Vanderbilt, William K. (William Kissam), 1878-1944

Thomas T. Chaloner asks Theodore Roosevelt why rich corporations do not give the public a square deal and gives the example of his attempts to sell his train stop device to railroad companies. Chaloner knows his device could save lives, yet the railroad companies do not want to pay to install the device and therefore turn Chaloner away. Chaloner believes railroad companies are selling all the stock and bonds to foreign nobles, catering to them rather than making railroads safer for Americans.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1911-12-18

President Theodore Roosevelt stands on a reviewing stand, holding hat in raised right hand as a large group of capitalists, industrialists, and financiers wearing the tattered clothing of tramps, march past the stand. Some carry placards with such statements as: “Irrigate the Trusts,” “No place to go but the Waldorf,” “We want the earth,” “Free quick lunches,” “Pity the poor banker,” “Dividends or we perish.” At the front of the group, J. P. Morgan carries a wooden bucket labeled “The full water pail.” Caption: “Aggregated wealth largely represented among Parker’s Supporters”–New York Tribune.

Comments and Context

It might be said now, as it was in 1904, that the Republican Party is the home of the wealthy class, industrialists, and plutocrats. And then as now, cartoonists have fed that stereotype. Also then as now, major figures of Wall Street have supported the Democratic Party in great numbers, whether from agreement on social and political issues or frank self-interest.

Some of the moguls in hobo garb in S. D. Ehrhart’s irony-filled drawing were known to be prominent Democrat donors and supporters, for instance Edward H. Harriman, Jacob Schiff, Nathan Strauss, Jacob Schiff, and Charles Schwab. J. P. Morgan, too, contributed to both parties.

Ambassador Reid writes Edith Kermit Carow Roosevelt that there has been no proof produced against the Duchess of Marlborough Consuelo Vanderbilt Spencer-Churchill, only “an outburst of envemoned but vague allegations,” which the Duchess denies. Reid believes the stories were inspired either by her husband, the Duke of Marlborough Charles Richard John Spencer-Churchill, or his family. Reid also tells Roosevelt he has heard privately that King Edward VII is “much enraged at the Duke’s conduct.”

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1906-11-06

A late summer scene at Newport, Rhode Island, exhibits a carnival atmosphere, with food vendors, merry-go-round, and entertainment at the “Marble House Casino,” and “The ‘Breakers’ Coolest Pleasure Resort in Newport.” Caption: The excursionists are moving on the town; heavy gains are reported, and it is feared they will take possession in the above manner at an early day.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1897-10-20

Several wealthy men, “Gould, W. K. Vanderbilt, W. H. Vanderbilt, Sage, Cornell, [and] Cornelius Vanderbilt,” some dressed as women, hold ticker tape and dance around a may pole. Cyrus W. Field, dressed as a woman, sits on a safe next to the pole. Sitting on a bench to the left are Chauncey M. Depew playing cymbals labeled “Monopolist Music” and Whitelaw Reid playing a horn labeled “Tribune.” Behind them is William M. Evarts looking out a window in a building labeled “Millionaires Snug Harbor,” and in the background is a “Monopoly Mill” labeled “Stocks” and “U. S. Bonds.” Lambs gambol nearby. Includes verse.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1885-04-29

Theodore Roosevelt stands on a hill in the background, as two large bears labeled “Interstate Commerce Commission” and “Federal Courts” break up a crowd of Wall Street capitalists and stock market manipulators, causing them to scatter in all directions. The men include Charles S. Mellen, William K. Vanderbilt, Henry Huttleston Rogers, J. Pierpont Morgan, James J. Hill, George Jay Gould, John D. Rockefeller, James McCrea, William H. Newman, Edward Henry Harriman, and Joseph Benson Foraker.

Comments and Context

Cartoonist Udo J. Keppler, and Puck magazine, editorially, stretched theology, or at least the province of Biblical allusions, in this cartoon “Elisha Roosevelt.” The brief passage from II Kings 2:23-24 recounts the story of Israelite prophet Elisha, having succeeded Elijah and seeing him bodily taken into the clouds, is unsure of his ability to be God’s anointed prophet.

Even more skeptical are a ragtag group of scoffers (sometimes misidentified as “children,” but Keppler called them “bad boys” with gray hair) who mock Elisha. As they really are mocking God, whose sovereign choice was Elisha, the Lord sent two ravenous bears to scatter the skeptics.