Tariff | - Theodore Roosevelt Center

A timely warning

The Republican elephant, wearing a hat labeled “G.O.P.” and “High Protective Tariff” and a swimsuit labeled “Tariff-Protected Trusts,” wades offshore toward huge waves labeled “Public Patience.” President Theodore Roosevelt is standing closer to shore with one hand on a “Reciprocity Life Line” and the other hand raised, as he calls out a warning about going too far. The U.S. Capitol is visible in the background. Caption: Roosevelt–Don’t go beyond your depth!

Comments and Context

Pughe’s cartoon is a straightforward statement of the political situation — the policies of the new president, Theodore Roosevelt, recommending lower international tariffs and an acceptance of reciprocal trade agreements with foreign partners (policies toward which President William McKinley was warming at the time of his death). The illustration of current events is as logical as an elephant in women’s beach costume is not. But political cartoonists are masters of all they survey.

“I wonder if it’s loaded!”

An elephant labeled G.O.P. holds a double-barrel shotgun in its trunk, pointed toward itself. The barrels are labeled “Trust Issue Tariff Reform” and “1904.”

Comments and Context

Likely without knowing it, Puck and cartoonist J. S. Pughe exactly pictured the conscious policy of President Theodore Roosevelt. For a generation, the political parties had tinkered with the tariff and import duties. Seeking to please various segments of industry, or farming interests, or interest groups with their own agendas, the tariff had become a bugaboo that often turned and “bit” the parties passing new laws and rates.

Picking his way

The “Republican Party” elephant walks on “Senate” and “House” stilts, on a path covered with eggs labeled “Monopoly, High Tariff Excuses, ‘Bad Trusts,’ Labor Question, Post Office Scandal, [and] Protected Trusts.” A paper attached to the elephant’s tail states “Tariff Reform.” A sign in the background points “To Washington 1904.”

Comments and Context

The Republican elephant, drawn by Puck‘s go-to animal cartoonist J. S. Pughe, is the focal point of this cartoon that is frankly a generic concept, rare for Puck, rather than an accurate portrayal of events or analysis of issues. The cartoon’s implication is that the party in June of 1903 and a year from the national presidential convention, avoids dealing with a myriad of issues. In fact, except for plainly viewing the tariff as an issue with no urgency to address, the eggs are labelled with issues, positions, and accomplishments that President Roosevelt and the Republican Party were quite willing to discuss with voters.

“I guess I can keep right ahead”

A well-dressed, contented, obese capitalist labeled “Trusts,” wearing skates labeled “Protective Tariff,” skates near an area of thin ice labeled “Congress” and marked with a sign that says “Danger.” He seems to see no reason to be cautious.

Comments and Context

Through previous decades, cartoonists’ symbols for trusts and monopolies ranged from vultures to money-bags with faces to highwaymen. By 1903, partly through the popularization of an icon resembling an enormous, overweight, ostentatious boor as conceived by the former Puck cartoonist F. Opper, in New York Journal cartoons, the figure in Pughe’s cartoon is instantly recognizable. As the concept of his cartoon suggests, Congress, dominated by Republicans at this time, was beginning to be more favorable to regulating trusts.

A question of duty

President Roosevelt stands next to Uncle Sam who is sitting on a stool in a “U.S. Custom House.” Roosevelt has his left hand on Sam’s right arm and is gesturing to the left, toward a customs official who is inspecting the bags of a Filipino man just inside a door labeled “Philippines” and “Prohibitive Tariff.” The door is locked and barred by “Seventy-Five per cent of Dingley Rates.” In the background, a woman exits through a door labeled “Cuba” and “Reciprocity” and a man exits through a door labeled “Porto Rico” and “Free Trade.” Caption: President Roosevelt–You’ve been fair to the other two. Now, keep faith with this one.

Comments and Context

In the aftermath of the Spanish-American War, different tariff duties and trade policies were imposed on America’s new territorial possessions. Given their retention, this was logical because they each had different histories, geography, economies, and levels of sophistication. One of the prices of empire was dealing with the inevitable complications. Cuba, with a relatively mature infrastructure and major industry, sugar, received more consideration from Washington than did the rather unsophisticated island of Porto Rico (as it was then spelled). The Philippine Islands were a special case for several reasons: they were the farthest of the new lands from the continental United States, the population was the most resistant to American occupation, and as part of the Treaty of Paris that ended the war, Spain received trade conditions equal to those of the United States. William Howard Taft, a federal judge who had been Theodore Roosevelt’s friend since he was United State Solicitor-General under Benjamin Harrison when Roosevelt was head of the Civil Service Commission, served as governor-general of the Philippines from 1901-1903, and tried to effect what historian Michael Cullinane has called the “Filipino-American collaborative empire,” characteristically seeking middle ground. Manila was represented by two representatives in Washington (the other possessions got one each), and strong arguments were made for favorable trade considerations. Pughe’s cartoon dates from the time when relatively harsh tariffs were imposed on the Philippines. Ultimately Roosevelt achieved Congress’s approval for nearly full reciprocity on each nation’s goods.

Frightened

A tiny dog labeled “Cuban Reciprocity” barks at a man who has climbed a fence out of fear. His hat labeled “Sugar Trust” has fallen to the ground.

Comments and Context

The American “Sugar Trust” traditionally relied on sugar beets more than sugar cane, and its dominance was of course threatened by the prospect of an influx of cane sugar in the aftermath of the Spanish-American War. However, Cuban sugar exports were factors, worldwide, before the war, even when clumsily administered by Spanish colonials. What threatened the Sugar Trust and American producers was the possibility of free trade or low import duties on Cuban cane sugar as American policies toward its new territories played out.

As to the beef trust

Puck offers a large axe labeled “Repeal of Beef Tariff” to Philander C. Knox who is holding a tiny sling-shot labeled “Sherman Anti-Trust Law.” Standing in the background is a large bull labeled “Beef Trust.” Caption: Puck (to Attorney-General Knox) — You’ll never hurt that animal until they give you this ax!

Comments and Context

Evidently the bombshell that was the anti-trust suit against the Northern Securities was not enough for Puck. It was a bombshell because the action of President Theodore Roosevelt’s Attorney General, Philander C. Knox, not only took other cabinet members by surprise, but the Wall Street titans — sometime rivals but collaborators to form this railroad monopoly — J. P. Morgan, E. H. Harriman, and James J. Hill, likewise had no inkling of the government’s suit. Morgan transmitted to Roosevelt his accustomed method of dealing with federal scrutiny: “If we have done anything wrong, send your man to my man and they can fix it up.” But Roosevelt wanted the backroom methods, and not the mere combination of the Northern Pacific; Great Northern; and Chicago, Burlington, and Quincy railroads, “fixed.” The suit to dissolve the trust was settled in the government’s favor in 1904, but this cartoon by Joseph Keppler, Jr., appeared only two months after Knox filed the Great Northern suit. Puck wanted the government to continue its serious trust-busting with hardly a delay.

The Republican elephant and his growing burden

The Republican elephant uses his trunk to support, overhead, an infant labeled “Infant Industries” in a cradle labeled “Protective Tariff.” The U.S. Capitol building is visible in the background.

Comments and Context

The meaning of this cartoon was the real situation and a growing dilemma in United States politics and the American economy. High-tariff and protectionist policies after the Civil War, and accelerating as industries thrived and prosperity asserted itself, became something of an anomaly. Industries largely thrived on their own as America achieved manufacturing and trade dominance in the world, monopolies frequently profited moguls as citizens sought lower retail prices, and the Republican Party’s identification with their vaunted “infant industries” needing protection had become burdensome.

An effective battering ram in the hands of the right men

Two strong men labeled “Labor” and “Commerce” use a battering ram labeled “Tariff Reform” to knock down a door in a building flying a banner for “High Protection.” A frightened man, labeled “Protected Trust” and wearing a crown, is looking over the wall.

Comments and Context

The deeper meaning behind Keppler’s straightforward message is his choice of labels. “Tariff Reform” indicates that Puck, editorially, was not advocating for free trade as some Populists and Bryan followers in the Democratic party did. The same point is made in the specific phrase in the caption “…in the hands of the right men.”

Cuba’s choice

A young woman wearing a hat labeled “Cuba” stands, with her arms crossed, trying to decide which of three paths to choose. The first path, labeled “Reciprocity,” leads to an angry “Beet Sugar Senator” who is offering “No Tariff Concessions.” The second path, labeled “Cuban Loan,” leads to Uncle Sam offering the “Platt Amendment.” The third path leads to the U.S. Capitol and “Annexation.” None of the paths look promising to her. Caption: Events are fast limiting her to one path.

Comments and Context

Despite a wide array of nuances, concessions, and amendments at this time and over subsequent decades, the choices Cuba faced are generally well-depicted in Keppler’s cartoon. Generally, Cuba chose the middle path of those shown. In the aftermath of Spain’s defeat by America and Cuban insurrectionists, annexation was never a serious option, although Cuba’s first president Tomas Estrada Palma actually had favored annexation at one point. The sugar trust in the United States (traditional sugar-beet growers and industries) objected to the provision in the Platt Amendment that generously opened, and even granted preference to, Cuban cane sugar in the United States market. The Platt Amendment (named for Senator Orville H. Platt, R-CT and not, as widely assumed, after New York Senator Thomas Collier Platt) required Cuba to accept provisions that granted the United States de facto sovereignty over the island, and control of prerogatives otherwise enjoyed by free nations. Many of these were, however, modified through the years, and generally so in 1934. But the granting of a permanent military facility at Guantanamo Bay remained.

Twenty years after

A man labeled “Republican Party” picks up the clothing of a man labeled “Democratic Party” who is swimming in the “Democratic Issue Pond” which is labeled “Socialism, Bryanism, Populism, Free Silver, Anti-Expansion, [and] Jeffersonian Simplicity.” At the upper right is a scene twenty years earlier, in which a man labeled “Democrat” picks up the clothing of a “Republican” swimming in the “Republican Corruption Water.”

Comments and Context

Puck refers to Puck for a history lesson, and it makes a perfectly valid observation based on a cartoon by the senior Joseph Keppler 20 years earlier. Political parties frequently evolve in their positions; it is rather less frequent that two established parties largely trade their beliefs, and in such a relatively short time. It is true that in President Cleveland’s time, the Democratic Party was in many ways the more conservative of the two. After Populism, Bryanism, and reactions to economic ills, the Democrats grew radical. Ironically, under Theodore Roosevelt and the insurgents in the nation’s cities and Progressives in Congress, the Republicans — or those in one wing — quickly absorbed or adapted many of the recent Democratic positions. Also somewhat notable about Pughe’s cartoon is that Puck recognized these shifting trends so early: oftentimes such evolution is clear in hindsight.

A strenuous job on the Cuban ranch

President Roosevelt appears as a cowboy, on horseback, with Cuban President Tomás Estrada Palma, on foot, driving cattle labeled “High Protectionist, Senatorial Pledge Breaker, [and] Beet Sugar Senator” into the “Reciprocity Corral.”

Comments and Context

The specific context of this cartoon, and the reference to “reciprocity,” is the question of America’s policy regarding sugar, Cuba’s chief export commodity. There were expectations after the Spanish-American War among Cuba’s leaders and provisional government, Cuban sugar growers, the American sugar trust, American sugar-beet growers, and various senators representing conflicting interests. Those expectations and hopes were settled by the Platt Amendment and decisions of President Roosevelt that granted free trade of Cuban cane sugar (no or low import duties imposed by the United States — virtual reciprocity, not that Cuba needed beet sugar) offset by Cuban guarantees of other American commodities and foreign-trade concessions. Cuban President Tomás Palma, once an advocate of annexation, backed this compromise. It sometimes is difficult to remember that Puck was a Democratic journal when reviewing such noble depictions and caricatures as in this cartoon of Roosevelt. Alternatively, of course, history remembers the public’s approval and the popularity of Roosevelt at the time. Noted, also, another phrase of Roosevelt’s that entered the language: the cartoon’s caption “A Strenuous Job.”

Cuba’s opportunity

A “Tariff Wall” on the U.S. coastline has two gates, one labeled “Annexation” and the other labeled “Reciprocity.” A woman labeled “Cuba,” holding a bundle of “Raw Sugar” cane, is attempting to enter the United States through the gate labeled “Reciprocity.” She is being turned away vociferously by a man labeled “Sugar Grower” holding a piece of paper labeled “Tariff on Sugar.” In the background is a woman labeled “Porto Rico” carrying a bundle of sugar cane. She has entered through the “Annexation” gate over which the sugar grower and his tariffs have no control. Caption: Cuba — Why not let me in? Porto Rico is inside. / American Sugar-Grower — She didn’t come in this gate. She went through the other one – and I can’t control that!

Comments and Context

It was certainly the case that domestic producers of sugar in the United States did not welcome, and lobbied against, the free importation of Cuban sugar and its free export to world markets. The situation pictured in Keppler’s cartoon was a bit more nuanced, however. Cuba, despite its problems under Spanish rule, had a functioning economy and export policies, and it had been assured of a minimal United States presence and relatively quick independence. Porto Rico (as then spelled in the American press) had minimal infrastructure, was deemed in need of special considerations, and was largely assumed to become an eventual part of the United States, by annexation, territorial status, or similar relation.

Who will get the credit?

An interior view of the House of Representatives shows Republicans on one side and Democrats on the other. A gigantic man wearing a crown labeled “Protected Trusts” and clothing decorated with dollar signs, his hands resting on a huge club labeled “Protected Tariffs,” sits before them, dwarfing the Speaker’s chair and rostrum. Representative Joseph W. Babcock climbs the club and turns to address Republican colleagues who attempt to flee in fear. The Democrats calmly sit and laugh. Caption: Representative Babcock (to his Republican Associates)–You’d better help me take this club away! The Democrats will do it if you don’t!

Comments and Context

Around the turn of the century, elements in the Republican Party grew enamored of reciprocity as the basis of foreign trade. Not as radical as free trade, but an end to tariff wars; and even the pontiff of protectionism, slowly had been warming to the concept of reciprocity. President Theodore Roosevelt was firm in his agnosticism on the issue: he readily admitted he understood little of economics and he realized that tariff debates were the rocks on which many administrations had foundered. Indeed, there were to be no major tariff revisions in Roosevelt’s seven and a half years in the White House. At the time of this cartoon, Roosevelt had convened a meeting of major Republican figures, experts on protection and trade, to Oyster Bay in hopes of agreeing on a party policy. None was reached. In the meantime, the Wisconsin Representative Joseph W. Babcock startled Congress by introducing a tariff bill based on the “Iowa Idea” and aimed at the steel trust. It basically held that import tariffs that “protected” domestic industries controlled by trusts and monopolies would be eliminated. Bold or naive or both, Babcock’s bill failed passage. It was, however, a ripple of the wave of the future, and Keppler’s brilliant cartoon shows Babcock attempting to add a political-survival argument to his cause.

The proposed concession to Cuba

A young woman labeled “Cuba” turns away from Uncle Sam who is offering her a plate labeled “Reduction of Tariff on Cuban Sugar” with an egg labeled 20% on it. In the background a man labeled “American Sugar Grower” is enraged because he feels the egg is larger than it should be. Caption: Cuba — Only this little egg for me? / Sugar Planter — All that big egg for her?

Comments and Context

In the years subsequent to the Spanish-American War, the United States betook itself of separate policies for each of its new colonies. Its role in Cuba can be contrasted with Puerto Rico, where long-term territorial ties were assumed from the start, and the Philippines, where insurrectionists fought any continuing presence of the United States. Cuban freedom fighters were used to agitating for freedom, and the island’s businesses were developed enough to reasonably assert independence. The United States had to navigate between these legitimate desires, and Cuba’s major export crop, sugar; and the demands of America’s powerful sugar lobby. The egg in the cartoon’s symbolism is a seasonal icon.

A hint to the Democratic platform makers

Several men, identified as “Hill, Jones, Olney, Clark, Bailey, Shepard, Watterson, [and] Lamont,” carry planks of lumber which are identified as Democratic policies from previous election platforms and proposed new planks. As they construct the new “Democratic Platform,” Puck points to a plank they have forgotten, “Tariff Reform,” which sits on a platform in the background on the right. In the background on the left stands William Jennings “Bryan” holding a “Free Silver” plank of rotten wood. Caption: Puck — You are neglecting the only plank you ever did win with, – and the only one you ever can win with!

Comments and Context

Ever since President Grover Cleveland devoted his Annual Message to downward tariff revision (and the result of high tariffs, government surpluses, which Cleveland regarded as immoral) the Democratic Party was generally the party of low tariffs and free trade. Former Speaker of the House Samuel J Randall was one Democrat who generally favored high tariffs. But the implied point of Keppler’s cartoon is not that the Democratic Party cooled on the issue of tariff rates, but that “new” issues like anti-imperialism and standard positions on civil service reform provided the middle ground between the hoary populism of William Jennings Bryan and the tired arguments for tariff reductions could attract voters. Generally, they did not: the Democrats would lose the 1904 presidential election, to Theodore Roosevelt, by record margins.

As the tariff-war must end

Uncle Sam is in a tree, chased there by the Russian Bear which is standing at the base of the tree. Uncle Sam has dropped his rifle labeled “U.S. Duty on Russian Sugar.” Caption: Uncle Sam (to Russia). — Don’t shoot! I’ll come down!

Comments and Context

It might seem odd in our times that around 1900 one of the most controversial and contested commodities in the world was sugar. Perhaps it is even more of a surprise that Russia was a major sugar producer. Sugar’s uses might be clear, but it is a fact that much of the world’s sugar at the time was derived from not just from sugar cane, but also from sugar beets, beetroot, and other plants, and honey. Many countries had complicated systems of export penalties and incentives, depending on harvests, as well as assessed penalties for exports and bounties for production. Russia had rules more complicated than those of most countries, but it heavily relied on income from sugar exports. When the United States, in a position figuratively to be smothered in Cuban cane sugar after the Spanish-American War, sought to renegotiate details of its sugar trade, the Russian Empire was not happy.

Trying to drag him from his altar and his idol

An old man labeled “Progressive Republican” tries to pull an aged and battered elephant labeled “G.O.P.” from where it kneels before a golden idol with a “$” on its chest, sitting on a pedestal labeled “High Protection Idol.” The elephant has wrapped its trunk around a bar attached to the “High Tariff Altar.” In the background, the U.S. Capitol beams “Fair Trade.”

Comments and Context

Interesting aspects of this cartoon relate to the term “Progressive” being attached to the anti-Protectionist Republican. One is Puck‘s positive characterization of free-trade advocates. More interesting is the adjective “progressive” — a term not in general use in 1901. In five years or so, reformist Republicans were called “Insurgents” and after a decade or so, “Progressive” was a term applied to Republicans, then Democrats, who favored a program of political, economic, and social reforms. Thus this cartoon was, perhaps unintentionally, prophetic.

The custom house ordeal

A merchant labeled “Dealer in Protected Goods” stands in a customhouse, with a whip which forms the words “Protective Tariff Bought from Congress.” A paper labeled “Bribe” extends from his pocket. Horrified travelers watch as custom officials search their luggage for contraband. Caption: Home-coming Americans must submit to these indignities as long as the favored merchant is allowed to retain his whip.

Comments and Context

Keppler’s cartoon is an exercise in hyperbole… but that often is a stock-in-trade for political cartoons. Not every tourist in the era of high protective tariffs was subject to taxation for single items brought home after vacations. However, high-ticket items were targeted and taxed often enough that a growing chorus of complaints arose.

The coming struggle

President Roosevelt, as a knight on horseback, carries a lance labeled “Reciprocity” and faces a giant ogre labeled “Infant Industries” and leaning on a club labeled “Dingley Tariff.” In the background on the left is a castle flying a banner “High Protection” and with a maiden labeled “Fair Trade” standing at the top of a tower. Caption: And so the knight promised to take up his late lord’s lance and carry on the fight.

Comments and Context

This is a brilliant cartoon by Keppler, wholly reliant on its surfeit of labels and slightly inaccurate as to history. That is, it predicts that the new president, Theodore Roosevelt, would take up the late President William McKinley’s lance and battle against high tariffs. McKinley’s views on may issues evolved, but as a Protectionist, his ideas about Reciprocity — fair trade with nations, one by one — were tepid. Roosevelt, who admitted that he never fully understood tariffs and economics, would prevent his Republican Party from enacting any tariffs, upward or reductions, during his presidency. He know that every administration that did so (e.g., the previous four) suffered from the polarized public debates. His successor, William Howard Taft, presided over both a high-tariff act and reciprocity treaties, both leading to electoral defeats. With a few changed labels — for instance, trusts and monopolies instead of high tariffs and protected industries — the cartoon better could represent a major theme of the Roosevelt presidency.