Bradley, Luther Daniels, 1853-1917

President Roosevelt leans on a fence and holds his rifle labeled “law” as he watches the “financial wolf” howl and an “investing public” lamb run away. Caption: Larger animal–“I’ve lost my little pet, and it’s all that cruel man’s fault.”

comments and context

Comments and Context

This cartoon by Luther Daniels Bradley was entirely inspired by the Wall Street Panic that was then cascading through nervous financial markets around the world and especially Wall Street itself, where there were daily scenes of numerous depositors clogging the doors of banks like the Knickerbocker Trust in order to withdraw funds.

Chicago Mayor Carter H. Harrison rides on a roller coaster car on a track that loops in the shape of President Roosevelt’s face and ends at the White House. A sign at the beginning of the roller coaster, pointing back, reads, “Mayor’s Office.” A sign hanging in the center of the loop represents Roosevelt’s mustache and reads, “Don’t Breathe, Please.” Harrison was the Democratic mayor of Chicago from 1897 to 1905 and from 1911 to 1915.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1903

President Roosevelt is shown sailing a ship, sitting on a seat labeled “2nd Term.” Senator Hanna has dropped a megaphone labeled “Managership” and is being thrown overboard as the boom, labeled “My Boom – Teddy,” hits him. Caption: Teddy-“Why, Mark, must you be going?”

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1904

President Roosevelt puts “pepper” on some eggs in the skillet that produce a “my letter of acceptance” odor. Alton B. Parker and David B. Hill cover their noses.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1904-09

Speaker of the House Joseph Gurney Cannon brings President Roosevelt a “nomination notice” infant. Roosevelt jumps up and overturns his desk with several items on it: a “try prosperity infant food sample box,” a “no race party suicide” picture frame, and an “I accept. T. Roosevelt” paper.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1904-07-27

President Roosevelt stands in a log cabin holding a “Supreme Court” knife. On the outside is the hide of a white rhinoceros—”the illegal combine.” William Jennings Bryan watches from behind a fence with a Democratic donkey and several other candidates who hold signs that read “We will skin the trusts,” “We are the only trust busters,” “We are on his track,” and “Down with trusts.”  Caption: Chorus of political trust-hunters—”He’s skun! And we were going to spend the whole summer showing how to do it!”

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1904-03-10

Ohio Senator Marcus Alonzo Hanna stands in an “anti-Roosevelt boom” machine while J. Pierpont Morgan pushes him and says, “Let ‘er go, Mark.” The “Wall St. gang” looks on and prepares to let the machine sitting on a “Wall Street” building and a “brokers’ building” go.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1904-01

“The naughty trust” has a “Hanna for president” life preserver tied to his back. “The public” stands in the shadows and holds up a shoe.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1904-01

Illinois Senators Shelby M. Cullom and Albert J. Hopkins attempt to run away from Illinois Governor Richard Yates who holds a “my boom” kite. President Roosevelt stands outside the “White House” garden and invites Cullom and Hopkins into the “private political playground.” Caption: Just like those mean big boys.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1904-01

President Roosevelt attempts to hang a picture of Carry Amelia Nation in the “White House Pink Room” as several women on a committee give him directions. There are several other pictures with labels around the room: “Down with tea!” “Anti-pie League,” “Coffee fighters,” and “No-candy band.” Caption: Chorus—”Hang it a little higher; no, a little lower; more to the right, please; no, more to the left; no, that’s crooked; hold on, that’s better. Keep it there now while we think about it,” etc., etc., etc.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1904-01

A “money power” man holds up a big stick that reads “Hanna for 1904” and is about to strike President Roosevelt who sits at his desk and writes on a “plan of campaign 1904.” A handwritten note reads: “Don’t dare to strike. REL.”

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1903-12

Ohio Senator Marcus Alonzo Hanna stands on a “ship subsidy” and holds “my defence of labor” as he attempts to use the Republican elephant’s trunk as a phone, saying, “Central! Hello! Central!” The elephant looks at President Roosevelt who waves, bearing “stories,” “speeches,” “interviews,” and “specimens” and says, “Ah there, Teddy!”

Comments and Context

Luther Bradley’s cartoon refers to the publicized and futile efforts of Senator Marcus Alonzo Hanna to make himself relevant to the broader Republican Party at this time, reaching beyond his base as a senator still identified with his ally, the late President William McKinley, and as chairman of the Republican National Committee. He was engaged in an ill-concealed and delicate campaign to wrest the 1904 presidential nomination from the incumbent, Theodore Roosevelt.

That ambition was being thwarted at the time of this cartoon’s publication, but Bradley correctly identified the gambits employed by Hanna. He was, for instance, heavily indebted to shipbuilding interests who potentially were campaign contributors (Ohio ports on Lake Erie were centers of steel manufacturing and ship construction). The cartoon’s acknowledgement of Hanna’s earnest attempts to prove himself a “friend of labor” is ironic since he largely lives in history by portrayals of another caricaturist, Homer Davenport. The Hearst cartoonist frequently pictured “Dollar Mark” Hanna as a bloated plutocrat with his foot on skull of “Labor.” 

President Roosevelt stands by a pot labeled “campaign of 1904” on the “presidential reservation.” He is flanked by Massachusetts Senator Henry Cabot Lodge, New York Senator Thomas Collier Platt, and Pennsylvania Senator Matthew Stanley Quay who smoke pipes filled with “US plug.” Ohio Senator Marcus Alonzo Hanna marches forward with his “my boom” gun and pipe.

Comments and Context

President Theodore Roosevelt, presumably the master of the Indian reservation in Luther Bradley’s cartoon, received “another” senator, Marcus Alonzo Hanna, the Ohio senator. 

It is difficult to believe that Hanna was the latest of presidential aspirants to be pacified and come under Roosevelt’s watch. Senator Henry Cabot Lodge (Roosevelt ally and friend since the 1880s), never contemplated running for president. Neither did New York’s Thomas Collier Platt, who was powerful enough and secure as longtime boss of New York politics. Matthew Stanley Quay displayed desultory interest in the presidency in previous decades, but mainly allowed his name to be floated as a favorite son, and to bargain for favors from the ultimate nominees.

Ohio Senator Marcus Alonzo Hanna attempts to control an elephant costume that President Roosevelt wears as several men run after it, including Indiana Senators Albert J. Beveridge and Charles W. Fairbanks. The elephant costume has a sign that reads, “GOP campaign of 1904. For Prest: T. Roosevelt. For Vice Prest. ?”

Comments and Context

In a clever graphic representation of the national Republican situation pertaining to the presidential ticket in 1904, despite the convention being more than a year in the future, cartoonist Luther Daniels Bradley assumed President Roosevelt would be re-nominated — a common assumption.

But he shows Republican National Party Chairman Marcus Alonzo Hanna, fresh from being thwarted from his own pursuit of the nomination, still attempting to influence events. Being summoned, and chasing the role of Number Two — vice-presidential running mate, the rear end, so to speak, of the ticket — are Senator Albert J. Beveridge, a new ally of Roosevelt; Old Guard stalwart Charles Fairbanks (whose own ambitions were palpable, and who ultimately was chosen by the convention as the running mate); and others.

Ohio Senator Marcus Alonzo Hanna, in a burglar’s mask, uses an “ambition” stick attempting to pry open the entrance to the “Tomb of Political Hopes,” which he believes to be the White House. He has “plans” in his top hat as well as a bag labeled “M. Hanna. White House.”

Comments and Context

The cartoons of Luther Bradley usually were more reserved and even dignified than this example, but he apparently was so struck by the absurdity, and futility, of Senator Mark Hanna’s efforts to subvert President Theodore Roosevelt’s path to re-nomination, that he deployed exaggeration and graphic hyperbole.

Hanna’s presidential ambitions were guarded, and wrapped in denials, and professions of loyalty to the president or at least the open process of the national convention’s processes, that he seemed to believe that the public and the party believed him. But, as Bradley’s cartoon shows, Hanna’s aspirations were apparent.

President Roosevelt greets a bandaged “Congress” sitting in a wheelchair and holding a sign that reads, “Resolved, that you never touched me! Congress.”

comments and context

Comments and Context

President Roosevelt sincerely believed in the necessity of expanding the role and resources of the Secret Service. A growing country had new problems, many crossing state lines, and there was no agency but the Secret Service, at least by logical extension. It was created strictly to protect the president and his family; and to chase counterfeiters. He was angered and increasingly frustrated that Congress would not consider his requests.

“Congress” gets hit with “the come-back punching bag” in the shape of President Roosevelt’s face. In the background are various pain relievers: “first aid to the battered,” “lotion,” “pain relief,” “cordial,” and “salve.” On the ground is a “plaster” and a book entitled “Hitting for Amateurs in 6 Easy Lessons.”

comments and context

Comments and Context

Luther Daniels Bradley’s cartoon appeared only days after President Roosevelt sent a message to Congress in response to its three-part, awkwardly composed rebuke of his actions and manners in the dispute over investing the Secret Service with more powers.

The “official public notary” raises his right hand and tells President Roosevelt, who also has his hand raised, “Understand. Anything you say now may be used against you later on.” The “official weigher” and “official measurer” get information about a dead rhinoceros while the “official stenographer” takes notes. There are a gun and a book of “official sworn statements” on the ground.

comments and context

Comments and Context

To twentieth-century eyes, the idea behind Luther Daniels Bradley’s cartoon in his series forecasting events in Theodore Roosevelt’s upcoming African safari, would be the necessity to be environmentally sensitive and punctilious in his pursuit of animal specimens.

Several African men paint a rhinoceros with “whitewash,” pouring “fixative” on it. Caption: His widely advertised wish to capture a white rhinoceros in Africa may tempt the wily natives to get specimens ready for him.

comments and context

Comments and Context

The typically reserved and artistically accomplished Luther Daniels Bradley joined his fellow cartoonists in imagining scenarios inherent in Theodore Roosevelt’s upcoming African safari.

A woman labeled “Columbia” holds President Roosevelt’s hand as he looks back at two men, “England” and “Russia.” England says, “I’ll show you!” Russia says, “No, you won’t.” Caption: Columbia—”Come right away, Teddy; you have nothing to do with that.”

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1904-11-06