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Cartoon shows Theodore Roosevelt and Republican House Majority Leader Sereno Elisha Payne walking arm in arm between two billboards, “Help Cuba grant 25% reduction and double stock,” and “Notice! Help Cuba remove Dutch Standard in Tariff Law 1897 Paragraph 209.” The billboards are supported by posts “Sugar Trust,” “American Planters,” and “Cuban Planters.”
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs
1902
Cartoon shows Theodore Roosevelt and Republican House Majority Leader Sereno Elisha Payne holding full steins of beer. They each spit into an empty stein held by a man representing Cuba. At the foot of the man is a “cane knife.”
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs
1902
Cartoon shows President Theodore Roosevelt and Republican House Majority Leader Sereno Elisha Payne arm in arm at the end of a pier “Sugar Trust Tariff Law 1897 [paragraph] 209, 16 Dutch.” The pier is held up by posts labeled “Trust” and waves below are labeled “political oblivion.”
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs
1902
Cartoon shows Republican House Majority Leader Sereno Elisha Payne standing on two documents, “Tariff Law 1897 [subsection mark] 209, 16 Dutch % reduction enrich sugar trust,” and “Annexation policy, assist Cuba, do not hurt the sugar trust.” The cartoon refers to Payne’s political positions on the US annexation of Cuba, tariffs and support for the sugar trust
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs
1902
A selection of newspaper articles discuss various comments by Representative J. T. McCleary regarding the adjustment of the tariff. Excerpts from McCleary’s speech had previously been leaked to New York newspapers, and claimed that President Roosevelt was a “standpatter.”
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1906-06-25
An article in The American Review of Reviews reflects on the current political situation in Congress, especially lamenting that both houses are controlled by powerful cliques who work in their own interests, often at the expense of legislation that would benefit the people. In particular, tariffs and appropriations for the construction of battleships are discussed. The author also speculates about the outcomes of the Republican and Democratic National Conventions and the upcoming presidential campaign, as well as the necessity of a good man to run the Republican convention.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1908-05-21
Several congressmen labeled “Gardner, Champ Clark, De Armond, Sulzer, Goldfogle, Ollie James, Fitzgerald, [and] Burton Harrison” and others are engaged in a brawl on the floor of the House of Representatives. In the background, Sereno E. Payne is addressing the Speaker of the House, Joseph Gurney Cannon.
As the sixty-first Congress was seated in March 1909 the Democrat Party had reason to feel confident about their future in the House of Representatives. The party still was in the distinct minority, but a growing restlessness in the electorate presaged political changes; more and more Republican representatives declared themselves anti-Establishment Insurgents likely to resist the House’s Old Guard; and the popular Theodore Roosevelt would be abroad for more than a year, his Republican influence absent from politics.
In spite of a rosy future, party members presaged Will Rogers’s aphorism several decades hence: “I don’t belong to any organized political party; I am a Democrat.”
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.”
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.
A Chinese play is being acted on a small stage with Joseph Gurney Cannon and Nelson W. Aldrich offering two small doll-like figures labeled “Small Dealer” and “Consumer” to a dragon labeled “High Protection” manned by two men labeled “Special Privilege” and “Graft.” J. S. Sherman, John Dalzell, and Sereno E. Payne play musical instruments on the left side of the stage. On the back of the stage is a Buddha icon labeled “Greed.” In the foreground, at the foot of the stage, are Chinese men labeled “Lumber Trust, Paper Trust, Steel Trust, [and] Beef Trust.” On the far right, beneath a sign that states “Box Reserved for Amer. Protective Tariff League,” is a Chinese man labeled “Chas A. Moore” holding a tray with two small figures labeled “First Voter.”
“Like a Chinese Play, It Goes On Forever” is an abecedarian and awkward variation on “trusts bad, politicians subservient, consumers powerless” themes. Cartoonist Frank A. Nankivell, who had lived part of career in Japan, had a difficult job in approximating Asian pictograph lettering, and he relied on stereotypes of culture and attire for the cartoon.
Infrequently caricatured through the years, or mentioned in histories, is the “power behind the throne” figure on the right, Charles A. Moore. A member of the Ohio Society and president of the American Protective Tariff League, Moore was an early advocate of William McKinley’s career and worked largely behind the scenes to advance McKinley’s career as congressman, governor, and president; and Moore was a vital associate of McKinley amanuensis Mark Hanna.
A runaway pig labeled “The Tariff Issue” drags Joseph Gurney Cannon behind it. They are being chased by John Dalzell, Nelson W. Aldrich, Sereno Elisha Payne, and J. S. Sherman. An overturned cart labeled “Steel Trust” has spilled its contents of steel railroad rails. Andrew Carnegie, wearing a kilt, stands next to the cart waving his hat and gesturing to the congressmen. In the background is a large crowd, some in pursuit, and the U.S. Capitol.
After the Republican party’s sweeping victory in the 1908 elections, the major goal of the party establishment, after the oath-taking of William H. Taft, seemed to be the passage of a tariff bill. It had been a decade since the last revision of import duties (the Dingley Act of 1897), and the tariff was a hot topic in the campaign.
By general consensus, the public desired and expected lower rates, with the assumption that lower prices in markets would result. But the “hungry” managers of a proposed tariff bill in the Republican Congress were comprised of men whose careers were devoted to higher rates and “protected” industries and monopolies.
A fire at the Treasury Building is billowing clouds of smoke labeled “Deficit.” Nelson W. Aldrich is the fire chief, and he is telling firefighters Stephen B. Elkins, Joseph Gurney Cannon, Sereno Elisha Payne, and Jacob H. Gallinger to send a fire engine labeled “Lower Tariff” back to the station. President William H. Taft and Elihu Root carry a large fire extinguisher labeled “Corporation Tax” and race up the steps of the building, attempting to extinguish the blaze. Caption: Chief Aldrich (at the great Treasury blaze) — Send that engine home! We’ll put her out with the extinguisher!
Udo J. Keppler’s cartoon, for all its drama while debates over tariff legislation were raging in the Capital, betrays a certain ambiguity. Editorially, Puck frequently through the years occasionally was ambiguous about its position on tariffs and trusts. So were the political parties, despite the Republicans (who received the cartoonist’s attention here) generally being the party of big business and high tariffs. President Roosevelt had begun to warm to the concept of “fair trade” and reciprocal trade agreements, on a country-to-country basis. Such concepts would be strongly advocated by President William H. Taft, particularly with the Philippines; and famously with Canada. He was to stake — and lose — much of his political capital, urging Canadian reciprocity.
The ambiguity inherent in this cartoon rests in the position of the Republican leader of the Senate, Nelson W. Aldrich, who was then shaping the tariff bill (Payne-Aldrich) under consideration. In the cartoon he rejects the use of low-tariff water to extinguish the federal deficit, and urges instead higher corporate taxes — both concepts purportedly anathemas, or at least counter-intuitive, to Republican orthodoxy.
A troop of soldiers wearing red coats, some labeled “Clothing Trust, Franchise Grabber, Food Trust, [and] Land Trust,” march past Daniel Chester French’s sculpture, “The Minute Man.” Among the soldiers are Nelson W. Aldrich wearing a miter and carrying a flag decorated with an emblem of a crowned hand pointing thumb-down in a squashing gesture, John Dalzell, J. S. Sherman, and Sereno Elisha Payne. Joseph Gurney Cannon is pictured kissing the boot of a fat officer labeled “Privilege” riding on a horse. In the background, more red coats are ransacking “The American Home” and tearing down the American flag.
Udo J. Keppler’s Fourth of July cartoon was a scathing indictment of the American economy, 1909, and specifically a gallery of politicians and business leaders he portrayed as dismissive of patriots and patriotism.
Various trusts and monopolies are pictured as generic, overblown villains; but the identifiable figures are singled out for special censure — especially the Speaker of the House of Representatives Joseph Gurney Cannon kissing the boot of Special Privilege; and the banner of Nelson W. Aldrich (leader of Senate Republicans) bearing the symbol of a crowned hand pressing its thumb down. In the distance, the American flag — upside-down, a distress signal — is being torn down.
A chef labeled “Special Privilege” holds a large platter on which rests a huge turkey with the face of Theodore Roosevelt. He is about to place the platter on a table around which sit several men labeled “Cannon, Rockefeller, Archbold, Haskell, Payne, Dalzell, Elkins, Sherman, Foraker, Harrimen, Day, Rogers” and Nelson W. Aldrich.
The “Teddy-Turk” cartoon by Udo J. Keppler in Puck was the magazine’s strongest — in fact one of its only — comments on the election just concluded.
It is a tribute to President Roosevelt’s power and influence that Puck‘s post-mortem commentary would neither mention nor portray the candidates in the late campaign, president-elect William Howard Taft and William Jennings Bryan. Neither is there a mention of any issues of the campaign… beyond Puck‘s targeted enemy of both parties and all citizens, “Special Privilege.”
Joseph Gurney Cannon, as the cruel, autocratic Sultan of the Turks, Abdülhamid II, sits on a throne, smoking a hookah labeled “Obstruction,” as two men, in the background, dressed as Turks labeled “Payne” and “Dalzell,” suffer from a chill or other deprivation.
Udo J. Keppler, a brilliant caricaturist, seldom practiced the iconic method of representation — a large head on a small body. But in the exception, and despite the thematic statement that Speaker of the House Joseph Gurney Cannon’s odious character could be suggested by hoary facial features as well as by actions or labels.
In an event, Cannon’s was a face that Keppler loved to draw, like that of ebullient President Roosevelt and icy Vice President Charles W. Fairbanks. Also, through the years Keppler’s portrayal of the Speaker revealed more seedy desuetude and arrogance. His two factotums in the drawing are subservient powers in Cannon’s court: Sereno Payne, a tax-writing master; and John Dalzell, a House veteran who managed to be a conduit to Roosevelt’s White House.
President Taft balances a cone of papers, labeled “Administration” and showing the Republican elephant, on his nose. Struggling to get in the cone is “Ballinger” while already inside are “Elkins, Hitchcock, Wickersham, C. Taft, Crane, Dalzell, Cannon, Payne (holding on to a large question mark labeled “Tariff”), Aldrich, [and] Sherman.” Rolled-up papers in the cone are labeled “Standpat Legislation” and “Cost of Living Investigation.” Also in the cone, a dog labeled “Regulars” and a cat labeled “Insurgents” are fighting.
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs
1910-08-31
In the left background, “Mount Sam” is erupting, spewing lava labeled “Revolt Against Cannonism, Havens’ Victory in New York, Indiana Upheaval, Increased Cost of Living, Demand for Lower Tariff, Democratic Gains, Consumer’s Revolt, [and] Western Insurgency” which is flowing toward an area labeled “Republican Majority in Congress.” In the left foreground, Nelson W. Aldrich and Eugene Hale flee the scene, while Joseph G. Cannon stands firm as the “Foss Landslide in Massachusetts” races toward him. On the right, President Taft with “Lodge, Root, Depew, Crane, [and] Payne appeal to a shrine containing a diminutive “Saint Ted.” On the far right, James S. Sherman is praying. Caption: Appeals to a patron saint to stop its flow.
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs
1910-05-11
President Taft, as Alexander the Great, is accompanied by James S. Sherman, Sereno E. Payne, Nelson W. Aldrich, Joseph G. Cannon, and George W. Wickersham. They stand before Uncle Sam, shown as Diogenes. Uncle Sam sits at the base of an overturned dome in the shadows cast by Taft and the others who are blocking his sun. The sun shows the face of Theodore Roosevelt.
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs
1910-04-27
A wave labeled “Republican Voters’ Revolt” crashes into the dining room of a ship where “Cannon, Payne, Taft, Knox, Sherman, Root, Aldrich, Woodruff, Dalzell, Crane, Wickersham, Lodge, Parsons, Hitchcock, Depew, Hale, Elkins, Ballinger, Smoot, Penrose, [and] Cox” are dining, and upsets a dish of “Party Plums,” as well as a bottle of “Stalwart Grog.” Caption: “We were crowded in the cabin, / Not a soul would dare to sleep; / It was midnight o’er the waters, / And a storm was on the deep.”
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs
1910-04-20
A comet labeled “Allds Investigation” strikes a planet labeled “Albany Legislature,” causing it to explode among planets labeled “Aldrich, Penrose, Payne, Vreeland, Dalzell, Cannon, Hitchcock, Woodruff, Ballinger, Root, Platt, Depew, Parsons, Sherman, Bliss, Black, Cortelyou, Odell, Lodge, Hale, [and] Elkins.” A lone planet showing the face of Theodore Roosevelt hovers on the far right. Caption: A comet that has cut loose in the Republican constellation.
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs
1910-03-09
In the interior of a recruiting office for the presidency, Uncle Sam and Puck examine potential recruits against a height chart labeled, from low to high, “Notoriety, Popularity, Capability, Honesty, [and at the top] Statesmanship.” A number of men, in various states of undress, have been rejected for a variety of reasons: “Evarts Too Long-Winded, [U.S. Grant] Retired, [Conkling] Too Pigeon-Breasted, [Thomas Collier Platt] Me Too Little, Mahone Must be Readjusted, J. B. Rejected Too Crooked, Dana Rejected – Too Shortsighted, [Logan] Grammar Feeble, [Arthur] Rejected No Backbone, [Davis] Short Winded, Sherman Bloody Shirt Mania, [Kelly] Pig-Headed, Payne Oil on the Brain, Randall Protection Madness, Bayard Unstable, [Tilden] Rejected Cipher Catarrh, [and] B[utler] Can’t See Straight.” Five tall men, “Admitted to the Competition,” stand on the right: “Hewitt, Carlisle, Morrison, Lincoln [and] Edmunds O. K.”
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs
1884-04-30