Peace

A female figure labeled “Peace” stands in a barber shop, holding a large pair of shears labeled “Disarmament.” Sitting in the shop are the heads of state from “Spain, U.S. [Uncle Sam], Austria, Japan, Italy, France, England, Germany, [and] Russia,” each with bayonets and artillery as hair. A sign on the wall states “No hair tonic used here.”

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Comments and Context

Disarmament. Yes, the word existed in pre-nuclear times. Theodore Roosevelt, as president and before, sought to increase America’s arms, and especially its naval defenses, yet knew that the world was in jeopardy of hurtling toward a major war, probably on the European continent. His diplomatic interventions in the Russo-Japanese War and in Venezuela, but especially in the German-French tension that led to his Algeciras Conference were in the belief that a European land war could be delayed or averted.

A large group of representatives from several nations, many carrying weapons and making threatening gestures to others, arrive outside the “Palace of Peace” for the peace conference to end the Russo-Japanese War. Andrew Carnegie is posting a notice on the side of the building offering “Best Armor Plate for sale by Andy U.S.A.”

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Comments and Context

Carl Hassmann’s cartoon cleverly depicts the actual situation behind the surface rhetoric and posturing between world powers. A second World Peace Congress was organized and funded by industrialist Andrew Carnegie in 1905, and held in 1907; and the nations of the world flocked to attend at the Hague. But few of them were committed to disarmament or peace, and the Great War (to commence in 1914) was a universal assumption.

Nicholas II, Emperor of Russia, sits on a throne, wearing a large skull topped with a cross as a crown. A Japanese man offers him papers labeled “Peace ‘with Honor’,” and a Jewish man, holding bags labeled “Jewish Loans,” stands in a palace doorway in the background. A basket overflowing with papers labeled “Jewish Petition [and] Protest against Kishineff Massacres” is on the floor. A paper on a desk states “Cost of War to Russia $1,042,500,000.”

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Comments and Context

The bleak twin situations of the St. Petersburg court are laid bare in this stark double-page cartoon by Joseph Keppler, Junior. Even before its disastrous war with Japan in the Far East, Czar Nicholas’s Russia was crumbling in virtually all ways possible. It was nearly bankrupt, losing control of its client states and border peoples, beset by protests from serfs and the bourgeoisie, facing assassination attempts and intrigues among underground Socialist, Communist, and Anarchist groups, and worldwide condemnation over Czarist suppression of religious and Jewish minorities.

A tattered, but happy, Russian army returns home after the end of the war with Japan. In the background, the rising sun of Japan is visible on the horizon.

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Comments and Context

Carl Hassmann’s double-page cartoon in Puck at the end of hostilities in the Far East — where the bold symbol of Japan, the sun, clearly rises; it is not setting, as history learned — is a very sardonic portrayal of the international situation. If anything, his depiction of the defeated Russian army as happy, though sotted, as retaining riches and even singing and occasionally smiling, was scarcely true, even in a cartoonist’s metaphor.

A flotilla of ships sails with Theodore Roosevelt’s face on the lead ship. The figure of Peace, wearing armor and carrying a sword in one hand and an olive branch fashioned out of bayonets in the other, is sitting atop this ship. Two doves flying by her side are wearing armor and are armed as well.

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Comments and Context

This cartoon has had a long life since its original publication in 1905 in Puck magazine. In textbooks and dissertations, magazine articles and books, it has been reprinted as a representation of President Roosevelt’s brand of Pax Americana; and often as a commemoration of the Great White Fleet, America’s two squadrons of 16 battleships and escort ships that circumnavigated the globe. Painted a glowing white, the ships were ambassadors of peace, and assertions of America’s new naval prowess.

Vignette cartoon with a central image showing President Roosevelt sitting with Russian, Japanese, and possibly Chinese figures at his summer retreat at Oyster Bay; his personal secretary, William Loeb, is serving drinks. The vignette scenes suggest that the Russo-Japanese war, and the control of Manchuria and Vladivostok, be decided by competitions between the Russian leaders and those of Japan and China, such as a swimming race, a wood-chopping contest, a tennis match, and a contest of telling the tallest fish story.

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Comments and Context

Puck cartoonists L. M. Glackens and S. D. Ehrhart joined forces to draw the magazine’s semi-regular centerspread genre cartoon commenting on current events, this page on the upcoming negotiations to end the Russo-Japanese War. There was one month to go before commencement of talks. Approximately two months after this cartoon’s publication, a Treaty of Peace was signed.

Meiji, Emperor of Japan, and Nicholas II of Russia, kneel before the female figure of “Peace.” Caption: When, your Majesties?

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Comments and Context

Given the exigencies of magazine production — writing and drawing, editing, printing and distribution — we cannot be certain whether the events of Russia’s “Bloody Sunday,” the suppression of protesters on January 9, little more than a week of this cartoon’s cover date, prompted Nankivell’s cartoon. A crowd of petitioners, led by an Orthodox monk, were brutally massacred. The world, and much of Russia, reacted with revulsion, and the Revolution of 1905 began. It was ultimately unsuccessful, but formed a direct line to the Bolshevik Revolution a dozen years later.

The Russian Bear eyes a house of cards. Each card is labeled a different country, “England, France, Germany, Japan, U.S., Austria, China, Italy, [and] Turkey”, and the king on each card bears some facial characteristics of the ruler of the country, including Uncle Sam. A dove of “Peace” has landed on top of the cards. The bear’s right paw and claws are touching the “Japan” card.

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Comments and Context

In this cartoon, remarkable for its cleverness and caricatural details, Joseph Keppler illustrates the threats to peace in daily news, and the larger situation in international relations. The “house of cards” is dispositive in two ways: the cartoonist has pictured the major nations of the world, and their leaders, when challenges to the world order arose; and the meaning of the phrase — a precarious situation — is perfectly portrayed.

Mars, the Roman god of war, sits on a throne with his arms folded across his chest and a sword resting on his lap. He is illuminated by a ray of light beaming from above. At center a broken olive branch lies on the ground, and on the right a female figure labeled “Peace,” cradling a dove, flees storm clouds, representing Russia and Japan, about to clash, between her and Mars.

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Comments and Context

The first Hague Tribunal, an international conference on war, peace, negotiations, and armaments, was held in the Dutch city in 1899. In what subsequent history perhaps viewed as ironic, it was suggested by Czar Nicholas II of Russia. Many nations participated, and many agreements were reached — on weapons, settlement of international disputes, protection of hospital units on battlefields, etc.

Handwritten essay discussing peace and what steps countries should take to achieve peace. Published in the Metropolitan magazine, Feb 1917.

Collection

Harvard College Library

Creation Date

1917

The god of war is bound by garlands labeled “Dreibund” Alliance” and “Alliance’ [a reference to the Triple Entente]. The ends of the garlands are pulled by Germany, Austria, and Italy on one side, with Russia and the Ottoman Empire tugging at another end, and John Bull, representing Great Britain, and Japan tugging at yet another end. The figure of “Peace” enters on the left carrying more garlands. Caption: National alliances as promoters of universal peace.

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Comments and Context

In 1902 the world looked with plausible optimism on the international “harmony” represented by the Triple Alliance and the Triple Entente. Under different names, and inevitably shifting signatories, as well as secret treaties and diplomatic understandings, these international arrangements were viewed as guarantors of world peace. As the world discovered a dozen years later, these alliances only postponed and arguably facilitated a world war. Nations, in the end, were positioning and re-positioning themselves for the devastating Great War. Puck, often a prescient seer, was seldom more of a Pollyanna than in this cartoon.

Illustration showing the British Lion, wearing a military uniform, aghast by the tattered look of a female figure labeled “Peace,” her clothing torn, head and left arm bandaged, and walking with a crutch, the dove at her feet looks plucked. In the background is a sign stating “The last Boer ditch” stuck in ground labeled “South Africa.” Caption: Great Britain. — Didn’t you tell them the war was over? Peace. — “Yes; – and they immediately filled me full of lead; – said it was only a rumor of war!

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1901-02-20

Theodore Roosevelt agrees with Serbian Minister Michailovitch’s opinion regarding the importance of July 28, 1914, and argues that beyond simply being the day Germany and its ally Austria-Hungary began the great war, July 28 further raised the question of how the world should deal with the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Roosevelt feels there can be no peace unless the Austro-Hungarian Empire is broken up and its constituent nationalities are given their own states, and mentions also that the Ottoman empire should be similarly divided. The United States should do what it can to assist in this effort by encouraging the revolt of subject peoples and pledging to protect them. Future peace depends on Germany, Austria-Hungary, Bulgaria and Turkey being soundly defeated, and Roosevelt believes Europe should be remade “on the basis of the principle of nationalities.”

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1918-07-11

Theodore Roosevelt’s secretary sends C. Floyd Wambeam a copy of a speech by Roosevelt in answer to Wambeam’s question about Roosevelt’s attitude regarding war and peace.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1912-09-25

Theodore Roosevelt writes to Elihu Root to urge the ratification of the arbitration treaties. Roosevelt asks Root to vote in such a way that will further peace.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1911-09-30

Theodore Roosevelt thanks Charles Noonan for his letter and the clipping and invites him to stop by The Outlook sometime. Roosevelt comments on movements for peace and the need for justice and righteousness as well as honesty and practicality.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1911-10-02

Theodore Roosevelt appreciates Professor Hermann Schoenfeld’s “kind allusions” and is pleased that Schoenfeld has engaged with Count Maximilian von Seckendorff “with the getting of American news for Europe.” Roosevelt finds Schoenfeld’s article interesting but suggests Schoenfeld submit it to The Outlook himself. Roosevelt shares his idea regarding the “dream of peace.”

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1911-07-29

Legislation to use President Roosevelt’s money from the 1906 Nobel Prize to establish a committee dedicated to the promotion of industrial peace.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1907-02-12

Theodore Roosevelt agrees with Max Ferrand that the mobilization of the nation’s resources and strength is a prime necessity. Roosevelt says the country cannot have preparedness for war unless it has preparedness for peace. Roosevelt thinks the initiative, referendum, recall, direct primary, etc., have not worked as well as expected because radicals insisted upon applying them in an extreme and ill-advised manner. Roosevelt has pointed out in speeches that the proposed reforms would merely give the people a chance to accomplish their purpose, if they had a serious purpose.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1916-01-15

Theodore Roosevelt congratulates William J. Williamson on the position he has taken as a “leading minister of the Gospel.” Roosevelt does not believe peace should be put above righteousness.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1915-12-21