At center, Andrew Carnegie donates an “inland sea” as a place to send the Navy. Surrounding vignettes include other options where it could be sent: the “North Pole,” the “Saragossa [sic] Sea,” the “Saharra [sic] Desert,” or “Salt Creek” – where the “Salt Creek Reception Committee,” comprised of such figures as “D.B. Hill, Alton B. Parker, Croker, Burton, Jerome, [and] Seth Low,” awaits its arrival. Caption: Some places to send it without giving offense.
Comments and Context
The American Navy was in the news when this cartoon appeared, as it was at least once a year during President Roosevelt’s administration — during the annual message, today called the State of the Union address.
Roosevelt, whose first major book, published when he was 22, was the still-standard history The Naval War of 1812, never lost his interest in naval affairs or his belief in a strong navy. When he met Captain A. T. Mahan, author of The Influence Of Sea Power on World History, 1660-1783, his views were codified. Mahan had a similar, major impact on leaders in Germany, Great Britain, France, and Japan. Roosevelt’s synthesized philosophies led him to become Assistant Secretary of the Navy under President William McKinley; and, later, to order the American Pacific Fleet under Admiral George Dewey to Manila in the Spanish-American War, and to send the Great White Fleet on a circumnavigational cruise.
