The use of this text or audio material is subject to the TR American Patriot user agreement located at: TR American Patriot.com
CHAPTER XXIV
Last Phases of the Administration
M
R. ROOSEVELT had by no means secured ready acquiescence by Congress in all of his policies, and his last year was full of storm and controversy. Thus in the session before the election of Mr. Taft he had laid down a program of rapid battleship construction, less than half of which had been endorsed. Nevertheless he had seen our navy grow to formidable dimensions.
Early in 1908, he had sent a great battleship fleet, under Admiral Evans, to make a tour of both South American coasts, then to cross the Pacific to Honolulu, Japan, the Philippines, and China, and to return by way of Australia, the Suez Canal, and the Mediterranean. This project was bitterly criticised, but it was most fortunate in its outcome.
Anti-Japanese riots in California had stirred up some feeling of antagonism to the United States among the more ignorant masses in Japan. It was predicted that if our ships entered Asiatic waters, they would encounter those of Japan in hostile action. As it turned out, the fleet was received with enthusiasm wherever it went, and nowhere more than in Japanese waters. Its visits of courtesy at the South American ports, and in the Far East, were felicitous in their strengthening of friendly ties with all the countries whose seaports were entered upon the route.
For a full year before the end of his term Mr. Roosevelt was using leisure moments

CONGRESS REFUSES TO APPROPRIATE WHAT THE PRESIDENT RECOMMENDS FOR NEW SHIPS, AND THE CARTOONIST ATTRIBUTES A SMILE TO JAPAN
From the Evening Telegram  (New York)

T.   "VESUVIUS"   ROOSEVELT
(Referring to Mr. Roosevelt's tremendous activity, i
From Collier's Weekly

180

A Cartoon History of Roosevelt's Career

to plan his trip to Africa and to make thorough preparations for his expedition. His eager looking forward to a year of adventures in a new field strengthened his courage for the public business that was pressing upon his attention. The prosecution of the Central and Southern Pacific railroads had been entered upon with a view to breaking up the combination they had formed.
ROOSEVELT TO VISIT AFRICA
(And the Jungle Folk won't ratify.)
From the Press (Philadelphia)
A great action was pending for the dissolution of the Standard Oil Company as an illegal trust. Meanwhile one of Mr. Roosevelt's judicial appointees, Judge Landis, had imposed an enormous fine upon the Standard Oil Company for violation of the law against rebates; and Judge Grosscup, of the Circuit Court, had reversed Judge Landis' decision. During the campaign the relations of the Standard Oil Company to the press and to politics were a topic of violent controversy. The decision of Judge Landis
was regarded by the business world as too drastic altogether, and there had grown up a
feeling that Mr. Roosevelt was pressing with undue relentlessness a crusade against large
business interests.
Whether or not there was good reason for this feeling, it involved the last year of
Mr. Roosevelt's incumbency in heated argument and more show of temper and feeling than

SIMPLIFIED SPELLING
(Apropos of the New York Senatorial situation and the report that Mr. Root may succeed Senator Platt in 1909, and that Mr. Roosevelt may succeed Senator Depew in 1911.)
From the Herald (Rochester)
A LITTLE LEGAL ARGUMENT WITH GROSSCUP
(Referring to the Standard Oil case)
From Judge
had been aroused at any previous stage in his career. At one time it had been thought that Mr. Roosevelt, in declining a third term

Last Phases of the Administration

181

as President, might accept a seat in the United States Senate. The term of Senator Platt was to expire on March 4, at the same time as that of the President. But Mr. Roosevelt, although at one time this idea appealed to him, had definitely rejected it, and Secretary Root was the unopposed choice of his party in New York for the Senatorial toga.
THE   STATIONARY   CRUSADER
pkesident roosevelt :  " FOLLOW ME ! "   (or  35,000 words   to   that   effect).     See  the   President's   message   to
Congress.
From Punch  (London)
The last annual message sent to Congress by Mr. Roosevelt in December, 1908, was a document of great length, devoted in the main to a recapitulation of the views and policies which had so strongly characterized his administration. His State papers had been much more extensive, and his formal utterances to Congress and the public more frequent, than those of any of his predecessors in the Executive office. The message did not serve to abate controversy or to soothe the worn and inflamed nerves of railway presidents or Wall Street bankers. Business was in the dumps, and some one must be blamed.

THE  UNITED   STATES   OP   CENTRAL   AMERICA,—A GERMAN VIEW
president roosevelt :   " Yes,  y«s,   in   union  there  is
strength."
From Kladderadatsch  (Berlin)
HANDS ACROSS THE SEA !    AS CONGRESS SEES IT ! From the Constitution (Atlanta)
Congress in the previous session had undertaken to limit the President in the use of secret service funds placed at his disposal for the detection of crime; and the scathing comment made by the President in his message was ill-received in both legislative chambers. Attempts were made to expunge sections of the message before receiving It and entering it upon the record of Congress. However absurd such proposals might have been, they pointed to a certain bitterness and strain that was to affect the relations of the

182

A Cartoon History of Roosevelt's Career

NERVOUS BUSINESS "WOE

"WILL   YOU   PLEASE   HUSH?" From the Herald (New York)
Chief Magistrate and the law-making body through the remaining three months of Mr. Roosevelt's term. The attempt of Congress to punish Roosevelt for his message was not successful and produced in the public mind a reaction in his favor.

ROUGH ON CATS (The House  and  the  Senate,  before and  after the
Presidential message current is turned on.) From Puck.     Copyright   1908.    By  permission

THE   WATER'S   FULL   OF   'EM From the Globe (New York)

Last Phases of the Administration

183

OF   LABOR
WTERSTATE0*1™1-SHiFn/vq of burden".!
FROM POOR TO f?ICH FROM  EMPLOYS.  TO

" ONE  WORD MORE."—AN  ENGLISH  VIEW president roosevelt (to Central African fauna) :
" Half a moment, while I just throw this off, and    .
then I'm with you."
From Punch (London)
One of the controversies of that session had to do with the President's old subject, the civil service. In passing a law providing for the taking of the Census of 1910, Congress had disregarded the President's advice that the thousands of extra census

WHO WILL BELL  THE CAT? From the North American (Philadelphia)

ROOSEVELT'S    FAREWELL    MESSAGE    POINTS
THE  WAY -
(President Roosevelt, in his last annual message, to Congress, makes many recommendations pointing toward the betterment of social and industrial conditions in the United States.)
Prom the Evening Herald (Duluth)
employees should be appointed under civil service rules. In this controversy Mr. Roosevelt finally triumphed.

• " AFTER YOU '. "
senate and house (tremulously) : " You go first, my dear sir."
(Congress took offense at some passages in the President's annual message, and resolved to " rebuke " him.)
From the Eagle  (Brooklyn, N. Y.)

184

A Cartoon History of Roosevelt's Career

(This idea  of  the  result  of  the  controversy  between  the  President  and  Congress  seems  to  prevail  in  the-
minds of a great many people.) From the Ohio State Journal  (Columbus)

He had also succeeded in extending the principle of the merit system to the retention of postmasters appointed to the smaller or fourth-class offices. During all his seven and a half years in the Presidency he had been able, in one way after another, to extend the

SPANKED! (The spanking has evidently hurt " Pa Congress '
CONGRESS ASSUMES A FIRM ATTITUDE From the Daily News (Chicago)
more than it has the husky lad.) From the North American (Philadelphia)

Last Phases of the Administration

185

fYv    ^	/
Hb'^l
llr    **
1

I flU^M

NOT   SO   EASY!
(Trying  to hit  the  head,—a new  Congressional  game.) From the Inquirer  (Philadelphia)
sphere and improve the working of the civil-service rules, and thus to reduce the evils of the spoils system to comparatively few and small areas.
Several months before his retirement f-om office it had been announced that his literary activities would be resumed, and that his African experiences would be productive of
a series of articles to be published in Scrib-	==35===——^^-^ .	- -—	=.
ner's Magazine. It was further made known that he would have a regular connection, as a frequent writer and contributing editor.
PROTECTING THE CIVIL SERVICE From the Pioneer Press (St. Paul)

tjncljs sam  (on the side bench) : "If there's anything I like, it's an old-fashioned game of ' shinny '! " From the Pioneer Press  (St. Paul)

186

A Cartoon History of Roosevelt's Career

TROUBLES   BEGIN
(There   will   be   the   dickens   to   pay   in   the   Fourth  Estate before long.)—From the Sun   (Baltimore)

with the Outlook, of New York, a widely read weekly periodical edited by Dr. Lyman Abbott. These announcements are reflected in two or three of the cartoons reproduced in the present chapter of our narration.

What may be regarded as the final controversy of his administration had to do with certain newspaper attacks upon the honesty of men connected with the purchase of the French  Panama company's assets and the beginnings of our work on the canal.

Mr. Roosevelt had made great progress with the work at Panama. He had abandoned the original plan of constructing the canal under the direction of a board of engineers chosen from civil life and railroad
" ISN'T  IT A DAISY?"
WHEN TEDDY BECOMES AN EDITOR Prom the Times-Star  (Cincinnati)
(Apropos of the review of the American battleship fleet by  President Roosevelt on its return from the round-the-world   trip,   February  22,   1909.) From the Record (Philadelphia)

Last Phases of the Administration

187

WHY   GO   TO   AFRICA   FOR   BIG   GAME?
From the Plain Dealer (Cleveland)
work, and had turned it over to engineer officers of the regular army, with the most fortunate results. He looked upon the Panama enterprise as in some respects the crowning work of his administration; and he could not allow libels upon the honesty and good faith of the government and its agents, as respects the Panama Canal, to pass unnoticed.
The charges had involved, by express mention, well-known men closely related to the President and to the President-elect; and the charges had thus reflected upon the honor both of Mr. Roosevelt and of Mr. Taft, who, as Secretary of War, was in immediate charge of Panama affairs. Libel suits were entered by direction of President Roosevelt, and while

STEADY, TEDDY !
(This also refers to attacks mentioned above.) From the Eagle  (Brooklyn, N. Y.)

CHRISTMAS CARDS—From the£a0Ze(Brooklyn,N.Y.) (President Roosevelt's compliments to certain newspapers which printed the Panama Canal charges.)

188

A Cartoon History of Roosevelt's Career

ROOSEVELT WARNS THE CANOEIST  (CALIFORNIA) THAT RAPIDS AND ROCKS ARE AHEAD
From the Leader (Cleveland)
their prosecution was eventually abandoned, they were successful in their essential purpose. The prompt action taken by Mr. Roosevelt had secured complete retractions; and no stain had been left upon a page of our history that must always be memorable, and should, therefore, be without spot or tarnish.

Copyrighted by Underwood & Underwood, N. Y.
PRESIDENT   ROOSEVELT   AND   THE   PRESIDENT-ELECT  ENTERING  THEIR  CARRIAGE  AT THE  WHITE  HOUSE  IN  A  SNOWSTORM  ON  MARCH 4, TO GO TO THE CAPITOL