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The Denver Express reports on Margaret Sanger’s birth control speech at Marble Hall in Denver, Colorado. Sanger discussed the benefit of birth control for the working class. She also took issue with former President Roosevelt’s widely-disseminated ideas about race suicide, stating that if the race cannot take better care of its children, then it should commit suicide.
The Margaret Sanger Papers Project
1916-05-28
The Detroit News reports that Margaret Sanger spoke on birth control education, arguing for the benefit it would hold for the working class. Sanger discussed the idea of race suicide and how former President Roosevelt claimed that his presidency would end the problem in the United States by encouraging large families. She stated, “Nobody called Roosevelt immoral for advocating larger families. I wonder if you will call me immoral for advocating small families.”
The Margaret Sanger Papers Project
1916-05-03
In an interview with Margaret Sanger, the Denver Post reports on the reformer’s efforts in the area of birth control and her desire for “better babies or no babies.” Sanger claimed that former President Roosevelt had “enslaved” American women and children with his policies and ideas concerning family reproduction. She stated that Roosevelt’s efforts in encouraging American couples to rear large families was “willy-nilly” and that the former president’s personality encouraged people, particularly women, to listen to him. Sanger emphatically called Roosevelt “foolish” and accused him of creating “tenants for our insane asylums, prisons and alms’ houses.”
The Margaret Sanger Papers Project
1916-05-17
The New York Times reports that Margaret Sanger spoke to a large crowd at Carnegie Hall in New York the previous evening. Sanger spoke about birth control and the importance of disseminating the information to women, particularly women of the working classes who are prevented from the education that upper class women receive. Sanger criticized former President Roosevelt, stating that he was freely allowed to discuss female reproduction when he encouraged large families. She discussed Roosevelt’s home of Oyster Bay, New York, claiming that sixty-three “poor mothers” from the area had sought her help on matters of birth control.
The Margaret Sanger Papers Project
1917-01-30
Margaret Sanger writes about the Boy Scouts, stating that the movement was imported to the United States from Great Britain and “seized upon most enthusiastically by America’s grown up boy scout, Theodore Roosevelt.” Sanger criticized the Boy Scouts, claiming the organization was intended to train boys to obey and prepare them for the military, support the capitalists, and continue the oppression of the working class. She argues that President Roosevelt was “delighted” to “hasten” these ideas upon American society.
The Margaret Sanger Papers Project
1912-04-06
Theodore Roosevelt discusses the problems of the United States’ modern industrial life, detailing the different effects of industrialization on the rural countryside and urban centers. Roosevelt explains how the health of the working class is an indicator of the health of the United States is as a whole. Roosevelt also discusses the role of government in regulating the economy, protecting wage-earners, and acting as a mediator in employee-employer relations.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
Unknown
President Roosevelt speaks about “The wage-worker and the tiller of the soil” to a crowd in Sioux Falls. He speaks about the modern problems of farmers, stock growers, and soil tillers as well as problems between “employer and employed.” He links the well-being of the state with the well-being of farmers, and also of the needs of those classes in light of industrial changes.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1903-04-06
Speech given by President Roosevelt in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, in dialogue with “The President of the Senate” and “The Speaker of the Lower House of the Pennsylvania Legislature.” Roosevelt thanks the officials for their greeting and discusses how the economic success of Pennsylvania rests with wage workers and the Anthracite Strike Commission. Speech contains numerous handwritten edits.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1903-04-01
A farmer and a laborer visit a “Savings Bank.” The farmer, who looks prosperous, is depositing money; while the laborer, who looks depressed, is making a withdrawal. Caption: The farmer is all right, – but the laborer is finding that it costs him more money to live.
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs
1897-09-15
President William McKinley appears as Moses with two rays of light emitting from his top hat, and wearing a red cape labeled “McKinley.” He stands next to a large rock labeled “Prosperity” that has split and is spewing money toward a throng of people representing mostly the working class and the poor who stream from the factories in the background. Caption: The people foolishly think that McKinley will be able to tap the rock of prosperity, à la Moses, and make money flow like water.
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs
1897-03-10
A portly laborer carrying a full dinner pail and a “Bank Book” in his coat pocket stands on the roadway with factories spewing smoke in the background. On the left a sign states, “Voluntarily Increased Wages Thanks to Cleveland,” and on the ground a sign states, “Reduced Wages Thanks to McKinley.” On the right a sign states, “High Wages and Steady Employment Under Cleveland,” and on the ground a sign states, “Strikes and Lockouts Under McKinley.” Caption: “The McKinleyites poked lots of fun at me a while ago, ‘cos I voted for Cleveland; but I’m doing the laughing now!”
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs
1895-05-22
A woman wearing a crown labeled “Commerce” lies sleeping on a bed. A “Business Man” stands on the left with cobwebs and a top hat at his feet. A sleeping “Laborer” sits on a wall with cobwebs around him. Caption: May the new Secretary of the Treasury be the prince who will awaken her to a long and happy life.
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs
1897-02-17
Presidential hopeful John Sherman, wearing a tall stove-pipe hat, stands in the middle of a village street, operating a grinding wheel labeled “Nomination” and sharpening a large knife labeled “Law-Breaking Strikers.” Papers in his pocket are labeled “Speeches,” and a sign attached to his wheel states, “Please help a poor perennial aspirant to get to the White House.” Just up the street, leaning against a fence, is a man labeled “Striker.” Along the street are buildings labeled “Silverites, Womans Rights, Populists, [and] Protectionists” with people standing in windows or at the door, holding large knives to be sharpened.
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs
1894-08-15
Puck, holding a lithographic pen, stands next to a laborer who is reading a notice posted on a wall that states, “‘Reduction in Wages due to the Great Law of Supply and Demand.’ Explanation by Republican Party, under Republican Administration.” Caption: Puck–Doesn’t it ever seem strange to you, my friend, that the eternal and unvarying law of supply and demand should work only for the Republican Party?
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs
1898-02-02
Copy of Theodore Roosevelt’s speech to be delivered at Des Moines, Iowa. Roosevelt says the United States was unprepared for war and at present is still lacking its own guns and other supplies. The country, he says, must work to be better prepared in order that it does not repeat the mistakes it has made during this war. He says the government must “interfere” with the wage-worker and farmer to secure social and industrial justice for its citizens. The United States, he says, must unite as one country with citizens loyal to her and must be better prepared for future wars by instituting universal military service. Note: This speech was not delivered due to illness.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1918-02-11
Copy of Theodore Roosevelt’s speech to be delivered at Des Moines, Iowa. Roosevelt says the United States was unprepared for war and at present is still lacking its own guns and other supplies. The country, he says, must work to be better prepared in order that it does not repeat the mistakes it has made during this war. He says the government must “interfere” with the wage-worker and farmer to secure social and industrial justice for its citizens. The United States, he says, must unite as one country with citizens loyal to her and must be better prepared for future wars by instituting universal military service. Note: This speech was not delivered due to illness.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1918-02-11
Theodore Roosevelt says that because World War I is a war for democracy, it is essentially the working man’s war. The United States went to war with Germany because of its killing of innocent American civilians. He recognizes the sermons of Newell Dwight Hillis of Brooklyn, who has witnessed the “atrocities” of the German military firsthand. He says not only must America help countries in Europe, but it must also strengthen its military for the future.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1917-09-30
President Roosevelt addresses the “farmers, business men, wage-workers” of Decatur, Illinois. He thanks the men of the Grand Army of the Republic and of the railroad. He discusses a talk with General Sherman about wanting to have railroad men in the army and his travels through Illinois. Roosevelt then discusses the qualities of soldiers in the Civil War and how those qualities are needed in citizens.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1903-06-04
At the center, a group of working class individuals complain about the selfish accumulation of wealth by a small percentage of society. The surrounding vignettes illustrate the philanthropic deeds of the rich, such as a “Museum of Art” open to all, “Low-Rent Tenements,” “Free Milk for the Poor,” “Free Ice for the Poor,” “Fresh Air Excursion for Poor Mothers and Children,” “Free Kindergarten for Poor Children,” colleges endowed by wealthy citizens, health care centers, and “Free” libraries. Caption: Chorus of the Poor Man, the Socialist, the Dissatisfied Laborer, the Populist Farmer, the Demagogue, the Chronic Idler, and the Struggling Professional Man–“Down with Selfish, Grasping Capital!”
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs
1897-07-07
A disheveled Uncle Sam sits at a messy table in a restaurant after a wild party where too much alcohol has been consumed. There are overturned chairs, and a man labeled “Capital” lies on the floor beneath one end of the table. An overturned bottle labeled “Overspeculation” spills contents labeled “Overissue of Securities.” Another bottle is labeled “Overbuilding.” Bottles on the floor are labeled “Waste” and “Overproduction,” and a spill is labeled “Overestimation of Natural Resources.” Wax from a candle on the table is labeled “Overconfidence” and a bottle next to Uncle Sam is labeled “Overcapitalization.” Lying on the floor at the other end of the table, among overturned chairs, is a man labeled “Labor.” On the table above him is a spill labeled “Overspending,” and a box of cigars labeled “Overbuying” is spilling its contents on the floor. In a broken mirror on the back wall are the words “National Vanity,” and printed on a window is “Rationalism.” Caption: Uncle Sam — “And this is Thanksgiving Day!”
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs
1910-11-23