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Puck, v. 65, no. 1683

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The “fixed” umpire

The “fixed” umpire

A baseball game between the “Ultimate Consumer A. C. [Athletic Club]” and the “Monopoly Giants” is underway. A “Giants” ballplayer is sliding head-first into a base and is being tagged out by a “Consumer” ballplayer with a ball labeled “Tariff Reduction.” Although the base runner has not even reached the base, the umpire labeled “Congress” calls the base runner, who winks and points at the umpire, safe. Caption: “He’s safe!”

comments and context

Comments and Context

“Safe” has a double meaning. Besides the baseball context, the Congress–represented by a caricature of Senator Nelson Aldrich of Rhode Island, author of the Payne-Aldrich Act, which raised tariff rates–made things safe for trusts (monopolies), in the eyes of Puck Magazine.

The fool pied piper

The fool pied piper

Uncle Sam, as the “Pied Piper,” plays a pipe labeled “Lax Immigration Laws” and leads a horde of rats labeled “Jail Bird, Murderer, Thief, Criminal, Crook, Kidnapper, Incendiary, Assassin, Convict, Bandit, Fire Brand, White Slaver, [and] Degenerate.” Some of the rats carry signs that read “Black Hand” showing a black hand print. In the background, rulers from “France, Russia, Germany, Italy, Hungary/Austria, Turkey, [and] Greece,” along with citizens of these countries, are cheering the fleeing rats.

comments and context

Comments and Context

The decade between 1900 and 1910 saw the largest numbers of immigrants to the United States, surpassing the times of Irish Potato Famine, the German Liberal Revolution of 1848, America’s Industrial Revolution, and the Land Rushes of free farmland in the American heartland.