Monopolies

A policeman from the “New Chicago Anti-Monopoly Party” holds a broken nightstick labeled “Popular Support.” He is standing on a sidewalk at “Vanderbilt’s Monopoly Car Yard,” confronting a gang of monopolists that includes, among others, Jay Gould, William H. Vanderbilt, Cyrus W. Field, John Roach, Russell Sage, and an “Anti-Monopoly Grocery Monopolist” Francis B. Thurber. Gang members hold handguns and rocks. Puck, holding a club labeled “Only Support,” stands with the policeman. A flag that states “No Thoroughfare for Small Business Men” hangs from a building. An injured or dead man, identified as a “Small Business Man,” is lying in the street.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1883-07-18

Print shows a jousting tournament between an oversized knight riding horse-shaped armor labeled “Monopoly” over a locomotive, with a long plume labeled “Arrogance,” and carrying a shield labeled “Corruption of the Legislature” and a lance labeled “Subsidized Press,” and a barefoot man labeled “Labor” riding an emaciated horse labeled “Poverty,”, and carrying a sledgehammer labeled “Strike.” On the left is seating “Reserved for Capitalists” where Cyrus W. Field, William H. Vanderbilt, John Roach, Jay Gould, and Russell Sage are sitting. On the right, behind the labor section, are telegraph lines flying monopoly banners that are labeled “Wall St., W.U.T. Co., [and] N.Y.C. RR.”

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1883-08-01

Jay Gould and William H. Vanderbilt, wearing Roman togas, laugh between themselves as they “gobble” up telegraph and railroad companies to add to their monopolies. Caption: (We do not wish to suggest an analogy to the subject of a famous picture representing two Roman augurs laughing over the Imposition they are practising on the Public).

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1885-08-12

A man labeled “Workman” is tied to a stake labeled “Monopoly” and sits on a flaming pile of logs with the faces of Jay Gould, William H. Vanderbilt, Russell Sage, Roscoe Conkling, Cyrus W. Field, Whitelaw Reid who breathes flames labeled “Monopoly Press,” and Chauncey M. Depew who breathes flames labeled “Depew.”

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1883-08-15

Jay Gould appears as a giant holding a large club labeled “Monopoly,” sitting on rocks, gleefully watching a line of downtrodden people entering a cave labeled “Western Union Telegraph Company – All Hope Abandon, Ye Who Enter Here.” On the horizon, the sun is labeled “Strike.”

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1883-08-29

A sleeping, bloated man labeled “Protected Monopolist” shies away from a turkey labeled “Income Tax” that appears to have risen from the remains of the Thanksgiving Day dinner labeled “High Tariff Plunder.” Caption: A natural result of gluttony.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1909-11-17

On the left “The Trusts,” as bloated, clownish figures, frighten “The Common People.” On the right, a large gorilla-like monster with human head holds Liberty in one arm and a large coin in the other, as it topples the dome on the U.S. Capitol with one foot. Caption: For years the Trust has been pictured as this, – and laughed at. Why not know Him for what He really is – a brute with brains?

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1909-12-15

A large man labeled “Monopoly,” standing behind a panel and reaching around with his right arm, holds a diminutive figure labeled “Aldrich.” Aldrich is pointing to an image labeled, “What will happen if the Tariff [crossed-out] Currency [added] Bill is passed,” that has been projected onto the panel and shows a lean wolf prowling among the ruins of industrial buildings, banks, and homes. Uncle Sam, sitting in the foreground, his attention drawn by Aldrich, ponders the image. Caption: The Man Behind – He fell for it for twenty years on the tariff; maybe we can work it on the currency.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1913-11-05

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

Three baseball players are entwined by snakes formed of baseballs labeled “Base Ball Trust.” Each carries a “Contract,” one for $8000, one for $10000, and one for $12000 and also stuffed in his belt papers labeled “Bonds, Stocks, [and] Deed Oran[ge] Farm.” Caption: No class of labor feels the grip of grinding monopoly more than our underpaid, overworked ball-players.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1913-05-14

Theodore Roosevelt stands between Uncle Sam and “Special Privilege,” who are arguing over a map of the United States. Signature: “K.- after E. Nicol.”

Collection

Theodore Roosevelt Birthplace National Historic Site

Creation Date

1908

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.”

An old woman labeled “Monopoly Tariff” sits next to an old shoe labeled “Special Privilege,” around which a number of children are playing. The children all represent a “Trust” and are labeled “Tool, Steel, Copper, Lumber, Sugar, Rubber, Beef, Coal, Tobacco, Clothing, Watch, Leather, Paper, [and] Linen.” Caption: There was an old woman who lived in a shoe, / Whose progeny here are presented by Pughe. / She petted and pampered and coddled the brats, / And guarded her brood from the bad Democrats.

comments and context

Comments and Context

Puck‘s turn on the traditional nursery rhyme could have been published a quarter-century earlier — and was, in variant forms — so standard were the realities and criticisms, with allowance for satirical hyperbole, through the years. In 1908 the trusts surely were in retreat, or at least defensive mode, thanks to awakened public attitudes, revelations by muckraking journalists, and the effect of governmental lawsuits, regulations, and legislation.

At top left is “The Spirit of ’76,” showing a family about to sit down to tea, as boxes of tea are visible through a window in the back of the room, floating in Boston Harbor. The father, who has just entered, states: “Away with that tea or you’re no daughter of mine! Not a drop in this house until the hateful tax is taken off!” At bottom right is “The Spiritless 1907,” showing a family sitting at the dinner table where the grandfather is about to carve the beef. He states: “Ain’t it a shame the prices they charge for beef. But we’ve got to have it, Trust or no Trust.” At the bottom left, disgruntled patrons exit a “Market,” counting their change.

comments and context

Comments and Context

Cartoons in journals like Puck (and since, in the field) primarily have been partisan, political, or somewhere in the middle and to varying degrees of intensity, “commentary.” The commentary can be humorous, as S. D. Ehrhart’s once were, or more biting and incisive, as his became. This was generally true of his fellow cartoonists at the time, and magazines like Puck‘s rival Life always tended toward the social-commentary mode.

A cat wearing a hat labeled “American Labor” reaches for a toy labeled “Tariff Benefits” that is very close to a fire labeled “Politics.” Sitting to the right of the fireplace, in the background, is a large ape wearing a crown shaped like a money bag labeled “Protected Monopoly.” Next to it are many bags of money. Caption: Isn’t it about time that the American workingman got wise?

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1912-09-18

A man labeled “Wilson” with an axe labeled “Tariff Revision,” who has just chopped through vines labeled “Excessive Protection,” causes a giant labeled “Monopoly” to fall to the ground.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1912-10-30

An angry, well-dressed man labeled “Monopoly” sits at a table, eating from a plate heaped with “Benefits of Protection.” Standing next to him is a minstrel holding a song sheet labeled “Tariff Reform Songster” and singing a song titled “Yo’s gwine t’get somethin that yo doan expect.” Caption: The Grouchy Diner — Confound these cabaret shows! They ought to be abolished!

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1912-12-25

A four-headed, eight-armed monster, formed out of the upper torsos of James J. Hill, Edward Henry Harriman, J. Pierpont Morgan, and George Jay Gould, juggles New York State and municipal services and federal influence in Congress, while stepping on a red liberty cap. Three diminutive figures stand in the left foreground: the center figure represents Theodore Roosevelt, the one on the left is labeled “You,” and the one on the right is labeled “Me.” Caption: Messrs. Hill, Harriman, Morgan and Gould, sole managers and proprietors.

comments and context

Comments and Context

Udo J. Keppler’s center-spread drawing in Puck is a rare example of the magazine presenting a political cartoon not on a specific issue or policy debate. As a generic observation of the “current situation,” it speaks to history as an iconic representation of the truth, and not merely a cartoonist’s truth.

A man labeled “Trusts” sits at a table spread with large dishes of food for a Thanksgiving Day feast, including a large turkey labeled “Restraint of Trade” and a bowl of soup, from which he is eating, labeled “Competition.” The soup sits on a note signed by “Taft, M.D.” advising the man that he “must go on a strict diet [and] cut out all rich food.” Thanksgiving Number.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1911-11-22

A ship labeled “American Business” sails into a fog labeled “The Sherman Law” and passes a bell buoy labeled “Dept. of Justice.”

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1911-11-22