Bulls

President Roosevelt is on the hunt as a bear, a sheep labeled “the weakling,” and a rhinoceros labeled “new finance” run away while an octopus wrapped in a tree and a bull stay out of the way. In the background is a “muck rake” and a goat labeled “E.H.H.” on a mountain, “reserved for scape-goats.”

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W. A. Rogers is a singular figure in American political cartooning. He never was a facile cartoonist or caricaturist, and his concepts seldom were persuasive; that is, the cartoons only mildly attacked or supported men and movements. For the most part he was more an editorial cartoonist, illustrating events and situations rather than attempting persuasion. This is one reason his cartoons illustrate more reference works today than many of his fellows. Yet he was highly regarded in his day, and worked for years at Harper’s Weekly and the New York Herald, substantial publications.

Armed with a big stick, President Roosevelt plays poker with “Bear” and “Bull” on a table labeled “Wall Street,” saying “It’s a square deal, boys!”

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Maurice Ketten, who had a long and modest but distinguished career as a cartoonist of social subjects, life’s dilemmas, and daily panel serials of suburban and domestic situations, did not draw political cartoons for long, and this attempt might explain the course set for him by his editors at the New York Evening World.

President Roosevelt holding a gun faces a grizzly bear. In the background stands a wounded bull while in the foreground a teddy bear, also with a gun, reads a book entitled, “Hunting the Grizzly–T.R.”

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Clifford Kennedy Berryman drew the simplest of political cartoons about relatively screaming headlines — a momentous national event, well addressed in a drawing that relied on the double meanings of cartoon iconography.

A large bull labeled “Beef Trust,” wearing a crown, sits on its haunches, with its front hooves crushing a “Cattle Raiser” and a “Consumer.” A jester labeled “Anti-Trust Laws” is flogging it with two bags or balloons labeled “Fines” attached to a stick. Caption: “There, you bad, wicked Beef Trust! Take that!!”

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Some of the major political battles of 1905-06 were pressed by President Roosevelt, and some issues came to a head; of course the political confrontations were engaged in synergistic fashion to varying degrees. One of the most intractable of issues concerned the Beef Trust, meat-packing monopolies, and pure food and drug matters: everything from manipulated prices of meat to adulterated canned food and drugs. These issues were all related, and exacerbated by “muckraking” writing by Upton Sinclair (the meat industry), Samuel Hopkins Adams (medicines and drugs), and others.

A bear and a bull appear as gladiators in an arena. The bear has one foot on the bull and is about to plunge a sword labeled “Raids” into the bull. Sheep at the edge of the wall appear to be signaling death to the bull.

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Icons and symbols are the mother’s milk of political cartooning. Parties, movements, and countries have had animals and figures representing them, and many origin stories are interesting; some are lost in obscurity.

John Mitchell, president of the United Mine Workers of America, grasps an angry bull labeled “Coal Operators’ Combine” by the horns. The cartoonist is suggesting that the bull might get the better of him.

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John Mitchell, a second-generation Irish immigrant, joined the fledgling United Mine Workers (UMW) in 1890 and by 1898 had risen to its presidency. He was in the forefront of the anthracite coal workers’ strike in Pennsylvania fields in 1902. The strike had national implications with winter approaching. The owners of the mines, largely consolidated under J. P. Morgan, stood firm again the miners’ demands for higher wages, a work week shorter than six days, and recognition of the UMW. Cartoonist Keppler’s perception was that of the public at large, and of history. President Theodore Roosevelt intervened in an unprecedented manner, acting as and appointing mediators. In the end, and largely due to Roosevelt’s intervention and resourcefulness, a general compromise was reached before winter; a 10 percent wage hike, a five-day work week, but not, for the time being, exclusive recognition of the UMW union.  

Puck offers a large axe labeled “Repeal of Beef Tariff” to Philander C. Knox who is holding a tiny sling-shot labeled “Sherman Anti-Trust Law.” Standing in the background is a large bull labeled “Beef Trust.” Caption: Puck (to Attorney-General Knox) — You’ll never hurt that animal until they give you this ax!

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Evidently the bombshell that was the anti-trust suit against the Northern Securities was not enough for Puck. It was a bombshell because the action of President Theodore Roosevelt’s Attorney General, Philander C. Knox, not only took other cabinet members by surprise, but the Wall Street titans — sometime rivals but collaborators to form this railroad monopoly — J. P. Morgan, E. H. Harriman, and James J. Hill, likewise had no inkling of the government’s suit. Morgan transmitted to Roosevelt his accustomed method of dealing with federal scrutiny: “If we have done anything wrong, send your man to my man and they can fix it up.” But Roosevelt wanted the backroom methods, and not the mere combination of the Northern Pacific; Great Northern; and Chicago, Burlington, and Quincy railroads, “fixed.” The suit to dissolve the trust was settled in the government’s favor in 1904, but this cartoon by Joseph Keppler, Jr., appeared only two months after Knox filed the Great Northern suit. Puck wanted the government to continue its serious trust-busting with hardly a delay.

J. P. Morgan as a stock-market bull blows bubbles labeled “Inflated Values” as many deluded investors reach for them.

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The immediate inspirations for this cartoon Keppler were J. P. Morgan’s organization and capitalization (some said over-capitalization) of the United States Steel Corporation at the time of this drawing, and the brief but unsettling panic on Wall Street caused by the machinations of Morgan, Andrew Carnegie, and other financiers during the formation of the new company.

Advertisement for Australian horse trainer O. B. Milburn’s appearance during the upcoming Great Bull Fight in Akron, Ohio. Milburn is known for taming “the most wicked, savage, man-eating stallions or mad bulls.” Additionally, S. J. Sidney will jump a horse into a lake. There is also a gentlemen’s bicycle race.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1897-07

Postcard of a parade of sugarcane farmers and their harvesting tools in Iloilo, Philippines. In the background, many people watch the parade as it moves down the street.

Comments and Context

In Charles C. Myers’s own words, “Among the natives there seems to be no desire of advancement and they stick to the old way and use the old plow made of a crooked limb of a tree.”

Collection

Charles C. Myers Collection

Postcard of sugarcane farmers and their harvesting machinery in a parade in Iloilo, Philippines. Many people watch the parade from both sides of the street.

Comments and Context

In Charles C. Myers’s own words, “Another part of the parade when the sugar farmers are exibiting [sic] their crude pieces of machinery that they use as agricultural implements.”

Collection

Charles C. Myers Collection

Postcard showing a fire engine being drawn by two bulls and a crowd of people on the side of the street watching the procession. Charles C. Myers notes this is a parade.

Comments and Context

In Charles C. Myers’s own words, “A scene during a fair and street parade in the city.”

Collection

Charles C. Myers Collection

A “beef trust” bull chases a man out of the arena. A hat and a piece of clothing labeled “the public” are on each of his horns. President Roosevelt and Attorney General Philander C. Knox watch from the “U.S. Attorney General” stable.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1904-03-24

John Bull is a bull in the “China Department” of a shop selling table wares. He is charging a cabinet labeled “China Department” on the left, with dishes labeled “Port Arthur – Reserved for Russia,” “Kiao Chau – Reserved for Germany,” and “Ta-Lien-Wan – Reserved for France.” On the right is a table labeled “Hainan” set with dishes labeled “Canton, Hong Kong, [and] Formosa” and “For France,” and on a shelf is a vase labeled “Tonquin – Presented to France.” Uncle Sam is standing on the right outside the shop, and a woman holding a parasol labeled “Japan” and a fan labeled “Wei-Hai-Wei” is standing on the left. They are watching John Bull.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1898-03-09

A sword labeled “Removal of Duties on Meat” is suspended by a chain labeled “Republican Congress” above a bull labeled “Meat Trust” feeding from a dish filled with coins labeled “Arbitrary Profits.” Caption: Unlike the sword of Damocles, which was suspended by a hair.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1910-02-23

Print shows Paul Kruger taking “John Bull” by the horns above a notice that states “‘Oom Paul’s Ultimatum to John Bull”; then shows Kruger being tossed into the air by the bull.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1899-11-08

Print shows Chester A. Arthur riding the Republican elephant tossed high in the air in a “Political Arena.” The elephant is patched with scandals labeled “Credit Mobilier, Collusion with Monopolies, Back Pay Grab, Third Termism, Whiskey Ring, Navy Ring, [and] Dorsey ‘Soap’ 1880.” Below, on the floor of the arena, Samuel J. Tilden is sitting backwards on a donkey labeled “Incurable” and Puck’s Independent Party figure is riding a bucking bull, its horns labeled “Anti-Monopoly” and “Tariff Reform.” Puck applauds from a viewing stand on the right; sitting in the grandstand at left are Ulysses S. Grant, Cyrus W. Field, Rutherford B. Hayes, Thomas F. Bayard, Winfield Scott Hancock, Benjamin F. Butler, Adams, David Davis, Allen G. Thurman, William M. Evarts, Abram S. Hewitt, George F. Edmunds, Wayne MacVeagh, and George B. McClellan. Caption: Puck presents another prophetic cartoon – and the sooner it is realized the better.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1882-04-19

A sled labeled “Wall Street,” being pulled by a bull and a bear, races through the snow on a winter night, being chased by a wolf with the face of Theodore Roosevelt. The driver, wearing a hat labeled “The Railroads,” is about to throw a child labeled “Overcapitalization” to the wolf.

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Comments and Context

J. S. Pughe’s deceptively simple cartoon is actually filled with labels that might be superfluous; the situation in American politics and the economy was rather simple in the first place. Railroads has become over-capitalized.

A large bull labeled “Lincoln,” with the head of Abraham Lincoln, stands among the reeds of a swamp where a puffed-up frog labeled “Roosevelt” is standing on a piece of driftwood labeled “Progressivism” in a pool of water labeled “Practical Politics.” Caption: The frog who wanted to be as big as the bull.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1912-09-25

A bull labeled “France” is being attacked by insects shaped like clerical figures, which cause it to kick with its hind legs, knocking Pope Pius X off a stool and overturning a bucket and spilling “Papal Revenues.”

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There is a French saying that France will never be anything if not Catholic; however of all the Roman Catholic countries through the centuries, and despite magnificent French cathedrals and associations, France probably has been the most aggressively anti-clerical of all countries. High (or low) moments in actions taken against the Church and papal authority have included the excesses of the French Revolution, and measures to restrict proselytizing, lessen government subsidies, and conform to various secular regulations.