Standard Oil Company

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

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. 

Senator Aldrich is shown delivering a valentine to President Roosevelt from the Standard Oil Company.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1903-02-14

President Roosevelt addresses his audience in Cincinnati, Ohio, on the subject of trusts and corporations, and the factors and difficulties that the government must consider when contemplating regulation of the trusts. He begins by tracing some of the conditions that have led up to the present situation, and compares the trusts to the Mississippi River, which helps many people but can also threaten great destruction. He makes the analogy that while damming the Mississippi would be futile and harmful, building levees can offer protections without obstructing the river. Roosevelt continues by saying that while there should be some regulation, this must be carefully done so as to effect the desired result on the largest trusts and corporations without imposing more difficult penalties on smaller companies and the laborers who work for the companies.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1902-09-20

President Roosevelt congratulates Attorney General Charles J. Bonaparte for his speech at Chicago, which showed his fair enforcement of the law. His attackers use the press and their wealth to recruit powerful people, like college presidents and corrupt judges, to their side at the cost of the “plain people.” These attackers know that developments like the Hepburn Rate Law, the Sherman Anti-Trust Law, the Pure Food and Drug Act, and protections for workers have been effective against moneyed interests and criminals, but they are often lawyers or editors who answer to the corporations. The individual men to whom he refers are, however, merely puppets, and the true issue should be taken with the offenders who stand behind them and control enormous wealth. He and Bonaparte are not responsible for the economic panic, but are striving for the right “in the spirit of Abraham Lincoln.”

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1907-12-23

Frank Harper sends instructions to Senator Joseph Dixon regarding logistics for Theodore Roosevelt’s speeches and transportation during his planned campaign tour. Roosevelt dictated a conversation about the ineffectiveness of the Sherman Anti-Trust Law as enacted by President William Howard Taft’s administration. Roosevelt also takes issue with Taft’s inaction over the tariff and wants a commission established to revise it so that it benefits farmers and laborers. He believes in the people’s right to initiative and referendum, not as a replacement for representative government but as a means of ensuring it. President Taft feels that when the people elected him, “their voice was next to the voice of God,” but that in regard to passing judgment on their own laws they are not “entitled to rule.”

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1912-03

William Loeb requests the facts on the Senatorial Oil Company and the Department of the Interior’s relationship with the company. President Roosevelt would like to meet with Thomas Ryan regarding the matter.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1903-10-29

Copies of two letters and a telegram from President Roosevelt to Secretary Cortelyou regarding a campaign contribution from Standard Oil. Roosevelt insists that the contribution be returned immediately, as he believes the company will want preferential treatment from his administration in return. He also does not want their aid due to their opposition to the formation of the Bureau of Corporations. Roosevelt asks that no public statements be made regarding this issue.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1904-10-26

Theodore Roosevelt’s secretary sends two volumes of Roosevelt’s works to George A. Horkan so that he may find the messages about Standard Oil. The books will be sent by post, and Horkan is asked to return them as soon as he is finished with them.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1912-09-13

Theodore Roosevelt’s secretary informs John Mulholland that Roosevelt cannot choose who goes in front of the Senate Committee investigating the political contributions Standard Oil gave the Republican Party in 1904. Roosevelt only wants the facts to be known in the case. The secretary encourages Mulholland to continue talking with Walter F. Brown in order to do good work together.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1912-08-29

As the Senate committee was unable to see him, Theodore Roosevelt offers his testimony in writing. He denies knowledge of requests for campaign funds directed at the Standard Oil Company for his presidential campaign of 1904. These requests supposedly promised lenient treatment and favors in exchange for large contributions. Roosevelt offers documentary evidence that in 1904 he instructed any money received from Standard Oil to be returned. Furthermore, according to campaign records, no funds were ever received from Standard Oil.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1912-08-28

Theodore Roosevelt encloses two letters. Roosevelt thinks that the Progressive Party should not associate with Senator Penrose’s gang in Pennsylvania. Roosevelt also remarks upon the Senate committee’s “contemptible trick” of not allowing him to appear before them; instead, he has sent them every letter connected to Standard Oil.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1912-08-28

Theodore Roosevelt’s secretary communicates Roosevelt’s regrets that he will not be able to keep his appointment with H. B. Jayne. He also disputes Jayne’s statement that Roosevelt wants to “destroy the Standard Oil Company” and other trusts without preparing to replace it. Roosevelt’s position is to control “big business,” not to destroy it. The secretary also addresses Jayne’s statement that the Pacific Coast requires definite declarations, by giving specific examples of when Roosevelt did make specific declarations and requesting that Jayne read the Progressive Party platform.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1912-08-22

Theodore Roosevelt denies that Standard Oil contributes to his campaign and hopes that the delegates from Oklahoma will have a good train ride to Chicago.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1912-06-03

Theodore Roosevelt enjoyed Arthur B. Farquhar’s letter and thoroughly agrees with his view on the issue of trusts. He does not believe it beneficial to dissolve the Standard Oil Company into many separate companies. Instead, he feels there should be stricter governmental supervision.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1911-08-11

Theodore Roosevelt asks Charles J. Bonaparte if Bonaparte was Attorney General when they began the suit against the Standard Oil Company and the American Tobacco Company.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1911-07-21

Theodore Roosevelt reports to Cleveland H. Dodge that he only read most of Reginald Wright Kauffman’s The House of Bondage as he found it “so sad and painful, so disagreeable.” Even so, he wants to meet Kauffman. Despite his misgivings about Standard Oil, he wants John D. Rockefeller to join as he sent Roosevelt the book and is doing great service in attacking the “white slave business.”

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1911-01-17

Theodore Roosevelt welcomed Frank B. Kellogg’s letter for telling him what he wanted to know. He congratulates the United States and Kellogg for his accomplishments in the Standard Oil case. Roosevelt wants to see Kellogg and discuss the political situation in the West.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1910-03-10

President Roosevelt chastises George Rumsey Sheldon, treasurer of the Republican National Committee, for soliciting donations from John D. Archbold and Edward Henry Harriman. Although Roosevelt is not the Republican candidate, he is head of the current Republican administration, which is prosecuting Harriman and Archbold. He notes the impropriety of Archbold and Harriman contributing to a candidate who, if elected, would name the Attorney General responsible for the prosecution. He includes the text of letters he sent four years ago regarding similar contributions from the Standard Oil Company, which he made George B. Cortelyou return.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1908-09-21

President Roosevelt has not yet looked into the matter that Arthur B. Farquhar mentioned. At present, Roosevelt feels that the sentence given to Samuel Gompers is excessive, just as the fine given to the Standard Oil Company was excessive. Currently, however, there is nothing that he can do regarding either case.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1908-12-26

After speaking with Attorney General Charles J. Bonaparte about Seth Low’s letter, President Roosevelt informs Low that even if it were passed by Congress, he cannot sign the bill as certain parties are advocating. The Department of Justice believes that Standard Oil is attempting to delay lawsuits in hopes that a measure like that bill will pass. Roosevelt has sent copies of his correspondence with Low to president-elect William H. Taft for reference if the question comes up during his administration.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1908-11-24