The howl of the wild

President Roosevelt leans on a fence and holds his rifle labeled “law” as he watches the “financial wolf” howl and an “investing public” lamb run away. Caption: Larger animal–“I’ve lost my little pet, and it’s all that cruel man’s fault.”

comments and context

Comments and Context

This cartoon by Luther Daniels Bradley was entirely inspired by the Wall Street Panic that was then cascading through nervous financial markets around the world and especially Wall Street itself, where there were daily scenes of numerous depositors clogging the doors of banks like the Knickerbocker Trust in order to withdraw funds.

The Chicago Daily News has prided itself since its founding in the 1870s on being a politically independent paper; and unlike journals that so claimed, it largely hewed to that pledge. So the depiction of President Roosevelt in this cartoon is neutral or even laudatory, with his gun labeled “law” responsible for the lamb’s safety from the wolf. However, the depiction untypically for Bradley is an incorrect characterization.

Neither Roosevelt nor any government entity had much of the law on its side regarding financial activities and the securities markets; they were almost as wide-open as Roosevelt’s beloved Badlands of his ranching days. In the Panic prompted regulations and laws, including and extended beyond the Federal Reserve Act. Similarly, the escape of common investors from financial wolves was, in November of 1907, hyperbolic if not premature.

The cartoon, therefore, was more hopeful than an accurate representation of the current situation. The journalistic lineage of the Daily News was distinguished. Among its executives through the years were Melville Elijah Stone, later a founder of the Associated Press; Victor Lawson, under whom it grew in circulation and birthed the morning Inter-Ocean; cartoonists, writers, and columnists like John T. McCutcheon, Bradley, and Eugene Field; and subsequent owners including Colonel Frank Knox and Marshall Field. In its last years its cartoonists included Pulitzer-Prize winners Jacob Burck and John Fischetti.

The title of the cartoon recalls the Jack London novel about a dog in the Yukon, The Call of the Wild (1903).

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1907-11

Creator(s)

Bradley, Luther Daniels, 1853-1917

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