Bryan, William Jennings, 1860-1925 | - Theodore Roosevelt Center

Both–“I said it first!”

Two birds who are drawn as President Roosevelt, holding a “big stick,” and William Jennings Bryan stand on a “platform.”

Comments and Context

At the time of this cartoon’s publication, the Brooklyn Eagle had two political cartoonists, William K. Starrett and Nelson Harding. The former withdrew in favor of Harding, and drew for several papers in New York State and Philadelphia before entering the comic-strip field; Harding remained for two decades with the Eagle, winning two Pulitzer Prizes before leaving for Hearst’s New York Journal.

Trying to get into the game

President Roosevelt addresses William Randolph Hearst as William Jennings Bryan looks at their marbles game, which includes marbles labeled “tariff revision,” “regulation of R.R.,” “popular election of Sen.,” “popular election of judges,” “ship subsidy,” and “public ownership.”

Comments and Context

It is wholly inadequate to identify William Randolph Hearst by first invoking the motion picture Citizen Kane, yet for many people since his death in 1951, that character provides the touchstone, and it is a gross caricature. Hearst’s father George was a prospector who made a fortune from silver claims and other mineral and land opportunities in the West. He rose to attain a vast fortune and secured a seat in the United States Senate. When his son, “Willie,” was expelled from Harvard, George gifted him with the San Francisco Examiner, hoping that a newspaper career would keep him busy, and maybe out of mischief.

Cartoon in the Washington Herald

President Roosevelt and William Jennings Bryan sit in an “our policies” wagon with boxes labeled “speeches W. J. B.” and “messages T. R.” The wagon is drawn by an elephant and a donkey. In a much smaller wagon, Arkansas Senator Jeff Davis is riding in “the inspirer” wagon drawn by a dog. He says, “Hooray!”

Comments and Context

Cartoonist Joseph Harry Cunningham looked ahead to the 1908 presidential nominating conventions and elections with the observation that President Roosevelt (who had declaimed interest in succeeding himself) and twice-defeated Democratic candidate William Jennings Bryan shared increasingly similar views on some issues. The observation was not rare among cartoonists, but the amity depicted between the two men was certainly exaggerated.

Little Teddy, Little Billy: “That’s mine!”

William Jennings Bryan reaches for President Roosevelt’s “radical policies” teddy bear.

Comments and Context

An early Nelson Harding cartoon in the conservative Democratic newspaper The Brooklyn Eagle well states the situation — or at least the widespread perception of public, press, and politicians — that Theodore Roosevelt had adopted increasingly radical positions through his presidency. Many observers noted that policies that had been anathema to Roosevelt and many Republicans, including onetime Populist platforms, were now accepted, or at least advocated by the president.

“Another kind of larceny”

President Roosevelt cries “Hey!” from a pool of water as William Jennings Bryan runs off with “my policies” and his “big stick.”

Comments and Context

William K. Starrett’s cartoon, one of his last for the Brooklyn Eagle, contains nuances that are informed by events of the day and weeks. President Roosevelt had been growing more radical in his policies and prescriptions toward the end of his presidency. Many commentators noted that he had adopted some views of the Democrats and even Populists he once decried. William Jennings Bryan, Democratic leader of Populist origins, observed this himself. So a cartoon of Bryan “stealing” Roosevelt’s clothes and props was the cartoonist’s ironic juxtaposition.

Now for the scramble

President Roosevelt stands behind a fence and tosses an extremely large pair of “Roosevelt’s shoes.” A number of men standing waiting to catch them: Secretary of War William H. Taft, Ohio Senator Joseph Benson Foraker, William Jennings Bryan, Secretary of the Treasury George B. Cortelyou, Iowa Governor Albert Baird Cummins, Vice President Charles W. Fairbanks, New York Governor Charles Evans Hughes; and former cabinet secretaries Leslie M. Shaw and Philander C. Knox.

Comments and Context

The immediate context of Jay N. “Ding” Darling’s cartoon was a public statement issued by President Roosevelt the previous day, on December 12, 1907. Hence the “Now” in the cartoon’s title.

Must be something wrong with it

In the first section of the cartoon, President Roosevelt shows William Jennings Bryan a paper and says, “Here is a draft of my plan for a more elastic currency Mr. Bryan.” In the second section, Roosevelt puts his hand on his head when Bryan says, “Mr. President your plan is admirable. I indorse it in every particular.” Caption: Better read it over again, Mr. Roosevelt.

Comments and Context

Jay N. “Ding” Darling was one of the few cartoonists of his era — at least among the most prominent — who displayed the facility of composing effective cartoons, capturing personalities in caricature, evoking chuckles (or, when appropriate, tears), and — as important as all the other factors — delivering trenchant commentary. In doing so, cartoonists like Ding were faithful servants of democracy, and no less guides for future researchers and historians.

The Siamese twins

President Roosevelt and William Jennings Bryan are attached together by “our policies.” Bryan holds the “big stick.”

Comments and Context

W. A. Rogers, one of the nation’s leading cartoonists of his day, drew “The Siamese Twins” for the New York Herald in late November 1907, anticipating the next year’s presidential contest. Rogers had drawn for Harper’s Weekly, Puck, Harper’s Weekly again, and then the Herald, where many of his cartoons, particularly about Theodore Roosevelt, found their way into history texts.

Cartoon in the Washington Herald

President Roosevelt and Speaker of the House Joseph Gurney Cannon shy away from scary toys, as William Loeb watches from behind an iron fence. Frightened also are Senator Philander C. Knox, and Vice President Charles W. Fairbanks. William Jennings Bryan holds a “tariff revision” snake and a children’s toy labeled, “death to trusts.”

Comments and Context

For a cartoon in the reliably Republican Washington Herald, Joseph Cunningham’s cartoon critically but realistically depicts Republican leaders as frightened little boys as the neighborhood bully scares them with a toy snake and a phony spider.

Pleasant social event

President Roosevelt celebrates his forty-ninth birthday with a variety of friends. In the upper left hand corner at the piano are New York Governor Charles Evans Hughes and Thomas Fortune Ryan singing, “Oh let us be joyful.” Booker T. Washington tells Henry Watterson, “Henry, I hope you’ll come down and visit me at Tuskegee.” Senator Joseph Benson Foraker says to Secretary of War William H. Taft, “I heard a good story today, Will.” Speaker of the House Joseph Gurney Cannon and Vice President Charles W. Fairbanks look at a picture of George Washington, and Fairbanks says, “That picture makes me sad. It reminds me of cherries.” William Randolph Hearst, James Roscoe Day, and Secretary of State Elihu Root look at a book of “Snapshots in New York.” William Jennings Bryan and Grover Cleveland play a game of checkers, and Bryan says, “After you, Grover.” J. Pierpont Morgan watches over the game with his hand on Bryan’s back. Henry Huttleston Rogers, F. Augustus Heinze, and Thomas William Lawson sit together. Lawson says, “Rogers, my boy, you must come over to Boston and visit me.” John D. Rockefeller points at Kenesaw Mountain Landis’s chest while President Roosevelt presents a bouquet to James J. Hill as William J. Long looks on. Finally, James T. Harahan, Edward Henry Harriman, and Stuyvesant Fish read “Snap Shots Along the Illinois Central.” Harriman remarks, “Very nice album, Stuyvesant, is it not?”

Comments and Context

There are contexts behind this cartoon by John T. McCutcheon of The Chicago Tribune that might not be apparent to modern researchers. The first is somewhat evident by reading the dialog balloons between figures in the pairings or clusters. Almost appropriate for an April Fool’s cartoon instead of something closer to Halloween is the ironic juxtaposition in every case — political opponents or business rivals exchanging niceties. In fact, insights might be gained by reading the nature of their “about-face” encounters.

Bryan finds new issue

President Roosevelt crouches in “Nomination Alley” watching William Jennings Bryan tempted to pick up the bait of an apparent lost wallet, tied to Roosevelt’s string, labeled “centralization.”

Comments and Context

The cartoon illustrates the policy adjustments, evolution, and outright reversals in platforms of America’s political parties during the second administration of Theodore Roosevelt.

Lens of public opinion

President Roosevelt looks at three men from the “lens of public opinion.” William Jennings Bryan says, “The president is carrying out all my ideas.” Representative William Sulzer says, “The president has taken up my policies.” William Alfred Peffer says, “The president is going in the right direction.”

Comments and Context

Cartoonist Joseph Harry Cunningham depicts President Roosevelt and three maverick politicians sizing each other up. The optics — literally, an absurd use of chart-graphics as might be found in textbooks — are rather absurd, and hardly relevant to the point of the drawing. Relevance to medical breakthroughs in optometry did not serve to elucidate the cartoon’s theme.

Heading ’em off

President Roosevelt takes a shortcut to get in front of “the people” lead by Wisconsin Senator Robert M. La Follette and William Jennings Bryan down the road pointed toward “radicalism.” Caption: A short cut to leadership.

Comments and Context

Cartoonist Claude Maybell’s meaning in this cartoon for the Brooklyn Eagle was as challenging as his composition and caricatures. The figures on the pathway are the reliably radical William Jennings Bryan of the Democratic Party, and Senator Robert M. LaFollette, Republican of Wisconsin. The latter was a newcomer to Washington and national politics but was already making his mark as an insurgent — proponent of radical prescriptions: a proto-progressive.

Specials today

President Roosevelt holds a sack and has a sign tied around his neck, “Specials today: Inheritance Tax, Income Tax, Federal Control of Mineral Lands.” In the foreground a Teddy bear rips out pages of a “Democratic Recipe Book” while William Jennings Bryan says, “I always said he was a Democrat.” The cow beside Bryan says, “My book!”

Comments and Context

The Evening Star, consistently a Republican-leaning newspaper through its history (which mostly was in control of the Noyes family) made noise when it thought the party strayed from orthodoxy. Such was the case with this Clifford Kennedy Berryman cartoon of 1907, when many politicians and commentators noticed that President Roosevelt was adopting, or publicly considering, some radical policies.

Counting their flocks

William Jennings Bryan and President Roosevelt stand at a crossroads. Bryan’s sign reads, “Those not for me in 1896 and 1900 are against me” with a “political mourner’s bench” covered in cobwebs. Roosevelt’s sign reads, “Those not for me are against me. T.R.” Many people are on bended knee at his “political mourner’s bench.”

Comments and Context

Cartoonist Kirk L. Russell’s drawing of William Jennings Bryan and President Roosevelt in the Washington Post might have been subtitled “The Tale of Two Egos,” and the cartoonist is not complimentary to either man. Oddly enough, the subtext of the cartoon is the challenge both leaders faced as the 1908 nominating conventions and elections loomed. And both men, at the time of this cartoon, began asserting control over their parties and assorted presidential aspirants.

Sounding the alarm bell

William Jennings Bryan dressed as a farmer holds a “list of missing issues”: “Grindstone (Swollen Fortunes), Cider Press (Railroads), Yoke (Trust Regulation), Dinner Bell (Plutocratic Domination).” As he hears a dinner bell with a tag that reads, “I’m a victim of a plutocratic conspiracy,” Bryan says, “That sounds like my old bell.” In the background is the White House.

Comments and Context

Cartoonist Kirk L. Russell, endeavoring to have his work look like that of Clifford Kennedy Berryman, whose role he assumed on the Washington Post, was perceptive in this cartoon. The theme it depicted was one of gradual development, not an overnight event, and had two aspects, captured by Russell.

A prophecy of 1908

William H. Taft stands with a gavel in his hand as the delegates select President Roosevelt as the nominee. In the audience are Secretary of State Elihu Root, Secretary of the Treasury Leslie M. Shaw, Speaker of the House Joseph Gurney Cannon, Senator Joseph Benson Foraker, Vice President Charles W. Fairbanks, and New York Governor Charles Evans Hughes. A balloon in the top right-hand corner shows William Jennings Bryan and William Randolph Hearst holding signs that read, “Gov’t Ownership” and “Socialism” respectively as they step on Minnesota Governor John Albert Johnson.

Comments and Context

Whether cartoonist Tyler McWhorter drew this cartoon as a prophecy or a hopeful dream, it was another cartoonist’s speculation on whether President Roosevelt would break his pledge of Election Night 1904 that he would not allow his name to be put into nomination in 1908. With its long caption, it also might have been an illustration for an article, or part of series. In any event the St. Paul Dispatch drawing was pasted in the White scrapbook, and presumably seen by the president.

A Virginia Democratic suggestion for 1908

President Roosevelt drives a chariot with the Republican elephant and Democratic donkey while William Jennings Bryan stands by the side in a clown outfit with whip that says “govt ownership” and “16 to 1” on the end.

Comments and Context

This drawing, probably by Kirk Russell, the Washington Post’s interim cartoonist after departure of Clifford Kennedy Berryman, addresses a topic much on the minds of politicians and pens of editorialists and cartoonists in 1907: the appeal that President Roosevelt held with portions of the national Democratic constituency.

Some Valentine surprises

Speaker of the House Joseph Gurney Cannon says, “Tariff revision or an extra session!” in one cartoon. The next includes a teddy bear and President Roosevelt reading a paper that says, “Mr. President: Anything you say goes! California.” Another cartoon depicts a government clerk holding a bag that says, “50% salary increase” while Uncle Sam says, “And more if necessary.” The next cartoon depicts William Jennings Bryan saying to William Randolph Hearst, “After you, my dear Willie!” with a sign that reads, “To presidency.” Another one shows South Carolina senator Benjamin R. Tillman depicted with a pitchfork walking toward the White House with a dove of peace. Finally, the last cartoon depicts Senator Joseph Benson Foraker with a sign that says, “Reenlistment” in front of a group of soldiers labeled, “25th Infantry” — the black regiment at the center of the Brownsville Incident.

Comments and Context

When cartoonist Clifford Kennedy Berryman switched, shortly prior to this drawing’s publication, from the Evening Star from the Washington Post, his drawing style improved: a better ability to capture celebrities’ likenesses to place atop little bodies. This cartoon fell back on the erstwhile cartoonists’ annual chestnut — a reliable theme to use once a year, the Valentine cards for politicians — either dream-fantasies or the unlikeliest of scenarios.

Bryan outdone

William Jennings Bryan stands on a plank labeled “Government Ownership” and watches as Secretary of State Elihu Root jumps in head first to the water labeled “Centralization of Power.” Beside Bryan are the words, “This is as far as I dare go!”

Comments and Context

At the time of this cartoon’s publication, William Jennings Bryan, the seemingly perennial Democratic presidential aspirant, had returned from a world tour, and therefore began reappearing in political cartoons. As a radical reformer since his national emergence in 1896, he honed his radical prescriptions for the nation; or felt the need to do so.