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William Jennings Bryan pushes William H. Taft away from the “ballot majority” as Samuel Gompers, Thomas E. Watson, and William Randolph Hearst try to get their hands in. President Roosevelt comes running with the “big stick.”
Comments and Context
The Atlanta Georgian never was that city’s major newspaper but fashioned itself into a Muckraking and reform journal, crusading against the convict-lease system, child labor abuses, and such. Four years after this cartoon ran — a reflection of its extreme political partisanship — William Randolph Hearst bought it and added it his growing chain of papers. The city’s major voice, The Constitution, was allied with publisher Joseph Pulitzer.
The hyperbolic cartoon depiction of a political football game was published a scant week before presidential election day. It might be said that opposition to Republicans (President Roosevelt and candidate William H. Taft) must have been extreme for a Georgian paper to criticize its state’s own Thomas E. Watson (who ran an albeit desultory last campaign for president in 1908, as a Populist); and for a Southern paper to favorably depict labor leader Samuel Gompers, who had endorsed Democrat William Jennings Bryan.
Publisher Hearst is depicted as trampled underfoot, another unsuccessful defender against Bryan, and it confirms the larger strategy of the publisher’s late-summer revelations of the “Archbold Letters,” purloined correspondence between the president of the Standard Oil trust and compromised politicians, the net effect of which harmed the Democrats.
Collection
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
Creation Date
1908-10-28
Creator(s)
Willis, J. R. (Joseph Roy), 1876-1960
Language
English
Period
U.S. President – 2nd Term (March 1905-February 1909)
Page Count
1
Production Method
Record Type
Image
Resource Type
Rights
These images are presented through a cooperative effort between the Library of Congress and Dickinson State University. No known restrictions on publication.
Citation
Cite this Record
Chicago:
Nearing the goal. [October 28, 1908]. Library of Congress Manuscript Division.
https://www.theodorerooseveltcenter.org/digital-library/o301892. Theodore Roosevelt Digital Library. Dickinson State University.
MLA:
Willis, J. R. (Joseph Roy), 1876-1960. Nearing the goal. [28 Oct. 1908]. Image.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division. Theodore Roosevelt Digital Library. Dickinson State University. March 26, 2026. https://www.theodorerooseveltcenter.org/digital-library/o301892.
APA:
Willis, J. R. (Joseph Roy), 1876-1960., [1908, October 28]. Nearing the goal.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division. Theodore Roosevelt Digital Library. Dickinson State University.
Retrieved from https://www.theodorerooseveltcenter.org/digital-library/o301892.
Cite this Collection
Chicago:
Library of Congress Manuscript Division. https://www.theodorerooseveltcenter.org/collection/library-of-congress-manuscript-division. Theodore Roosevelt Digital Library. Dickinson State University.
MLA:
Library of Congress Manuscript Division. Theodore Roosevelt Digital Library. Dickinson State University. March 26, 2026. https://www.theodorerooseveltcenter.org/collection/library-of-congress-manuscript-division.
APA:
Library of Congress Manuscript Division. Theodore Roosevelt Digital Library. Dickinson State University. Retrieved from https://www.theodorerooseveltcenter.org/collection/library-of-congress-manuscript-division.
