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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.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1907-09-27
Eight men sleep in a bed with sweat on their forehead as they all dream about “third term sentiment.” The men include Ohio Senator Theodore E. Burton, Benjamin B. Odell, South Carolina Benjamin R. Tillman with a pitchfork, William Randolph Hearst, Ohio Senator Joseph Benson Foraker, Vice President Charles W. Fairbanks, Edward Henry Harriman, and John D. Rockefeller of Standard Oil.
The “Third Term” question was for President Roosevelt like a bad penny or a stray dog that he could not shake. He declared on election night, 1904, that he would not stand for re-election in 1908. He made this clear to politicians and friends and, by implication — for instance, by promoting William H. Taft as a favored successor — but seldom reasserted his intentions to the public. He felt that to say it too often — and the demands to do so were incessant — would have weakened the force of the declination or seemed like “protesting too much.” He said it, and that should have been enough.
President Roosevelt ploughs through a variety of drifts: “tariff revision drift,” “swollen fortune drift,” “railroad drift,” “Standard Oil drift,” “Senate drift,” “Jap. drift,” and “canal drift.” In the background the Republican elephant cries, “Help!” stuck underneath a drift.
“Drift” was a word that made its way into President Roosevelt’s speeches and articles, reflecting his concern that events might slip out of control in areas of public life where he had influence. Whether it was reform to forestall revolution, or urgent conservation measures to prevent the spoil of natural beauty and resources, or similar palliatives, Roosevelt always seemed concerned with anticipating possible over-reactions to challenges and problems in society.
President Roosevelt throws a “message” that explodes underneath a “Standard Oil” company octopus that holds a “never touched me!” paper. The explosion sends several bears and two lambs flying. “Stocks” bulls look over “The Street” wall to see what is happening. Commissioner of Corporations at the Department of Commerce and Labor James Rudolph Garfield also watches around a corner of the wall.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1906-05-07
President Roosevelt rakes debris out of a “Standard Oil” barrel: “rebate,” “secret rates,” “unlawful rebates,” and “special secret rates.”
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1906-05-07
President Roosevelt is surrounded by a number of percussion instruments: “railroad rates” cymbals, a “sugar trust” bass drum, “beef trust” and “standard oil” timpani, a “race suicide” rope tension snare drum, a “muckrakers” triangle instrument, and a “drug trust” drum.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1906-05-12
President Roosevelt holds up an “Aldrich” bear club as he leans on a “Standard Oil Co.” rock.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1906-05-05
Uncle Sam and President Roosevelt stand at a “law” fence and watch a “Standard Oil monopoly” pig eat from a “rebates” trough, thanks to Roosevelt “Garfield report” light. In the trough are several papers: “semi secret rates,” “discrimination R.R. rates,” “private tank cars,” “secret rates,” “secret state rates,” and “unfair interstate rates.”
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1906-04
President Roosevelt points revolvers toward several items: a “beef trust” bull, a “railroad rebate” locomotive, and a “Standard Oil” can. Meanwhile, John Findley Wallace runs toward the “subway.”
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1905-07-02
President Roosevelt whittles a “R. R. rate regulation” big stick to add to his pile of big sticks: “tobacco trust investigation,” “beef trust investigation,” and “Standard Oil investigation.” Uncle Sam hands him an “enforcement of existing laws” big stick. A man labeled “the trusts” stands behind a corner and watches.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1905-05-08
In the first vignette, Benjamin B. Odell pulls New York Senator Thomas Collier Platt’s leg as he holds onto a tree. Caption: Rubber. In the second vignette, President Roosevelt—”the good fairy”—holds a “power” wand and taps an “inter-state commerce bill” on the stomach of the “oppressive trusts.” Caption: Roosevelt, “Tag, you’re it.” In the third vignette, John D. Rockefeller pours “Standard oil” into “Congressional waters.” Caption: In his great act.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1905-01-14
President Roosevelt is hunting, and has scared up two “octopi” labeled the Beef Trust and the Standard Oil Trust and a bird, likely a vulture, labeled the Hard Coal Trust.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1903-04-13
Nelson W.Aldrich and John D. Rockefeller appear as dark-skinned men wearing skirts labeled “Gold Dust.” Aldrich stands on top of a replica of a building labeled “Stock Exchange” and holds up a replica of the U.S. Capitol building. Rockefeller stands on the ground next to him, holding up an oil can labeled “Standard Oil” and a wallet stuffed with money. Uncle Sam stands to the left, in the foreground, stroking his beard, with a concerned look on his face. Caption: (You might as well, Uncle. They’ll do it, anyway.)
The seemingly curious depiction of Senator Nelson W. Aldrich and Standard Oil’s John D. Rockefeller as little native boys is explained by the background of the cartoon. This was a parody of the popular, now obscure, brand of cleansing powder, Gold Dust Cleanser. Cartoonist J. S. Pughe clearly thought that calling the Senator and the tycoon “twins” was dispositive — and the implication presented by the word “gold.” The composition of the drawing is taken straight from a Gold Dust magazine advertisement drawn by E. W. Kemble, an occasional Puck cartoonist.
Nelson W. Aldrich appears as a large spider on a cobweb labeled “Senate Committee Room” spread between the U.S. Capitol and a “Standard Oil” tower, on which several flies labeled “Anti-Trust Bill, Free Alcohol Bill, House Bill, Philippine Tariff Bill, [and] Legislation Needed” have landed.
Nelson W. Aldrich was not the most senior member of the United States Senate, but by wily tactics, ability, and connections he clearly was the most powerful in the Republican-dominated Upper House during the administration of President Roosevelt. From his chairmanship of the Senate Finance Committee he managed to affect virtually every piece of legislation that passed (or did not) through the Senate.
Theodore Roosevelt, as the infant Hercules, fights large snakes with the heads of Nelson W. Aldrich and John D. Rockefeller.
Once again Puck harkened back to classical mythology for a cartoon inspiration. In fact from its first days in the mid-1870s the magazine required of its readers a basic familiarity with mythology, opera, and Shakespeare, for its frequent allusions.
John D. Rockefeller, holding a bag labeled “Foreign $ Missions” close to his side, sits on millstones labeled “Standard Oil Millstone” grinding or squeezing money from people caught between the two stones. With his left hand he offers a copy of the Bible to a native man. A diminutive figure below, labelled “Jr,” is Rockefeller’s son and namesake, who methodically was assisting and assuming projects of the trust magnate.
The depiction of John D. Rockefeller with a halo of gold as a wizened, cynical hypocrite in Joseph Keppler’s cartoon is reinforced by the “benediction” proffered by his son over the native; and the quotation-marks around the sarcastic “St. John.” Keppler was being purely sarcastic, or referring to Manhattan’s Cathedral of St. John the Divine, the construction of which was one of Rockefeller’s projects; or both.
President Roosevelt, wearing buckskin and a raccoon hat, sits by a campfire at night, holding a knife, his rifle by his side. In the shadows beyond the light of the fire are a snake labeled “Mormonism,” a bull labeled “Beef Trust,” a strange bird labeled “Merger Bird,” a large fuel tank labeled “Oil Trust” with a snake-like appendage extending from the front with the head of John D. Rockefeller, and a bat labeled “Castro.” A tent is behind Roosevelt, on the right.
As most good political and editorial cartoons do, the drawings in Puck refer to contemporary issues and current events. They are remarkably fruitful for researchers of later times, but sometimes are so local and so timely as to occasionally deal in obscure controversies and forgotten figures.
Earth, with the face of John D. Rockefeller, appears against an oil slick labeled “The oily way” showing oil cans.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.