Back from Bololand

A large William H. Taft wears a stars and stripes turban, with a large knife labeled “The Big Bolo” stuck in his belt and a notice attached stating “For Stand Patters.” He is speaking to a group of diminutive figures labeled variously “Congressman” with a “Manila Souvenir Spoon,” “Philippine Industries, Free Trade Promises, [and] Senate Bill.” In the background, on the left is the boarding ramp to a ship, and on the right are two entrances to a railroad station platform labeled “To Washington Direct.” One entrance is labeled “Philippine Free Trade” and the other is labeled “Stand Pat.” Taft is telling them to be sure to choose the correct train, i.e., not to enter through the “Stand Pat” gate. Caption: Our Foremost Filipino — Now, boys, after all my talking, don’t go and take the wrong train.

comments and context

Comments and Context

In 1900, President William McKinley named William H. Taft to be civilian governor of the Philippine Islands. It was position that carried responsibility and diplomatic skills, because the new United States territory was restive and rebellious, more so than any of the new acquisitions won in the Spanish-American War. In the next three years more than 100,000 deaths resulted from the Filipino Insurrection.

Taft’s father Alphonso had been United States Attorney General and Secretary of War under President Ulysses S. Grant. William H. Taft served as United States Solicitor-General under President Benjamin Harrison. After his service in the Philippines, President Roosevelt appointed Taft his Secretary of War, with several foreign assignments in Panama, the Philippines again, and in Cuba, where he briefly and simultaneously served as provisional governor. On one of his goodwill trips to the Philippines and Japan (on which Alice Roosevelt, the President’s daughter, joined and was feted) he conducted back-channel negotiations with Japan to diffuse tensions over immigration matters.

Taft became convinced during his governorship that the Philippines deserved special trade considerations, and these ideas intensified when he was Secretary of War. He advocated for the tariff-free admission of sugar and tobacco, over the objection of American growers and Roosevelt himself, who yielded to Taft.

There would be other goods and trade categories, for instance rice and tobacco, into which Taft involved himself. Hemp became a matter for trade negotiations, too, although the Philippines at that time was virtually the world’s sole producer.

When Taft became president he retained and intensified his views on trade with Manilla, and lobbied for his views to be included in the Payne-Aldrich Tariff Bill that ultimately was a political disaster for Republicans. For the Philippines, “favorable” trade status with the United States ultimately was a mixed blessing, as it became increasingly dependent on the United States as its major trading partner.

It was Taft’s identification with trade matters — in the midst of Filipino pacification and democratic reforms — that inspired Glackens’s cartoon. The enormous Taft (the cartoonist had fun at his expanse: Taft tipped the scales at 350 pounds), dressed, oddly, in Middle Eastern costume yet with a Filipino war-weapon, the bolo knife, warns a variety of supplicants with a variety of agendas to avoid the Stand-Pat (reactionary Republicans) train and board the Free-Trade express.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1905-09-27

Creator(s)

Glackens, L. M. (Louis M.), 1866-1933

Period

U.S. President – 2nd Term (March 1905-February 1909)

Repository

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division

Page Count

1

Record Type

Image

Resource Type

Cartoon

Rights

These images are presented through a cooperative effort between the Library of Congress and Dickinson State University. No known restrictions on publication.

Citation