Bryan outdone

William Jennings Bryan stands on a plank labeled “Government Ownership” and watches as Secretary of State Elihu Root jumps in head first to the water labeled “Centralization of Power.” Beside Bryan are the words, “This is as far as I dare go!”

comments and context

Comments and Context

At the time of this cartoon’s publication, William Jennings Bryan, the seemingly perennial Democratic presidential aspirant, had returned from a world tour, and therefore began reappearing in political cartoons. As a radical reformer since his national emergence in 1896, he honed his radical prescriptions for the nation; or felt the need to do so.

The year 1906 was the apogee of reforms in Theodore Roosevelt’s presidency — laws, regulations, and proposals. Roosevelt floated and flirted with long-term ideas for the American economy and national government. Included were ideas about a tax on incomes, only implemented two short periods in American history; and an inheritance tax. Likewise did he shift closer to advocating municipal ownership of public utilities, systems that already worked, and well, in several American cities.

Some of these ideas were initially proposed by the “dangerous” Populist Party in 1892 and 1896 — sometimes most vociferously by Roosevelt. Men and ideas, however, evolved, especially as the economy and society did.

It was ironic that, of people who paused to notice Roosevelt’s sudden radicalism, Bryan on the left and Republican reactionaries on the right, found themselves together. Some of the reforms floated in 1906 matured in subsequent years in Roosevelt’s “New Nationalism” program and the Progressive Party platform.

Of greater surprise, initially, was the fact that Secretary of State Elihu Root — former corporation lawyer, famous Republican conservative — would advance concepts like government ownership of utilities and services. He did so, in public advocacy at this time that startled many people. But Root — who eventually founded the Council of Foreign Relations and supported corporate statism at the end of his career, foreshadowed the Regulatory State more clearly than Roosevelt or many of Root’s own Wall Street clients.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1906-12-15

Creator(s)

Berryman, Clifford Kennedy, 1869-1949

Language

English

Period

U.S. President – 2nd Term (March 1905-February 1909)

Page Count

1

Production Method

Printed

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