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President Taft, as a hen, sits on eggs labeled “Reform Measures” on a nest that is infested by rats labeled “Cannon, Aldrich, Gallinger, [and] Smoot.” Caption: If the trustful hen doesn’t wake up, there’ll be nothing left but the shells.
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs
1910-03-30
President Taft, as a rooster, has members of his flock labeled “Tawney, Ballinger, Aldrich, [and] Cannon,” as well as J. S. Sherman, under his wings. In the background, on the left, the sun labeled “Progressive Policies” rises. Caption: But the sun will rise whether he forgets to crow or not.
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs
1910-04-13
President Taft, as a blindfolded cupid labeled “Party Solidarity,” wears a quiver labeled “Harmony” and stands against a backdrop of a large red heart. He is holding strings attached to four birds labeled “Root, Wickersham, Knox, [and] Aldrich,” and two strings attached to arrows that have been shot through hearts labeled “Insurgent” and “Reactionary.”
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs
1910-02-09
Joseph Gurney Cannon and Nelson W. Aldrich, dressed as a frontiersman labeled “Licensed Trader,” offer trinkets labeled “Pauper-Competition Scare, Steady-Work Yarn, Prosperity-For-All Bluff, Campaign Promises, Protection-For-Labor Josh, [and] Good-Crops-Due-to-Tariff Bluff,” to men dressed as Natives, getting in return furs and skins labeled “Graft-for-Monopoly, Right-of-the-Few-to-Tax-the-Many, Opportunities-to-Increase-the-Cost-of-Living, [and] Privilege-to-Levy-Tribute-on-the-American-Home.” Caption: How pleasant it is to get something for nothing from the simple children of Republican nature!
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs
1910-01-26
A man labeled “Consumer” walks with crutches labeled “Free Oil” and “Free Hides,” and is heavily wrapped with bandages labeled “Free Valerianic, Free Cerium, Free Acorns, Gambier, Fossils, Free Orange Peel, Free Spunk, Coir, Rennets, Free Aniline Salts, Ipecac, Divi-Divi, Free Manganese, Free Turtles, Rags, Plumbago, Insects, Tonquin, Teeth, Free Brazilian Pebble, Free Pulu Litmus, [and] Free Rope ends.” He has just been discharged from the “United States Congressional Clinic” where “Matron Taft” stands at the door and doctors “Sherman, Payne, Aldrich, [and] Cannon” watch from a window as they clean their medical instruments.
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs
1909-08-25
A battered diminutive football player labeled “The Plain People” tells President Taft, as an umpire, that a player labeled “Aldrich” for the opposing team is playing a dirty game, breaking the rules and cheating, but Taft never penalizes him for his actions. Caption: “He slugs me every chance he gets, and you can’t or won’t see it.”
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs
1909-11-10
President Taft leads the Republican elephant in circles, creating a rut. Among those riding the elephant are Joseph G. Cannon, Nelson W. Aldrich, and James S. Sherman.
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs
1909-11-10
Nelson W. Aldrich stands next to a horse labeled “Central Bank” which he is offering to Uncle Sam who is inspecting the horse’s teeth labeled “Wall St. Interests.”
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs
1909-12-22
President Taft struggles to conduct an orchestra composed of two groups of musicians. On the left, playing the “Eastern Conservatism” on stringed instruments, are “Root, Crane, Smoot, Depew, Aldrich, [and] Gallinger.” On the right, playing the “Western Conservatism” on horns and percussion instruments, are “Knute Nelson, Dolliver, Cummins, Clapp, Bristow, [and] La Follette.” Caption: Pity the poor leader of the Washington Symphony Orchestra.
A large man labeled “Monopoly,” standing behind a panel and reaching around with his right arm, holds a diminutive figure labeled “Aldrich.” Aldrich is pointing to an image labeled, “What will happen if the Tariff [crossed-out] Currency [added] Bill is passed,” that has been projected onto the panel and shows a lean wolf prowling among the ruins of industrial buildings, banks, and homes. Uncle Sam, sitting in the foreground, his attention drawn by Aldrich, ponders the image. Caption: The Man Behind – He fell for it for twenty years on the tariff; maybe we can work it on the currency.
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs
1913-11-05
Joseph Gurney Cannon hands a shoe labeled “Stand Pat” to J. S. Sherman, who is shining shoes labeled “Conservatism, Reactionary, Special Privileges, [and] Vested Interests.” Senator Nelson W. Aldrich, peers through an open door.
During the presidency of Theodore Roosevelt, immense shifts of public opinion occurred throughout America. On myriad issues — trusts, corruption, reform, foreign policy — their were titanic changes in all classes and all parts of the country. It was a time of major changes in the economy, in immigration, in socialization, in manners and morals, and whether Roosevelt managed the fluid attitudes of America, or was propelled by them himself, is a question whose answer likely is “a combination of both,” yet the president was proud that he anticipated aspects of potential social unrest and acted in ways that prevented them from becoming crises.
Society might have changed in may ways, but in corners of the United States Senate and the House of Representatives, Roosevelt dealt with limits to his persuasion. “Reactionaries” and “Stand-Patters” stood their ground on matters like high tariffs and conservation, only reluctantly yielding to Roosevelt’s reforms. Their numbers were decreasing, as “insurgents” in the House and rebellious reformers in the Senate grew in numbers.
At the Republican National Convention in Chicago, Illinois, Theodore Roosevelt is passing the pike of “Policies” to William H. Taft, as “The New Mahout,” sitting on the “G.O.P.” elephant. Seen through the left lens of Roosevelt’s spectacles, labeled “Before Taft is Nominated,” are James J. Hill, J. Pierpont Morgan, Thomas Fortune Ryan, John D. Rockefeller, Edward Henry Harriman, Joseph Gurney Cannon, Joseph Benson Foraker, and Nelson W. Aldrich looking very somber. Seen through the right lens labeled “After Taft is Nominated,” the same group is cheering. In the lower right, Roosevelt refuses another curtain call. On the lower left he offers “Taft Bitters” to a cowboy. Across the bottom is Roosevelt’s familiar toothy grin.
Forsaking harsh criticism of the Republican Party, or President Roosevelt or the imminent nominee William H. Taft, the nominally Democratic magazine Puck instead had it cartoonist L. M. Glackens devote this Convention Issue’s centerspread drawings to topical humor and light commentary.
Several Republicans with presidential aspirations and/or delegates to the Republican National Convention in Chicago, and a young boy holding a pillow labeled “Stand-Pat Press,” stand around “Stand-Pat” King Canute on the seashore with cliffs at their back, as he commands the rising tide of “Tariff Revision.”
Samuel Ehrhart returned to Puck’s political-cartoon pages with a standard use of the King Canute legend, frequently employed by cartoonists; it was a misuse, actually, because the real story of Canute is not that the king tried to command the waves to recede, but to illustrate to his court that his powers were not unlimited.
A group of men identified as “Land Grafter, Politician, Special Privilege, Timber Grafter, Mineral Grafter, Public Utilities, Corporation Lawyer, [and] Tariff Grafter” sit around a table getting Uncle Sam drunk on “Stand Pat Dope” mixed with a drink from a large punch bowl labeled “Our Natural Resources.” They are smoking “Vanity Perfectos” and two men, “Land Grafter” and “Timber Grafter,” are working together to pick Uncle Sam’s watch from his pocket. In the lower left corner, Joseph Gurney Cannon and Nelson W. Aldrich are pouring the “Stand Pat Dope” into his drink. Caption: “For he’s a jolly good fellow!”
Almost week after week, in the pages of his magazine Puck, Udo J. Keppler proved himself as one of the great political cartoonists of his time. As Puck was aging and gradually losing circulation, his influence waned, yet that neither diminished the brilliance or force of his cartoons, nor the value of his work to future researchers.
The value of political cartoon is often weighed by what it “says” but does not picture — the difficult construction of subtexts and implied statements — as much as what is obvious, and made more obvious with labels, captions, and tags.
Moses, holding the Ten Commandments, is confronted by an angry mob of capitalists, businessmen, and politicians, some shaking their fists at him. Caption: Chorus of “Conservatives” – Dangerous, socialistic, un-American doctrines!
This powerful indictment of endemic corruption at the upper levels of American society was drawn by Udo J, Keppler, whose father Joseph (founder and chief cartoonist of Puck) had addressed the same issues with classic drawing like They Can’t Stand the Light, showing United States Senators shrinking from spotlights in the dark. But his son’s cartoon — of this evergreen subject — encompassed more than political corruption.
A group of Republicans try to push, pull, and coax the “G.O.P.” elephant to jump a hurdle on a race course. William B. Allison stands on the far side of the hurdle. Philander C. Knox is pulling the elephant’s trunk. William P. Frye, Nelson W. Aldrich, Stephen B. Elkins, Joseph Gurney Cannon, and Eugene Hale are pushing the elephant, which is being ridden by a plump man labeled “Stand Pat,” wielding a whip. The hurdle has four bars, the lowest labeled “Cost of Living 1896,” the next “Cost of Living 1900,” then “Cost of Living 1904,” and the highest “Cost of Living 1908.”
The “High Cost of Living” has been a perennial bugaboo of politicians and icon of cartoonists through the years. In the administration of Woodrow Wilson, and especially in the two years following the Armistice ending World War I, the issue was paramount. It often was manifested by an impossibly tall and thin dour character.
The “Tariff Reform” ship is mired in a sea of ice, around which are many glaciers in the shape of the heads of Joseph Gurney Cannon, Leslie M. Shaw, Nelson W. Aldrich, and Joseph Benson Foraker. Other glaciers are labeled “Trust” and “Monopoly.” The “Philippine Free Trade” ship has wrecked on a large block of ice labeled “Protected Trust” and only the hull remains. Survivors from “Tariff Reform” drag a sled labeled “Mass. Revisionists” up a mountain labeled “Stand Pat,” toward a rainbow labeled “Fair Trade.”
One cartoon can pack a lot of history and details of a vital historical controversy. In this case, cartoonist J. S. Pughe addressed the progress of (or challenges to) tariff reform, which had been a burning political issue for more than a generation in the United States.
A group of senators (labeled Aldrich, Frye, Spooner, Penrose, Tillman, Bailey, Foraker, and Elkins) dressed as Native Americans perform a war dance around a totem pole with the face of President Theodore Roosevelt carved at the top. A drum labeled “The Press” is in the foreground while “Tom” and “Chauncey” stand in the background. Caption: Recent despatches from the Washington reservation report that the Senator Indians are again on the war path.
Udo J. Keppler — after his father’s death known as Joseph Keppler, Junior — was an owner and chief cartoonist on Puck magazine. Rather neglected by history, and not as celebrated as his father, he arguably was the better artist, and a potent editorialist. During the first decade of the century, while the venerable Puck went downhill in circulation, the political viewpoints of Keppler and his staff evolved from conservative Democrat to Rooseveltian reformist to insurgent to radical-progressive.
A man labeled “Protected Monopoly” lies on a bench in an Egyptian temple next to a large bloody sword labeled “Closed Mills” with which three man, labeled “Labor,” have been slain. Each lies next to papers labeled “No Orders the Prices Come Down, Cancelled Orders, [and] Consumer Balks.” At one end of the temple are the faces of “Sherman, Aldrich, [and] Payne.” In the distance are factories.
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs
1911-02-15
An analysis of the arguments for and against Cuban Reciprocity made by various Senators.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1902-12