Central Avenue looking east, Albuquerque New Mexico

Uncle Sam drives President Roosevelt in a horse-drawn carriage labeled “3rd Term” at a fast speed while an elephant races by.

comments and context

Comments and Context

The Washington Herald‘s cartoonist Jack H. Smith drew a typically challenging cartoon in 1907, maybe as obscure to contemporary readers as to those a century later. The challenge is not to expect yet another reference to President Roosevelt’s declination to be a candidate in 1908, predictably questioned by cartoonists, but why the president is in the sulky (here, a carriage, with Uncle Sam at the reins) if he is unwilling to race toward a renomination. The gait is faster than a harness race, but logical horses had left the gate, so to speak; and the racing elephant utilized Smith’s cartooning “mascot” rather than implying that the Republican Party was ahead of the plans of Uncle Sam, or Roosevelt, perhaps.

Theodore Roosevelt delivers a speech at Albuquerque, New Mexico, criticizing President Woodrow Wilson, Secretary of War Newton Diehl Baker and their handling of the situation in Mexico.

Collection

Harvard College Library

Creation Date

1916

A wealthy old man rides in an automobile driven by his chauffeur. They are racing through the countryside during a cross-country auto race and have struck several pedestrians who are not used to encountering automobiles on country roads. Caption: Owner (to Chauffeur) — Don’t stop! It only costs about ten dollars apiece to run them down. I must break the record even if it costs a hundred!

comments and context

Comments and Context

The automobile, a new-fangled toy of the rich in 1902 when Pughe’s cartoon appeared, was a luxury such that “normal” transportation as we know it today was not its main function; joy rides and extravagant excursions were. Only in Detroit and Cleveland, major centers of auto manufacturing, were autos common and driven by owners, not chauffeurs for the most part. In 1900, 20 miles per hour was considered excessive and dangerous, and a decade later 40 miles per hour was likewise regarded. At the time of Pughe’s cartoon, America knew no such things as stop signs, warning signs or signals, traffic lights, traffic cops, drivers’ licenses, lane markings, brake lights, windshield wipers, or speed limits. “Turtle turns” (cars flipped over) and fatalities, usually pedestrians including many children, were not uncommon.