Railroads and state

Justice Norcross outlines the history of Nevada, starting with Secretary of War Charles A. Dana’s account of President Abraham Lincoln’s fight to make it a state so that it could support a constitutional amendment abolishing slavery. Norcross goes on to describe the rich mineral resources of the state, its contributions to the country, and the current troubles it faces, especially regarding transportation and railroad rates.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1909-11

Edward P. Moore sets out his plan for the construction and funding of a new, improved railroad line. Moore proposes that creating such a line would allow for many improvements in traditional railroad operation, would bring benefits to the country through the construction of highways parallel to the railroad tracks, and could be done economically through the issuing of bonds and investing in sources of electricity.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1911-03-29

Judge Charles A. Prouty, of the Interstate Commerce Commission, believes that “railroads must either obey the law as laid down by the Interstate Commerce Commission or they must pass into the hands of the United States Government.” Such a proposition does not alarm him, as “nearly every other civilized country in the world, except perhaps great Britain, has done so to its advantage, and what is done elsewhere can be done if necessary by the United States of America.” While Prouty prefers effective government regulation of railroads, if the railroads refuse to operate under these regulations, the government will have just cause to act.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1911-02-27

Uncle Sam holds a shovel as he faces a number of rocks in Panama: “opposition,” “Dem. opposition,” and “R.R. lobby opposition.” Caption: “Well, I’m here at last, but it’s a tough road!”

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1904-02-25

President Roosevelt begins to chop down the “Bryanism” tree with branches of “bank guaranty law,” “radicalism,” “government ownership of railroads,” and “sensational issues.” A cat or raccoon that has the face of William Jennings Bryan is trapped up in the tree. On the ground are several wood chips: “Standard Oil controversy,” “Define your attitude toward labor.–T.R.,” and “Haskell incident.”

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Comments and Context

This cartoon possibly was drawn by a young Frank Godwin, who was born in Washington, D.C., to a newspaperman father. Frank was 15 (four years before this cartoon’s publication) when he secured his first job as an artist. He lived around Philadelphia, and in New Jersey, most of his life. 

President Roosevelt tries to place as many of his fingers on the switchboard: “arbitration,” “spelling,” “nature fakirs,” “national resources,” “railroads,” “GOP,” “foreign relations,” “Navy,” “Army,” “Taft,” and “business.” His left foot is has just hit the “our colonies” bell and his right foot is on the “legislation” lever. Roosevelt says, “I said no!” A handwritten addition reads, “Keep up the good work! You are doing all right.”

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Comments and Context

Many cartoonists drew many cartoons during Theodore Roosevelt’s presidency and lifetime about his “strenuous life” — but, they drew more about his catholicity of interests, his fervid activities, his range and mastery of different subjects, his remarkable memory, grasp of issues, and foresight in determining how to act. All manner of observers marveled at Roosevelt’s mature hyperactivity, whether in intellectual pursuits, politics, or leisure; and cartoonists always had a ready-made topic awaiting them on slow days in the newsroom.

President Roosevelt gestures at “Dr. Roosevelt’s peerless, political panaceas” with “satisfaction guaranteed or your vote refunded.” There are jars for “labor unions,” “the trusts,” “the farmers,” “tariff revisionists,” “railroads,” “the newspapers,” and “employers.”

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Comments and Context

C. R. Macauley’s cartoon of President Roosevelt as a snake-oil salesman peddling rostrums — pandering to various constituencies — was standard fare for any cartoonist in any campaign, regarding any politician of any party. Roosevelt frankly admitted to cultivating support from many corners and even engaging in political give-and-take — with “due regard for opportunism” yet never sacrificing righteousness (as he said in a 1914 court case in which he was sued for libel by a machine politician).

President Roosevelt addresses William Randolph Hearst as William Jennings Bryan looks at their marbles game, which includes marbles labeled “tariff revision,” “regulation of R.R.,” “popular election of Sen.,” “popular election of judges,” “ship subsidy,” and “public ownership.”

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Comments and Context

It is wholly inadequate to identify William Randolph Hearst by first invoking the motion picture Citizen Kane, yet for many people since his death in 1951, that character provides the touchstone, and it is a gross caricature. Hearst’s father George was a prospector who made a fortune from silver claims and other mineral and land opportunities in the West. He rose to attain a vast fortune and secured a seat in the United States Senate. When his son, “Willie,” was expelled from Harvard, George gifted him with the San Francisco Examiner, hoping that a newspaper career would keep him busy, and maybe out of mischief.

President Roosevelt–dressed in Americana boxing gear–punches a man labeled “Railroads” squarely in the face.

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Comments and Context

What makes this cartoon by J. H. Donahey significant to posterity is the date of its publication, immediately preceding the Wall Street Panic.

President Roosevelt travels in a riverboat that is headed toward tree branches in the river: “beef trust,” “tobacco trust,” “railroad trust,” “Harriman interests,” and “Standard Oil.” A teddy bear keeps him company in the barge.

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Comments and Context

Cartoonist Clifford Kennedy Berryman used the title of Mark Twain’s famous book of recollections, Life On the Mississippi, for his depiction of President Roosevelt’s progress toward Louisiana, mid-way through an extended speaking tour in the Autumn of 1907.

President Roosevelt meets with his cabinet in a room filled with snakes: “Harriman interests,” “panic,” “tobacco trust,” “powder trust,” “beef trust,” “railroad trust,” “Standard Oil,” “immunity,” “Japanese war scare,” and “telegrapher’s strike.” The chairs for Secretary of State and Secretary of War are empty.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1907-09-27

Senator Joseph Benson Foraker holds a paint palette labeled “tariff tint” as he looks on a painting of President Roosevelt playing the violin and Secretary of War William H. Taft dancing. The painting received “1st prize – Salon 08.” On the ground are tubes of paint: “railroad rate red” and “Brownsville black.”

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Comments and Context

Joseph Harry Cunningham’s cartoon about the early rivalries for the 1908 Republican presidential nomination delicately portrays the tension between two Ohioans, Secretary of War William H. Taft and Senator Joseph Benson Foraker. It was rare that two formidable candidates arose from the same state in any election cycle, yet the confrontations were many, and the state’s leading Republicans generally split along southern (Taft was from Cincinnati) and northern lines, each man with longtime associations and commitments.

While hidden, President Roosevelt watches two men who look like hobos, Edward Henry Harriman and John D. Rockefeller, march toward “Sagamore Hill.” There are two signs on the mountain, “Beware of Pete” (President Roosevelt’s bulldog) and “Keep off the grass.”

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Comments and Context

This cartoon by Kirk L. Russell in The Washington Post was published two months to the day before the Wall Street Panic, a “banker’s crisis” that financier J. P. Morgan helped to keep from becoming a Depression.

President Roosevelt holds a net and chases the “Harriman bug” that looks like a locomotive. On Roosevelt’s shoulder is the “presidential bug” and in the “specimen case” across his shoulder is the “oil bug,” “powder bug,” “tobacco bug,” “securities bug,” and “marine bug.” In the background is a building with the label, “hay all stored,” and a group of people cheering him on — “other varieties of bugs.”

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Comments and Context

Sometimes cartoonists employ icons for clarity’s sake, or to be a “crutch” to convey a point; and sometimes a cartoonist will load a drawing with numerous signs, symbols, and icons out of desperation. Such, it appears, was the motivation of Joseph Harry Cunningham.

Sweating, President Roosevelt attempts to fit an enormous “railroad speech” in his suitcase as he packs on top of a bear rug. A boy holds a smaller roll and says, “Papa, here’s some of the speech you overlooked.”

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Comments and Context

Cartoonist Frank S. Bowers knew what he was talking about — or drawing about — in his comment on President Roosevelt’s “Railroad” speech. It was delivered in Indianapolis on Memorial Day, May 30, and attracted widespread attention, which is what the president hoped.

A variety of fingers point at Edward Henry Harriman with signs that read “improper multiplication of securities,” “stop crimes of cunning,” “evils in railroad management,” “punish every dishonest man,” “punish any criminal,” “predatory man of wealth,” “wherever evildoers can be, they shall be brought to justice,” “clever gamblers,” “any man who by clever swindling devices robs investors,” and “great railroad wrecker.”

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Comments and Context

The background of this cartoon by C. R. Macauley is not what it might first seem to be — quotations of President Roosevelt’s long-running animosity and feuds with railroad titan Edward Henry Harriman. The vivid disagreements — a two-way street, to be sure — were familiar to the public, and came to a head in 1907 when Harriman leaked private letters from 1904 (letters, supplemented by others from Roosevelt’s files, that failed to attract support for his side of disputes).

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.”

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Comments and Context

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.

William Jennings Bryan dressed as a farmer holds a “list of missing issues”: “Grindstone (Swollen Fortunes), Cider Press (Railroads), Yoke (Trust Regulation), Dinner Bell (Plutocratic Domination).” As he hears a dinner bell with a tag that reads, “I’m a victim of a plutocratic conspiracy,” Bryan says, “That sounds like my old bell.” In the background is the White House.

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Comments and Context

Cartoonist Kirk L. Russell, endeavoring to have his work look like that of Clifford Kennedy Berryman, whose role he assumed on the Washington Post, was perceptive in this cartoon. The theme it depicted was one of gradual development, not an overnight event, and had two aspects, captured by Russell.

Uncle Sam covers his ears and says “Shut up!” as two birds depicting President Roosevelt and Edward Henry Harriman squawk at one another. Roosevelt says, “Liar, liar, liar!” while Harriman says, “You’re another!”

Comments and Context

The vituperative controversy between President Roosevelt and railroad baron Edward Henry Harriman grew more bitter as 1907 progressed, in spite of other issues, including the Wall Street Panic. Harriman had generally supported the Republican Party — although, like many trust magnates, he played both sides of the political street — but by 1906 had grown angry with the Republican President Roosevelt. The immediate cause was dissatisfaction with a myriad of reforms backed by Roosevelt — and by much of the public and press, and a growing band of insurgents in Congress.

Harriman’s public criticisms of the president grew more strident, and Roosevelt characteristically responded in kind. After a summit meeting in the White House in March 1907, at which J. P. Morgan represented the railroad leaders, Harriman leaked a letter from the 1904 campaign that purportedly showed that Roosevelt solicited campaign funds from Harriman; the latter supposedly conditioned the donation on an overseas diplomatic appointment for New York Senator Chauncey M. Depew; supposedly, Roosevelt reneged.

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.

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Comments and Context

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.