Theodore Rex - Edmund Morris [398]
77 Congressman Charles TR to Gilson Gardner, unidentified news clip, 7 Feb. 1903, Presidential scrapbook (TRP); Thorelli, Federal Antitrust Policy, 548.
Chronological Note: When Representative Littlefield’s antitrust bill first ran into trouble in the House in mid-January, Roosevelt had called a leadership conference to advance his own program (Review of Reviews, Feb. 1903; Johnson, “Theodore Roosevelt and the Bureau of Corporations”). He thereupon sought out the operational center between “fools” like Speaker Henderson, who opposed all business regulation, and “equally obnoxious fools” like Littlefield, who fought too hard for too much (TR, Letters, vol. 3, 406), and coaxed both houses and both parties into acquiescence. Henderson was promised help from George Perkins in setting up a New York law practice when he retired at the end of the session. Perkins was promised an advisory role in setting up the new Bureau of Corporations. The House Judiciary and Rules Committees at once became more hospitable to White House proposals. William C. Beer to George W. Perkins, 11 Jan. 1903 (GWP); Review of Reviews, Feb. 1903.
78 Just behind came TR, Letters, vol. 3, 410, and vol. 5, 334–35; Merrill, Republican Command, 141–42. The bill’s extended title was added in order to win the support of congressmen from labor-intensive districts.
79 Thus, Roosevelt George Cortelyou to Philander Knox, 2 Jan. 1903 (PCK), makes plain TR’s mistrust of the ICC as an agency too independent for his liking. Conservatives in Congress had the same feelings about TR.
80 In view of James Garfield diary, 5 Feb. 1903 (JRG); Pringle, Theodore Roosevelt, 341. See also Campaign Contributions: Testimony Before a Subcommittee of the [Senate] Committee of Privileges and Elections. 62 Cong., 2 sess., 1913, vol. 1, 18 (hereafter Campaign Contributions).
81 J. D. ROCKEFELLER Chicago Tribune, New York Herald, and The New York Times, 8 Feb. 1903.
82 Both impressions Rockefeller had just given seven million dollars for tuberculosis research. Review of Reviews, Mar. 1903.
83 By publicizing these TR, Autobiography, 445; L. White Busbey, Uncle Joe Cannon: The Story of a Pioneer American (New York, 1927), 222. Other news stories implicated three more lawmakers. Senators Aldrich, Allison, Hale, Hanna, Lodge, Teller, Quay, Platt (N.Y.), and Platt (Conn.) all denied having received Standard Oil telegrams, whereupon the New York American (12 Feb. 1903) published a facsimile of one addressed to Quay. Signed by John D. Archbold, the company’s vice president, it protested “vexatious attacks” against big business.
Chronological Note: TR’s not-to-be-attributed release of this story to the Associated Press on Saturday evening, 7 Feb., demonstrated his instinct for weekend news. Readers of Sunday-morning spreads had plenty of time to mark, learn, and inwardly digest, before firing off letters to their congressmen. Sunday-afternoon announcements were pretty sure to end up as front-page stories, because Monday morning was usually newsless.
At the time, it was assumed that TR acted on 7 Feb. after being shown one of the Rockefeller telegrams by Henry Cabot Lodge. Actually, he had been aware of Standard Oil’s lobbying effort for at least three days (James Garfield diary, 5 Feb. 1903 [JRG]). He delayed his dramatic move until the day the Littlefield Bill passed the House, thus “burying” it beneath his own Sunday headlines.
84 Subsequent articles New York American, 12 Feb. 1903; Johnson, “Theodore Roosevelt and the Bureau of Corporations.”
85 The old tycoon New York World, 12 Feb. 1903. Early on 10 Feb. Rep. Charles Littlefield had begged TR for help with his own bill, as promised. He received a cold message saying that the President now found it “unconstitutional and entirely too drastic.” Enraged, Littlefield became the only House Republican to vote against the Commerce and Labor Bill. A mere nine Democrats joined him. Thorelli, Federal Antitrust