Your TR Source
A. B. King tells Theodore Roosevelt that arbitration treaties are not the answer because individuals need higher morality in order for peace to last. The Church can provide the higher morality the world needs, but if the church could present it using science, such as French scientists do, there would be more success as bringing people back to the Church.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1911-12-12
John E. Forbes tells Theodore Roosevelt that he hopes Roosevelt’s plan for dealing with trusts will work if he returns to the presidency, and all signs point to Roosevelt becoming president again. Forbes has worked with hardware manufactures all his life and shares his knowledge of trusts and the damage they do to people and communities.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1911-12-12
Secretary of War Taft reviews the history of a proposed meeting between President Roosevelt and representatives of railroad interests. Banker Harry Bowly Hollins, being “fearful of a financial panic through the country,” believed that public confidence could be restored by President Roosevelt meeting with representatives of the railroads about their adherence to the Rate Bill. At first, it was thought the meeting should be with railroad presidents, but subsequently, a meeting with J. Pierpont Morgan was deemed to be better. Having discussed the proposal with Roosevelt, Taft relayed the latter’s doubts about the usefulness of such a meeting, but that he was willing to meet with Morgan, as long as everyone understood it was not at his request.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1907-03-11
Brooks Adams writes to President Roosevelt to express his concern and offer advice in regards to Roosevelt’s attempt to “force through a new policy” that is opposed by titans of industry, finance, and the press. Adams also details how opponents support making Joseph Benson Foraker president by capitalizing on the Brownsville Affair. Adams’s primary advice for Roosevelt is to fight relentlessly at every opportunity to eventually force a popular vote on the issue.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1907-01-06
J. Pierpont Morgan will be in Washington, D.C., for the Gridiron dinner. President Roosevelt should extend an invitation to Morgan to visit the White House.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1904-12-10
A tall President Roosevelt holds a big stick as a variety of groups hurl objects at him, including “so-called innocent stockholders,” “wrongdoing lawyers,” “railroad debaters,” “nature fakirs,” “undesirable citizens,” “purchased politicians,” and the “liars brigade.” John D. Rockefeller, J. Pierpont Morgan, and Edward Henry Harriman are prominent figures in the center.
Theodore Roosevelt, as president or at any time in his career, famously was a master of what a historian has called “The Art of Controversy.” At the least he did not shy from debates and even vivid disagreements. When he thought newspapers engaged in fake news, he threatened to sue (The New York World and its publisher Joseph Pulitzer in one example). He was not chary of calling opponents liars, and he rhetorically consigned political enemies to what he called the “Ananias Club,” after the New Testament figure who was struck dead by the Holy Spirit for lying about his offerings.
A man looks at “Doctor Cortelyou” and holds a bag of “$: Dr. Hayseed’s pills” while Uncle Sam lies incapacitated in a bed. Cortelyou says, “I’ve made a careful diagnosis of Uncle’s case, and I think your pills will put him on his feet.” President Roosevelt looks on and says, “I hope Uncle will get no worse.” J. Pierpont Morgan says to John D. Rockefeller, “They are very much alarmed about the condition of Uncle. I’m afraid John, the last dose you gave him didn’t do him any good. They don’t seem to think much of your skill when they called in a country practitioner.”
The focus of this cartoon was that of the entire nation itself, a bare month into the Wall Street Panic of 1907. Cartoonist J. F. Collins had greater fame and a longer career as a strip cartoonist for Sunday newspapers than for political cartoons. “A Serious Case” is indeed a case study of why the case was so serious.
President Roosevelt celebrates his forty-ninth birthday with a variety of friends. In the upper left hand corner at the piano are New York Governor Charles Evans Hughes and Thomas Fortune Ryan singing, “Oh let us be joyful.” Booker T. Washington tells Henry Watterson, “Henry, I hope you’ll come down and visit me at Tuskegee.” Senator Joseph Benson Foraker says to Secretary of War William H. Taft, “I heard a good story today, Will.” Speaker of the House Joseph Gurney Cannon and Vice President Charles W. Fairbanks look at a picture of George Washington, and Fairbanks says, “That picture makes me sad. It reminds me of cherries.” William Randolph Hearst, James Roscoe Day, and Secretary of State Elihu Root look at a book of “Snapshots in New York.” William Jennings Bryan and Grover Cleveland play a game of checkers, and Bryan says, “After you, Grover.” J. Pierpont Morgan watches over the game with his hand on Bryan’s back. Henry Huttleston Rogers, F. Augustus Heinze, and Thomas William Lawson sit together. Lawson says, “Rogers, my boy, you must come over to Boston and visit me.” John D. Rockefeller points at Kenesaw Mountain Landis’s chest while President Roosevelt presents a bouquet to James J. Hill as William J. Long looks on. Finally, James T. Harahan, Edward Henry Harriman, and Stuyvesant Fish read “Snap Shots Along the Illinois Central.” Harriman remarks, “Very nice album, Stuyvesant, is it not?”
There are contexts behind this cartoon by John T. McCutcheon of The Chicago Tribune that might not be apparent to modern researchers. The first is somewhat evident by reading the dialog balloons between figures in the pairings or clusters. Almost appropriate for an April Fool’s cartoon instead of something closer to Halloween is the ironic juxtaposition in every case — political opponents or business rivals exchanging niceties. In fact, insights might be gained by reading the nature of their “about-face” encounters.
Uncle Sam eyes “Wall St.,” J. Pierpont Morgan, and John D. Rockefeller holding up a large “financial panic” rock. The man labeled Wall St. says, “It’s o.k. We have it safe.” President Roosevelt also looks on, holding a bear under his right arm and a rifle in his left hand.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1907-10-24
William Loeb holds “Speech No. 1 Canton” in his left hand and a barrel in his right hand labeled “six speeches for western delivery.” Several men look on, including “Wall Street,” J. Pierpont Morgan, John D. Rockefeller, and Edward Henry Harriman. Morgan says, “Oh, for a look in.”
President Roosevelt’s private secretary William Loeb advanced from taking dictation and handling White House correspondence to managing logistics and sometimes, at the end of Roosevelt’s term, interacting with officials and politicians
President Roosevelt with a teddy bear nearby awakes from slumber and sees the ghosts of Edward Henry Harriman, J. Pierpont Morgan, Henry Huttleston Rogers, and John D. Rockefeller.
The young Clifford Kennedy Berryman employed lines from the Eugene Field poem “Seein’ Things,” in this cartoon. His references for the boogymen scaring President Roosevelt in bed were unfortunately photos of the smiling robber barons John D. Rockefeller, J. Pierpont Morgan, Edward Henry Harriman, and Henry Huttleston Rogers. They are out of perspective, and too genial, to be appropriate in the drawing.
President Roosevelt cuts another notch—”federal control of railroads”—in his big stick that already has several notches: “meat inspection,” “canal,” “R.R. rate regulation,” and “pure food.” In the background are James J. Hill, J. Pierpont Morgan, and Edward Henry Harriman holding knives with a banner behind them, “Angry R.R. magnates in their one act come by, entitled. We’re always agin the president.”
Seldom does a political cartoon simultaneously hit the mark in the presentation of an idea, or explanation of a situation in the news, and convey real humor (if such was intended). The otherwise little-known St. Louis cartoonist Elmer C. Donnell achieved both in this textbook-explication of President Roosevelt, his reform agenda — “his policies” — and relationship and reactions of America’s most prominent trust magnates of the day.
Three pilgrims (Edward Henry Harriman, J. Pierpont Morgan, and James J. Hill) look toward the Sphinx that has President Roosevelt’s head. Caption: The Pilgrims Who Sought an Oracle Find a Sphynx
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1907-04-01
President Roosevelt holds Edward Henry Harriman and J. Pierpont Morgan on his knees. Morgan holds a boat. Roosevelt says, “Now children, all in the world you have to do is to be good.”
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1907
President Roosevelt is decked out with boxing gloves, prepared to hit a boxing bag with a face on it. In the foreground is a large weight labeled, “R.R. statistics,” and a teddy bear about to swing a club at a train. A man checks the calendar and three men are pictured on the wall, including J. Pierpont Morgan, Edward Henry Harriman, and likely James J. Hill.
Following the meeting between President Theodore Roosevelt and J. Pierpont Morgan, representing major railroad executives, on March 12 in the White House, and many other discussions since January on matters of concern to the industry, the president was understood to be preparing a speech on the subject.
J. Pierpont Morgan and Edward Henry Harriman stand on the side of the “Square Deal” labeled “railway interests” while President Roosevelt stands on the other side, “public interests.” In the foreground is an elephant holding a ruler labeled, “Square Deal” and a book entitled, “How to Square a Circle.”
President Roosevelt was a voluble leader who had a gift for colorful and memorable phrases. He often encapsulated a concept or policy in a pithy word or phrase, as with “race suicide” or “malefactors of great wealth”; or by bestowing labels that would universally resonate, like his “bull moose” remarks when he renewed his electoral ambitions. “Bully” and “Dee-lighted” were words instantly and permanently associated with his personality.
On the “then” side stands a short President Roosevelt holding a paper that reads, “Railroad Regulation Proposition.” Surrounding him are railroad magnates that are saying, “Oh, I must smile,” “‘Tis to laugh!” and “Hee haw!” On the “now” side stands an extremely tall Roosevelt with railroad magnates bowing at his feet.
Two days after a notable White House meeting between President Roosevelt and J. Pierpont Morgan, representing the nation’s major railroad interests, cartoonist Clifford Kennedy Berryman drew this cartoon about the adjusted perceptions of power-figures in the momentous legislative and regulatory wrangles over consolidation, routes, and rates.
J. Pierpont Morgan kneels at President Roosevelt’s feet saying, “Save us, Mr. President, save us!” Behind Morgan are three men labeled “R. R. Magnates” standing in the doorway.
The timing of this cartoon’s publication lends extraordinary historical significance to the depiction, in a way that could not have been known by cartoonist Clifford Kennedy Barryman.
President Roosevelt points to handwriting on the wall, “Regulation or Revolution?”, as he sits at a table with J. Pierpont Morgan, John D. Rockefeller, and Henry Huttleston Rogers.
Cartoonist Albert J. Taylor was earnest in his spin on a popular political-cartoon inspiration, the writing on the wall. Other than a wall, and writing, and perhaps an interrupted feast, any parallels to the Book of Daniel and Belshazzar’s Feast are elusive.
New York Herald, September 7, 1901, pages 3-14:
Page 3: Banner headline: Anarchists Shoots the President — Six of Clan/Arrested in Chicago — Doctors Are Hopeful – Black ink drawing the interior of the Temple of Music and portrait of William McKinley – “Leon Czolgosz, Pole, Fired the Shots While He was Shaking Hands with His Victim” – Details of the shooting – “Leading Interests Will Support the Market” – Statement by James Stillman, president of the National City Bank (cont. on pages 4-5)
Page 4: Banner headline: Vice President Roosevelt Hurrying on to Buffalo – Drawings captioned: Bird’s Eye View of the Pan-American Exposition Grounds; The Service Building – The President was Taken to the Hospital in This Building – “Description of the President’s Wounds” – Statement by George B. Cortelyou
Page 5: Banner headline: Mrs. M’Kinley Brave When Told Her Husband was Hurt – Drawings captioned: McKinley’s Birth Place; The Old Sparrow House, Poland, O., Where McKinley Enlisted in 1862; Mrs. Nancy A. McKinley, Mother of the President; McKinley, As a New Recruit – “Mrs. M’Kinley Bravely Receives Terrible News” – How Mrs. McKinley was told – “Mr. Roosevelt Hurries to President’s Bedside” – How TR found out about the shooting and got to the train headed to Buffalo – “William Jennings Bryan Says, Wipe Anarchy from the Earth” – Statement by Bryan – “Police Cannot Trace Either Assassin’s Past or Friends” – Attempts to locate where Czolgosz came from – “All Nations May Join In Stamping Out Anarchism” – Reaction of foreign diplomats in Washington and proposed actions