A spurt for the goal

Crowds cheer from the stands with the labels of “West,” “North,” and “East” and William H. Taft rushes with the football of “Roosevelt policies” down the field. Oklahoma Governor Charles Nathaniel Haskell is carried off the field on a stretcher asking, “Whazza matter. Am I hurt?” Meanwhile on the field, President Roosevelt tackles William Jennings Bryan by the head as Thomas Louis Hisgen, Eugene W. Chafin, and Eugene V. Debs huddle on the field: “What are we going to do about it?” Ohio Senator Joseph Benson Foraker stumbles off the field on crutches.

comments and context

Comments and Context

Many political cartoonists of the Theodore Roosevelt era attempted to capture and communicate multiple issues of various complexity in one drawing. These genre drawings putatively laid many topics and personalities before readers, and perhaps were meant to summarize recent political developments. The mode required ambition and skill; some, like John T. McCutcheon and Jay N. “Ding” Darling, were masters, and thereby built foundations of their longevity and fame. Many political cartoonists who live in obscurity today managed the challenges poorly.

Occasionally a cartoonist whose work succeeded in becoming obscure, so to speak, nevertheless managed the feat of producing a crowded genre cartoon that kept issues, personalities, and controversies in check. Elmer C. Donnell, who later dabbled in comic-strip work, achieved clarity in this cartoon. The figures comprise a who’s who of the 1908 presidential campaign; and the various scenes and labels represent the what’s what of the issues.

Allies and opponents alike were beginning to observe how languid the Republican candidate William H. Taft was on the hustings, and in this cartoon Donnell suggested that Taft, partly because of the events pictured elsewhere in the frame, was energized. (On the other hand, Donnell’s paper, the St. Louis Globe-Democrat, was a Republican journal, so the depiction might also have been wishful thinking.) The football is labeled “Roosevelt’s Policies,” and by universal consent the campaign revolved around the Administration’s record, which was generally lauded by both candidates.

The three players in the lower right corner, shut out of the action, were candidates of the Socialist, Prohibition and Independence League parties (the last-named being the hastily formed vehicle for the interests of frustrated presidential aspirant and newspaper publisher William Randolph Hearst).

Otherwise the thematic preoccupations of the cartoon stem from the scandal of the moment, the “Archbold Letters,” purloined correspondence between Standard Oil’s president and politicians he bribed and influenced: Ohio Senator Joseph Benson Foraker, whose career effectively ended because of the revelations; Democratic candidate William Jennings Bryan, whose defense of his party’s tainted Treasurer Charles Nathaniel Haskell brought the full force of President Theodore Roosevelt’s condemnations on both.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1908-09-30

Creator(s)

Donnell, Elmer C., 1877-1951

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