Octopuses

President Roosevelt is on the hunt as a bear, a sheep labeled “the weakling,” and a rhinoceros labeled “new finance” run away while an octopus wrapped in a tree and a bull stay out of the way. In the background is a “muck rake” and a goat labeled “E.H.H.” on a mountain, “reserved for scape-goats.”

comments and context

Comments and Context

W. A. Rogers is a singular figure in American political cartooning. He never was a facile cartoonist or caricaturist, and his concepts seldom were persuasive; that is, the cartoons only mildly attacked or supported men and movements. For the most part he was more an editorial cartoonist, illustrating events and situations rather than attempting persuasion. This is one reason his cartoons illustrate more reference works today than many of his fellows. Yet he was highly regarded in his day, and worked for years at Harper’s Weekly and the New York Herald, substantial publications.

President Roosevelt throws a “message” that explodes underneath a “Standard Oil” company octopus that holds a “never touched me!” paper. The explosion sends several bears and two lambs flying. “Stocks” bulls look over “The Street” wall to see what is happening. Commissioner of Corporations at the Department of Commerce and Labor James Rudolph Garfield also watches around a corner of the wall.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1906-05-07

President Roosevelt jousts with a “trust” octopus as he holds a dove in his right hand. “San Juan Hill” is in the background.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1905-09-02

A Russian man stands on a rowboat, using an axe labeled “Nat’l Assembly” to battle an octopus labeled “Bureaucracy.” The octopus wears a crown and royal robe, and its tentacles are labeled “Graft, Exile, Oppressive Taxation, Despotism, Religious Intolerance, Cossackism, Incompetence, [and] Greed.”

comments and context

Comments and Context

In cartoonist J. S. Pughe’s centerspread Puck cartoon, the embattled man is beset by many identified dangers, all parts of the same autocratic monster. The caption calls him a Slav, where it might have called him a Russian just as easily; and the crown and “Cossack” reference suggest that Russia, and not the Slavic lands and peoples, were the object of attention.

A “Standard Oil” storage tank appears as an octopus with many tentacles. It is wrapped around the steel, copper, and shipping industries, as well as a state house and the U.S. Capitol, and one tentacle is reaching for the White House.

comments and context

Comments and Context

The rapid growth of John D. Rockefeller’s Standard Oil Corporation was astonishing, especially since it commenced barely more than a generation before this 1904 cartoon by Keppler. Oil and its derivatives like kerosene and gasoline rapidly became staples and necessities of American life. At one time Rockefeller controlled more than 90 per cent of American oil extraction (until Standard Oil was ordered by the courts to break up into many entities). With adjustments, Rockefeller is still reckoned to have been the richest American in history.

A large octopus with the face of Richard Croker sits on top of “N.Y. City Hall” with its tentacles labeled “Tax Department, Fire Dept., Garbage Contract Job, Ramapo Job, Blackmail, Building Dept., Ice Trust, [and] Dock Dept.” A sign on City Hall states “‘For my own pocket all the time.’ R. Croker”

comments and context

Comments and Context

Richard Croker was the “boss” of Tammany Hall, the New York City Democratic organization, and thus the virtual boss of New York politics. Croker, the successor to Boss Tweed and John Kelly held sway despite occasional and short-lived reform waves, largely by an entrenched system — as an octopus using all of its tentacles — and persuasive control of immigrants. Croker was an Irish immigrant, and at the time of this cartoon, betook his immense ill-gotten wealth to Ireland and England, where he lived in splendor, raised racing horses, and controlled New York as an absentee. Times caught up with him, however: election losses, several scandals such as mismanaging New York’s Ice trust during a heat wave, and another reform wave (the Citizens Union, a taste for fusion tickets of honest citizens, and crusaders like Seth Low, former mayor of Brooklyn and shortly after this cartoon mayor of the consolidated New York City) forced his timely retirement from politics.

An octopus with the head of a French military officer (which may represent General Boisdeffre or General Gonse), wearing a plumed hat labeled “Militarism,” has settled over Paris, France, with its tentacles extending in all directions. The tentacles are labeled “Deception, Dishonor, Forgery, Assassination, Corruption, Falsehood, [and] Blackmail.” Caught in their grasp are military officers Georges “Picquart” and Alfred “Dreyfus,” two female figures labeled “Honor” and “Justice,” and the author Émile “Zola” holding a quill pen labeled “J’Accuse.”

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1898-10-26

President Wilson is about to shoot a harpoon into an octopus labeled “Interlocking Directorates” that has a grip on his boat labeled “Business Freedom.” Uncle Sam is sitting at the back of the boat with a long pole.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1914-01-31

In a four panel cartoon, four Puck cartoonists each take a panel in an effort to solve the issue of Mormonism. Clockwise from bottom left, captioned, “I imagine it must be a perfect paradise–Keppler,” Joseph Keppler places himself at the center of a harem, smoking a hookah signed “J.K.” and surrounded by beautiful women, one bringing a bottle of “G.H. Mumm” champagne. At top left, captioned, “I think one wife is enough–Gillam,” Bernhard Gillam shows a domestic scene at his home where he, labeled “Small Income,” his coattails in the clutches of his wife, attempts to avoid being struck by her with a fireplace scoop, while “My Wife’s Relations” stand behind her. At top right, captioned, “How long will this destructive monster be allowed to live?–Opper,” Frederick Opper is shown gesturing toward a large octopus labeled “Mormonism” that has caught in its tentacles “S.J.T., Uncle Sam, Public Opinion, Y.M.C.A., Public School System, Justice, Independent New Party, W.H.V., Field, Gould, Kelly, [a] New York Dive, [and the] Catholic Church,” as well as Benjamin Butler, the U.S. Capitol, and reaching all the way to “Ireland.” On the bottom right, captioned, “What is the use of Mormonism, when a man can change his wife whenever he likes?–Graetz,” Friedrich Graetz stands in the foreground gesturing toward hordes of men rushing to get divorced on “Saturday. Divorce day in Chicago,” and at places advertising “Divorces without publicity, Divorces procured without delay. Liberal charges, [and] Divorces obtained for $5.00.”

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1884-02-13