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A Cartoon History
of
Roosevelt's Career
Illustrated by Six Hundred and Thirty Contemporary Cartoons and Many Other Pictures
By Albert Shaw
New York:
The Review of Reviews Company1910
PREFACE
    IT has long been my custom to make note of political cartoons and caricatures in the press of various countries.It requires, perhaps, some understanding of political questions and personages, and some acquaintance with the types and symbols used in caricature, to appreciate altogether the meaning and value of that kind of work.    But when one has acquired a certain amount of knowledge  and familiarity in this field, he is sure to find the  current  cartoons very enlightening as well as amusing.    The cartoonists, indeed, reflect more faithfully the changing phases of the public mind than do the writers of editorial articles.

The political writer must exercise a certain dignity and restraint. But the cartoonist is a privileged character, who may tell the plain, homely truth as people see it and feel it, very much as the court jester in olden times was expected to take liberties with those in high places and—under the guise of quip and fling and witticism—tell the king a bit of direct and wholesome truth. Thus I have not hesitated to make constant use, in reproduced form, of American and foreign cartoons from month to month in the Review of Reviews, not merely because they are diverting, but chiefly because they frequently express so much of fact and sentiment and point of view, in such telling and convincing ways.

For a long time there were mechanical difficulties in the way of the large use of illustration in daily newspapers. Pictorial matter of all kinds was chiefly confined to the weekly and monthly illustrated publications. The large and influential use of cartoons was, therefore, confined to a set of weekly periodicals, not very numerous, that made a specialty of political subjects. Of all these, it is needless to say the most famous has been Punch, of London. In this country Harper's and Leslie's weeklies, followed by Puck and Judge, have been the most famous and influential of the weekly papers making use of cartoons in such a manner as to express and influence political opinion throughout the country.

In all the European countries, political cartoons have for many years been used with great effect. In Germany the publishers of papers using cartoons have at times been subjected to a rather severe censorship; but in the main throughout Europe there is permitted an extreme freedom of expression to cartoonists that would not be tolerated in political writers. And there is a fierceness of satire, and a malignancy of attack, in many of these European cartoons that would not accord with the kindlier and more humorous tone of American cartoon work.

The very rapid growth, during recent years, of the use of cartoons in the daily newspapers of the United, States has been due to the improvement of photo-engraving methods which permit the very rapid making of a zinc-etched block in reproduction of a pen drawing. Thus the cartoon as drawn this afternoon in illustration of the latest political incident, may be as readily printed in to-morrow morning's paper as the letter-press itself that reports the news. There are few people who realize the extent to which inventions of this kind are changing the methods and character of the press.

It is hardly less remarkable, however, that the use of photo-engraving in newspaper offices should have been followed so quickly by the development of a great number of clever American cartoonists. It had seemed at one time that John Ten-niel, afterwards knighted in recognition of the importance of his cartoon work in Punch, could have no successor worthy of the name. But Punch keeps its hold, and England has several very clever political cartoonists at this moment. And it had seemed at one time that the political cartoon could have no future in America, after Nast and his two or three contemporaries. But then came the school of Keppler and Gillam, whose marvelous work, printed in colors by lithography, made Puck a power in the land, interpreting—perhaps better than any other newspaper or periodical—the aims and achievements of President Cleveland. It was cartoonists of this same school and method who, with similar ability, represented the Republican point of view in the weekly paper called Judge.

Then came the rise to influence and power of the cartoonists of the daily press, the foremost of these being the late Charles G. Bush, for several years on the New York Herald and then for many years on the New York World. One is tempted to run over the list of remarkable men who within the past fifteen or twenty years have been drawing cartoons for the American newspapers and periodicals. But this volume—which is chiefly theirs rather than mine—shows well enough my estimate of their wit, their humor, their kindliness, and, above all, their remarkable instinct for politics.

Their drawing has had to be done under great pressure; and some of the most influential and effective of them all are quite defective when judged from the standpoint of draughtsman ship. But where their drawing is often greatly at fault when compared, for example, with such a piece of work as that of Bernard Partridge of Punch on page 75 of this volume, their cartoons have been redeemed by the skill with which they expressed their ideas. The artists of Punch, drawing perhaps only one finished cartoon a week, have a much better opportunity to do good technical work than the newspaper cartoonists who often draw an effective cartoon each day for weeks together.

Of all the political personages who have become familiar in cartoons, no one in recent years has figured as frequently as Mr. Roosevelt. And we have no other public man whose career has been illustrated in contemporary cartoons so continuously, or for such a long time. Mr. Nast's cartoons were drawn on the blocks which were laboriously tooled by the wood-engravers. He did not waste much effort 011 minor personages. And Mr. Nast's tributes to Roosevelt give fine testimony to the impression the young reformer in the New York Legislature was making upon public opinion in State and nation.

As our readers will discover, we have been able to find striking cartoons that bear witness, in each successive phase of Roosevelt's career, to the recognition accorded him at the moment as a man of energy and leadership who was taking hold of essential problems rather than giving his energy to lesser things. I believe, therefore, that these cartoons, brought together in such a way as to bear upon successive episodes or periods in Mr. Roosevelt's public life, will be found useful as a contribution to the political history of our own time.

Very much of the material assembled here is of a nature so ephemeral that its assembling has not been a very easy task. For example, although the Verdict ran its brief but brilliant career of two or three years as recently as 1899-1900, my own office file had disappeared, and it was not easy to obtain access to the copies in which Roosevelt as Governor and Vice-Presidential nominee was so strikingly presented, until Mr. Alfred Henry Lewis, who had been its editor, generously lent his own personal file. Thus thanks are also due to the Columbia College Library, the Astor Library, and to the editors and proprietors of Puck, of Judge, of Harper's Weekly, of Leslie's, of Collier's, and of several other periodicals. I am much indebted also to several members of my own office staff for toilsome search in the files of newspapers.

Recognition is due in this place to Mr. William Menkel, of the editorial office of the Review of Reviews, more than to any one else, for co-operation without which the assembling and arrangement of so much pictorial matter would have been very laborious and difficult. There is such a thing as making one cartoon add to the effectiveness of another by the manner of their grouping on the same page. This is also true of the contrasts or the cumulative impressions produced in arrangement of facing pages. To Mr. Menkel I am much indebted for help in all this,— which, if it may seem easy in the result, was more difficult than anything else in the actual doing.

I have tried to make the simple text of this volume a clear and honest interpretation of what Mr. Roosevelt has tried to do as a public man, and the spirit he has shown throughout his career. I have had some advantages of intimate knowledge of most of the period I present in these cursory pages; and this has included acquaintance not only with the hero of the play but with most of the other people who have been prominently associated with him upon our political stage. I hope, therefore, that the collection of cartoons and other pictures, with the thread of text that binds them together, may find some modest place with the materials that a historian like Air. James Ford Rhodes, for example, would some day like to vise-as helping him to throw into true historical perspective the political period in which Mr. Roosevelt has been so notable and dominant a figure.
ALBERT   SHAW. NEW YORK, August 22, 1910.

CONTENTS
Chapter	Page
I.—His First Political Experiences	I
II,—The Crisis of 1884	7
III.—The Mayoralty Fight of 1886	14
IV.—A Brief Period of Private Life	17
V.—Battling with the Spoils System -	23
VI.—Reforming New York's Police Work	31
VII.—Preparing the Navy for War	35
VIII.—The Rough Rider of 1898	39
IX.—As Candidate for Governor	43
X.—In the Gubernatorial Chair	48
XI.—Named for the Vice-Presidency	-      55
XII.—His First National Stumping Tour	64
XIII.—A Half-Year as Vice-President	70
XIV.—Assuming the Presidency -	74
XV.—Asserting the Monroe Doctrine	83
XVI.—Panama,—A New Sister Republic	91
XVII.—The Unanimous Endorsement of His Party	95
XVIII.—The Roosevelt-Parker Campaign	103
XIX.—As Peace-Maker and World-Figure                -.	115
XX.—The "Big Stick" at Home and Abroad	131
XXI.—Some Activities of a Versatile President	146
XXII.—Refusing a Third Term	162
XXIII.—Helping to Choose His Successor	169
XXIV.—Last Phases of the Administration	179
XXV.—Stepping Out of the White House	189
XXVI.—The Faunal Naturalist in Africa	194
XXVII.—Strenuously Visiting Old Europe	203
XXVIII.—His Home-Coming and Welcome	225
XXIX.—An Ex-President in His Active Retirement	-    239
A Cartoon   History of Roosevelt's Career
CHAPTER I
His First Political Experiences
IT so happened that Theodore Roosevelt became a national figure at the very beginning of his public career. His name was printed in newspapers from one ocean to the other, his portrait duly appeared in the illustrated press, and he was conspicuous enough to be caricatured by political cartoonists in the days when it was not customary for the wood engravers to carve the lineaments of any except those who, for good or for ill, were among the eminent personages of the hour. 

There might be some difference of opinion about the quality of Mr. Roosevelt's mental endowments; but there could never be any difference about his courage, his single-heartedness, his concentration upon the thing in hand, and the clear, strong, stubborn will power to do his best under any given circumstances, and to see in any piece of work, whether public or private, quite sufficient opportunity to justify his best endeavor.

Doubtless some conditions, not of his own choosing or making, have aided Mr. Roosevelt in the successive onward steps of his public career. But when one studies the case thoroughly, one must admit that Mr. Roosevelt has made his own way by his own efforts, just as truly as did Mr. Lincoln, or any other man of distinction in our history. The city boy, brought up in affluent circumstances, who scorns ease, deliberately chooses a life of work and of usefulness, and never for a moment doubts the value of his ideals, deserves just as much credit as the country boy who pores over his few treasured books by the dim evening light in his log cabin.

Thus far in our history it has not made very much difference. Most American boys have had a fairly good chance to improve their own positions, and to be of use to their fellow men, if only they were endowed with will, energy, some gift of moral power, and some little kindling touch of imagination.

As a boy, Theodore Roosevelt was rather sickly than strong, and he gave few signs pointing to a very exceptional future. But he was plucky and persevering. He became strong by degrees through physical exercise, and through a gradual acquirement of the art of living in such a way as to be hardy and well. He graduated at Harvard in 1880, and was twenty-two years old October 27 of that year, having been born in 1858.

His father, also named Theodore Roosevelt, was a man of business and affairs in New York City. He was prominent in all that made for the best interests of New York, noted for philanthropic works, sound in his principles, wise and devoted as a father. He died a

A Cartoon History of Roosevelt's Career

year or two before his son and namesake finished the  Harvard course.    The family ha lived in and about New York  City for  more than two hundred and fifty years.

During the college period, Theodore Roosevelt was a diligent student, devoting bin self especially to out-door science, American history, and literary studies. He was actr in almost every form of exercise and sport, and took creditable rank in everything, althou^ he was never a champion athlete. He learned to ride well, and played polo. He learm to shoot, and made the most of his vacations. He was fond of animal life and natui and cultivated that habit of close observation which has made him a naturalist and h; added so much to his happiness in life. He took to the water, with Long Island Soui offering ready access; and his appetite for the study of American naval history w whetted by some practical knowledge of boats and seamanship.

Thus, soon after leaving college, he wrote and published his first book, on the " Na\ War of 1812 "; and the greatness of the American navy to-day is largely due to such « periences and studies as produced that excellent volume. After leaving college, A Roosevelt spent about a year in further study and foreign travel. It was characteristic him that in that year he did some difficult mountain climbing and qualified himself : membership in the famous Alpine Club of London, his sponsors being Mr. Bryce and L Buxton, whose careers have been so distinguished and useful, and who have been I Roosevelt's life-long friends. ,

His year of travel and study ended, Mr. Roosevelt settled down in his native ci determined to be a good citizen and to do with his might whatsoever his hand found

do. In his private capacity, he was re ing law, with a view to taking up a p fession that he has never yet found opportunity to practise. He was a studying American history and beginn to write his books.
•

On the public side of his Hie, he ' trying to  find out how  we  were re governed in the city and  State of 1» York.    He  proposed  to  take  a citiz part in the governing business, and he out to acquaint himself with the pracl as well as the theoretical mechanisn politics and government.   He soon dis< ered that he must join a political org zation, attend the primaries, and do part at the local political headquarter He studied his own voting precinct municipal ward, and his assembly dist He found himself a Republican by inh ance and tradition, and by his own si of the course of the country's political tory.    He attached himself, therefon the  Republican organization  of his trict, and insisted upon taking his { as an active worker.
THEODORE ROOSEVELT	He  wag   not  taken  seriously  at  firs
(As a student at Harvard)	the workers and heelers in the old

His First Political Experiences

"EXCELSIOK!"  (the motto of New York State.)
(A later cartoon emblematic of Mr. Roosevelt's career.)
From the Inquirer   (Philadelphia)
Hess district; but it was not many weeks before his positive and serious qualities were apparent to everybody. There was dissatisfaction with the district's leadership, and with its member of the legislature. Young Roosevelt was ready for the fight, secured the nomination, and was elected a member of the law-making body of the State.

This was in the fall of 1881; and he served in the legislature during the sessions of 1882, 1883, and 1884.

There were in the United States several thousand members of State legislatures at that time, many of whom must have had ability, and not a few of whom were laying foundations for future eminence. But among all those thousands, young Roosevelt at that time took positions which gave him an immediate recognition throughout the country. He had a way of finding what were the great issues and driving straight at them, with no thought of waiting for more experience, or of deferring to older men. It was not vanity or egotism that impelled him, but earnestness and his great, life-long talent for decision and action.

He was, of course, fortunate in the stage that was set for the part he had to play. New York State was the foremost of our commonwealths, and New York City was our chief metropolis. Reforms in the administration of his State and city were sure to be noted throughout the land.

He saw dawning upon the horizon of practical politics two essential reforms. One was the movement to substitute for the old spoils system in nation, State and city, a business-like civil service, based upon merit and efficiency regardless of party. The other was the improvement of the methods and character of our municipal government, in view of the rapid growth of town life. He studied the civil-service question, and identified himself with the national and State civil-service reform associations.

A Cartoon History of Roosevelt's Career

THEODORE  ROOSEVELT
(From a photograph taken  while a  member  ot the New York Legislature.)
The Hon. Carl Schurz, serving as Secretary of the Interior from 1877 to 1881, was promoting the movement at Washington ; George William Curtis was at its head in New York; leading Massachusetts men were identified with it, and Theodore Roosevelt at once took his place with these men. He wrote the civil-service law for the State of New York, and secured its passage. This was a great achievement, because the spoils system was firmly intrenched.

He secured a legislative investigation of New York City government, and headed the committee of inquiry. He secured the passage of a law increasing the authority of the mayor, and in various other ways improved the city charter, while reforming abuses in many offices.

Grover Cleveland, who had been a reform mayor of the city of Buffalo, was elected governor in 1882, and although he was

a Democrat, while Roosevelt was a Republican, there was co-operation between the two men in the work of purifying politics and administration in the State and its cities and counties. The position that young Roosevelt then occupied in the public eye is admirably shown in a cartoon drawn by Nast in the spring of 1884, in which Governor Cleveland and Theodore Roosevelt are represented as working out reforms for New York that would prevent such disorder and bloodshed as had at that time occurred in the city of Cincinnati. It is a felicitous thing that this first important cartoon in which the face of Roosevelt appears should associate him with Mr. Cleveland. Each man was destined to become President of the United States. They were friends to the day of Mr. Cleveland's death.

THE  SEAL OF THE  STATE OF NEW YORK From the World  (New York, 1906)

So vigorous was Mr. Roosevelt's work in the legislatures of 1882 and 1883, that he was prominently mentioned for the Speakership of the Assembly that convened in January, 1884. His work in that session was so noteworthy that it made him famous throughout the country, and he would have remained a prominent and respected leader in public affairs even if he had never held another office.

His First Political Experiences

'•

REFORM WITHOUT BLOODSHED
(Governor Cleveland and Theodore Roosevelt at their good   work.) From Harper's Weekly, April  19,  1884

A Cartoon History of Roosevelt's Career

OUR NEW WATCHMAN—ROOSEVELT
(Our political  boss  and  henchman  must  go.)
Prom  Harper's  Weekly,  May  10,   1884
Young men of like views and aspirations in other States all the way to the Pacific took note of this courageous young leader in New York, and felt that they might some day bring him forward as their candidate for the Presidency. His Dakota ranch and his studies of Western history and pioneer life were already becoming a factor in his larger reputation. What proved to be the turning point in his political career lay just ahead of him, although it could not be clearly foreseen.