Petroleum industry and trade

Earth, with the face of John D. Rockefeller, appears against an oil slick labeled “The oily way” showing oil cans.

Comments and Context

Cartoonist Joseph Keppler, Junior’s caricatures of moguls like John D. Rockefeller, as here, by 1905 ceased to portray happy or neutral faces. Rather the trust giants were bitter or dyspeptic in their cartoons. So Rockefeller’s expression bears no relation to the circumstances suggested.

In fact the depicted situation was pleasing to Rockefeller. He was richest an in America at the time; and, some people compute with adjustments for time and economic changes, the richest man, ever, in America. The context of the front-page cartoon is to make a simple pun on recent reports in the Muckraking press about Rockefeller and his oil empire — particularly 19 monthly installments by Ida Tarbell in McClure’s magazine, then collected in a book, The History of Standard Oil.

Henry Harrison Tucker Jr., as the youthful David with sling, confronts John D. Rockefeller, as Goliath, holding a large club labeled “Standard Oil.”

Comments and Context

In the same way that history largely remembers Thomas W. Lawson as a crusader who wrote his articles and book “Frenzied Finance” as an expose of Wall Street corruption — but was actually a non-apologetic bit of revenge on his former partners in mining trusts — so is Henry Harrison Tucker, Junior, often recalled (if at all) as the little David of the oil fields challenging big, bad John D. Rockefeller. So in Puck cartoonist J. S. Pughe depicted the blonde-haired loner.

Much of the public viewed Tucker this way at the time. He founded the Uncle Sam Oil Company and the Texas American Syndicate at the time of this cartoon, when, contrarily, the Rockefellers were gobbling up oil companies and wildcat drillers across the landscape.

A “Standard Oil” storage tank appears as an octopus with many tentacles. It is wrapped around the steel, copper, and shipping industries, as well as a state house and the U.S. Capitol, and one tentacle is reaching for the White House.

Comments and Context

The rapid growth of John D. Rockefeller’s Standard Oil Corporation was astonishing, especially since it commenced barely more than a generation before this 1904 cartoon by Keppler. Oil and its derivatives like kerosene and gasoline rapidly became staples and necessities of American life. At one time Rockefeller controlled more than 90 per cent of American oil extraction (until Standard Oil was ordered by the courts to break up into many entities). With adjustments, Rockefeller is still reckoned to have been the richest American in history.

Understandably — whether viewed from legitimate self-interest or greed — Standard Oil (in 1904 almost the sole constituent member of the “Oil Trust”) had interests beyond pumping oil in many areas of American life. Rockefeller owned or controlled virtually everything from magazines to politicians. Additionally, in the fashion of J. P. Morgan and other financiers, he had begun to organize his empire along “vertical” lines — owning everything from means of production to retail deliveries.

At center a group of six men, including John D. Rockefeller and E. B. Thomas, warm themselves by a stove labeled “Standard Oil.” At bottom left Andrew Carnegie burns “U.S. Steel Bonds” and Charles Schwab attempts to burn “Steel Common” stocks. On the right Chauncey Depew burns speeches. On the middle left a tramp rests against a haystack in the warm sun. On the right William Jennings Bryan generates hot air while speaking to a group of farmers. On the top left a family burns the furniture in a fireplace. On the right E. B. Thomas sits in front of a fireplace where a lump of “Radium” is warming the room.

Comments and Context

Eben B. Thomas had risen from telegraph operator to the presidency of the Erie Railroad (and eventually the Lehigh Valley Railroad). He was very successful at consolidating rail lines and their efficiency, and maintaining labor harmony in an era of conflict. In his position he became a useful ally of J. P. Morgan, John D. Rockefeller, and Andrew Carnegie, especially in his geographic “domain” of central Pennsylvania, land of oil, coal, and steel mills.

In 1904 Thomas wrote about a future United States less dependent on coal, and happily reliant on oil — Standard Oil, by implication. That such a vision matched the hopes and plans of the assembled moguls in Ehrhart’s center-cartoon is easily deduced from the montage’s vignettes.

In a business office, the president of an oil company talks to a resident of the local community. He is explaining to “Mr. Haysede” why his company has to issue more stock. Caption: Mr. Haysede — I see by your advertisements that you’re going to issue some more stock. What’s that for? / Oil President — What for? Why, my good fellow, we’ve earned so much money in the past six months that we’re obliged to have more stock to pay dividends on it order to get rid of it.

Comments and Context

Gallaway’s cartoon makes a political, or economic, point masquerading as a simple joke. “Hayseeds” and “rubes” were stereotypical uneducated rural types frequently fleeced by manipulative swindlers from the city. In this cartoon, Gallaway engaged in hyperbole, because in 1903 it was not only gullible farmers who were skeptical about stock watering; the middle class, small businessmen, and, increasingly, the federal government under President Theodore Roosevelt who questioned Wall Street’s manipulation of share values.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

A dejected coal sculpture of a royal figure labeled “Old King Coal” wears robes and a crown which he holds onto his head. In the background are factories burning oil for fuel and spewing thick black smoke which drifts, in the shape of a hand, toward the coal sculpture with the intent of snatching the crown from his head.

Comments and Context

This feast of iconography by cartoonist Pughe also is prophetic. Oil was a relatively new commodity in the United States at this time, but today less than a third of America’s energy is provided by coal.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

John D. Rockefeller, Jr., wearing a huge crown and robe, stands on an oil storage tank labeled “Standard Oil” and glares at the viewer. The crown is adorned with railroad cars, oil tanks, and the names of four railroad companies: “Lehigh Valley R.R., St. Paul R.R., Jersey Central R.R., [and] Reading Rail Road,” and topped with a dollar sign.

Comments and Context

What is not said or shown in this cartoon is the reality of “Trust Question.” John D Rockefeller, Jr., managing most of the family business, as it were, not only controlled a monopoly on oil, but many railroads needed to transport and market that oil. It was necessary that he make alliances with various railroad barons; which led to rate-fixing schemes. Steel was needed in countless enterprises, so partnerships were struck with Andrew Carnegie and other steel magnates, including, in turn, coal trusts. Financing for these activities was needed, and the J. P. Morgan was intimately involved in commercial enterprises. The United States was threatened to be run by the trusts as much as the national government or private enterprise, an urgent situation addressed by Theodore Roosevelt when he became president. 

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

William Loeb informs T. Louis Welp that the Roosevelt family does not give endorsements for articles sent to them. Loeb returns a board game called Independent Oil that Welp had asked for Archie Roosevelt to endorse.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1906-12-19

President Roosevelt tells Secretary of the Interior Hitchcock that contracts appear to be the primary complaint in the oil business. He wants to know more and asks Hitchcock to send the forms of contracts.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1906-09-11

President Roosevelt sends Secretary of the Interior Hitchcock a letter he received on behalf of Theodore N. Barnsdall regarding the leasing of oil and gas lands in Indian Territory and Oklahoma. As Roosevelt is not especially familiar with the issue, he asks Hitchcock for his opinion on the matter, and will likely solicit opinions from other members of the cabinet as well. Roosevelt outlines the various leases, sub-leases, and agreements Barnsdall entered into in involvement in the oil and gas trade. Roosevelt asks for detailed comments on the various points of the letter so that he will be able to respond knowledgeably. In a postscript, he also asks Hitchcock to send a copy of this letter to Alban B. Butler for his commentary, as he is a reputable, independent oil operator who can offer his knowledge of the issues.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1906-08-18

Representative Stephens asks Theodore Roosevelt to speak to the California Chamber of Mines and Oil, which would “greatly encourage” the developing industries.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1911-02-21