Wages

President Roosevelt relays his concern for the Cooley family to Susan Dexter Dalton Cooley as her husband, Assistant Attorney General Alford Warriner Cooley, recovers from illness. Attorney General Charles J. Bonaparte wrote him about Alford Warriner Cooley returning the check. He finds it a needless and irritating, yet endearing action. Roosevelt wants to help the Cooley family in any way, finding “it a very great privilege…to serve you,” as he greatly admires and respects them.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1908-09-02

President Roosevelt informs John J. Joyce he will do what he can to ensure Raymond C. Ewry receives the back pay lost as a result of representing the United States at the Olympics.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1908-08-27

President Roosevelt addresses three issues with Treasury Secretary Cortelyou. Roosevelt asks if it is necessary to appoint civil servants to the Assay Office without examination; registers his concern regarding the construction company Woodbury & Leighton in the matter of a new courthouse in Portland, Maine; and asks if laborers in the auction house in New York can be given a raise. He invites Cortelyou to join him for lunch to talk these matters over.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1908-08-14

President Roosevelt asks Attorney General Bonaparte to tell him the facts of a grand jury investigation concerning Charles F. Brooker. Roosevelt is concerned for his friend and Assistant United State Attorney, Alford Warriner Cooley, and asks Bonaparte if he can be given sixty days pay before ending his service. Roosevelt also asks for Bonaparte’s opinion on a letter from Emory Speer.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1908-08-14

President Roosevelt asks Representative Capron if there is anything he can do to help pass the bill regarding the pay of Navy officers.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1907-01-22

President Roosevelt tells Theodore P. Shonts that figures show the steam shovel operators in the United States and in Panama are paid comparable wages. Thomas J. Dolan will provide figures to back up this claim.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1907-01-14

Charles H. J. Bliss sends documents to Theodore Roosevelt hoping Roosevelt will decide to help defeat the monopoly the Board of Fire Underwriters of the Pacific is working to create on the Pacific Coast. If a fire insurance agent works for a company not on the Board, they will receive significantly less wages than those who only work for companies on the Board. Bliss has questioned this policy and received negative backlash from the Board.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1911-10-04

Secretary of War Taft informs President Roosevelt from the Mayflower that his letter concerning the wages paid on the Isthmus of Panama will be delayed for want of a ship to carry it. Taft expects to arrive in San Juan on Sunday.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1907-04-12

This document is a list of each of the 47 states or territories, the salaries paid to diplomatic appointments from each of those states or territories, and average number of diplomatic appointments from each state or territory.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1907-02-01

Attorney General Moody responds to a request from the Postmaster General to review the question of who is responsible for the compensation of a clerk transferred from the Postmaster General’s department to the White House at the request of President Roosevelt. The Comptroller General, having concluded there was no authority in law which would allow such a transfer, had urged the Postmaster General to seek such an opinion from the Attorney General. Moody reviews the relevant statutes and concludes that neither existing law regarding executive powers of appointment nor appropriations for executive appointments allow the employment of the clerk in question “on detached service” at the White House. If the Postmaster wishes credit in his budget for the clerk’s compensation, he must submit such a request to Congress.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1904-12-22

President Roosevelt holds his big stick and looks at the men he has killed with it: “confidence,” “prosperity,” “good wages,” “capital,” “business,” “industry,” and “labor.” In the background is a bird labeled “hard times.”

comments and context

Comments and Context

For all the detail invested by J. F. Collins in this cartoon — down to the bulging veins and hair on the caveman’s legs — he strangely drew one of the least convincing Roosevelt caricatures ever published. Artistic license would have allowed the characteristic pince-nez spectacles, yet they were neglected. Thanks to the label on the Big Stick, we are assured that the guilty thug is Theodore Roosevelt.

Speech delivered at Hartford, Connecticut, on September 9, 1912. Speech regards farmers and European conditions, parcels post bills, securities, cost of living, socialism, progressivism, prisoners’ wages and work hours for wage earners.

Collection

Sagamore Hill National Historic Site

Creation Date

1912-09-02

A clerk in an office talks to his employer. Caption: Clerk — I want more salary, sir, because I am going to get married! / Employer — But I don’t believe in “unions” raising the price of labor.

comments and context

Comments and Context

When Puck thought it had a good “gag,” it was allowed to burst from the black and white interior pages of text and social cartoons, and occupy the front page in glorious colors to attract eyes on newsstands. This pun, illustrated by Gallaway, is one such example. The cartoonist, in color and black and white work, interior and exterior pages, virtually never addressed political issues.

A well-dressed couple discuss the amount of money a jockey earned the previous racing season. The woman suggests that he should be able to earn more than the diminutive jockey. Caption: He — That jockey made $50,000 last season! / She — What! That little fellow! Why can’t you do something like that, John?

comments and context

Comments and Context

Puck surrendered its political prerogative on this issue’s front page in favor of what it thought was a good joke, perhaps an early and brunette version of today’s “dumb blonde” memes. Of interest might be the specific reason the couple is impressed by the jockey’s earning of $50,000 the previous year. In today’s value that is approximately one million dollars.

A man labeled “Labor” sits on a huge firecracker labeled “Capital” which he is igniting with a torch labeled “Strikes” giving off fumes labeled “Discontent.” The fuse of the firecracker is labeled “Wages.” There are factory buildings in the background.

comments and context

Comments and Context

Despite the factories in the background, Pughe’s cartoon likely was inspired by labor strife and occasional violence in the anthracite coal mines of Pennsylvania at this time. Union organizing, strikes, and labor clashes had been growing for several years, but the scale of the coal strike in 1902, and the prospect of a lack of coal during the upcoming winter months, put this issue on the public’s mind.

Two Irish women talk in a kitchen over a cup of tea. In the background, an old man is sitting in a rocking chair, reading the newspaper. Caption: Mrs. Kelly — Does your husband get good pay, Mrs. Rooney? / Mrs. Rooney — Well, he would, Mrs. Kelly, ef ut wasn’t fer shtriking so often fer better pay.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1902-12-17

A traveling couple is set upon by every member of the service industry – coachmen, porters, maids, messengers, busboys, and cooks – for some amount of remuneration. The cause is illustrated in the upper right, where the manager of the hotel tells his staff to extract payment from the guests in lieu of wages. The “hold-up” of a stagecoach takes place in the background on the upper left. Caption: In olden days the highwayman did the job himself; nowadays he directs his minions to do it.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1901-07-03

A thin, tattered “Pullman Sleeping Car Porter” holds a piece of paper “Tips Daily Average on each Trip” which shows a 70% reduction in tips between 1890 and 1900. At the bottom it states “Pullman Porter’s Labor Union.” He is appealing to the president of the railroad company to become a salaried employee. An insert shows the Pullman porter “As we used to know him,” plump, with his pockets stuffed with cash and with rings on his fingers. Caption: “Say, Boss, if the public won’t pay me my wages any longer I guess the company ‘ll have to do it!”

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1901-09-04

Theodore Roosevelt always votes for firemen and police salary increases and commends them to William A. Prendergast. Roosevelt hopes that he and Mrs. Prendergast are well.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1912-06-05

Theodore Roosevelt appreciates Alice J. Stevens’s letter. However, he cannot give her the advice she seeks as he cannot interfere on behalf of government employees. He agrees with her proposition regarding the living wage.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1911-11-28