Pughe, J. S. (John S.), 1870-1909 | - Theodore Roosevelt Center

The rivals

A white cat wearing a bow labeled “Nomination” is being courted by other cats who represent potential candidates in the upcoming presidential election. Two other cats peer over walls in the background. Those depicted are Philander C. Knox, Leslie M. Shaw, Charles Evans Hughes, Charles W. Fairbanks, William H. Taft, Joseph Gurney Cannon, Joseph Benson Foraker, and George B. Cortelyou. In the background are Timothy L. Woodruff and Albert J. Beveridge.

Comments and Context

As the mid-summer Republican presidential nominating convention drew closer, Puck magazine seemed ever more determined to start a cat-fight between politicians who might otherwise have harbored White House ambitions. But President Roosevelt, having disclaimed interest in succeeding himself in 1908 — and wanting at all costs to secure the nomination for Secretary of War William H. Taft, and avert intraparty squabbles — managed to frustrate any potential rivals to Taft.

The clumsy elephant

The “G.O.P.” elephant laments a broken pail labeled “Full Dinner Pail” on the ground before him. The U.S. Capitol building is in the background. Caption: “Gosh! How am I to get that pail in shape for next fall’s campaign?”

Comments and Context

As it looked ahead to the 1908 presidential campaign, and the plausible economic insecurity among voters in the aftermath of the October 1907 Wall Street Panic, Puck magazine able simultaneously to tweak its traditional opponent, the Republican Party, and its crosstown rival Judge magazine.

Special privilege

An old woman labeled “Monopoly Tariff” sits next to an old shoe labeled “Special Privilege,” around which a number of children are playing. The children all represent a “Trust” and are labeled “Tool, Steel, Copper, Lumber, Sugar, Rubber, Beef, Coal, Tobacco, Clothing, Watch, Leather, Paper, [and] Linen.” Caption: There was an old woman who lived in a shoe, / Whose progeny here are presented by Pughe. / She petted and pampered and coddled the brats, / And guarded her brood from the bad Democrats.

Comments and Context

Puck‘s turn on the traditional nursery rhyme could have been published a quarter-century earlier — and was, in variant forms — so standard were the realities and criticisms, with allowance for satirical hyperbole, through the years. In 1908 the trusts surely were in retreat, or at least defensive mode, thanks to awakened public attitudes, revelations by muckraking journalists, and the effect of governmental lawsuits, regulations, and legislation.

“Go on! You ask ’em! They can’t do more than refuse”

A donkey carries the “Democratic Dough Bag” and an elephant carries the “Republican Dough Bag” as they walk down “Wall Street,” seeking campaign funding for the upcoming presidential election.

Comments and Context

Welsh immigrant J. S. Pughe was Puck Magazine’s go-to animal cartoonist, whether in political cartoons — typically the Democrat donkey and the Republican elephant, but a wide menagerie in his political bestiary — as well as interior, black and white gag cartoons. All the humor magazines (and journals featuring cartoons as respite from text columns and advertisements) enjoyed cartoons with anthropomorphic animals, bugs, and birds in human situations. T. S. Sullivant was the best and most prominent of these cartoonists; in this period he drew for Judge and the Hearst papers. Pughe was Puck’s answer to Sullivant, even to the style of drawing characters with exaggerated, large heads.

Future occupations for Roosevelt

At center, Theodore Roosevelt appears as a rugged “guide for city sportsmen.” Surrounding scenes show Roosevelt as a “Pedagogue of Natural History,” an “Instructor in the manly art” of boxing, a coach for athletic sports, and a physician delivering triplets. Caption: A few of the things he can turn his hand to after leaving the presidency.

Comments and Context

Many cartoonists drew many cartoons through the years depicting, or speculating upon, the multitude of activities that Theodore Roosevelt pursued. He was a polymath, expert and accomplished in many disparate fields. He was virtually hyperactive — strenuous, he would say — almost every minute of the day, so cartoonists had fun with imagining multitudes of activities.

The scarecrow of the Pacific

An American bald eagle carries a scarecrow that looks like Uncle Sam, with battleships for hat, hands, and feet, across the Pacific Ocean toward “Japan,” where crows wearing military uniforms stand on the shore. The sun is rising in the background.

Comments and Context

Displaying more than a little cynicism, Puck magazine and its cartoonist J. S. Pughe portrayed the upcoming departure of the Great White Fleet from San Francisco in December 1908, a few months hence. A few months earlier, President Roosevelt’s secretary William Loeb confirmed rumors and announced the purpose of the circumnavigational cruise on August 23.

A pretty high bar to clear

A group of Republicans try to push, pull, and coax the “G.O.P.” elephant to jump a hurdle on a race course. William B. Allison stands on the far side of the hurdle. Philander C. Knox is pulling the elephant’s trunk. William P. Frye, Nelson W. Aldrich, Stephen B. Elkins, Joseph Gurney Cannon, and Eugene Hale are pushing the elephant, which is being ridden by a plump man labeled “Stand Pat,” wielding a whip. The hurdle has four bars, the lowest labeled “Cost of Living 1896,” the next “Cost of Living 1900,” then “Cost of Living 1904,” and the highest “Cost of Living 1908.”

Comments and Context

The “High Cost of Living” has been a perennial bugaboo of politicians and icon of cartoonists through the years. In the administration of Woodrow Wilson, and especially in the two years following the Armistice ending World War I, the issue was paramount. It often was manifested by an impossibly tall and thin dour character.

“Well, for once they can’t blame me”

The Democratic donkey labeled “Democratic Party” sits among papers that state “The Trusts are to Blame,” “Harriman is to Blame,” “Wall Street is to Blame,” “High Finance is to Blame,” “Roosevelt is to Blame / Roosevelt is Not to Blame,” “Overcapitalization is to Blame,” “The Rail-Roads are to Blame,” [and] “Crooked Business is to Blame.” Many are blamed, but no one will accept the responsibility for the panic of 1907.

Comments and Context

The dispositive point of J. S. Pughe’s cover cartoon in Puck addressing the aftermath of the Wall Street Panic, is found in the attire and attitude of the Democrat donkey. He looks more like a jackass than a donkey, and the papers strewn about him are deflections about the Panic’s cause, the Panic’s fault, the Panic’s blame.

Shedding his horns

William Jennings Bryan, as a moose, rubs his antlers labeled “Government Ownership” and “Initiative and Referendum” against a tree labeled “Party Opposition” to knock them off, so that new antlers can grow. On the ground are antlers from previous years labeled “Imperialism shed in 1904” and “Free Silver shed in 1900.” Five heavily-bearded owls are perched on branches of the tree.

Comments and Context

A rare two-color cartoon this late in Puck‘s publishing life is J. S. Pughe’s brilliant and simple presentation of of the policies, and changing policies, of William Jennings Bryan. Note that Pughe’s skillful caricature required no label of tag for readers.

Over with the che-ild!

A sled labeled “Wall Street,” being pulled by a bull and a bear, races through the snow on a winter night, being chased by a wolf with the face of Theodore Roosevelt. The driver, wearing a hat labeled “The Railroads,” is about to throw a child labeled “Overcapitalization” to the wolf.

Comments and Context

J. S. Pughe’s deceptively simple cartoon is actually filled with labels that might be superfluous; the situation in American politics and the economy was rather simple in the first place. Railroads has become over-capitalized.

Caged

A sickly looking dove is caught in a birdcage fashioned from rifles and swords, with “Powder” kegs at the ends of a perch labeled “Peace Conference,” and topped with the flags of “England, Italy, France, Germany, Austria, Japan, Russia, Spain, [and] U.S.” Caption: “Caged.”

Comments and Context

The second Hague Peace Conference — formally, the International Tribunal on Regulations Concerning the Laws and Customs of War on Land — was generally regarded as a bust before it began a few months subsequent to Puck‘s cover cartoon.

The puzzled chicks

Theodore Roosevelt and William Jennings Bryan appear as hens among confused chicks labeled “Reciprocity, Anti-Money Devil, Over-Capitalization, Gov’t Control of Rail Roads, Income Tax, Anti Wall St., Campaign Fund Reform, Peace Movement, Anti Trust Laws, Peerless Leader, Rate Regulation, [and] Anti-Rebates.” The chicks are uncertain which is the mother hen. In the background is the White House as a chicken coop. Caption: Which is Mama?

Comments and Context

Theodore Roosevelt held to core principles throughout his life. His speeches and writings on many issues asserted during his service as a young assemblyman, or in first major books, cannot easily be differentiated from speeches and articles from the last months of his life. The same might be said of William Jennings Bryan. Each man evolved, and reflected the exigencies of new conditions, but they can be contrasted with politicians whose loyalty is to parties first and thereby define their courses.

Old Dr. Roosevelt

Theodore Roosevelt, as a doctor, examines Philander C. Knox, as other potential candidates for the upcoming presidential election await their turn: Charles Evans Hughes, Joseph Benson Foraker, Charles W. Fairbanks, George B. Cortelyou, Joseph Gurney Cannon, [and] William Loeb as a dog. William H. Taft, already examined, has a paper labeled “Passed T.R.” extending from his pocket. On the wall in the background is a chart labeled “The Perfect Man” showing a profile view of Roosevelt.

Comments and Context

Despite his declaration on election night 1904 that “according to the wise custom” that a president serve only two consecutive terms (not a constitutional stricture until the 1940s after his distant cousin Franklin D. Roosevelt’s fourth election), President Roosevelt contended with the persistent suspicion, or belief, or hope that he would rescind the pledge to retire in 1909.

Farthest north

The “Tariff Reform” ship is mired in a sea of ice, around which are many glaciers in the shape of the heads of Joseph Gurney Cannon, Leslie M. Shaw, Nelson W. Aldrich, and Joseph Benson Foraker. Other glaciers are labeled “Trust” and “Monopoly.” The “Philippine Free Trade” ship has wrecked on a large block of ice labeled “Protected Trust” and only the hull remains. Survivors from “Tariff Reform” drag a sled labeled “Mass. Revisionists” up a mountain labeled “Stand Pat,” toward a rainbow labeled “Fair Trade.”

Comments and Context

One cartoon can pack a lot of history and details of a vital historical controversy. In this case, cartoonist J. S. Pughe addressed the progress of (or challenges to) tariff reform, which had been a burning political issue for more than a generation in the United States.

“Do it now”

A man sits in an ice house, wearing a fur coat and a hat labeled “Ice Trust.” He is writing “Owing to the mild winter, we regret to say that ice next summer will be dearer than ever.”

Comments and Context

J. S. Pughe’s cover cartoon was a platform for a predictable attack on trusts and their venality and price-fixing. A letter that is composed by the greedy monopolist prefigures a rate hike irrespective of actual free-market factors.

The return of Rip Van Winkle

An elderly man labeled “The Law,” with a long beard and holding a broken gun labeled “Fines,” peers at a group of bloated criminals standing and sitting on the porch of “The Jolly Grafter’s Inn, Successor to Ye Stern Justice” who are laughing at the old man before them. Those on the porch are labeled “Big Offender, Respectable Crook, Handy Judge [with a glass of] Judicial Favors, Corporate Lawyer [with mugs of] Legal Aid, Tax Dodger, Special Privilege, Insurance Grafter, Corrupt Business, Rail Road Merger, [and the] Oil, Coal, [and] Beef Trust[s].” On a table is a newspaper labeled “The Daily Graft,” and growling at the man is a dog labeled “Subsidized Press.”

Comments and Context

Puck had fought cheek-to-jowl with reform politicians, Muckraking journals, and President Roosevelt over most of the recent years, week after week. In this crowded center-spread cartoon, J. S. Pughe expressed the utmost cynicism about laws and regulations that were hard-fought and hard-won in 1906.

The modern horn of plenty

A large cornucopia labeled “Cold Storage Warehouse” stores a significant amount of farm produce, creating an artificial shortage, in an effort to drive up the price of food in the marketplace. A group of people stand outside the locked door labeled “Closed for Higher Prices,” while, in the background, farm produce is being delivered from both sides for cold storage.

Comments and Context

The downside of prosperity, such as was enjoyed during Theodore Roosevelt’s presidency, was a byproduct of human nature: sometimes retail prices rose not because of higher demand or better production standards, but because retailers — often the “middlemen” — could manipulate prices.