Protection!
Subject(s): Conservation of natural resources, Ghosts, Lumber trade, Monopolies, Reform movement, Tariff, Uncle Sam (Symbolic character)
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The Spirit of the Forest talks to Uncle Sam, pointing to denuded hillsides as a result of the tariffs on the import of lumber and wood pulp. Caption: The Spirit of the Forest.–Will you wait until then to admit lumber free?
Comments and Context
To twenty-first century eyes, this drawing by Udo J. Keppler presents a magnificent vista; Keppler, an outdoorsman and eventually man of the West and honorary member of Indian tribes, likely regretted a landscape bereft of trees and vegetation. Under the misty foreground cloud he pictured lumber trucks with logs.
His father, Joseph Keppler, had drawn a similar double-page cartoon in Puck in 1881 — the Spirit of the Forest beseeching loggers to stop their lumber harvesting, predicting runoffs and floods. Almost three decades later, the same Spirit of the Forest made a similar plea.
Publishers who shared these sentiments occasionally were in awkward positions, because they needed wood pulp on which to print their wares. The newspaper titan William Randolph Hearst solved the problem by purchasing vast tracts of Canadian forest lands and operating paper mills. Less prosperous publishers often bought paper from Canada, in effect denuding another country’s forests.
To contemporary arguments, like Theodore Roosevelt’s campaign for conservation (and not total banning of commercial use of lands and resources), Keppler added an economic rationale — the Spirit of the Forest pleading for the elimination of tariffs on wood products.
Collection
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs
Creation Date
1909-05-19
Creator(s)
Language
English
Period
African Safari (March 1909-1910)
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:
Protection!. [May 19, 1909]. Library of Congress Prints and Photographs.
https://www.theodorerooseveltcenter.org/digital-library/o291377. Theodore Roosevelt Digital Library. Dickinson State University.
MLA:
Keppler, Udo J., 1872-1956. Protection!. [19 May. 1909]. Image.
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs. Theodore Roosevelt Digital Library. Dickinson State University. February 13, 2026. https://www.theodorerooseveltcenter.org/digital-library/o291377.
APA:
Keppler, Udo J., 1872-1956., [1909, May 19]. Protection!.
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs. Theodore Roosevelt Digital Library. Dickinson State University.
Retrieved from https://www.theodorerooseveltcenter.org/digital-library/o291377.
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. February 13, 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.
