamphlet concerning the German monopoly of petroleum sent to Theodore Roosevelt. He writes that Roosevelt is pleased with the work King Carol I has done to curb Standard Oil Trust in Romania.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1912-05-09

Theodore Roosevelt explains the fallacy of President William H. Taft’s argument in the Controller Bay case to Frank Knox.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1911-08-15

Theodore Roosevelt thanks Richard Wilson Knott for the letter and editorial. He asks which “Mr. Parsons” advocates for the “1st-alone policy?” This policy permitted the growth of a power greater than law and must be dissolved. Roosevelt understands the dangers of falling into a tyrannical bureaucracy when ridding an irresponsible autocracy. He does not understand Knott’s allusion to his endorsement of Elbert H. Gary’s proposition that the government fix steel prices.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1911-08-08

Theodore Roosevelt asks Charles J. Bonaparte if Bonaparte was Attorney General when they began the suit against the Standard Oil Company and the American Tobacco Company.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1911-07-21

Theodore Roosevelt’s secretary informs Congressman Humphrey that Roosevelt read his article about steamship monopolies with interest and wishes to thank Humphrey for sending it to him. Roosevelt looks forward to seeing Humphrey whenever he visits New York.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1911-04-21

Theodore Roosevelt tells Representative Martin that he believes that William Dudley Foulke’s article about the German and Canadian experiments show the first “really practical way” out of the monopoly matter. Roosevelt agrees with Martin that competition should determine prices, but when corporations become too powerful and the government is faced with a choice between price regulation by monopolies or price regulation by law, it is necessary to regulate prices by law.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1911-02-10

Lyman Abbott received S. P. Lathrop’s letter about the Georgia Ice Trust and will bring it to Theodore Roosevelt’s attention. However, Roosevelt likely will not address it during his trip to Atlanta, Georgia. Abbott assures Lathrop that Roosevelt will sympathize with the attempts to “overthrow the power of monopoly of every description.”

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1910-10-03

Theodore Roosevelt informs Hugh Gordon Miller that he is correct that Roosevelt is not running for mayor. Roosevelt is also pleased with Miller’s statement about the “Wickersham – New York, New Haven and Hartford” matter. Roosevelt had given the New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad “permission” to buy a line of steamships to prevent Charlie Morse from having a monopoly. This in no way affects the actions of President William H. Taft.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1912-12-04

President Roosevelt notes the suggestions in Leslie M. Shaw’s letter as pertaining to monopolies. Furthermore, Shaw provided a helpful hint regarding the need to apply the same regulations to other industries which will be enforced over the railroads.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1907-03-15

President Roosevelt asks Acting Chairman of the Interstate Commerce Commission Clements about the contradiction of opinion found in his paper on the Union Pacific Railroad Company coal investigation, specifically, the sale of public coal lands to private entities. 

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1906-10-13