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On the left “The Trusts,” as bloated, clownish figures, frighten “The Common People.” On the right, a large gorilla-like monster with human head holds Liberty in one arm and a large coin in the other, as it topples the dome on the U.S. Capitol with one foot. Caption: For years the Trust has been pictured as this, – and laughed at. Why not know Him for what He really is – a brute with brains?
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs
1909-12-15
Waiters Joseph Gurney Cannon and J. S. Sherman turn away a man labeled “Average Citizen” and a woman at the “Hotel Prosperity” dining room because all the tables have been reserved. Signs on the tables read “Reserved for Wool Interests, Reserved for Coal Trust, Reserved for Steel Trust, Reserved for Senator Aldrich and Party, Reserved for Cold Storage Interests, Reserved for Sugar Trust, Reserved for Ice Trust, [and] Reserved for Franchise Grabbers.” Caption: The Head Waiter — Sorry, sir, but all our tables are reserved.
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs
1909-12-29
A large, possibly conjoined figure labeled “Meat Trust” sits on a building labeled “Packing House.” The more benevolent half, facing left, is offering advice to a man labeled “Farmer,” and the more mean-spirited half, facing right, is telling the same farmer, now with cattle in tow, that he has no option but to accept the price offered for his cattle. Caption: Before. The Meat Trust (to a small farmer) — “My friend, why don’t you raise a few cattle each year? The price of beef is high. You will make good money.” After. The Meat Trust (to same small farmer) — “The price I offer for your cattle is low, is it? Well, you may take it or leave it, my friend. There is nobody else for you to sell to.”
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs
1913-10-15
Black ink cartoon with two panels suggesting that President Roosevelt is not fighting against large trusts. The first panel is labeled “Front View” and appears to show Roosevelt, with a cavalry hat and rifle, defending the “Anti-Trust Breastworks.” The second panel is labeled “Rear View” and shows a stick holding up the glasses and hat while the rifle, labeled “Attorney Generalship,” is just another stick with one end made to appear like a rifle barrel.
Theodore Roosevelt Inaugural National Historic Site
1904-06-19
George Washington, carrying a small, potted cherry tree, turns to flee after reading notices posted on the “United States Bulletin Board,” some of which state, “Delicatessen Trust to be Investigated Next Week,” “Investigation of the Steel Trust Daily Until Further Notice,” “Investigation of Everything & Anybody,” and “Corned Beef Trust to be [In]vestigated Pretty Soo[n].” Also to be investigated are “Child Labor, White Slave, Campaign Fund, [and] Peanut Trust.” Caption: George Washington – This is no place for a man who couldn’t tell a lie!
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs
1913-02-19
Full color political cartoon depicting President Roosevelt dressed as Aaron, the Biblical figure, laying his hands on the head of a goat representing Standard Oil. The goat has a bell labeled “Prosecution” around its neck and is carrying many bundles that represent other trusts. William Jennings Bryan and William Randolph Hearst are nearby and appear to be clapping.
Theodore Roosevelt Inaugural National Historic Site
1907
Boxed board game on the theme of Theodore Roosevelt’s trust busting efforts.
Theodore Roosevelt Birthplace National Historic Site
Unknown
A wagon drawn by a single donkey labeled “American Consumer” chases a carrot labeled “Promised Tariff Reform” dangling from a stick held by the wagon driver labeled “Republican Congress.” The wagon is transporting a bunch of bloated old men, each representing a “Trust” and labeled “Steel, Copper, Lumber, Sugar, Beef, Coal, Tobacco, Clothing, Watch, Leather, [and] Paper.” They are members of the “Stand Pat Club,” some waving “Stand Pat” pennants. One man holds a drum that states, “The tariff will be revised when public welfare demands it.”
There had not been a major revision of tariff schedules since the Dingley Act of 1897 as American politics approached the 1908 presidential campaign. A decade seemed like a long time to many people — especially to businesses and trusts who benefited from “protection.” High duties on imported products contributed to general revenue, but also enabled American manufacturers and farmers to compete against foreign competition.
An old woman labeled “Monopoly Tariff” sits next to an old shoe labeled “Special Privilege,” around which a number of children are playing. The children all represent a “Trust” and are labeled “Tool, Steel, Copper, Lumber, Sugar, Rubber, Beef, Coal, Tobacco, Clothing, Watch, Leather, Paper, [and] Linen.” Caption: There was an old woman who lived in a shoe, / Whose progeny here are presented by Pughe. / She petted and pampered and coddled the brats, / And guarded her brood from the bad Democrats.
Puck‘s turn on the traditional nursery rhyme could have been published a quarter-century earlier — and was, in variant forms — so standard were the realities and criticisms, with allowance for satirical hyperbole, through the years. In 1908 the trusts surely were in retreat, or at least defensive mode, thanks to awakened public attitudes, revelations by muckraking journalists, and the effect of governmental lawsuits, regulations, and legislation.
A man labeled “The Railroad,” with “Land Grants” and “Franchises” in his pockets, reads a ticker tape from a device labeled “Speculation,” while walking next to Uncle Sam who is bent under the weight of several large bundles labeled “Operating Expenses, Taxes, Fines, Corruption Fund, Overcapitalization, Water for Stocks, High Tariff Rails, Cost of Construction, [and] Rate Discrimination.” Caption: The people remembered that they were at least silent partners in the railroad business by reason of the franchises they had granted and the investments they had made in the railroad properties themselves.–Attorney-General Hadley on the railroad as a common carrier.
A notable subtext of this powerful cartoon by Udo J. Keppler makes it a political cartoon without partisan politics. The two major parties had their well-known platforms and policy positions; and by this point, Spring of 1908, the putative candidates were set: William H. Taft for the Republicans and William Jennings Bryan for the Democrats.
A police officer labeled “Graft Tariff” prevents a working class family from having a picnic on the grass while a group of men labeled “Beef Trust, Coal Trust, Steel Trust, Lumber Trust, [and] Clothing Trust,” with two servants, one labeled “A.P.T.L.,” are having a picnic on the lawn labeled “Prosperity.”
This cartoon by Udo J. Keppler was published just as the Wall Street Panic of 1907 was threatening to turn into a crash or depression, yet seemed to ignore the burning issue of the day. Of course the generic “us versus them” cliche might have been pertinent once again, except for the fact and the public perception that big business was as much a potential victim as a real perpetrator of events.
At top left is “The Spirit of ’76,” showing a family about to sit down to tea, as boxes of tea are visible through a window in the back of the room, floating in Boston Harbor. The father, who has just entered, states: “Away with that tea or you’re no daughter of mine! Not a drop in this house until the hateful tax is taken off!” At bottom right is “The Spiritless 1907,” showing a family sitting at the dinner table where the grandfather is about to carve the beef. He states: “Ain’t it a shame the prices they charge for beef. But we’ve got to have it, Trust or no Trust.” At the bottom left, disgruntled patrons exit a “Market,” counting their change.
Cartoons in journals like Puck (and since, in the field) primarily have been partisan, political, or somewhere in the middle and to varying degrees of intensity, “commentary.” The commentary can be humorous, as S. D. Ehrhart’s once were, or more biting and incisive, as his became. This was generally true of his fellow cartoonists at the time, and magazines like Puck‘s rival Life always tended toward the social-commentary mode.
A well-dressed businessman, wearing top hat and coat and a button that states “Don’t Knock, Boost,” sits atop a pile of account ledgers labeled “How to Evade the Law, Juggled Books, Secret Rebate Account, [and] Bribery Stubs,” money bags labeled “Yellow Dog Fund, Private Graft, Other People’s Money, [and] Public Service Graft,” boxes labeled “Stock Gambling Acc., Syndicate Profits, [and] Fees,” and other items labeled “Fees” and “Worthless Collateral.” A notice attached to the pile states “Destroy if Investigated.”
Subtexts, just below the surface, animate this cartoon by Udo J. Keppler. The button, “Don’t Knock — Boost” had gained currency then, and found a counterpart in the Republican Party’s national slogan in 1906 mid-term elections, “Stand Pat — Leave Well Enough Alone.” In truth it was a subtle plea, not to reject Democrat candidates, but to ask Republicans to put the brakes to reform. “Don’t Knock — Boost” became a sort of Rotary Club cheery attitude assumed by characters like salesmen in Ring Lardner stories: optimistic glad-handers. The phrase gained more currency in the ‘teens and especially Warren Harding’s “Normalcy” 1920s.
In the Garden of Eden, God or an angel labeled “The Trusts” points toward an apple tree labeled “The Tariff.” Theodore Roosevelt, as Adam, is crouched behind a fig bush to hide his nakedness, and Eve is standing among palms, her body hidden mostly by long hair labeled “Republican Party.” The figures and faces of various trust magnates and trust-friendly legislators are in bushes and trees throughout the cartoon. Caption: “Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it.” Genesis 2:3
Through the decades, Puck‘s cartoons more than occasionally used Biblical scenes, Shakespearean motifs, and famous operatic moments as the basis of political cartoons. This drawing by Udo J. Keppler is more tortured than most, not due to theology but its political ambiguity. Oddly, Puck and its rival Judge virtually always excoriated the trusts (Puck especially) but occasionally praised them for “administrative efficiency” or “increased employment.” Local and temporary factors — even advertising revenue — might have played roles.
Theodore Roosevelt, wearing a blindfold labeled “The Tariff,” plays blind man’s bluff with a child-like figure labeled “Competition.” Caption: The Administration admits that its efforts to bring about competition among the trusts have been futile.
The age of simplicity surely had arrived in political cartoons. In the heyday of Thomas Nast of Harper’s Weekly (1870s, principally) and Joseph Keppler, the founder of Puck magazine (1876), artists relied — and readers expected — a multitudes of labels, captions, and even lengthy titles and dialog. It was the way to convey ideas.
The battle of Pelusium is depicted, with the Persians identified as having “Vested Interests” belonging to a “Wall Street Syndicate” or a “Railroad Trust,” throwing cats labeled “Small Stock Holder, Small Investor, Widow, Little Stock Holder, [and] Orphan” at the bewildered Egyptians who are outside a building labeled “Administration” and flying a banner labeled “Federal Prosecution.” Caption: At the battle of Pelusium, between Egypt and Persia, the Persians armed themselves with cats, the sacred animals of Egypt. The disconcerted Egyptians dared not shoot their arrows, for fear of hitting holy cats.
Reduced to basic elements and message, this double-page cartoon by L. M. Glackens in Puck basically depicts a public-relations counterattack by trusts and financial interests after frequent drubbing by the Muckraking press and a raft of reform legislation and regulations, all coming to a head in 1906.
Theodore Roosevelt, as a hayseed from “Oyster Bay,” is being greeted by Edward H. Harriman, as J. Pierpont Morgan and James J. Hill look on from around a doorway in the background. Caption: “Well, if this ain’t Uncle Ted Roosevelt! How’s all the folks at dear old Oyster Bay?”
If not for the caption (“They take him for…”) and the winking expression and false beard of the out-of-town hayseed “Uncle Ted” Roosevelt, one might think Udo J. Keppler’s cartoon suggested that President Roosevelt was naive and susceptible in the hands of the nation’s most powerful magnates Edward H. Harriman, James J. Hill, and J. P. Morgan.
A sled labeled “Wall Street,” being pulled by a bull and a bear, races through the snow on a winter night, being chased by a wolf with the face of Theodore Roosevelt. The driver, wearing a hat labeled “The Railroads,” is about to throw a child labeled “Overcapitalization” to the wolf.
J. S. Pughe’s deceptively simple cartoon is actually filled with labels that might be superfluous; the situation in American politics and the economy was rather simple in the first place. Railroads has become over-capitalized.
A sculpture labeled “Pocahontas pleading for the life of John Smith” depicts Theodore Roosevelt labeled “The Great Father” holding a big stick over his head and standing over John Smith labeled “Railroads,” about to strike him, as Pocahontas labeled “Wall Street” tries to stop Roosevelt.
The cover of Puck with L. M. Glackens’s distinctive but unusual cartoon requires familiarity with contemporary events and popular trends in 1907. Readers of the day would not have required more than rudimentary labels that were, actually, largely superfluous for them.
Theodore Roosevelt stands on a hill in the background, as two large bears labeled “Interstate Commerce Commission” and “Federal Courts” break up a crowd of Wall Street capitalists and stock market manipulators, causing them to scatter in all directions. The men include Charles S. Mellen, William K. Vanderbilt, Henry Huttleston Rogers, J. Pierpont Morgan, James J. Hill, George Jay Gould, John D. Rockefeller, James McCrea, William H. Newman, Edward Henry Harriman, and Joseph Benson Foraker.
Cartoonist Udo J. Keppler, and Puck magazine, editorially, stretched theology, or at least the province of Biblical allusions, in this cartoon “Elisha Roosevelt.” The brief passage from II Kings 2:23-24 recounts the story of Israelite prophet Elisha, having succeeded Elijah and seeing him bodily taken into the clouds, is unsure of his ability to be God’s anointed prophet.