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Speaker of the House, Thomas B. Reed, is a watchdog asleep at his desk on papers labeled “Dingley Tariff Section 22” while a scoundrel labeled “Railroad Lobby” inserts an amendment. Caption: Speaker Reed says he doesn’t know how the discriminating duty “slipped in.” This is how.
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs
1897-09-22
A congressional inquiry is shown based on the painting Phryne before the Areopagus. The illustration depicts “High Tariff Phryne” being disrobed by a man labeled “Special Privilege,” causing much excitement among the group of unidentified congressmen. Most prominent among them is Joseph G. Cannon. The golden “Ark of the Dingley Covenant” rests in the center of the room.
The famous 1861 painting by the French Academician Jean-Louis Gerome, “Phryne Before the Areopagus,” is the basis of Udo J. Keppler’s cartoon — or, rather, the model of the cartoon’s composition, for the painting became more notable for its parodies and allegorical uses.
Andrew Carnegie, as Brutus, wears a Roman toga and holds a large knife. Carnegie is about to stab another man labeled “High Protection” who has slumped against a monument labeled “Dingley.”
At the feet of a statue memorializing the Dingley Tariff of 1897 — high import duties for American industry — the “Caesar” of high-protection rates notes the treachery of Andrew Carnegie, former steel magnate.
On a winter’s night a small figure labeled “Consumer” sings a Christmas carol at the bottom of the steps to a large federal building. Standing on the steps, a large, bloated man labeled “Special Privilege,” along with Joseph Gurney Cannon, J. S. Sherman, and others, present a formidable barrier to the sad and complaint-filled tidings of the meek caroler. The carol begins, “Confound you, merry gentlemen! Will nothing you dismay? Won’t you revise the tariff until the Judgment Day?”
“Waits” were part of an ancient profession once common in medieval and Renaissance Europe and England. Evolving from street musicians to salaried ensembles of pipers and singers, waits roamed the streets to provide entertainment, warnings and announcements, greetings, and ceremonial music at events. In Germany the waits were called stadtpfeifers (town pipers) and sometimes were installed in towers throughout towns, providing what later generations would know as background music during daily activities.
A group of dejected young women sit at the beach with a mannequin labeled “Cost of Living.” The mannequin is dressed in the symbols of a lady’s needs, including white gloves, a fan, and the tools of home-making, as well as two tags labeled “Rent” and “Taxes.” Young men are standing nearby, pondering the group of women, but fearing the chaperone. Caption: “If you haven’t any money, you needn’t come around.”
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs
1909-07-21
This cartoon shows Nelson W. Aldrich as the master of the hunt throwing the twisted body of a man labeled “Consumer” to a pack of hunting dogs labeled “Lumber Trust, Fuel Trust, Clothing Trust, [and] Food Trust.” The caption reads, “Throwing the carcase [sic] to the pack.”
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs
1909-07-21
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.
William McKinley, wearing military uniform, appears underneath a large veil on a pedestal labeled “I am the veiled Mahatma of prosperity! Believe in me, ask no questions, and you will all roll in riches!!!” Charles H. Grosvenor stands on the left and Mark A. Hanna on the right dressed as magicians or wizards. A group of men prostrate themselves in the foreground, labeled “Gold Bug, Greenbacker, Free Silver Crank, Populist, High Protection Fanatic, [and] Any Kind of Money Crank.” In the background, on both sides, are large crowds, some holding signs labeled “Monopoly, Trusts, Combines, [and] Monopolists.”
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs
1896-06-17
A man with a slip of paper in his pocket that states “Senator-Elect from–” is stepping off a barrel labeled with a “$,” and climbing through an open window to a building labeled “U.S. Senate.” The door and the steps are covered with cobwebs from lack of use, and the steps are labeled “Patriotism, Statesmanship, Understanding, [and] Character.” Title quote is taken from the King James Version of the Bible, John 10:1.
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs
1898-02-09
Uncle Sam sits on the steps to the White House as a man (McKinley), wearing a top hat labeled “Monopoly,” walks up the steps to enter the White House.
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs
1896-04-29
A large, bloated man labeled “Tariff-made Monopoly,” holds a small dish labeled “Dingley Schedule,” and asks Uncle Sam, standing next to a large fireplace with a large cauldron labeled “Protection,” for another helping. Caption: Representative Sereno E. Payne, who will have charge of the Tariff bill on the floor of the House, does not know whether the people declared for radical or moderate revision of the Tariff on election day.–The Sun.
Udo J. Keppler’s cover cartoon provides a brilliant historical legacy in that it succinctly illustrated a vital and unsettled political issue of the day; but it also represents the virtual seeds of a controversial situation that helped undo the Taft Administration.
William McKinley as Ali Baba kneels before a slightly opened door in the “High-Tariff Robber Barons Cave,” holding a bag labeled “McKinley Boom Fund,” which is being filled with coins issuing from the opening in the doorway. Caption: Ali Baba McKinley.–Protection! Protection!! Protection!!!
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs
1896-04-15
A large Trojan Horse labeled “Sound Money” is shown with many businessmen climbing out, carrying papers labeled “Tobacco, Steel, Wool, Coal Demands for More Protection, We Want More Protection Iron, Drugs We Demand Higher Protection, Give Us More Protection Coal, [and] Tin and Iron.” The businessmen clamber down a ladder and up the steps to the U.S. Capitol, attempting to take Congress by storm. Caption: Intrepid attempt of the Protection Greeks to capture the Capitol.
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs
1897-02-03
At center, William Jennings Bryan, labeled “16 to 1,” stands on a platform “Built by Popo. Platform Silver Syndicate” and holds up a paper that states, “‘We Denounce Arbitrary Interference by Federal Authorities, in Local Affairs, as a Violation of the Constitution,’ etc., W.J. Bryan.” On the right, labeled “1861,” Jefferson Davis holds a paper that states, “‘We Denounce Arbitrary Interference by Federal Authorities, in Local Affairs, as a Violation of the Constitution,’ etc., Jeff. Davis.” Davis confronts Abraham Lincoln who is holding a copy of the “Constitution of U.S.” The bombing of “Fort Sumter” is taking place behind them. On the left, labeled “1896,” Benjamin R. Tillman, John Peter Altgeld, Eugene V. Debs, and John P. Jones are standing on a torn American flag labeled “National Honor” and raising a new flag labeled “Dis-Order and Mis-Rule.”
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs
1896-10-28
Puck draws back a curtain to show a “Laborer, Farmer, [and a] Business Man” what is going on behind, with the Bryan campaign’s support of the “Silver Trust.” A man shows a paper to a bloated silver mine owner that states, “To Silver Mine Owners: If Bryan is elected we shall make the people pay you an increase of 64 cts. on every ounce of your silver. This means a profit to you of $36,000,000 a year. We ask you to contribute one month’s profit of $3,000,000 to elect Bryan. Merrill’s Popocratic Circular.” Caption: Puck–Now you can see, gentlemen, that the Bryan campaign is not in the interest of the people, but simply and solely in the interest of the Silver Trust.
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs
1896-10-28
William Jennings Bryan is pictured as a puppet being manipulated by a well-dressed man sitting on a large money bag labeled “Silver Mining Syndicate” and listing names and dollar amounts: “Hearst $75,000,000, Fair 40,000,000, Mackay 40,000,000, Wm. Stewart 40,000,000, W. A. Clark 30,000,000, Moffatt 30,000,000 [and] J. P. Jones 25,000,000.” Byran is holding cymbals labeled “Free Silver and Prosperity” and “Promises of Good Wages.” His audience is a laborer with his lunch pail labeled “Labor” and in his back pocket a “Bank Book.” Caption: They can never catch American labor with that combination.
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs
1896-10-07
A disgruntled Uncle Sam, as a dairy farmer, stands on the right, holding a bucket labeled “U.S. Treasury” and a stool, on his way to milk a cow. At center is a cow labeled “Commonwealth” and a fat calf labeled “Infant Industries” that is helping itself to the cow’s milk.
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs
1897-06-23
Uncle Sam as Tantalus is bound with ropes to posts labeled “High Protective Tariff” and “Free Silver Agitation” by two men labeled “Protected Manufacturer” and “Silverite.” The men are preventing Uncle Sam from satisfying his desire for “Prosperity,” depicted as a female figure holding a cornucopia, separated from Uncle Sam by an “Ocean of Politics,” and standing among factories spewing smoke along the waterfront.
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs
1897-06-02
A hand labeled “Republican Party” pours champagne from a bottle labeled “Tariff Revision” into a glass held by another hand labeled “Protected Interests.” Two hands labeled “Consumer” are holding an empty glass.
The theme of Udo J. Keppler’s cartoon — that tariffs imposed and maintained for purposes of revenue or protection of fledgling industries against cheaper foreign imports were chimeras — was as old as the American Industrial Revolution. In the critiques of low-tariff and free-trade proponents, imports saddled with tariff duties should have resulted in lower prices of domestically produced goods.
A fat businessman, reclining on a large coin, basks in the bright light of “Special Privilege” while dreaming of castles in the air. On the other side of the coin is factory life in dark and polluted Pittsburgh, where factory workers struggle to flip the coin blocking the light from their city and their lives. Caption: Pittsburg, the citadel of protection.
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs
1909-09-22