Russell, Kirk L., 1873-1934

President Roosevelt holds a candle as he steps outside in the darkness dressed in his pajamas and slippers. The outline of two people can be seen in the distance along with a small circle labeled “3rd term.”

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Cartoonist Kirk L. Russell, the successor of Clifford Kennedy Berryman on The Washington Post, seized upon Halloween to discover one more way to utilize the topic of President Roosevelt’s possible third term, a favorite and easy target of cartoonists.

While hidden, President Roosevelt watches two men who look like hobos, Edward Henry Harriman and John D. Rockefeller, march toward “Sagamore Hill.” There are two signs on the mountain, “Beware of Pete” (President Roosevelt’s bulldog) and “Keep off the grass.”

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This cartoon by Kirk L. Russell in The Washington Post was published two months to the day before the Wall Street Panic, a “banker’s crisis” that financier J. P. Morgan helped to keep from becoming a Depression.

Industrialist Andrew Carnegie, peace advocate and sponsor of the upcoming International Peace Congress at the Hague, holds a shepherd’s hook labeled “Peace Congress” and reaches up to grab the “naval program” horn dangling from a moon featuring President Roosevelt’s likeness.

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Andrew Carnegie had been persuaded to be the principal supporter of the Second International Peace Conference at Hague, set for October 1907. Since the first conference in that Dutch city, nominally convened at the invitation of Russia even as it planned its own military buildups, Carnegie had sold his steel and related enterprises, and became arguably the world’s richest man. With that increased fortune, and more time to himself, the canny Scots-American pursued interests from simplified spelling to establishing “free libraries” to promote peace.

William H. Taft sits on a raft by the presumably safe “White House Landing” on a waterway where “Fort Dick” and “Fort Foraker” fire cannon balls on him from the shores.

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There were few inter-party conflicts on the 1907 political landscape more contentious than the intra-party tensions within Ohio’s Republican Party. Many squabbles were fomented and advanced by the personality and ambitions of Senator Joseph Benson Foraker. A longtime fixture in state and national politics, his disagreements with Theodore Roosevelt commenced when the latter was the corruption-fighting Commissioner of Civil Service in the 1880s; and were rife as ever in 1907, most recently over the Senator’s condemnation of the President’s actions in the Brownsville Affair, the dismissal of black troops after a melee outside a saloon that resulted in a murder and a shooting injury.

Foraker had traditional adherents — and those of recent vintage, like the newly appointed Ohio senator Charles Dick — generally from northern Ohio. In 1907 his party rivals included those centered around Cincinnati, including Secretary of War William H. Taft and Representative Nicholas Longworth (Roosevelt’s son-in-law).

William Jennings Bryan dressed as a farmer holds a “list of missing issues”: “Grindstone (Swollen Fortunes), Cider Press (Railroads), Yoke (Trust Regulation), Dinner Bell (Plutocratic Domination).” As he hears a dinner bell with a tag that reads, “I’m a victim of a plutocratic conspiracy,” Bryan says, “That sounds like my old bell.” In the background is the White House.

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Cartoonist Kirk L. Russell, endeavoring to have his work look like that of Clifford Kennedy Berryman, whose role he assumed on the Washington Post, was perceptive in this cartoon. The theme it depicted was one of gradual development, not an overnight event, and had two aspects, captured by Russell.

President Roosevelt ploughs through a variety of drifts: “tariff revision drift,” “swollen fortune drift,” “railroad drift,” “Standard Oil drift,” “Senate drift,” “Jap. drift,” and “canal drift.” In the background the Republican elephant cries, “Help!” stuck underneath a drift.

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“Drift” was a word that made its way into President Roosevelt’s speeches and articles, reflecting his concern that events might slip out of control in areas of public life where he had influence. Whether it was reform to forestall revolution, or urgent conservation measures to prevent the spoil of natural beauty and resources, or similar palliatives, Roosevelt always seemed concerned with anticipating possible over-reactions to challenges and problems in society.

“Democratic Ruth” looks at President Roosevelt labeled, “The Republican Boaz” who pushes a shredder attached to a tractor labeled “G.O.P.” in the “Democratic stubble-field.” In the shredder are “issues,” while in the background is a donkey that says, “Hurry Ruth. I’m starving.”

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Political cartoons usually are reliable and gifted windows to the past, as illuminating to students of later times as to contemporary readers. But occasionally, as windows, they are closed, or of dark glass through which one cannot see clearly. This cartoon by Kirk L. Russell is one such example, poor in theme (an Old Testament analogy, from the book of Ruth) and execution.

President Roosevelt stares at Senator Joseph Benson Foraker while both are sitting in a “political potpie.”

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The reference in cartoonist Russell’s cartoon undoubtedly is the surprise altercation at the Gridiron Club dinner in Washington precisely one week previous.

President Roosevelt looks over a fence at a farmer labeled “Congress” chopping the roast off a pig: “salary increase.” The rest of the pig is labeled, “inheritance and income tax,” “big warships,” “Panama Canal legislation,” and “currency reports.” He smokes a pipe as he says, “I’ll take this roast home. The rest will go in the smokehouse.” In the background stands “The Congressional Smokehouse” with a sign, “The Long Cure Process Used.” Four cuts of meat are in there: “Philippines Tariff Bill,” “Ship Subsidy,” “Santo Domingo Treaty,” and “Immigration Bill.”

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The underlying point, or contemporary pertinence, of cartoonist Kirk L. Russell’s cartoon is in its title — “Planning a Raid On the Smokehouse” — despite not portraying President Roosevelt as anything but a casual observer over the fence.