“Don’t flinch, don’t foul, hit the line hard!”

A “Naval Line Officer” crashes through a window at the “White House” where he has been booted out. A small dog observes from the ground.

comments and context

Comments and Context

Since Theodore Roosevelt’s late college days, when he commenced work on his first major book — still a standard reference work — The Naval War of 1812, he took an active interest in the American Navy and the influence of sea power on world history (as per the title of his friend Captain A. T. Mahan’s influential book). During his service as Assistant Secretary of the Navy (1897-1898), he effected improvements and sent the fleet to Manila when war was declared on Spain. At the end of his presidency, Roosevelt famously sent the painted white “Great Fleet” on a circumnavigational cruise.

During his presidency, Roosevelt argues every year for greater appropriations for a larger naval force. On average he succeeded in persuading Congress to add an average of two major ships per year.

Roosevelt urged fitness tests for naval officers similar to the endurance ride he imposed on army officers, and met, himself. He also recommended personnel reforms in the Navy that he had considered whilst Assistant Secretary. Among these was a restructural proposal to amalgamate the line officers and the engineering corps.

At first glance the idea seemed a mere matter of efficient streamlining, but Roosevelt encountered entrenched traditions, prerogatives, overlapping specialties, and questions of specialization. The president had to address the conflicts and “domains” of line officers, engineers, surgeons, paymasters, and naval constructors; each, by the way, not merely jealous of status but competing for budgetary allotments. Staff officers generally filled bureaucratic positions and wielded their own sort of influence.

So “line” and “staff” domains represented potential friction, and in Roosevelt’s recommendations, when this cartoon was published, he generally came down (in the eyes of the public and the Naval branches themselves) against the line officers. It was, overall, a benign structural proposal, but cartoonists can make mountains out of molehills, even regarding seaborne matters.

The caption of the cartoon, by the way, besides making an underlined pun of the word “line,” quotes one of Roosevelt’s most famous and most repeated advice to groups of young men.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1908-01-29

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