Trusts, Industrial

A crowd of capitalists on Wall Street flees a volcano labeled “Common Honesty” erupting in the background. They are carrying packages labeled “Secret Rate Schedules, Rebate Agreements, Watered Stocks, [and] Frenzied Accounts.”

comments and context

Comments and Context

Udo J. Keppler’s apocalyptic cartoon was inspired the perennially popular Last Days of Pompeii, the 1834 novel by Edward Buler-Lytton. Public interested frequently was revived by every new excavation and discovery in the ancient city in the shadow of Mount Vesuvius. In 1908 an Italian film, and a longer Italian spectacle in 1913, thrilled international audiences.

The “Tariff Reform” ship is mired in a sea of ice, around which are many glaciers in the shape of the heads of Joseph Gurney Cannon, Leslie M. Shaw, Nelson W. Aldrich, and Joseph Benson Foraker. Other glaciers are labeled “Trust” and “Monopoly.” The “Philippine Free Trade” ship has wrecked on a large block of ice labeled “Protected Trust” and only the hull remains. Survivors from “Tariff Reform” drag a sled labeled “Mass. Revisionists” up a mountain labeled “Stand Pat,” toward a rainbow labeled “Fair Trade.”

comments and context

Comments and Context

One cartoon can pack a lot of history and details of a vital historical controversy. In this case, cartoonist J. S. Pughe addressed the progress of (or challenges to) tariff reform, which had been a burning political issue for more than a generation in the United States.

A man sits in an ice house, wearing a fur coat and a hat labeled “Ice Trust.” He is writing “Owing to the mild winter, we regret to say that ice next summer will be dearer than ever.”

comments and context

Comments and Context

J. S. Pughe’s cover cartoon was a platform for a predictable attack on trusts and their venality and price-fixing. A letter that is composed by the greedy monopolist prefigures a rate hike irrespective of actual free-market factors.

An elderly man labeled “The Law,” with a long beard and holding a broken gun labeled “Fines,” peers at a group of bloated criminals standing and sitting on the porch of “The Jolly Grafter’s Inn, Successor to Ye Stern Justice” who are laughing at the old man before them. Those on the porch are labeled “Big Offender, Respectable Crook, Handy Judge [with a glass of] Judicial Favors, Corporate Lawyer [with mugs of] Legal Aid, Tax Dodger, Special Privilege, Insurance Grafter, Corrupt Business, Rail Road Merger, [and the] Oil, Coal, [and] Beef Trust[s].” On a table is a newspaper labeled “The Daily Graft,” and growling at the man is a dog labeled “Subsidized Press.”

comments and context

Comments and Context

Puck had fought cheek-to-jowl with reform politicians, Muckraking journals, and President Roosevelt over most of the recent years, week after week. In this crowded center-spread cartoon, J. S. Pughe expressed the utmost cynicism about laws and regulations that were hard-fought and hard-won in 1906.

A large cornucopia labeled “Cold Storage Warehouse” stores a significant amount of farm produce, creating an artificial shortage, in an effort to drive up the price of food in the marketplace. A group of people stand outside the locked door labeled “Closed for Higher Prices,” while, in the background, farm produce is being delivered from both sides for cold storage.

comments and context

Comments and Context

The downside of prosperity, such as was enjoyed during Theodore Roosevelt’s presidency, was a byproduct of human nature: sometimes retail prices rose not because of higher demand or better production standards, but because retailers — often the “middlemen” — could manipulate prices.

Theodore Roosevelt addresses John D. Archbold’s accusations that Roosevelt, when president, gave Standard Oil Company the “Abyssinian Treatment.” Roosevelt said he did indeed do so to the Standard Oil Company and he would do so again to any big trust that requires it. Roosevelt notes that Archbold is not afraid of being ignored or regulated by the current administration or by the Democrats, but he fears that Roosevelt and the Progressive Party, the party of the people, will act, which is why he has attacked Roosevelt during his testimony in Congress.

Collection

Library of Congress Motion Picture, Broadcasting and Recorded Sound

Creation Date

1912-09-22

Theodore Roosevelt accuses Woodrow Wilson of defining liberty as only an historical term and not understanding what it means to 20th century America. Wilson’s idea of liberty uses the power of the trusts and big business to oppress the workers of the country.

Collection

Library of Congress Motion Picture, Broadcasting and Recorded Sound

Creation Date

1912-09-22

Theodore Roosevelt explains his relationship with Cornelius Newton Bliss while he was in a position of power for the Republican Party and that while he respects Bliss, he was never stopped from prosecuting a company or person by Bliss’s advice. John D. Archbold and Senator Boise Penrose know this and that is why they have attacked Roosevelt in their testimony to Congress. Archbold and Penrose know that Roosevelt is the people’s champion as the Progressive Party candidate and will hinder their dishonest work if he were elected.

Collection

Library of Congress Motion Picture, Broadcasting and Recorded Sound

Creation Date

1912-09-22

One of a series of cartoon postcards published by F. G. Henry Co. during Theodore Roosevelt’s trip to Africa and Europe. This one depicts Roosevelt in safari gear with a rifle, hunting down various trusts.

Collection

Theodore Roosevelt Birthplace National Historic Site

Creation Date

1910

Oswald Garrison Villard’s editorial advocates what President Roosevelt intended to say about the Anthracite Coal Strike. He discusses the points he will make to the strikers and operators if it becomes necessary for him to speak. Roosevelt believes that the coal strike emphasizes “the desirability of dealing with these so called trusts or great corporations” in the way that he has outlined in his speeches. Although Roosevelt is a politician, he feels that he can only consider the good of the country when such important situations and issues arise.

Collection

Harvard College Library

Creation Date

1902-10-02

Jacob Gould Schurman and his family have settled in their summer home but he is at President Roosevelt’s disposal as needed. The approval of Roosevelt in the area has not diminished, and the public’s faith in Roosevelt in regards to the trusts and the Philippines is well placed. Schurman goes on to say that while Roosevelt has made mistakes as President, his record is impressive and well appreciated by the nation.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1902-07-18

Richard A. Anthony writes to President Roosevelt to urge him to speak out against Senator Joseph Benson Foraker’s bill concerning the Sherman Anti-Trust Law. Anthony describes his discussion with Lawrence F. Abbott concerning Roosevelt’s Panama policy and comments favorably on Roosevelt’s policy towards labor.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1904-02-01

Warren C. Browne writes to President Roosevelt to discuss the workingman’s opinion on labor and corporations for the upcoming election.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1904-01-18

Paul Morton sees news of railroad executives supporting Mark Hanna and growing support for Hearst as advantageous to President Roosevelt. He asks to be a delegate at the Republican National Convention.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1904-01-18

George B. Curtiss recommends that Roosevelt’s presidential campaign support the central issue of protectionism.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1904-01-08

Newspaper article claiming that President Roosevelt is in “cahoots” with the Sugar Trust.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1903-12

William Wadsworth warns Theodore Roosevelt to keep an eye on political friends in New York, warning that they are depicting Roosevelt as not representing the Conservative party in the business community due to his regulation of trusts. He advises Roosevelt to lay low.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1903-12-10

Samuel Rinnah van Sant comments on the recent election results in New York. Van Sant expresses hope that the United States government wins its suit against the Northern Securities Company and confidence that President Roosevelt will win the presidential election.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1903-11-07

The New York Sun asserts that the Republican nomination will go to President Roosevelt and that it has been his express intention to be elected to the presidency since he first took office following the assassination of President McKinley. The editorial describes Roosevelt as a politician who has disarmed all of his enemies by winning the public’s confidence, a feat he accomplished by “harrying the trusts,” “bringing wealth to its knees,” and putting organized labor “above the law and above the Constitution.” The editorial concludes by comparing Roosevelt to Germany’s William II and France’s Napoleon in his impact on the masses.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1903-04-22

Lawrence F. Abbott will give President Roosevelt’s letter to his father, Lyman Abbott, and is currently “greatly absorbed in the Addicks case.”

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1903-02-07