Uncle Joe heads to Panama

Speaker of the House Joseph Gurney Cannon with a cigar in his mouth holds a folded up umbrella and a suitcase labeled “Uncle Joe” with a paper, “The Show Me,” walking toward “Panama.” Behind him is an elephant also with a cigar in its mouth. On the ground are footprints of others: President Roosevelt, Uncle Sam, and Secretary of War William H. Taft.

comments and context

Comments and Context

Joseph Gurney Cannon was one of the most colorful, flinty, and dictatorial Speakers of the House, a position he held from 1903-1911. He was touted as a Republican presidential aspirant for 1908, but he sometimes averred that he had more power as Speaker than any president could wield; yet his name was frequently discussed in the gaggle of hopefuls, very likely to enhance his influence and prestige as a Favorite Son of Illinois.

As a retail politician who played the disheveled country lawyer’s stereotypes to the hilt, as seemed odd that he would undertake a fact-finding mission (when such jaunts were rare among legislators) to recent hemispheric hot spots. After the 59th Congress adjourned Cannon and a small entourage set out for the West Indies, Venezuela, and the Panama Canal Zone. Indeed they were all places of recent diplomatic and military significance.

When Cannon and his party returned to the United States, however, the jocular congressman made clear that the trip was rather more like a vacation; he joked with customs agents, in front of reporters, about souvenirs he bought for his grandchildren.

Secretary of War William H. Taft had been President Roosevelt’s man on the ground; and Roosevelt had visited the Canal Zone himself in 1906 — the first time a sitting American president had ever left the shores of the United States. Cartoonist Jack H. Smith appeared to believe the press agentry that “Uncle Joe” Cannon was on a diplomatic mission. Smith’s cartoon “mascot” — a counterpart of the teddy bear in the cartoons of Clifford Kennedy Berryman — had become a diminutive elephant, in this drawing smoking one of Cannon’s trademark cigars at a jaunty angle.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1907-03-07

Creator(s)

Smith, Jack H. – 1935

Language

English

Period

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

Repository

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

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