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Paul V. Collins informs Theodore Roosevelt that Minnesota and Dakota farmers opposed Canadian reciprocity, citing economic losses and betrayal by the administration, and describes efforts to organize a Farmers’ League for protection of agricultural interests.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1911-09-13
Thomas T. Wright expresses to Oscar W. Underwood that the U.S. needs more American ships in foreign trade and urges Congress to pass a ship subsidy bill to support the merchant marine and boost the southern economy.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1911-09-11
Albert Clarke, secretary of the Home Market Club in Boston, wires to President Roosevelt to express concern that tariff revisions may be imminent. Clarke refers to a recent newspaper article on the subject. Clarke discusses reactions in Michigan, and New England, regarding possible reciprocity with Canada.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1904-11-20
Joseph Chamberlain holds a pair of shears labeled “Protection” and is about to trim the mane labeled “Free Trade” of the British Lion.
The subtext of this cartoon is the policy altercations occurring within the British government of the day. Joseph Chamberlain was one of the most consequential British politicians who never became Prime Minister. His peregrinations from party to party — Liberal, Unionist, Conservative — effectively realigned Westminster twice. He played an important role in advancing the Boer War, and he upset Britain’s long-standing policy (once considered sacrosanct) of free trade with the world.
A young woman labeled “Cuba” turns away from Uncle Sam who is offering her a plate labeled “Reduction of Tariff on Cuban Sugar” with an egg labeled 20% on it. In the background a man labeled “American Sugar Grower” is enraged because he feels the egg is larger than it should be. Caption: Cuba — Only this little egg for me? / Sugar Planter — All that big egg for her?
In the years subsequent to the Spanish-American War, the United States betook itself of separate policies for each of its new colonies. Its role in Cuba can be contrasted with Puerto Rico, where long-term territorial ties were assumed from the start, and the Philippines, where insurrectionists fought any continuing presence of the United States. Cuban freedom fighters were used to agitating for freedom, and the island’s businesses were developed enough to reasonably assert independence. The United States had to navigate between these legitimate desires, and Cuba’s major export crop, sugar; and the demands of America’s powerful sugar lobby. The egg in the cartoon’s symbolism is a seasonal icon.
An interior view of the House of Representatives shows Republicans on one side and Democrats on the other. A gigantic man wearing a crown labeled “Protected Trusts” and clothing decorated with dollar signs, his hands resting on a huge club labeled “Protected Tariffs,” sits before them, dwarfing the Speaker’s chair and rostrum. Representative Joseph W. Babcock climbs the club and turns to address Republican colleagues who attempt to flee in fear. The Democrats calmly sit and laugh. Caption: Representative Babcock (to his Republican Associates)–You’d better help me take this club away! The Democrats will do it if you don’t!
Around the turn of the century, elements in the Republican Party grew enamored of reciprocity as the basis of foreign trade. Not as radical as free trade, but an end to tariff wars; and even the pontiff of protectionism, slowly had been warming to the concept of reciprocity. President Theodore Roosevelt was firm in his agnosticism on the issue: he readily admitted he understood little of economics and he realized that tariff debates were the rocks on which many administrations had foundered. Indeed, there were to be no major tariff revisions in Roosevelt’s seven and a half years in the White House. At the time of this cartoon, Roosevelt had convened a meeting of major Republican figures, experts on protection and trade, to Oyster Bay in hopes of agreeing on a party policy. None was reached. In the meantime, the Wisconsin Representative Joseph W. Babcock startled Congress by introducing a tariff bill based on the “Iowa Idea” and aimed at the steel trust. It basically held that import tariffs that “protected” domestic industries controlled by trusts and monopolies would be eliminated. Bold or naive or both, Babcock’s bill failed passage. It was, however, a ripple of the wave of the future, and Keppler’s brilliant cartoon shows Babcock attempting to add a political-survival argument to his cause.
An old man labeled “Progressive Republican” tries to pull an aged and battered elephant labeled “G.O.P.” from where it kneels before a golden idol with a “$” on its chest, sitting on a pedestal labeled “High Protection Idol.” The elephant has wrapped its trunk around a bar attached to the “High Tariff Altar.” In the background, the U.S. Capitol beams “Fair Trade.”
Interesting aspects of this cartoon relate to the term “Progressive” being attached to the anti-Protectionist Republican. One is Puck‘s positive characterization of free-trade advocates. More interesting is the adjective “progressive” — a term not in general use in 1901. In five years or so, reformist Republicans were called “Insurgents” and after a decade or so, “Progressive” was a term applied to Republicans, then Democrats, who favored a program of political, economic, and social reforms. Thus this cartoon was, perhaps unintentionally, prophetic.
President Roosevelt tells Sir George Otto Trevelyan of his happiness regarding the recent 1904 presidential election, and remarks that he is glad people decided to support the positive message of the Republican Party, rather than the negativity of the Democratic Party. The president attributes his victory to the clear-cut message in his speeches and addresses as well as those canvassing for him. Roosevelt discusses the differences between the American president and other political leaders and believes the American president is more like the British prime minister than the French president. he additionally reflects on his intention not to run for a third term. Even without the convention of only two terms, the president believes it would be better for Secretary of War William H. Taft or Elihu Root to succeed him; they are similar in policy, but would have fresh thoughts and ways. Roosevelt concludes by discussing his recent reading. He praises a section from one of Abraham Lincoln’s speeches after his reelection and equates certain American political leaders to characters in Charles Dickens’s works.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1904-11-24
President Roosevelt fears that the defeat of the Cuban reciprocity treaty will create calls for the reduction of the tariff and further reciprocity in Congress and the Republican party. Roosevelt believes that the protective system is essential for economic well being.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1903-06-19
Although policies of reciprocity look in many ways like free trade, it functions similarly to protective policies, and leads to worse results by even more blatantly favoring the producer over the consumer.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1902
Thomas O. Marvin writes Theodore Roosevelt concerning a speech Roosevelt gave in Boston, Massachusetts the previous year. The speech involved protection and how to ensure it. Marvin asks Roosevelt if he would be willing to read and review a speech given by William Cox Redfield in The Outlook.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1911-06-19
Nicholas Murray Butler tells President Roosevelt that he is not interested in running for governor of New York and that he has much good work to do as president of Columbia University. He discusses protectionist policies and how they will affect the future success of the Republican party. He also comments on Alton B. Parker’s candidacy.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1904-08-28
Uncle Sam looks skeptically at a “Democratic coin” with Alton B. Parker’s face on it. “Anti-protectionism,” “anti-patriotism,” “anti-expansion,” and “anti-prosperity” are on the four parts of the coin and “doubtful money” is on the bottom.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1904-10-15
An opinion piece from The Outlook magazine of London, England, discussing the debate over Japanese laborers in British colonies.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1907-10-12
Roosevelt is running towards the right side of the image while holding the hand of a smaller child labeled “Panama Canal” in one hand, and a paper on which is written “markets of the world” in the other. Behind the two figures is a large wall labeled “$acred tariff wall” on top of which sit a large man whose hat reads “the trusts” and the Republican elephant. The man looks angry, and gestures towards Roosevelt with a stick, while the elephant looks shocked. Far in the background are smokestacks.
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs
1905-05-17
A congressional inquiry is shown based on the painting Phryne before the Areopagus. The illustration depicts “High Tariff Phryne” being disrobed by a man labeled “Special Privilege,” causing much excitement among the group of unidentified congressmen. Most prominent among them is Joseph G. Cannon. The golden “Ark of the Dingley Covenant” rests in the center of the room.
The famous 1861 painting by the French Academician Jean-Louis Gerome, “Phryne Before the Areopagus,” is the basis of Udo J. Keppler’s cartoon — or, rather, the model of the cartoon’s composition, for the painting became more notable for its parodies and allegorical uses.
George B. Curtiss recommends that Roosevelt’s presidential campaign support the central issue of protectionism.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1904-01-08
Nicholas Murray Butler encourages President Roosevelt to “stick to his principles and compel action” concerning efforts to expand trade relations with Cuba and the West Indies. He cautions that unless Republicans who support protective trade measures take the lead on the matter the Democrats will have a strong campaign issue and could consequently “tear down the whole protective system.”
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1902-02-03