Your TR Source
Security markets were demoralized by the announced suit against the Northern Securities Company. The Roosevelt administration has denied that this is the opening blow of “a general war upon great industrial combinations.”
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1902
Article details final days of testimonies during hearings before the Interstate Commerce Commission delivers a ruling regarding businessmen who were charging exorbitant amounts of money to transport frozen goods while shipping their own goods at cost and creating an unfair advantage.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1904-10-14
Editorial explaining the ramifications for producers and consumers of goods that are shipped via Armour and Company. There is a bleak outlook of the Interstate Commerce Commission’s ability to regulate the industry.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1904-10-14
Congressman Jenkins outlines his beliefs on the trusts. He believes that the first step towards remedying some of the evils that trusts bring would be to grant Congress the power to regulate them. Until this is done, he says, constitutional restrictions make legislation ineffective.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1902-07-10
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
A large bear labeled “The Trusts” is jumping over President Roosevelt as Roosevelt is trying to lasso it with a rope. Instead of Yellowstone Park, the sign reads, “The Tariff Park No Shooting Allowed.”
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1903-04-18
Article discusses Theodore Roosevelt being named as a co-respondent in the government’s suit to break up the Steel Corporation and Tennessee Iron. This seems a “kick in the shins” from President William H. Taft.
Sagamore Hill National Historic Site
1911-11-18
Editorial discusses recent Supreme Court decisions involving trust regulation and compares them with views espoused by Theodore Roosevelt.
Sagamore Hill National Historic Site
1913-09-01
This article criticizes Theodore Roosevelt’s attacks on President William H. Taft in The Outlook. The author feels that Roosevelt should take some responsibility for the problems caused by his hand-picked successor.
Sagamore Hill National Historic Site
1911-11-16
Article discusses Theodore Roosevelt’s skillfulness as a politician, his attacks on trusts and his becoming a Progressive.
Sagamore Hill National Historic Site
1911-11-17
Article discusses Theodore Roosevelt’s attack in The Outlook against President William Howard Taft’s policies toward businesses and defends his actions in regards to U. S. Steel and other trusts.
Sagamore Hill National Historic Site
1911-11-17
Article discusses President William H. Taft, Theodore Roosevelt, and the steel trust.
Sagamore Hill National Historic Site
1911-11-18
John Byrne congratulates President Roosevelt on the recent election results. Byrne is sure that Roosevelt will be one of the greatest presidents ever. He writes about the major issues the president must address. Roosevelt’s notes are at the top of page one.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1904-11-15
Vice President of Street Company J. F. Reichmann was instructed by his lawyer Levy Mayer to not speak to a Interstate Commerce Committee who wanted information about accusation that Reichmann’s company had a monopoly on rail transportation.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1904-10-12
An allegorical female figure labeled “San Francisco” is being tortured “on the rack” by a cast of medieval-looking executioners labeled “Cement Dealer, Lumber Dealer, Iron Workers’ Union, Steel Trust, Bricklayers Union, Building Materials, [and the central figure] Greed” in the aftermath of the 1906 earthquake and fire that destroyed much of San Francisco. Caption: “Generosity” is easy when you can get your money back with interest.
There are many possible subtexts to Carl Hassmann’s brutal and explicit allegory of systemic political corruption in San Francisco. Or it might a “simple” indictment of the current administration’s mismanagement there, spectacular as it was.
A New York Times article alleges that monopolies control transportation of goods and have begun and will continue to dictate the prices of goods they transport.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1904-10-11
Petition from the United States government laying out an antitrust case against the Northern Securities Company.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1901
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.
Six cowboys, one labeled “Coal Trust” and another labeled “Miner’s Union,” all carry handguns which they are using to force a diminutive man labeled “Small Consumer” to dance.
In the cliched situation of uncountable cowboy tales, where the greenhorn is made to “dance” as bullies fire at his feet, the cartoonist’s iconic Little Man — labelled here “Small Consumer” — jumps for his life. Cartoonist Udo J. Keppler addresses no specific bill but rather general situation of the trusts’ control of many aspects of everyday life.
![[The meat market]](https://s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/theodorerooseveltcenter/TRC/LCPP/thumbnails/Puck/26000/LCPP_26067u.jpg)
A butcher labeled “The Beef Trust” stands behind a counter in a butcher shop. Around him are meat products labeled “Potted Poison, Chemical Corn Beef, Bob Veal Chicken, Tuberculosis Lard, Decayed Roast Beef, Deodorized Ham, Embalmed Sausages, [and] Putrefied Pork.” A verse from the Bible appears below the counter: “Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink.” Matthew VI:25.
Carl Hassmann’s cover cartoon in Puck is of a recent thematic preoccupation in the weekly — not intending to amuse, and advocating for a cause rather than a party. At the muckraking height of scandals and exposes of the Beef Trust, the meat-packing industry, adulterated foods, and dangerous patent medicines, a stereotypical grimy butcher might have converted readers to vegetarianism, but at least stoked the campaigns for Pure Food and Drug laws.