Will take no nature-faker chances

As a snake, a wolf, a bobcat, a bear, a coyote, a cougar, and two bears start running toward President Roosevelt, he looks back at Vice President Charles W. Fairbanks manning the camera and says, “Say when you’re ready.” In a handwritten addition to the cartoon, Fairbanks says, “If it wasn’t for policy wouldn’t I like to show a picture like this of the Roosevelt administration,” with an arrow pointing to Fairbanks and another caption that reads, “Commander-in-chief of this paper.” Caption: Official photographer to accompany the president.

comments and context

Comments and Context

The most telling components of this cartoon — otherwise, to the public, a mundane portrayal of President Roosevelt’s penchant for hunting, and Vice President Charles W. Fairbanks’ subservience — are the scribbled commentaries by whoever organized the White House cartoon scrapbook, in which this was preserved.

The 1904 Republican convention that re-nominated Roosevelt chose Indiana Senator Fairbanks as his running-mate. The president’s feelings toward the senator was somewhere between indifference and dislike, for he was as reactionary as Roosevelt was a reformer. In those times, however, members of the ticket were strictly the prerogative of convention delegates. Fairbanks, a longtime party activist, and wealthy from work as a railroad attorney, harbored aspirations for the vice-presidency and the White House itself.

Indiana, like Ohio, was a linchpin in national politics and a “mother of presidents” second to Virginia and Ohio. Between 1876 and 1916, eleven presidential tickets had Hoosiers. And Fairbanks, an odd hybrid of reticence and ambition, wanted to be president, despite working against his president’s programs, 1905-1909.

What the scribbled note by the forgotten compiler reveals was then little known: Fairbanks had a silent but controlling interest in the Indianapolis News; and, remarkably, had in 1901 purchased controlling interest in the opposition paper, The Indianapolis Journal

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1907-10-01

Creator(s)

Bowers, Frank S. (Frank Sherman), 1872-1955

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