Above the law
Subject(s): Capitalists and financiers, Law enforcement, Martial law, Police, Police--Legal status, laws, etc.
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At bottom, in a dark and gloomy landscape, the police have imposed martial law conditions on the laboring class and punish violators with impunity, while at top, those responsible for the deplorable working and living conditions stand on a cloud labeled “Immunity,” above the law and the lawlessness.
Comments and Context
In the middle years of the century’s first decade, Puck gradually had been growing more radical; sometimes its pendulum swung, and sometimes the issue or a personality flavored their slow evolution. This was generally the case with many journals during the Muckrake era, but Puck‘s editorial shift was finally determined by mid-1907, and resulted in its publication of some of the most brilliant social protest and commentary cartoons of the period.
The harbinger of the final season of change was the addition of Art Young to its staff. Young had been a conservative cartoonist in Chicago in the 1880s and 1890s, and then a purveyor of humor and character-oriented cartoons to many publications. His social conscience started to itch around the time of this cartoon; and, despite retaining his affection for purely humorous cartoons, for instance in The Saturday Evening Post and even The New Yorker, he became a godfather of radical cartooning in America. He was a mainstay of The Masses magazine, was indicted by the Government in 1917 for “obstructing the war effort,” and contributed to several Socialist papers.
In this cartoon, his maiden contribution to Puck‘s color pages, he employed a visual dichotomy to which he occasionally returned — the contrast and hypocrisy seen in the conditions of the privileged and the underclasses.
Collection
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs
Creation Date
1907-10-02
Creator(s)
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
Rights
These images are presented through a cooperative effort between the Library of Congress and Dickinson State University. No known restrictions on publication.
Citation
Cite this Record
Chicago:
Above the law. [October 2, 1907]. Library of Congress Prints and Photographs.
https://www.theodorerooseveltcenter.org/digital-library/o285896. Theodore Roosevelt Digital Library. Dickinson State University.
MLA:
Young, Art, 1866-1943. Above the law. [2 Oct. 1907]. Image.
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs. Theodore Roosevelt Digital Library. Dickinson State University. March 12, 2026. https://www.theodorerooseveltcenter.org/digital-library/o285896.
APA:
Young, Art, 1866-1943., [1907, October 2]. Above the law.
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs. Theodore Roosevelt Digital Library. Dickinson State University.
Retrieved from https://www.theodorerooseveltcenter.org/digital-library/o285896.
Cite this Collection
Chicago:
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs. https://www.theodorerooseveltcenter.org/collection/library-of-congress-prints-and-photographs. Theodore Roosevelt Digital Library. Dickinson State University.
MLA:
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs. Theodore Roosevelt Digital Library. Dickinson State University. March 12, 2026. https://www.theodorerooseveltcenter.org/collection/library-of-congress-prints-and-photographs.
APA:
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs. Theodore Roosevelt Digital Library. Dickinson State University. Retrieved from https://www.theodorerooseveltcenter.org/collection/library-of-congress-prints-and-photographs.
