Monopolies

A baseball game between the “Ultimate Consumer A. C. [Athletic Club]” and the “Monopoly Giants” is underway. A “Giants” ballplayer is sliding head-first into a base and is being tagged out by a “Consumer” ballplayer with a ball labeled “Tariff Reduction.” Although the base runner has not even reached the base, the umpire labeled “Congress” calls the base runner, who winks and points at the umpire, safe. Caption: “He’s safe!”

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Comments and Context

“Safe” has a double meaning. Besides the baseball context, the Congress–represented by a caricature of Senator Nelson Aldrich of Rhode Island, author of the Payne-Aldrich Act, which raised tariff rates–made things safe for trusts (monopolies), in the eyes of Puck Magazine.

In a battle, at a breach in the “Tariff Wall,” “Trusts, Monopoly, [and] Stand Pat” forces are being led by a king labeled “American Protective Tariff League.” They are repelling invaders fighting for “Fair Trade” and “Honest Revision.” Caption: “Once more unto the breach, dear friends, once more / Or close the wall up with our Standpat dead!”

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Comments and Context

Carl Hassmann, Puck‘s imported cartoonist not yet returned to Vienna, had drawn a similar cartoon a couple years previously. His earlier center-spread cartoon showed similar knights of the Middle Ages marching forth to do battle with opponents representing corruption and privilege. Unlike that cartoon, which enumerated honorable combatants by caricatures and the journals they wrote and drew for, this cartoon depicts an actual battle royal, battlements breached, and virtually no recognizable faces, or any faces.

Three smiling, bloated monks labeled “Food Monopoly, Clothing Monopoly, [and] Building Material Monopoly” walk over flames labeled “Tariff Revision” in a super-heated furnace. Caption: Will the history of the fiery furnace repeat itself?

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Comments and Context

The sixty-first Congress was scarcely seated, and William H. Taft’s presidency barely begun, when Old Guard Republicans in the Senate and House began agitating for a new tariff law. A had been promised in the Republican platform, advocated by Taft and many candidates, and anticipated by the public, but, almost universally, lower rate schedules on imported goods was assumed.

The Spirit of the Forest talks to Uncle Sam, pointing to denuded hillsides as a result of the tariffs on the import of lumber and wood pulp. Caption: The Spirit of the Forest.–Will you wait until then to admit lumber free?

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Comments and Context

To twenty-first century eyes, this drawing by Udo J. Keppler presents a magnificent vista; Keppler, an outdoorsman and eventually man of the West and honorary member of Indian tribes, likely regretted a landscape bereft of trees and vegetation. Under the misty foreground cloud he pictured lumber trucks with logs.

An oversized, bloated man labeled “Protected Monopoly” receives a blood transfusion from Uncle Sam who is being attended to by (left to right) Vice President J. S. Sherman; Senator Nelson W. Aldrich (Rhode Island); Representative Sereno Elisha Payne (New York); and Speaker of the House Joseph Gurney Cannon. Sherman stands on the left, on a stepladder, taking the pulse of the “Protected Monopoly.” Caption: “Uncle Sam–They say he needs it, but he doesn’t look sick to me.”

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Comments and Context

The subject of the cartoon is the Payne-Aldrich Tariff Act of 1909, the first upward revision of rates since 1897; and which proved massively unpopular with voters, particularly farmers. The Republican tariff was so unpopular that the party suffered major defeats in the 1910 midterm elections. President William H. Taft attempted to ameliorate the perennial tariff woes by drafting reciprocity treaties with many countries, but even the difficult Canadian negotiations could not please the angry consumers and disaffected voters.

Uncle Sam, as Rip Van Winkle, wakes up next to his broken rifle labeled “Competition.” Joseph Gurney Cannon, wearing colonial dress, stands before him, offering him a flagon of “Stand Pat Schnapps.” Sitting on a rock in the background is J. S. Sherman holding up a flagon as well. Caption: “No more of that, thank you. I’m awake.”

comments and context

Comments and Context

This handsome cartoon cover of Puck weeks into the Taft presidency and sixty-first Congress, illustrates the assumption of Old Guard Republican Speaker Joseph Gurney Cannon that years have passed, as per the Rip Van Winkle legend, and that Uncle Sam may awaken to life as it was before Theodore Roosevelt. “Stand Pat” conservative policies of high tariffs and a free hand for big business are Cannon’s presumptive “good old days.”

A bloated bull dog, wearing a collar labeled “Monopoly,” controls a food trough as five emaciated dogs wait for an opportunity to eat. An insert labeled “The Mania for Monopoly” reprinted “(from Puck, October 10, 1883)” shows “Business as it once was” where all dogs ate from the trough at the same time, “As it is” when it became a dog-eat-dog business environment, and “As it will be if something is not done pretty soon” where one dog controls access to the trough or business market. Caption: Something wasn’t done.

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Comments and Context

The point of J. S. Pughe’s cartoon in Puck, “Twenty-Five Years After,” is that some cartoon ideas retained their pertinence through the years because issues went unresolved. More than once the magazine made a reference to, or actually reproduced, an earlier commentary, as here, to illustrate the French saying “Plus ca change, plus c’est la meme chose” — the more things change, the more they stay the same.

An old woman labeled “G.O.P.” sits on a throne with her arms around two men labeled “Monopolist” and “Fraudulent Pension Grabber” who are winking at the viewer. Caption: Mrs. G.O.P. – “These are my jewels!”

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1894-04-25

Uncle Sam sits in a wooden tub labeled “Dingley Bill,” rowing with oars labeled “Monopoly” in a small pool labeled “Home Market” near a sign reading, “Republican Goose Pond.” Beyond the pond are several large steam ships, labeled with the major European economic powers. Caption: Uncle Sam–Say! I want you fellows to distinctly understand that I’m not racing with you!

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1897-09-15

Speaker of the House, Thomas B. Reed, is a watchdog asleep at his desk on papers labeled “Dingley Tariff Section 22” while a scoundrel labeled “Railroad Lobby” inserts an amendment. Caption: Speaker Reed says he doesn’t know how the discriminating duty “slipped in.” This is how.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1897-09-22

A farmer on “Prosperity Road” stops at a gate labeled “Dingley Tariff.” Standing in his wagon, he hands the “Toll” to a well-dressed bloated man labeled “Monopoly” sitting on a large pile of moneybags labeled “Trust Profits.” A few bags labeled “Cereals” remain in the farmer’s wagon. President William McKinley is the gatekeeper.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1897-09-29

A group of conquistadors labeled “Hoar, Sherman, Depew, Harrison, Reed, McKinley [as Ponce de León], Wanamaker, W. Reid, Boutelle, [and] Foraker” gather around a pool of water labeled “High Protection Doctrine,” drinking the water. Frogs in the lower right corner are labeled “Monopolist.” Caption: They think it is the fountain of political youth and strength; but it is only a stagnant pool that is almost dried up.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1894-01-24

Uncle Sam walks between two bloated businessmen labeled, on the left, “Monopolies,” and on the right, “Trusts.” Each one is picking a pocket while Uncle Sam is blissfully unaware.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1897-03-10

Uncle Sam sits on the steps to the White House as a man (McKinley), wearing a top hat labeled “Monopoly,” walks up the steps to enter the White House.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1896-04-29

William McKinley drives a large circus carriage labeled “McKinley’s Presidential Band Wagon” pulled by the Republican Elephant labeled “G.O.P.” The carriage has come to a stop in front of a sign at the edge of an abyss, which states, “Danger! Results of the McKinley Bill. Decline of wages. Desperate Labor Strikes, and Lock Outs. 1,000,000 Men Out of Employment. Falling off of Customs Revenues $157,000,000. Disappearance of Treasury Surplus of $100,000,000. Net Loss of Gold in Exports $200,000,000.” The abyss blocks McKinley from reaching the United States Capitol, seen at far right. The “Band” in the wagon is comprised of “M.A. Hanna,” Andrew “Carnegie,” John D. “Rockefeller,” Theodore and possibly Henry O. “Havemeyer,” and Whitelaw Reid playing a drum labeled “N.Y. Tribune.” Marching behind the wagon are men carrying banners labeled “Trusts” and “Monopoly.”

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1896-04-29

A large, bloated man labeled “Tariff-made Monopoly,” holds a small dish labeled “Dingley Schedule,” and asks Uncle Sam, standing next to a large fireplace with a large cauldron labeled “Protection,” for another helping. Caption: Representative Sereno E. Payne, who will have charge of the Tariff bill on the floor of the House, does not know whether the people declared for radical or moderate revision of the Tariff on election day.–The Sun.

comments and context

Comments and Context

Udo J. Keppler’s cover cartoon provides a brilliant historical legacy in that it succinctly illustrated a vital and unsettled political issue of the day; but it also represents the virtual seeds of a controversial situation that helped undo the Taft Administration.

A large Trojan Horse labeled “Sound Money” is shown with many businessmen climbing out, carrying papers labeled “Tobacco, Steel, Wool, Coal Demands for More Protection, We Want More Protection Iron, Drugs We Demand Higher Protection, Give Us More Protection Coal, [and] Tin and Iron.” The businessmen clamber down a ladder and up the steps to the U.S. Capitol, attempting to take Congress by storm. Caption: Intrepid attempt of the Protection Greeks to capture the Capitol.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1897-02-03

President Roosevelt expresses pleasure at viewing the industrial growth and natural resources of Indiana, making special note of the new free mail service in the area of Noblesville, Indiana. He addresses the rise of industrial capitalism and large-scale industrial combinations, saying that they are an inevitable and positive feature of modern prosperity. As interstate entities, they must have national regulation to ensure they serve the public good. Roosevelt also highlights the national unity created by the various military exploits shared by soldiers from all sections of the country. He closes by noting that, while good laws are important, nothing is more crucial for America’s prosperity than the “high average citizenship of the ordinary American citizen.”

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1902-09-23

A fat man labeled “Monopoly” feasts on a large piece of meat labeled “Alaska Natural Resources” while a beggar labeled “American Homesteader” lies at his feet asking only for the morsels that fall from the table. Caption: “Fed with the crumbs which fell from the rich man’s table.”

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1910-11-16

On the left, a fat businessman labeled “Monopolist” is welcomed into the “U.S. Senate,” while on the right, a “Taxpayer” is booted out by a large shoe labeled “Tariff Legislation.”

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1897-07-21