Arms and the men
President Roosevelt stands on one side of a scaffold, holding a large sculpted arm with a huge stick labeled “The Big Stick” for placement on a large sculpture of a female figure labeled “Inter-State Commerce Laws.” On the other side of the scaffold is a man labeled “The Rail Road” directing Nelson W. Aldrich, Stephen B. Elkins, and Joseph Benson Foraker to use instead a much smaller arm labeled “Delay” and “Fines.” Caption: A difference of opinion as to what will fit the lady.
Comments and Context
J. S. Pughe’s cartoon is one of the cleverer uses of the Big Stick as an icon during Theodore Roosevelt’s presidency. The depiction of four men against his lone self is also a fair representation of the opposition Roosevelt faced.