The poor little fellow couldn’t stop ’em

Depicted as football players, President Roosevelt, Secretary of the Treasury George B. Cortelyou, and Uncle Sam, holding the “prosperity” football, charge ahead past the man labeled “panic.”

comments and context

Comments and Context

Jay N. “Ding” Darling’s cartoon addressed the Wall Street Panic then threatening to turn from a panic to a rout in brokerage houses and banks, or to a full-scale Depression. That the cartoonist was one of the most ardent admirers of Theodore Roosevelt explains the hyperbolic portrayal of the financial crisis then barely a month old.

Feverish negotiations and patchwork solutions, some suggested by Treasury Secretary George B. Cortelyou and approved by President Roosevelt, were mostly masterfully and almost brutally orchestrated by J. P. Morgan. The banker squeezed loans and infusions of capital (including twenty-five million dollars from the federal government) from bankers, brokers, city governments, and fellow titans of industry. The rush past the defensive line as depicted by the cartoonist was neither as effective (the market actually lost fifty per cent of its share values) nor as sudden as drawn.

The football analogy was apt for a second reason: two years previously the president had intervened in a crisis of college athletics. There had been a series of horrible injuries and even deaths on the football field, and there were calls for the abolition of college football. Roosevelt called officials from Harvard, Yale, and Princeton to the White House, and suggested discussions for rules changes, protective gear, and attention to players’ health and safety.

Others were to “run with the ball,” but Roosevelt’s concern resulted in many such reforms; and the National Collegiate Athletic Association was formed. This has been regarded as the salvation, or redemption, of the sport, and the NCAA’s annual award, the “Teddy,” is presented to athletes displaying sportsmanship on the field and integrity off the field.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1907-11-19

Creator(s)

Darling, Jay N. (Jay Norwood), 1876-1962

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