Your TR Source
Nelson W. Aldrich stands next to a horse labeled “Central Bank” which he is offering to Uncle Sam who is inspecting the horse’s teeth labeled “Wall St. Interests.”
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs
1909-12-22
Waiters Joseph Gurney Cannon and J. S. Sherman turn away a man labeled “Average Citizen” and a woman at the “Hotel Prosperity” dining room because all the tables have been reserved. Signs on the tables read “Reserved for Wool Interests, Reserved for Coal Trust, Reserved for Steel Trust, Reserved for Senator Aldrich and Party, Reserved for Cold Storage Interests, Reserved for Sugar Trust, Reserved for Ice Trust, [and] Reserved for Franchise Grabbers.” Caption: The Head Waiter — Sorry, sir, but all our tables are reserved.
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs
1909-12-29
An infant labeled “Protected Privilege” clings to a nurse labeled “High Tariff” because President Wilson wants to feed her from a baby bottle labeled “Open-Market Competition” carried by “Underwood, Marshall, Clark, Redfield” and others who are unidentified.
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs
1913-04-30
William Jennings Bryan offers a bowl of “Anti-Injunction Cream” and William H. Taft offers a sprig of “Anti-Injunction Catnip” to a cat labeled “Labor Vote” that has the face of Samuel Gompers. Bryan and Taft are dressed as children learning how to get along with cats without getting scratched. Includes eight lines of verse.
Samuel Gompers, the founder of the American Federation of Labor and immigrant (British, born Shmuel Gumpertz) cigar-maker, prodded his movement to be more and more politically active, especially in 1906 when a list of legislative reforms was presented to Congress. None was adopted, but Gompers had his hearings, and the AFL was marked as a player in electoral contests, not only in labor or union disputes.
President Roosevelt denies using his office to influence the nomination of any presidential candidate. He provides a detailed list of the appointments he has made in the last eleven months to show that all of these appointments would have been made even if there were not an upcoming election.
1908-02-01
Joseph Gurney Cannon stands on a small platform labeled “Wall Street” at the end of a long two-handled accordion-like folding extension device manipulated by J. Pierpont Morgan who is standing in New York and using the tool to transport Cannon to the “Chicago Convention.”
Speaker of the House Joseph Gurney Cannon of Illinois served longer than almost any other Speaker, and ruled with an iron hand, or fist as his opponents including fellow Republicans might say. He far surpassed the imperious actions of Republican Speaker “Czar” Thomas B. Reed of Maine. In Cannon’s time the Speaker had the power to name committee chairmen and committee members — so he had influence over careers, patronage, and legislation.
A squid labeled “Special Privilege” bears arms labeled “Railroad Greed, Grafting Public Utilities, Venal Press, Graft Tariff, Predatory Trusts, Bribed Legislatures, Stock Juggling, [and] Public Land Thieves.” The squid has clouded the water with a large ink cloud labeled “Teddy Did It, Don’t Hurt Business, Don’t Destroy Confidence, [and] Don’t Alarm Capital.” In the lower right are two seahorses labeled “You” and “Me.” Caption: When attacked, it clouds the issue by discharging an inky fluid.
Puck‘s chief cartoonist Udo J. Keppler made a political point — and a ringing defense of President Roosevelt’s economic, regulatory, and reform policies — in this unorthodox analogy. He did not visit the worlds of history nor opera nor mythology nor literature, but marine biology.
A gigantic boar, wearing a crown with “$” and a shawl labeled “Plutocratic Greed,” holds the U.S. Capitol dome labeled “Special Privilege,” inverted to form a bucket from which it is sowing seeds labeled “Abuse of Power, Arrogance, [and] Contempt of Law” onto a field sprouting “Socialist votes.” It is stepping on an American flag and a Liberty cap.
As Puck magazine grew bolder, more radical in its pronouncements, and more extreme, almost brutal, in conceptual presentations, it occasionally seemed to take on socialist tones.
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.
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.
A donkey carries the “Democratic Dough Bag” and an elephant carries the “Republican Dough Bag” as they walk down “Wall Street,” seeking campaign funding for the upcoming presidential election.
Welsh immigrant J. S. Pughe was Puck Magazine’s go-to animal cartoonist, whether in political cartoons — typically the Democrat donkey and the Republican elephant, but a wide menagerie in his political bestiary — as well as interior, black and white gag cartoons. All the humor magazines (and journals featuring cartoons as respite from text columns and advertisements) enjoyed cartoons with anthropomorphic animals, bugs, and birds in human situations. T. S. Sullivant was the best and most prominent of these cartoonists; in this period he drew for Judge and the Hearst papers. Pughe was Puck’s answer to Sullivant, even to the style of drawing characters with exaggerated, large heads.
A man labeled “The Railroad,” with “Land Grants” and “Franchises” in his pockets, reads a ticker tape from a device labeled “Speculation,” while walking next to Uncle Sam who is bent under the weight of several large bundles labeled “Operating Expenses, Taxes, Fines, Corruption Fund, Overcapitalization, Water for Stocks, High Tariff Rails, Cost of Construction, [and] Rate Discrimination.” Caption: The people remembered that they were at least silent partners in the railroad business by reason of the franchises they had granted and the investments they had made in the railroad properties themselves.–Attorney-General Hadley on the railroad as a common carrier.
A notable subtext of this powerful cartoon by Udo J. Keppler makes it a political cartoon without partisan politics. The two major parties had their well-known platforms and policy positions; and by this point, Spring of 1908, the putative candidates were set: William H. Taft for the Republicans and William Jennings Bryan for the Democrats.
President Taft, dressed as a woman, waters a garden labeled “Delegates – Hardy Quadrennial” with a watering can labeled “Patronage.” The “flowers” have human heads.
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs
1912-04-24
F. Norton Goddard writes to President Roosevelt about the potential appointment of Secretary Woodruff to the position of Postmaster General. Goddard notes that there are “three or four Post Office favors that need doing” quickly in his district and he hopes that the Postmaster General appointee will be open to discussing them with him. Goddard also expresses his opinion that feeling against Lieutenant Governor Higgins’ candidacy is waning.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1904-10-07
William D. Johnson discusses Republican politics in Kentucky. He considers the state a Republican state in large part due to the following of Governor Bradley. He writes against the patronage system and the effect it has on the party.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1904-01-11
President Roosevelt’s determination to hire civil service workers based on merits rather than political motivation has alienated the party machine and lost him support in the South. In particular, Roosevelt’s focus on civil service reform has led to the removal of many unqualified party machine appointees, including many African American workers. These same actions, however, have won Roosevelt support elsewhere, and no one is likely to oppose him successfully for the Republican nomination for the presidency in 1904.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1903-12-18
Judge Jones writes to President Roosevelt regarding editorials published by the Birmingham Times claiming that the federal officials Roosevelt appointed on Jones’ recommendation do not represent the Republican Party and take their orders from Jones. One appointee, Joseph Oswald Thompson, believes the editorials are undermining his influence.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1903-10-22
George W. Clark informs William Loeb that he has enclosed the card of a gentleman who should discuss the upcoming convention with President Roosevelt. This man is informed about those who are trying to elect Senator Hanna.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1903-05-31
Armand Romain tells Francis Bennett Williams that he is disappointed that he will not be receiving a patronage position as a reward for his work towards the success of the Republican Party in Louisiana. Romain now considers Williams and the Republican State Central Committee his enemies and intends to fight against their control of the Louisiana Republican Party.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1903-02-03
Frederic Speed questions President Roosevelt on what he sees as inconsistencies between Roosevelt’s actions and his words regarding African Americans. Speed is primarily concerned with Roosevelt allowing Senator McLaurin and Governor Longino to control federal patronage in Mississippi because Speed believes them to be ardent racists with a history of allowing mob violence.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1902-10-09
O. M. Tichenor reviews Indiana Republican politics and Lucius C. Embree’s potential appointment.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1902-04-08