Cartoon in The Meddler

Uncle Sam holds President Roosevelt, dressed like a woman, tightly as William H. Taft sits in a baby carriage holding onto an “Ohio Indorsement” bottle being pulled by Joseph Benson Foraker. An African American man watches in the background. Caption: Uncle Sam– “So, you’re going to leave me.” Roosevelt– “If you coax me real hard, Sammy, I might remain in your employ. I’m only joking about quitting.” Willie Taft– “Mama! Mama! This naughty boy won’t let me have my bottle.” “Dat dar big cuss has no right to dat anyhow.”

comments and context

Comments and Context

John F. Collins, a cartoonist whose modest fame rests in the creation or maintenance of several children’s strips for the World Color Printing Company (St. Louis) weekend color supplements, syndicated to local newspaper across the country, proved himself capable of political invective and pictorial crudeness in this cartoon.

Caricature was not his strong suit — inferior cartoonists often are content to employ a mere toothy grin for a Roosevelt, and fleshy cheeks for a Taft — and neither was propriety, especially by the standards of 1907 America. Uncle Sam is leering; and nursey Roosevelt suggestively returns the flirt. The placement of his hand and leg are gratuitous.

Well known to readers of the day was the intra-party feud between Secretary of War William H. Taft (Roosevelt’s choice as his successor, despite the insincerity imputed by the cartoon’s statement by Roosevelt) and Senator Joseph Benson Foraker, the presidential aspirant and Roosevelt foe from Taft’s state of Ohio.

Contemporary readers would understand what Collins found no reason to explain, and history might have forgotten: the black character, drawn in and speaking through crude cliches of the day, represented not a random onlooker, but a core element of Foraker’s constituency — black Republicans. The senator had identified himself with black causes, most notably in the Brownsville Affair, Roosevelt’s dismissal of a black army regiment implicated in a riot and a death near their barracks in Texas.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1907-05

Creator(s)

Collins, J. F.

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