The call of the wild

President Roosevelt sits in a chair as three cowboys ride horses behind him, each one carrying a lasso with a different word. The first reads, “we want,” the second reads, “Teddy,” and the third reads, “another term.”

Comments and Context

Life Magazine’s cover cartoon by William Henry Walker took its title from the recent best-seller by Jack London — the author’s most popular novel. Not a “nature faking” book as Roosevelt then criticized, it told the plausible story of Buck, a dog in the Yukon.

The president’s “call” in Walker’s cartoon was the siren-song of politicians, the public, and the press, for Roosevelt to consider his announcement of election night, November, 1904 — that he would not seek or accept a presidential nomination in 1908. He referred to George Washington’s “wise custom”; and, at barely 40 years old, he sensed he would have the wanderlust when that term ended.

Roosevelt also had a suspicion that he would lose the presidency in 1904, and there seemed to be some cosmic relief in the decision; but it was a decision that startled even his wife Edith. It disappointed many loyal Roosevelt followers, and lost the leverage he might have had with a Congress that did not perceive him as a lame duck.

Life Magazine was founded in 1883 by three Harvard friends: John Ames Mitchell, Andrew Miller, and Edward Sandford Martin. It was launched as a weekly of humor, literature, and commentary; black and white, more genteel than Puck or Judge. It became the most popular of three humor and cartoon weeklies, helped in large measure by the frequent appearance of Gibson Girl cartoons by Charles Dana Gibson. In 1936, in the midst of the Depression, the magazine’s title was sold to Henry Luce of TIME, and it was transformed into a larger-format photo magazine of news and features.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1906-12-13

Creator(s)

Walker, William Henry, 1871-1938

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