Trusts, Industrial

The rascality of these men

Theodore Roosevelt recently testified to the congressional commission that he acted on his own initiative in allowing the steel trust to absorb the Tennessee Coal and Iron Company. However, as editor C. F. Phillips reports, a statement by Roosevelt to Charles Hunter would suggest otherwise. If authentic, the statement raises questions about Roosevelt’s public silence on the corrupt practices and “rascality of these men” of high finance. 

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1911-08-08

Muzzle for Wickersham?

Hugh Gordon Miller, former special assistant to Attorney General George W. Wickersham, strayed from his speech at the New York Credit Men’s Association’s dinner to “take a few flings” at an unnamed public official, generally assumed to be Wickersham. An excerpt from Miller’s speech is included.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1911-10-27

Pella

A poem by Reverend Stubenvoll that refers to Theodore Roosevelt as “teddy bear” and recounts his accomplishments.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1911-04-07

From an Ode for the Fourth of July

This excerpt from C. E. Perkins’s Ode for the Fourth of July discusses how life in America has changed since George Washington with political bosses and industrial trusts. The ode closes with praise for President Roosevelt.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1905

Letter from Theodore Roosevelt to Charles A. Prouty

Theodore Roosevelt appreciates Charles A. Prouty’s letter. He agrees that the Sherman Act is an insufficient means of regulating trusts and that a constructive policy is needed.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1911-11-10

“His master’s voice”

President Roosevelt kneels on all fours like a dog and looks into a “trusts” gramophone. “Oyster Bay” can be seen outside of the window.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1904-08

Letter from Theodore Roosevelt to Charles J. Bonaparte

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

A donkey with a load

A Democratic donkey carries “the trusts,” August Belmont, David B. Hill, and Alton B. Parker. “The trusts” pull the Tammany tiger along. Caption: In his time he has carried heavy loads, but this is the worst he ever got under.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1904-07-25

Cowed?

President Roosevelt sits in a chair at the “White House” and smiles at a “beef trust” cow, wearing a “strikes” bell, with dollar signs all over it. Caption: There was a young man said, “How can I ‘scape from this terrible cow? I will sit here a while and continue to smile, which may soften the heart of this cow.”

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1904-07-31

A ticklish thing to tacklee

President Roosevelt is nearly eye-to-eye with “Chicago strike hornet’s nest” as he holds a “candidate Roosevelt” hat and a “trust buster” stick.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1904-07-31

Treading the wine press

President Roosevelt wears an “ex-government trust investigator” sign and has a “Cortelyou” paper in his back pocket as he pushes an “official trust squeezer” on a wine press to get funds from a man on the press. On the other side, another President Roosevelt collects money in a “campaign fund” bag. There is a line of corporations with checks in the background, following the sign that reads, “This way to the press.”

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1904-08-04

Democratic platform

Uncle Sam holds a “Democratic platform” sandbags: “reduction of Navy,” “smaller Army,” “elimination of gold plank,” “anti-expansion,” “trust deals,” “disfranchisement,” and “free trade.” “Sound money” sand comes out of the “elimination of gold plank” sandbag.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1904-08-06

Getting the campaign dough

“Chairman of the Rep. National Committee” Marcus Alonzo Hanna collects for the “Republican Campaign Fund for Teddy” as he walks down “Wall Street” past the “Cotton Trust,” “Meat Trust,” “Sugar Trust,” “Copper Trust,” “Oil Trust—Rockefeller,” and “Steel Trust—J. P. Morgan.” Hanna wears a sign that reads, “Please Help Roosevelt—The Trusts.” Various men say, “I would not give him a soup bone,” “Millions for Hanna but none for Teddy,” and “Speak for yourself Mark!” Below, a diminutive William Rainey Harper, says, “Teddy ought to get me to do his collecting. I’m the champion.” Caption: Tom Platt’s advice to Presidential candidates: If you have no friends in Wall Street you might as well throw up the sponge.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1904-08

A wide gap to straddle

Alton B. Parker wears a “I am a hero” feather as he attempts to step from “Esopus” to the White House. In the water, there are equations: “open shop = union shop,” “free trade = protection,” “gold = silver,” “trust = anti-trust,” “positive = negative,” and “yes = no perhaps.”

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1904-08-19

Too high for the donkey

August Belmont holds a whip as a Republican elephant jumps over a large barrier with slats that read, “Panama Canal,” “coal strike settlement,” “open door in China,” “reciprocity with Cuba,” “curbing of trusts,” “Dept Commerce and Labor,” and “Alaskan boundary decision.” A donkey jumps through the space just above the “curbing of trusts” slat.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1904-08-14

The trusts: “Now Theodore, you be careful”

President Roosevelt holds a “Supreme Court decision against trusts” sword as the “trusts” touch Roosevelt in the side with a “my presidential support in 1904” sword.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1904-03-19

He landed all right

President Roosevelt lands on the stomach of a man labeled “the trusts” after jumping over an elephant with a seat that has several spikes—”postal scandal,” “Ohio quarrel,” and “New York fight.” There is a sign in the background: “Opening of the circus.”

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1904-03-18

We’re not running amuck—are we, Knox?”

A “beef trust” bull chases a man out of the arena. A hat and a piece of clothing labeled “the public” are on each of his horns. President Roosevelt and Attorney General Philander C. Knox watch from the “U.S. Attorney General” stable.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1904-03-24

Mr. Roosevelt is doing his best to be neutral in all the fights

President Roosevelt stands on “neutral ground” in the center of a variety of fights. Some of the fights include New York Senator Thomas Collier Platt and New York Governor Benjamin B. Odell; “Stand Pat” and “Reciprocity”; “Russia” and “Japan”; and “Uncle Sam” and “the trusts.”

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1904-03-27

Egg rolling at the White House

William Jennings Bryan, Alton B. Parker, Grover Cleveland, and William Randolph Hearst roll eggs on the White House lawn. One egg is broken. The other read: “Cleveland 3rd term,” “? Parker,” and “Trust busting Hearst.” President Roosevelt says from inside the White House, “You can play in my back yard.”

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1904-04-04