Corruption

Print shows the interior of the “N.Y. Sun Editorial Rooms” where “Political Scandals [are] Promptly Attended to,” also “Post Mortem Scandals Especially Desired”, with elderly editor Charles A. Dana sitting at a desk, listening through an earhorn to Stephen W. Dorsey who is labeled “Public Contempt,” wearing tattered clothing, and with his left arm in a sling labeled “Acquitted by a Washington Jury.” Dana is transcribing “Dorsey’s Own Statement”; an inkpot on the desk is labeled “Gall.”

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1883-07-25

Print shows a policeman labeled “Gov. Foster” grabbing the arm of a diminutive man labeled “Hoadly” who is holding a piece of fruit labeled “Dem. Nomination 83” that he has stolen from a street vendor who is an old woman labeled “Ohio Democracy” knitting behind her table of fruit labeled “Nomination Appointment Office.” Papers extending from the pocket of the policeman are labeled “Indiana ‘Soap’ Campaign 1880” and “Theft of the Presidency 1877.” Caption: Honest Charley Foster is horrified to find Hoadly filching.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1883-08-08

Father Knickerbocker, symbolic figure of New York City, uses a hose attached to a fire hydrant to wash the city streets clean of mud labeled “Mr. Mud, Mrs. Mud, Gaynor Mud, Hearst Mud, Ivins Mud, Tammany Mud, Fusion Mud, [and] Just Mud.”

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1909-11-03

Two diminutive figures labeled “Democratic Principles” and “Republican Principles” argue between themselves. In the background are four large men, “the Gods,” labeled “Democratic Boss, Privileged Interests, Dive Keeper, [and] Republican Boss” sitting on a bench, amused by the two small figures in the foreground. Caption: The Big Four — Let ’em argue! If they stopped talking they might begin thinking, and then where would we be?

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1909-11-03

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.”

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1909-11-10

A tall male figure labeled “U.S. Public Land Grant” looks like a Trojan horse from which corrupt figures labeled “Land Grafter, Timber Grafter, Mineral Grafter, Corrupt Official, [and] Power Monopolist” emerge clutching a “Fraudulent Title” or a “Transferred Claim” seeking “Mineral Rights, Timber Rights, [and] Waterpower Rights” and other claims to public lands.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1909-11-24

A rotund man labeled “Trust Official” inoculates himself into “Personal Immunity” with “Fine Vaccine” which is “Specially Prepared by Senate & House, Washington D.C.” Above his head is a dark cloud of prison-suited bacteria” labeled “Personal Responsibility,” some with manacle-like features. Caption: “None of those microbes will get me while I can buy this vaccine!”

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1909-12-08

Uncle Sam stands next to a cannon labeled “Dept. of Justice” that is shooting at a floating target labeled, from the outer rim to bull’s-eye, “Scapegoats and Dummies, Appraisers, Inspectors, and Weighers, Trust Supt. and Managers, Corrupt Civil Service Officials, Sugar Trust Directors, [and] High Govt. Officers.” The target has two holes on the bottom. Uncle Sam is telling the shooter to “aim higher.”

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1909-12-08

In a perspective view with the “Eye of the Law” at the vanishing point, the “little ones” shield the more important figures in the foreground. From small to large are the “Weigher, Appraiser, Inspector, Superintendent, Manager, Trust Scapegoat, Government Scapegoat, Sugar Trust Director ‘Don’t Touch Sugar Trust it gave to Your Campaign Fund’, [and] High Government Official ‘Don’t Touch Sugar. It gave to Our Campaign Fund.'” Caption: The little ones close to the eye hide the big ones farther away.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1909-12-15

Charles F. “Murphy” holds “Father Knickerbocker,” a symbolic figure for New York City, his hands bound behind his back, over a large tub labeled “City Hall,” his head underwater among “Plums” labeled “Good Things, Appointments, Contracts, [and] Jobs.” Edward E. “McCall,” kneeling next to the tub, has pulled out a plum labeled “Control” and is handing it to Murphy. Caption: Boss Murphy — Take your time, Ed, and get ’em all. His Knicklets here won’t bother you.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Uncle Sam, at the edge of a swamp labeled “The Tariff in Politics,” is being attacked by a horde of mosquitoes labeled on the wing as “Sectionalism, Subsidized Senator, Lobbyist, Graft, Kept Congressman, Protected Monopoly, Over-Protected, [and] Infant Industry.”

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1909-08-11

A large ape with a human face wears a sheep skin as a disguise. Text on the side of the skin states “High Protection and Prosperity for American Labor and Capital.” The ape is wearing a hat labeled “Graftocracy” and its left foot is caught in a bear trap labeled “Lobby Exposure.” It walks with the aid of a staff through a landscape that is both wilderness and dotted with factories. Caption: The Brute with Brains – This disguise doesn’t seem to fool them the way it used to.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1913-09-10

A tiger labeled “Tammany” stands on the edge of a bluff overlooking New York City on the opposite side of a river, at night.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1913-09-17

The spirit of Jesus Christ stands before a mob of corrupt individuals labeled “Greed, Inhuman Employer, Usurer, Corrupt Public Servant, Tainted Money, Hypocrite, Vice Grafter, Congo-Rubber Slaver, [and] White Slaver,” who are all calling for his crucifixion. Caption: The mob which does to His Spirit to-day what the mob of nineteen centuries ago did to His body.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1913-03-19

President Wilson appears as a police officer with William Jennings Bryan behind him as they walk down a street lined with buildings labeled “Crooked Business, Food Adulteration, Public Land Graft, [and] The Pork Barrel.” They are watched closely by men looking out doorways and windows, including two men labeled “Flim Flam Finance” and “Tariff Graft.” Caption: The political underworld doesn’t quite know where it is at. Just how much will the new man stand for?

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1913-03-26

In Hell, labeled “Wall Street,” a huge snowball shaped like a human head and labeled “The Public,” dripping money, melts amid flames and steam labeled “Manipulation, Fake Tips, Pool, [and] Corner.” Many devils prod the snowball with long forks and gather the money in buckets.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1913-01-08

A woman wearing a red dress, holding money, stands between the “Health Department Bureau of Licences and Inspection” and an opening in a wall labeled “Graft.” In a cut-away showing the scene behind the “Graft,” the man (probably a plainclothes officer) who collects the money through the opening in the wall is passing money to a uniformed officer, who in turn passes the money to a large hand (probably that of a politician) entering the frame from above. It is a wild scene with a woman lying on a table, the body of a man stabbed to death beneath the table, a man rolling dice, others drinking, and a shooting taking place in the background. While the woman in red hesitates, the implication is that she has no choice but to pay the graft. Caption: She is here. Man is responsible for her. His laws against her and her traffic but afford opportunity for police extortion. You know this. You may wince at the idea of “regulation,” but is not regulation preferable to the vilest forms of graft? Of two evils, must the greater be chosen?

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1913-01-15

A large spider labeled “Flim Flam Finance,” with a disgruntled look on its face, sits on a cobweb labeled “Wall Street,” looking at a bunch of flies labeled “The Public” hovering just beyond the cobweb, mocking the spider.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1913-01-22

Uncle Sam works at the “Free Pie Kitchen” offering daily distribution of free pies labeled “Long Term Franchise, Graft Tariff, Land Grant, [and] Special Privilege” to crooked businessmen labeled “Public Service Corporation, ‘Infant Industry’, Trust, Public Land Thief, [and] Predatory Wealth” standing in a long line or already enjoying their “Free” pies. Caption: The pie line.

comments and context

Comments and Context

The handsome cartoon by L. M. Glackens in Puck, depicting corporations, trusts, and the “predatory wealthy” receiving public funds under false pretenses probably was as ad hominem as the magazine ever got in its crusades. There are no specific politicians or moguls portrayed; Uncle Sam is the only recognizable figure. Additionally, no specific trusts are named or identified.

Uncle Sam holds a map of “The United States” and Theodore Roosevelt stands next to him with a quill pen in his mouth, discussing the ownership of the country with a smug-looking man labeled “Special Privilege.” On a nearby table are papers labeled “Public Land Fraud, Yellow Dog Legislation, Graft Tariff, [and] Monopoly.” Caption: Who owns it?

comments and context

Comments and Context

Evidently based on a noted history-themed painting of the day (especially as was the custom to grant credit to the original painter), “The Disputed Title” in cartoonist Udo J. Keppler’s hand is a straightforward presentation of the perceived challenge posed to the United States by Big Business — more specifically, “Special Privilege.”