Cartoon in the Washington Herald

President Roosevelt uses his patented “Roosevelt invigorator” with “necessary measures,” “anti-injunction,” “anti-trust,” and “currency legislation” to blow into the mouth of a “Do Nothing 60th Congress” elephant costume that appears to be on Speaker of the House Joseph Gurney Cannon who says, “A storm must be brewing.” Roosevelt’s big stick lies on the ground with the United States Capitol building in the background.

comments and context

Comments and Context

Joseph Harry Cunningham in the Washington Herald almost anticipated a Rube Goldberg invention, in those eponymous cartoon panels with complicated mechanisms that required patient study and ultimately accomplished little. In this political cartoon President Roosevelt works the bellows to inflate an elephant costume with Speaker of the House Joseph Gurney Cannon inside.

The bellows has five labels on it, four of the main categories that Roosevelt urged that Congress address in his special message of two months earlier. Cannon makes a comment, Roosevelt makes a comment, the broken Big Stick is on the ground, the United States Capitol is in the background, and, in perhaps a very early use of the phrase, the elephant is labeled “Do-Nothing Congress.”

Roosevelt’s message had summed up his Administration’s seven-year record of reform, and listed a great number of areas the president defined as needing legislative attention; he composed an agenda that looked beyond the next year or next administration. The Old Guard bosses of the Congress — Senator Nelson W. Aldrich, leader of Senate Republicans, no less recalcitrant than Cannon — largely ignored the president’s urgent list, prompting a rebuke of both chambers that inspired Cunningham’s cartoon.

There are times when an over-abundance of signs, symbols, and icons can obscure, rather than elucidate, a cartoonist’s message.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1908-05-06

Creator(s)

Cunningham, Joseph Harry, 1865-1946

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