Under control

A fire at the Treasury Building is billowing clouds of smoke labeled “Deficit.” Nelson W. Aldrich is the fire chief, and he is telling firefighters Stephen B. Elkins, Joseph Gurney Cannon, Sereno Elisha Payne, and Jacob H. Gallinger to send a fire engine labeled “Lower Tariff” back to the station. President William H. Taft and Elihu Root carry a large fire extinguisher labeled “Corporation Tax” and race up the steps of the building, attempting to extinguish the blaze. Caption: Chief Aldrich (at the great Treasury blaze) — Send that engine home! We’ll put her out with the extinguisher!

Comments and Context

Udo J. Keppler’s cartoon, for all its drama while debates over tariff legislation were raging in the Capital, betrays a certain ambiguity. Editorially, Puck frequently through the years occasionally was ambiguous about its position on tariffs and trusts. So were the political parties, despite the Republicans (who received the cartoonist’s attention here) generally being the party of big business and high tariffs. President Roosevelt had begun to warm to the concept of “fair trade” and reciprocal trade agreements, on a country-to-country basis. Such concepts would be strongly advocated by President William H. Taft, particularly with the Philippines; and famously with Canada. He was to stake — and lose — much of his political capital, urging Canadian reciprocity.

The ambiguity inherent in this cartoon rests in the position of the Republican leader of the Senate, Nelson W. Aldrich, who was then shaping the tariff bill (Payne-Aldrich) under consideration. In the cartoon he rejects the use of low-tariff water to extinguish the federal deficit, and urges instead higher corporate taxes — both concepts purportedly anathemas, or at least counter-intuitive, to Republican orthodoxy.

After the Wall Street Panic of 1907, and the certainty of more governmental regulation of trusts, there was the additional factor roiling business and politics comfortable with the “old ways” — America was now a net exporter of manufactured and agricultural goods, and high tariffs, if they inspired retaliation, were bad for business. At this time, therefore, ambiguous responses to tariffs, deficits, federal budgets, and the agendas of big business were in flux; perhaps as confusing to deal with as a raging fire.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1909-07-14

Creator(s)

Keppler, Udo J., 1872-1956

Period

African Safari (March 1909-1910)

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