He won’t be happy till he gets it (with profuse apologies to the Pears’ Soap Baby)

A man labeled “Organized Greed,” an iconic plutocrat, appears as a baby trying to climb out of a tub of bath water labeled “Special Privilege,” reaching for a bar of soap labeled “Ship Subsidy.” Hanging on the wall in the background is a sign “In Graft We Trust.”

comments and context

Comments and Context

Puck frequently parodied or satirized advertisements in its political cartoons. Also its drawings made allusions to mythological legends, scenes from Shakespeare, and dramatic moments from famous operas. In fact, political cartoonists on weekly deadlines might occasionally have been frantic for inspirations.

Some of the cleverest cartoons, and most resonant with their readers, unfortunately are often obscure to modern researchers, because the ads, and sometimes the products themselves, are likewise obscure.

Pears Soap was an English import, distinguished enough to boast of themselves as “Soap Makers To the Queen.” Some of their famous advertisements featured endorsements of the glycerine soap by famed preacher Henry Ward Beecher (“If cleanliness is next to godliness…”) and singers Adelina Patti and Lillie Langtry. Pears could be light-hearted about themselves, however: In one famous drawn ad by Henry Furniss, a ragged street tramp writes an endorsement — “Two years ago I used your soap, and since then I have used no other.”

A famous campaign of Pears featured the crying baby reaching for a bar of soap from its bathing tub. It became a shorthand-joke for a while about anyone experiencing frustration. Dozens of cartoonists “borrowed” the idea since the 1880s, depicting an ambitious politician, crying that the presidency was just out of reach.

In Glackens’ treatment he eschews the presidential theme, and depicts a typical trust magnate — “Organized Privilege,” no specific figure in mind — from his place of privilege, seeking more “soft soap” in the matter of ship subsidies.

A major issue of the day, ship subsidies were besought of the government by various interests — ship construction, of course; mining, steel, transport, transatlantic traders. As with other enterprises — even those requiring vast capitalization — trusts might have organized by themselves. But the field was so large (and immediate, as the United States leapt into prominence as the world’s biggest economy) and affecting so many other interests, that government assistance was fixed in plans as a reasonable source. But it never happened. Morgan, frustrated, actually went to England to buy a shipbuilding company and ocean line (the White Star company, which owned the ill-fated Titanic).

The failure of the community of various trusts to strong-arm the federal government in the matter of shipbuilding subsidies might be seen as paradigmatic of the twilight of the trusts as monolithic powers at the dawn of the Progressive Era.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1907-03-06

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