TEDDY ROOSEVELT
IN
CARTOONS
"D oomsday for the Trusts"
Flohri
Pu ck Magazine
“The Trusts”
Puck 1904
"A man who is good enough to
shed his blood for his country is
good enough to be given a square
deal afterwards. More than that no
man is entitled, and less than that
no man shall have."
Speech to veterans, Springfield, IL,
July 4, 1903
Republican
Progressive
trustbuster
Panama Canal
conservation
Square Deal
The Bull Moose Party
Big Stick Policy
Scanned from The Verdict (July 3, 1899) by C. Gordon Moffat
ONE SEES HIS FINISH UNLESS GOOD GOVERNMENT RETAKES THE SHIP
From Kettle Hill to Capitol Hill
Roosevelt returned from the Spanish-American war to run for
Governor of New York. (Cartoon by Charles Bush, 1898)
Origin of the Teddy Bear
Roosevelt was an avid outdoorsman and hunter.
He once refused to shoot a small bear on a
Mississippi hunting trip and the incident led to
the origin of the "teddy bear" as a popular
child's toy. His bear friend became a common
sidekick in many subsequent cartoons.
(Cartoon by Clifford Berryman)
Standing up to Big Business
Upon the assassination of President McKinley, Roosevelt entered
office at a time when the giants of business like J. P. Morgan and
John D. Rockefeller seemed to dominate the country. Before long
the situation was radically different. (Note the bear in the cartoon.)
Teddy the Trust Buster
The familiar theme of Teddy taming the lions
(the trusts) in the den of Wall Street.
Through Treacherous
Waters
This cartoon alludes to the perilous
course Roosevelt took in his
challenges to the status quo.
Teddy the Muckraker
One of Roosevelt's toughest fights was getting the Meat Inspection Act
of 1906 through Congress. As depicted here, he used an independent
investigation as leverage. The irony of this cartoon is that TR coined
the term "muckrakers" as a criticism of journalists like Upton Sinclair,
author of The Jungle.
The Panama Canal
(Cartoon by W. A. Rogers)
One of Roosevelt's proudest accomplishments--and most controversial-was acquiring U.S. rights to building and operating a canal in Panama.
This cartoon shows him throwing dirt on the Colombian capital.
Riding the Elephant
Roosevelt often found himself faced with a difficult path leading the
Republican party against opposition to his reforms.
(Cartoon by W. A. Rogers, 1905)
1912
The Bull Moose Party
"Thrice happy is the nation that
has a glorious history. Far better it
is to dare mighty things, to win
glorious triumphs, even though
checkered by failure, than to take
rank with those poor spirits who
neither enjoy much nor suffer
much, because they live in the
gray twilight that knows neither
victory nor defeat."
Teddy Roosevelt
"The Strenuous Life"
TEDDY ROOSEVELT
THE END