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This cartoon satirizes the Panama Canal dispute. “The National Motto Gallery” shows a man holding a sign “We’ll Dig the Ditch or Bust”, Uncle Sam saying “One of the best in the bunch,” and a teddy bear, with tools, saying “You bet!”
Theodore Roosevelt Birthplace National Historic Site
1907-03-30
Engraving of a cartoon labeled “Roosevelt’s Favorite Cartoon.” The cartoon shows Uncle Sam, sitting in a rocking chair with his feet up in front of a fire. He is reading a newspaper labeled “President’s Message.” Hanging on the wall beside him is a portrait of President Roosevelt.
Theodore Roosevelt Inaugural National Historic Site
1905
Theodore Roosevelt, with a big stick attached to his belt, attempts to rouse Uncle Sam to the cause of conservation of natural resources.
Theodore Roosevelt Birthplace National Historic Site
1905-1915
Theodore Roosevelt stands between Uncle Sam and “Special Privilege,” who are arguing over a map of the United States. Signature: “K.- after E. Nicol.”
Theodore Roosevelt Birthplace National Historic Site
1908
Uncle Sam works at the “Free Pie Kitchen” offering daily distribution of free pies labeled “Long Term Franchise, Graft Tariff, Land Grant, [and] Special Privilege” to crooked businessmen labeled “Public Service Corporation, ‘Infant Industry’, Trust, Public Land Thief, [and] Predatory Wealth” standing in a long line or already enjoying their “Free” pies. Caption: The pie line.
The handsome cartoon by L. M. Glackens in Puck, depicting corporations, trusts, and the “predatory wealthy” receiving public funds under false pretenses probably was as ad hominem as the magazine ever got in its crusades. There are no specific politicians or moguls portrayed; Uncle Sam is the only recognizable figure. Additionally, no specific trusts are named or identified.
Uncle Sam tries to get the attention of Joseph Gurney Cannon who is talking with Sereno E. Payne in the House chamber, as a large hand labeled “The Big Interests” wearing “Stand Pat” cufflinks, appears from above with its thumb extended as though to squash Cannon. Caption: He can’t get the speaker’s eye.
Udo J. Keppler’s cartoon is a brutal indictment of Speaker of the House Joseph Gurney Cannon. The chamber is mostly empty but for a few members lounging or in lassitude; and the Speaker merely chatting at the chair, not conducting the people’s business.
Uncle Sam holds a large magnifying glass labeled “National Vanity” which he is using to examine a battleship flying an American flag labeled “U.S. Navy.” He is also holding papers labeled “Monroe Doctrine.” Caption: Why not look at it with the naked eye?
The sailing of the “Great White Fleet” might have prompted the cartoon of Udo J. Keppler at this time, which was the approximate arrival of the fleet in San Francisco. The fleet of 16 battleships, divided into two squadrons, and variously escorted by other vessels in its circumnavigational cruise to many ports, was at sea for 14 months.
Uncle Sam holds a map of “The United States” and Theodore Roosevelt stands next to him with a quill pen in his mouth, discussing the ownership of the country with a smug-looking man labeled “Special Privilege.” On a nearby table are papers labeled “Public Land Fraud, Yellow Dog Legislation, Graft Tariff, [and] Monopoly.” Caption: Who owns it?
Evidently based on a noted history-themed painting of the day (especially as was the custom to grant credit to the original painter), “The Disputed Title” in cartoonist Udo J. Keppler’s hand is a straightforward presentation of the perceived challenge posed to the United States by Big Business — more specifically, “Special Privilege.”
A group of men identified as “Land Grafter, Politician, Special Privilege, Timber Grafter, Mineral Grafter, Public Utilities, Corporation Lawyer, [and] Tariff Grafter” sit around a table getting Uncle Sam drunk on “Stand Pat Dope” mixed with a drink from a large punch bowl labeled “Our Natural Resources.” They are smoking “Vanity Perfectos” and two men, “Land Grafter” and “Timber Grafter,” are working together to pick Uncle Sam’s watch from his pocket. In the lower left corner, Joseph Gurney Cannon and Nelson W. Aldrich are pouring the “Stand Pat Dope” into his drink. Caption: “For he’s a jolly good fellow!”
Almost week after week, in the pages of his magazine Puck, Udo J. Keppler proved himself as one of the great political cartoonists of his time. As Puck was aging and gradually losing circulation, his influence waned, yet that neither diminished the brilliance or force of his cartoons, nor the value of his work to future researchers.
The value of political cartoon is often weighed by what it “says” but does not picture — the difficult construction of subtexts and implied statements — as much as what is obvious, and made more obvious with labels, captions, and tags.
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.
Fagin from the Charles Dickens novel Oliver Twist, labeled “Corporation Lawyer,” watches as his protégé, Oliver Twist, labeled “Public Service Corporation,” picks the pocket of Uncle Sam on a city sidewalk. Caption: Instructor in the art of stealing and getting away with it.
Public Service Commissions sprang up through the United States in 1907, the result of enabling and supportive measures included in reform legislation passed by Congress in 1906; and successful programs in states like Wisconsin.
Uncle Sam stands on a platform with a Philippine man next to a sign that states “For Sale The Philippines. Inhabitants benevolently assimilated. – Sound and kind. – Child can govern them.” Uncle Sam is appealing to a group of European and Asian rulers, who show little interest, talking with each other in front of the platform.
By 1907 the attitudes of America were subtly changing toward the possession acquired in the Spanish-American war. One person with a changing attitude was President Roosevelt. He had quietly but effectively diffused America’s bloody and shameful suppression of insurrectionists seeking freedom after liberation from Spain. Roosevelt, as president, declared amnesty even for the most dangerous rebels, and opened the jails. American troops quietly receded to virtual police duties as various Filipinos wrestled for governmental structures and leadership.
An American bald eagle carries a scarecrow that looks like Uncle Sam, with battleships for hat, hands, and feet, across the Pacific Ocean toward “Japan,” where crows wearing military uniforms stand on the shore. The sun is rising in the background.
Displaying more than a little cynicism, Puck magazine and its cartoonist J. S. Pughe portrayed the upcoming departure of the Great White Fleet from San Francisco in December 1908, a few months hence. A few months earlier, President Roosevelt’s secretary William Loeb confirmed rumors and announced the purpose of the circumnavigational cruise on August 23.
President Roosevelt, as little Lord Fauntleroy, helps elderly Uncle Sam, bloated by “Overcapitalization” and a bandaged right foot labeled “Wall Street,” walk with a cane. Caption: “Lean on me, Grandpa.”
Udo J. Keppler, in Puck, relies on an extremely popular book (and stage play) of the day for a metaphorical context. His front-page cartoon refers to a famous scene in the 1886 children’s novel Little Lord Fauntleroy in which the privileged young scion nobly offers his shoulder to his infirm grandfather.
Uncle Sam walks down a street in an unsavory neighborhood, with signs for such establishments as “Railroad Pool Parlor $1000.00 an Hour,” “Flim-Flam Bar,” “Impure Food Café ‘Coaltar & Glucose prop. Regular Adulterated Dinner 25 cents’,” “Harriman’s Place ‘All 5¢ Drinks 10 cents’,” “Rockefeller’s Rest ‘Free Hot Guff All Day’,” and even a sign for “Chop Suey.” Caption: His New Year resolution.
Surely one of Frank A. Nankivell’s best-drawn cartoons for Puck, this arresting cover drawing, with eye-catching perspective and a personality-intense Uncle Sam, is as much about the previous several years in America as it is about a “New Year Resolution.”
Uncle Sam and William Jennings Bryan, wearing caps and gowns, attend the graduation ceremonies at the “Electoral College.” Bryan is holding a book titled “Reveries of a Candidate.” Caption: Chairman Sam of the Board of Trustees — Why, hello, Bryan! I thought you graduated back in ’96. / Bryan — No; I was conditioned that year in Free Silver. / “Well, you went out in 1900, surely.” / “Nope; that year I was conditioned in Imperialism.” / “Gee whiz! Well, what are you doing here now?” / “I’m taking a special course in Government Ownership and the Initiative and Referendum.”
The criticism of William Jennings Bryan or one of many “knocks” inside and outside the Democratic Party, as he prepared for a third presidential run, was that his ideas were old. They seemed revolutionary and, to some voters, dangerous in 1896, his first run. Indeed he incorporated planks of the Populist platform as a Democrat, and some of his proposals were as old as the Grange and other radical agrarian movements.
A figure composed of corn and corn stalks labeled “Record Breaking Crops” walks through a dark wood at night with a diminutive Uncle Sam, who is frightened by scary-looking trees labeled “Johnson, Taft, Sherman, Roosevelt, Wilson, [and] Debs.” Caption: “Don’t be frightened, Sammy. They can’t hurt you while I am with you.”
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs
1912-10-16
Uncle Sam, as a rooster crowing, stands next to Dame Democracy as the hen that laid the egg which has just hatched, producing a chick labeled “Wilson.” Caption: After twenty years of unproductive eggs.
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs
1912-11-06
Uncle Sam wakes up in bed, hung over, with everything in his room caught up in a whirlwind of bottles of alcohol labeled “Stand Pat Booze, Bull Moose Bitters, [and] That’s All Wilson,” a pitcher of “Debs Dope,” a ballot box, playing cards, chips, cigars, and furniture. Within the whirlwind is another whirlwind with the Democratic Donkey, Republican Elephant, and a Bull Moose buzzing around his head.
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs
1912-11-06
Uncle Sam offers a bunch of celery as a bouquet to a turkey, wearing a woman’s dance costume, dancing on a stage.
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs
1912-11-20