Another King Canute
President Roosevelt holds a “big stick business” and an “imperialism” crown and sits near the “increasing tide of Democratic strength.” William H. Taft, J. S. Sherman, and Roosevelt all say, “Go back!” William Jennings Bryan watches from afar: “Watch them get wet!”
Comments and Context
King Canute, of Danish lineage and around 1027 A.D., is famous in legend for assembling his courtiers at a sea shore and commanding waves to cease breaking. Cartoonist James Calvert Smith was one of uncountable storytellers through the centuries who have subscribed to event’s ahistoricity; it seems that King Canute staged such a scene, but only to humbly illustrate that even a king had no control over forces of God and nature.