Cartoon

President Roosevelt holds a hammer and chisel, ready to strike, just above a large bust of himself with the words, “Honor,” “Strength,” “Integrity,” “Breadth,” and “Patriotism” written on his bust.

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Comments and Context

This cartoon by Arthur L. Bowen suffers the fate of many a drawing by an artist one step above amateur status, and commentators of modest powers. It appears to commend President Roosevelt, but at the same time seems to suggest that he molded, more than earned, his image.

Uncle Sam wears a coat labeled “The Constitution” and looks at Secretary of State Elihu Root. On the ground are books labeled “Jefferson Doctrine” and “The Federalist by A. Hamilton” as well as a club labeled “Big Stick” lying on top of the Declaration of Independence.

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Comments and Context

This cartoon by Jack H. Smith, today a justly neglected cartoonist, displays an awkward caricature of Secretary of State Elihu Root, and a rather obscure point. Evidently the cartoon charges Root with trampling on the Constitution and founding documents, yet if any charges were to be leveled at the Administration — and such charges were not uncommon — President Roosevelt would have been the more logical recipient. In fact the Administration — in this year, 1906, of reforms and calls for even more radical reforms — floated ideas of an income tax and forms of municipal ownership, that some observers regarded as proto-Socialistic.

A boy fires a gun at the leg of another older man labeled “Teacher,” who is jumping into the air. Caption: “When the young idea is taught to shoot a la Roosevelt.”

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Comments and Context

The inspiration and point of cartoonist Hedrick’s cartoon likely is not the president’s bloodthirsty or murderous tendencies, but rather the recent Simplified Spelling controversy. Theodore Roosevelt joined the crusade, a relatively short-lived fad, to eliminate traditional Anglo-Saxon words of their apparent illogical elements. Partisans like Andrew Carnegie and Mark Twain were proponents; in Roosevelt’s case his interest might have been motivated a lifelong problem with spelling and punctuation (until he died, for instance, he invariably spelled (or spelt) the contraction “don’t” as do’n’t.” His friends and associates kidded him for advocating the fad, especially as he promulgated an executive order to government printing office — unsuccessful adopted.

A man labeled “California” and a man labeled “Jap” fight over a picnic basket full of food labeled “Public Schools,” threatening to capsize their boat. Uncle Sam looks on, holding a fishing pole that has three fish on it, says, “Quit it! Quit it!”

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Comments and Context

Anti-Japanese prejudice in California was so rife at this time, that the state attempted to exclude Japanese immigrants from public schools. It was a public and ugly controversy, spearheaded by, among others, San Francisco publisher William Randolph Hearst. He fanned the flames of prejudice through cartoons — more effective with his readers than printed editorials — once showing a Japanese schoolboy hiding plans to invade the West Coast in his textbook.

A “California Congressman” pokes a beehive labeled “Trouble with Japan,” out of which angry bees are attacking the congressman.

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Comments and Context

This cartoon illustrates a fractious problem of President Roosevelt’s second term, the persistent and sometimes ugly anti-Asian prejudice on the West Coast — mostly in California; mostly aimed at Japanese immigrants, more than other “Orientals.”

President Roosevelt holds a chalkboard with two words written on it in cursive: “dropt” and “dropped.” “Dropt” is crossed off. He stands on the steps of a school building labeled “Congressional School.”

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Comments and Context

Of the many extra-curricular campaigns and crusades of President Roosevelt — his eclectic interests did not abate during the White House years — were challenging writers of children’s books who imbued animals with human characteristics, the charm of ancient Irish sagas, and the reform of spelling.

President Roosevelt looks on as members of his 1906 cabinet laugh at papers with the heading, “Storer.” One chair is empty, and there are pictures on the wall of Postmaster General Charles Emory Smith, Secretary of the Navy John Davis Long, Secretary of the Treasury Lyman J. Gage, and Attorney General Philander C. Knox, all from 1901.

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Comments and Context

This political cartoon by Clifford Kennedy Berryman, with its typically awkward depictions of public figures, addresses not the general composition of President Roosevelt’s cabinet, although it was within a week of this cartoon that Oscar S. Strauss succeeded George B. Cortelyou as Secretary of Commerce and Labor, the latter moving to the Treasure portfolio.

One man angrily gestures at another man labeled “Japan” standing on a platform with a club labeled “The Sign of the Big Stick” hanging over head. Caption: “San Francisco: Just wait ’till I get you outside!”

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Comments and Context

This cartoon by “H” neatly summarizes the facts and the subtext of a complicated and thorny issue of the day — particularly thorny in 1906.

President Roosevelt, dressed like a farmer, sows seeds from a bag labeled “$40,000 Peace Prize” with a bird “Peace” on his head. In the background is a fence labeled “American Industry.”

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Comments and Context

The background this cartoon is the recent announcement by President Roosevelt that he would assign the monetary award from his Nobel Peace Prize committee to “social and industrial” justice. The intention was sufficiently vague that the funds only gathered interest for a dozen years, never connected to a foundation or specific project (many charitable groups during America’s participation in the Great War ultimately received the apportioned funds).

An apprehensive boy labeled “Congress” looks at a club hanging on the wall labeled “TR Big Stick.” Caption: “He will be a good boy.”

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Comments and Context

Cartoonist T. K. Hedrick was ambiguous in this example of his iconic one-column commentary drawings. To be judged according to the eye of the beholder is whether President Roosevelt’s famed Big Stick awaits being utilized, or perhaps has grown twigs from disuse. The “boy” — Congress — appears to be undecided about whether to even touch, much less wield, the Big Stick.

A man labeled “Cuba” looks at a fence, “Annexation,” in front of grass labeled “Prosperity.” Caption: “A tempting crop.”

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Comments and Context

The one-panel cartoons of “H” were deceptively simple, yet routinely addressed and explained well issues of the day, generously aided by news-summary captions that most political cartoons neglected to employ.

A squid-like entity labeled “The Trusts” sits on a seat labeled “Congress.” Caption: “On the anxious seat.”

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Comments and Context

The anxiety of the creature in the cartoon of “H” is palpable. In 1906 — with the press, the courts, the Administration, and many senators and congressmen incited against the trusts, there was reason for anxiety.

“Norway” hands President Roosevelt a “Nobel Prize $40,000.” Behind Roosevelt is a large “big stick” with “olive branches” on the wall along with the “Treaty of Portsmouth—Russo-Japanese.” On the ground is “Roosevelt’s plans for Industrial Peace Commission—$40,000 endowment.”

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1906-12-11

A large President Roosevelt stands in front of a fire with a bag labeled “Arbitration Fund” and wording on the front that says, “Nobel Peace Prize Award to President for His Work in Promoting Peace Between Russia and Japan. $37.127.00.” Roosevelt carries a club labeled “Big Stick” with an attached olive branch across his back and looks on to two sleeping men labeled “Capitalist” and “Wage Earner.” Both men are holding daggers. There are two stockings on the hearth labeled “Labor” and “Capital.”

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Comments and Context

Cartoonist P. B. McCord engaged in hyperbolic wishes in this pre-Christmas cartoon. The back-story was President Roosevelt’s announcement that he would not keep for himself the monetary award associated with the Nobel Prize for Peace. He proposed that the fund be in escrow and used toward the establishment of an agency — or some mechanism — that would promote industrial peace in the United States.

President Roosevelt pushes Bellamy Storer out the door as they are surrounded by letters. On the desk is “the big stick” and a dove in a cage with the tag: “Nobel Peace Prize awarded to T. R.”

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1906-12-11

President Roosevelt holds “the message” football and looks at Speaker of the House Joseph Gurney Cannon and President Pro Tempore of the Senate William P. Frye, who face one another.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1906-12-03

Uncle Sam sits in a chair smoking a pipe as a man labeled “California” and “States Rights” pleads with him. On a map of the United States in the background, an explosion appears over California; and newspapers in the foreground display headlines like “President’s Message Stirs Up Storm in San Francisco” and “California Dissatisfied.”

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Comments and Context

The year 1906 was possibly the busiest of President Roosevelt’s presidency. It was the high-water mark of the Muckrakers, the journalists, authors, and reformers who explosively attacked corruption in American business and finance. Congress passed many reform laws, and the administration promulgated many regulations, in many areas of American life from conservation to corporate affairs. The president engaged himself in battles with trust moguls like Edward Henry Harriman (whom the president called an unfit citizen); and other magnates like John D. Rockefeller had to defend themselves in lawsuits. Roosevelt’s own affairs included the Simplified Spelling and “Nature Fakir” crusades; and the controversy over dismissed Black soldiers in Brownsville, Texas, occupied his attention.

In one vignette, “Congress” shaped like Speaker of the House Joseph Gurney Cannon looks at President Roosevelt. Caption: That he has three more days of grace. In another, Vice President Charles W. Fairbanks, Secretary of War William H. Taft, and Secretary of the Treasury Leslie M. Shaw hold a paper that reads, “President’s anti-third term declaration.” Caption: That it is irrevocable. In a third vignette, a man with a pickaxe sweats and smiles. Caption: That the president has gone. In the fourth vignette, “Dorsey” looks at a sign that reads, “Dismissal of colored troops—25th Infantry.” Caption: That he wasn’t in it. In the fifth vignette, William Jennings Bryan sits in a chair. Caption: That the N.Y. democracy did so splendidly.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1906-11-29

President Roosevelt holds a “canal facts” barrel as a teddy bear holds an “inside facts” box with stickers for “Porto Rico,” “Canal zone,” and “Panama.” Canal critics run into the forest.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1906-11-26

President Roosevelt greets works in the Panama Canal and says, “I am mighty proud of you.”

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1906-11-19