Hearst, William Randolph, 1863-1951

William Jennings Bryan, William Randolph Hearst, and Alton B. Parker are at the starting line of a race. Bryan wears weights on his legs that read “Kansas City platform” and “Chicago platform” and has a feather in his hat that reads, “I got a new job,” Hearst rides a “regular in both campaigns” barrel with deflated wheels, and Parker rides a donkey with “1896” and “1900” on his legs. David B. Hill gives Parker advice while Grover Cleveland watches Democratic National Committee Chairman James K. Jones write down odds. George Gray, Richard Olney, Arthur P. Gorman, and Dame Democracy watch from a covered box. Uncle Sam watches from behind.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1904-03-27

William Jennings Bryan, Alton B. Parker, Grover Cleveland, and William Randolph Hearst roll eggs on the White House lawn. One egg is broken. The other read: “Cleveland 3rd term,” “? Parker,” and “Trust busting Hearst.” President Roosevelt says from inside the White House, “You can play in my back yard.”

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1904-04-04

Grover Cleveland, who wears a “What and where am I?” feather; Arthur P. Gorman, who wears a “I am out in the cold” feather; and David B. Hill, who wears a “I am still a Democrat—very still” all hold down the lid on the “Democratic political pot.” Two lobsters—William Jennings Bryan and William Randolph Hearst—are inside. They each hold papers. Bryan’s reads, “Bryan the apostle of poverty. Income $50,000 a year.” Hearst’s reads, “God bless out home. Hear$t who pleads for the suffering poor while he enjoys his life on his mother’s $50,000,000.” There is a picture of Thomas Jefferson on the wall. Caption: Democratic chorus—”If they e’er take off the lid the worst will be yet to come!”

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1904-03

A larger-than-life President Roosevelt rides toward “Chicago” and the “Republican National Convention for Teddy” flags, passing childlike William Randolph Hearst and Alton B. Parker, standing on either side of their mother, Dame Democracy.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1903-04-17

Bees with the names of states surround a beehive in the shape of President Roosevelt’s head. In the background, William Randolph Hearst tries to use a net to capture some bees.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1904-04-21

A number of men in the Democratic Party march forward: Grover Cleveland with his fishing rod, William Randolph Hearst with a small bag of money, William Jennings Bryan with a “Lincoln Neb.” drum, Alton B. Parker with the face of a sphinx, David B. Hill, Charles Francis Murphy, and George B. McClellan, who rides a Tammany tiger.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1904-06-30

A number of men sit or stand in a “political waiting room—the presidential possibilities and impossibilities”: President Roosevelt, Grover Cleveland, William Jennings Bryan, Arthur P. Gorman, Alton B. Parker, William Randolph Hearst, Chicago Mayor Carter H. Harrison, Missouri Senator Francis Marion Cockrell, and George Gray. The date—March 4, 1904—is on one wall while another wall has a sign that reads, “Smoking allowed.” Roosevelt reads “How to Ketch a Catamount” while Cleveland’s book—”Fish I Have Caught”—is upside down. There are some hand-drawn additions by “REL.”

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1904-03-04

President Roosevelt wears an olive branch crown and rides in a chariot followed by “Trusts,” “Morgan,” “Foraker,” “Bryan,” “Rockefeller,” “Tillman,” “Harriman,” “Haskell,” “Hearst,” “Pulitzer,” “Congress,” a “stork,” “undesirable citizens,” “grafters,” “muckrakers,” and “nature fakirs.” A dove tries to escape the “peace” cage.

comments and context

Comments and Context

As the presidency of Theodore Roosevelt drew to a close — seven years and several months, instead of the normal eights years, as Roosevelt assumed office upon the death of President William McKinley — cartoonist Jay N. “Ding” Darling drew a valedictory summation of the president’s triumphs.

President Roosevelt pushes off the “big stick” and says, “Don’t flinch; don’t foul” as he leans on Timothy L. Woodruff who leans on George Rumsey Sheldon who leans on Secretary of State Elihu Root who leans on J. S. Sherman who leans on Frank H. Hitchcock who ultimately leans on William H. Taft who is fighting against William Jennings Bryan. On the other side William Randolph Hearst pours a “Standard Oil” can and says, “I’ll make ’em slip.” Meanwhile, Norman Edward Mack leans against Herman Ridder who leans against William James Conners who leans against Charles Francis Murphy who leans against John Worth Kern who leans against Bryan. Uncle Sam referees.

comments and context

Comments and Context

It was impressive cartoon that readers of the Brooklyn Eagle beheld in the Election Day edition of the paper. It was, properly, not partisan or biased toward a candidate or party, published as it was on Election Day when political argumentation traditionally ceased.

William H. Taft wears a suit made of “T. R.” tags and asks J. S. Sherman who is hiding in a hole, “Where have you been Jimmy boy?” Sherman replies, “Dare I come out?” In the background is a “Hearst volcano” with “letters” and “accusations.”

comments and context

Comments and Context

Virtually every political cartoonist, whether pro-Taft or anti-Taft, had fun at his expanse; the broad aspects of William H. Taft were irresistible to caricaturists. But credit must be paid to an otherwise pedestrian cartoonist, Joseph Harry Cunningham of the Washington Herald, for adding some extra graphic stereotypes; it is surprising that they were not adopted by other cartoonists, or survived the presidential campaign.

Newspaper publisher William Randolph Hearst is depicted as “the big can” with the spout labeled “Standard Oil disclosures” dancing beside “the big stick,” which features President Roosevelt’s face.

comments and context

Comments and Context

Somewhat obscured by the passage of time is the biggest issue in the 1908 presidential election, certainly the major controversy of the campaign: the Archbold Letters. Not the tariff, not government regulation, not conservation, America’s battleship program, the Panama Canal, nor the recent stock-market panic.

Uncle Sam holds a switch behind his back as William Jennings Bryan, President Roosevelt, Oklahoma Governor Charles Nathaniel Haskell, and John Worth Kern, who all have bloody faces, point at William Randolph Hearst, who has a bloody hand. Caption: “He began it, teacher.”

comments and context

Comments and Context

One of the hidden gems of the era’s political cartoons (1890s-1920s), and an unjustly obscure artist-commentator today, is W. A. Carson of the Utica Globe. The newspaper itself was a pioneer enterprise in American journalism, and is no less — and less unjustly — neglected today.

William Jennings Bryan attempts to ride a bucking donkey that has a “Standard” oil can attached to its tail. In the background, President Roosevelt and William Randolph Hearst cheer.

comments and context

Comments and Context

Albert Turner Reid was one of the breed of cartoonists whose signatures routinely were more elaborate than their drawings. From his home base in Kansas he drew for several publications throughout his career; and was widely reprinted. He had a handsome style and a flair for caricature, if not for accurate animal locomotion.

William Jennings Bryan pushes William H. Taft away from the “ballot majority” as Samuel Gompers, Thomas E. Watson, and William Randolph Hearst try to get their hands in. President Roosevelt comes running with the “big stick.”

comments and context

Comments and Context

The Atlanta Georgian never was that city’s major newspaper but fashioned itself into a Muckraking and reform journal, crusading against the convict-lease system, child labor abuses, and such. Four years after this cartoon ran — a reflection of its extreme political partisanship — William Randolph Hearst bought it and added it his growing chain of papers. The city’s major voice, The Constitution, was allied with publisher Joseph Pulitzer.

President Roosevelt, who holds a big stick, and William Randolph Hearst, who holds a lit match, watch as Senator Joseph Benson Foraker and Oklahoma Governor Charles Nathaniel Haskell are pushed into the sky as the “Standard Oil” container explodes open.

comments and context

Comments and Context

There are several remarkable aspects to this cartoon by C. R. Macauley, published in the midst of the 1908 presidential campaign. The first is the representation of a bombshell in the campaign, largely forgotten by history. In September, newspaper publisher William Randolph Hearst (himself in an Ohio speech — not via editorials in his newspapers) exposed letters from the files of Standard Oil; the “Archbold Letters,” revealed corruption between the trust and prominent politicians.

President Roosevelt holds his big stick and starts to jump into a disagreement between Oklahoma Governor Charles Nathaniel Haskell, Ohio Senator Joseph Benson Foraker, and William Randolph Hearst.

comments and context

Comments and Context

Shortly before this cartoon was published, newspaper publisher William Randolph Hearst made a rare public speech — rare, that is, except for appearances in several of his own political races — in which he revealed the contents of letters stolen from the files of Standard Oil president John D. Archbold.

Several Democratic leaders pull at ropes tied together. Senator Arthur P. Gorman and Representative William Bourke Cockran pull against each other on the “tariff question,” William Jennings Bryan and Grover Cleveland pull against each other on the “money question,” and August Belmont and William Randolph Hearst pull against each other on the “trust question.” Caption: Think of Gorman agreeing with Cochran on the tariff question. Think of Bryan agreeing with Cleveland on the money question. Think of reconciling the words of their platform and their candidate on the Philippine question. Think of Belmont harmonizing with Hearst on the trust question.—Senator Beveridge’s Tomlinson Hall Speech.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1904-10-10

The Enquirer praises President Roosevelt’s recent speech condemning “the great and sinister moneyed interests,” and writes that in addition to breaking off ties to the Standard Oil Company the Republican party should sever ties with other trusts as well. The article further calls for the Chairmen of both parties to transparently publish receipts and expenditures from all national and state committees to show where donations are coming from. A following article praises William Randolph Hearst for showing the necessity of an Independence party by showing the sorts of relations the Republicans and Democrats have to corporations.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1908-10-01

Richard Watson Gilder reflects on the results of the recent elections across the country, where political bosses were defeated in various cities and states. While this is a blow against political corruption, Gilder cautions against allowing demagogues to take over and lead voters to vote purely “to hit the bosses” rather than for the public good. A note in the margins questions whether William Randolph Hearst might be one of the demagogues in question.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1905-12-06

An article in The London Post notes the change in New York Republicans’ attitudes towards William Randolph Hearst as emblematic of the “dramatic” and unprincipled nature of American politics. Author A. Maurice Low compares statements of Secretary of State Elihu Root during the 1906 gubernatorial race between Democrat William Randolph Hearst and Republican incumbent Charles Evans Hughes calling Hearst an “insincere, self-seeking demagogue, who is trying to deceive the working man of New York,” with New York City Republicans’ current alliance with Hearst’s new Independence League in a likely fruitless effort to defeat Tammany Hall.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1907-11-25