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Secretary of Puerto Rico Regis Henri Post writes to President Roosevelt about Puerto Rico’s Governor Beekman Winthrop. Post praises Winthrop’s work and congratulates Roosevelt for encouraging men like him to be in politics. Post also congratulates President Roosevelt on the recent elections results.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1904-11-16
Secretary of State of Puerto Rico Post believes President Roosevelt will have won the election by the time this letter reaches him. Post and Governor of Puerto Rico Winthrop Beekman have worked hard to keep bad news on the island quiet so as not to affect the campaign. Post jokingly states that Beekman has committed treason by suggesting that William H. Taft is the finest man in the world, rather than Roosevelt.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1904-11-07
These two photographs depict President Roosevelt receiving at Ponce, Puerto Rico, and with Edith Kermit Carow Roosevelt, Governor of Puerto Rico Beekman Winthrop, and his wife Melza Riggs Wood Winthrop.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1906-12
These photographs show President Roosevelt entering Cayey Barracks Grounds as well as a bell filled with school girls in Ponce, Puerto Rico.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1906
President Roosevelt holds a “canal facts” barrel as a teddy bear holds an “inside facts” box with stickers for “Porto Rico,” “Canal zone,” and “Panama.” Canal critics run into the forest.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1906-11-26
President Roosevelt hugs the “U.S. Capitol” building, which is surrounded by the “Philippines,” “Porto Rico,” and a “trusts” hole.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1905-01-02
Several little boys—”South America,” “Cuba,” “Porto Rico,” “Hawaii,” and the “Philippines”—sit at a table. Uncle Sam, seated at one end, reads the “President’s Message.” President Roosevelt uses the “big stick” to tap “Cuba” on the head.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1904-12-07
The House of Delegates of Puerto Rico submits a resolution to the United States Congress seeking protection for Puerto Rican sugars.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1902-01-04
Platform of the American Federal Party of Porto Rico which was adopted in July 1902.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1902-07
President Roosevelt stands in the back of a car while visiting Puerto Rico.
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs
1906
Grenville M. Dodge recommends Frank Scott Pusey for the position of Secretary of Puerto Rico.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1904-08-12
President Roosevelt writes his son Kermit to tell him about his experiences aboard the USS Louisiana (BB-19) while he and Edith sail to Panama.
1906-11-11
President Roosevelt writes to his son Kermit about his trip to Puerto Rico with Edith. He describes the landscape and events he attended.
1906-11-23
President Roosevelt stands next to Uncle Sam who is sitting on a stool in a “U.S. Custom House.” Roosevelt has his left hand on Sam’s right arm and is gesturing to the left, toward a customs official who is inspecting the bags of a Filipino man just inside a door labeled “Philippines” and “Prohibitive Tariff.” The door is locked and barred by “Seventy-Five per cent of Dingley Rates.” In the background, a woman exits through a door labeled “Cuba” and “Reciprocity” and a man exits through a door labeled “Porto Rico” and “Free Trade.” Caption: President Roosevelt–You’ve been fair to the other two. Now, keep faith with this one.
In the aftermath of the Spanish-American War, different tariff duties and trade policies were imposed on America’s new territorial possessions. Given their retention, this was logical because they each had different histories, geography, economies, and levels of sophistication. One of the prices of empire was dealing with the inevitable complications. Cuba, with a relatively mature infrastructure and major industry, sugar, received more consideration from Washington than did the rather unsophisticated island of Porto Rico (as it was then spelled). The Philippine Islands were a special case for several reasons: they were the farthest of the new lands from the continental United States, the population was the most resistant to American occupation, and as part of the Treaty of Paris that ended the war, Spain received trade conditions equal to those of the United States. William Howard Taft, a federal judge who had been Theodore Roosevelt’s friend since he was United State Solicitor-General under Benjamin Harrison when Roosevelt was head of the Civil Service Commission, served as governor-general of the Philippines from 1901-1903, and tried to effect what historian Michael Cullinane has called the “Filipino-American collaborative empire,” characteristically seeking middle ground. Manila was represented by two representatives in Washington (the other possessions got one each), and strong arguments were made for favorable trade considerations. Pughe’s cartoon dates from the time when relatively harsh tariffs were imposed on the Philippines. Ultimately Roosevelt achieved Congress’s approval for nearly full reciprocity on each nation’s goods.
Uncle Sam, holding a firecracker, tries to reassure a concerned-looking female figure with wings labeled “Peace” that all the noise she hears is for the celebration of the Fourth of July. Celebrating with Uncle Sam are several figures labeled “Alaska, New York, Texas, Mass., Hawaii, Porto Rico, North, South.” One disgruntled figure labeled “Philippine” is climbing over a wall. An African American is sitting near Uncle Sam. Some are lighting strings of firecrackers, “Texas” is shooting guns, and “Mass.” is firing a cannon in celebration. The “Philippine” climbs over a wall, the only disgruntled child in the group. The U.S. Capitol building is in the background and a dove with olive branch hovers over the figure of “Peace.” Caption: Uncle Sam–It’s all right! There’s no fighting! The noise you hear is just my family celebrating!
Since the founding of the United States, its enlargement and expansion of territories was relatively gradual and organic. Texas, Alaska, and even the recent annexation of Hawaii were slow-paced compared to the “population explosion” depicted by Keppler in this cartoon. Puck Magazine consistently approved.
A young woman wearing a hat labeled “Cuba” stands, with her arms crossed, trying to decide which of three paths to choose. The first path, labeled “Reciprocity,” leads to an angry “Beet Sugar Senator” who is offering “No Tariff Concessions.” The second path, labeled “Cuban Loan,” leads to Uncle Sam offering the “Platt Amendment.” The third path leads to the U.S. Capitol and “Annexation.” None of the paths look promising to her. Caption: Events are fast limiting her to one path.
Despite a wide array of nuances, concessions, and amendments at this time and over subsequent decades, the choices Cuba faced are generally well-depicted in Keppler’s cartoon. Generally, Cuba chose the middle path of those shown. In the aftermath of Spain’s defeat by America and Cuban insurrectionists, annexation was never a serious option, although Cuba’s first president Tomas Estrada Palma actually had favored annexation at one point. The sugar trust in the United States (traditional sugar-beet growers and industries) objected to the provision in the Platt Amendment that generously opened, and even granted preference to, Cuban cane sugar in the United States market. The Platt Amendment (named for Senator Orville H. Platt, R-CT and not, as widely assumed, after New York Senator Thomas Collier Platt) required Cuba to accept provisions that granted the United States de facto sovereignty over the island, and control of prerogatives otherwise enjoyed by free nations. Many of these were, however, modified through the years, and generally so in 1934. But the granting of a permanent military facility at Guantanamo Bay remained.
A “Tariff Wall” on the U.S. coastline has two gates, one labeled “Annexation” and the other labeled “Reciprocity.” A woman labeled “Cuba,” holding a bundle of “Raw Sugar” cane, is attempting to enter the United States through the gate labeled “Reciprocity.” She is being turned away vociferously by a man labeled “Sugar Grower” holding a piece of paper labeled “Tariff on Sugar.” In the background is a woman labeled “Porto Rico” carrying a bundle of sugar cane. She has entered through the “Annexation” gate over which the sugar grower and his tariffs have no control. Caption: Cuba — Why not let me in? Porto Rico is inside. / American Sugar-Grower — She didn’t come in this gate. She went through the other one – and I can’t control that!
It was certainly the case that domestic producers of sugar in the United States did not welcome, and lobbied against, the free importation of Cuban sugar and its free export to world markets. The situation pictured in Keppler’s cartoon was a bit more nuanced, however. Cuba, despite its problems under Spanish rule, had a functioning economy and export policies, and it had been assured of a minimal United States presence and relatively quick independence. Porto Rico (as then spelled in the American press) had minimal infrastructure, was deemed in need of special considerations, and was largely assumed to become an eventual part of the United States, by annexation, territorial status, or similar relation.
Uncle Sam and Columbia dance in a line with figures representing “Cuba, Porto Rico, Labor, Capital, Farmer, Philippines, [and] Hawaii” at the entrance to the grounds of the U.S. Capitol, visible in the background. Puck is at center in the foreground.
The meaning of this cartoon is found in its date: the first issue that Puck‘s cartoonists and editorial writers could absorb the results of the 1900 presidential election, and share reactions with readers. Without exulting in the election of any particular candidates, Puck simply celebrated the fact that another contentious campaign was ended. For the first time in the history of the United States, icons besides Uncle Sam and Columbia, capital and labor, were joined by the (rather awkwardly depicted) symbols of new territories from around the world.
Uncle Sam buries the Statue of Liberty in a cemetery which has graves for Puerto Rico, the Philippines, and Hawaii, as a man representing Cuba looks on. Item is regarding United States imperialism and how it treats those in newly acquired lands.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1902-11-01
President Roosevelt thanks Secretary of War Taft for the efforts of the army to provide relief to San Francisco following the earthquake that devastated the area. Roosevelt recalls other instances in which the army has provided similar relief, and affirms that the army has met these challenges “in noble fashion and with an efficiency which justified to the full its equipment in men and means.” Item includes shorthand and typewritten text.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1906-04-28