Source analysis of satire in late 19th c Britain PDF

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Bernhard Gillam played to the political and socio-economic matters of the Second Industrial Revolution while alluding to the notion that socialism was in the air. This essay Examines the context into which this source lies to decode the source analytically. ...

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Bernhard Gillam, ‘The Protectors of Our Industries’, [New York; Puck, 7 February 1883], p. 368, in Library of Congress Online.

In 1883, an editorial cartoon called ‘Protectors of our Industries’ was published in Puck, the first successful humour magazine in America.1 This source was created by Bernhard Gillam who worked for this weekly journal which dominated the field of caricature up until 1885.2 Gillam’s satirical work often depicted the disproportionate share of the wealth in the economy and as an American political cartoonist living in New York from 1866, he would have been astute to the issues between the capital and labour relations, whereby plutocrat businessmen such as Jay Gould were heavily associated. The artist played to the political and socio-economic matters of the Second Industrial Revolution while alluding to the notion that socialism was in the air. The Anti-Monopoly League resurfaced in the 1880s, indicating peoples’ reaction to the abrupt pace of change in society. 3 Gillam was also aware that monopolies were still in existence and arguably more powerful, hence this cartoon mirrors the more common view that embezzled capitalists were untrustworthy.4 I will therefore

1 Bernhard Gillam, ‘The Protectors of Our Industries’, [New York; Puck, 7 February 1883], p. 368, in Library of Congress Online. 2 Roger Penn Cuff, ‘The American Editorial Cartoon- A Critical Historical Sketch’, The journal of educational sociology 19 (1945), 89. 3 Josiah Strong, Our Country: Its Possible Future and Its Present Crisis (N.Y.,1885), 88. 1

endeavour to examine the context into which this source lies to decode the source analytically. The magazine was successful because editorial accounts turned into literary allusions appealed to the masses through the use of the new technology of lithography and later chromolithography.5 Gillam lithographed the publishing landscape with cartoons such as this to factorise in Puck’s persistent republican cause against corrupt heads of industry.6 Accordingly, ‘hard times’ seen in the turbulent sea represents the mood of society as the antitrust sentiment was beginning .7 The word ‘trust’ was frequently used to demonstrate the vast growing manufacturing corporations which held significant market power, thus it was echoed in the form of exaggeration within prominent social cartoons such as this to support the battle against the growing power of trusts.8 Despite the recovery of economy since 1870s depression years, the years following 1882 saw a sporadic rise in manufacturing which caused intense competition amongst businesses and the ‘bolstering prices by means of trusts and pools’ often occurred.9 Not only this, but ‘hard times’ links to the economic matters the working classes faced, as having just come out of depression, the competition of industrial work grew with the burst of immigration between 1880 and 1885.10 Maidment argued that a fundamental objective of the individual editor was to represent or speak for social groups as magazines like Puck sought to reinforce collective identity, stimulating dialogue between classes.11 In September of the same year of this publication, a parade took place in New York City where The Central Labour Union amassed ten to fifteen thousand labourers.12 Some of their banners used in protest stated ‘Down with the Oppressive Capital’ and ‘We Must Crush Monopolies Lest They Crush US’.13 Gillam draws attention to this issue in the caricature where the working classes are clearly being carried by the heavy raft upon which the greedy, fat monopolists sit.14 Therefore, Fine-tuning his work for societal factions was arguably an unambiguous motive for Gillam in order to keep his job and also as 4 Richard R. John. ‘Robber Barons Redux: Antimonopoly Reconsidered.’ Enterprise & Society 13 (2012), 5. 5 Dennis Everette & Allen Christopher, ‘Puck, the Comic Weekly’, Journalism History 6 (1979), 4. 6 Samuel J. Thomas, ‘Teaching America's GAPE (Or Any Other Period) with Political Cartoons: A Systematic’, The History Teacher 37 (2004), 426. 7 Gillam, ‘The Protectors of Our Industries’, p. 368. 8 Roger Penn Cuff, ‘The Ameerican Editorial Cartoon- A Critical Historical Stketch’, The journal of educational sociology 19 (1945), 92. 9 David Montgomery, ‘Working People’s Responses to Past Depressions’ in Leon Fink, Joseph A. McCartin, Joan Sangster (eds.), Workers in Hard Times: A Long View of Economic Crises, (Illinois, IL, 2014), p. 47. 10 Montgomery, ‘Working People’s Responses to Past Depressions’, p. 47. 11 Brian E. Maidment, ‘Magazines of Popular Progress & the Artisans’, Victorian Periodicals Review, 17 (1984), 83. 12 Arthur P. Dudden, ‘Men Against Monopoly: The Prelude to Trust-Busting’, Journal of the History of Ideas, 18 (1957), 588-590. 13 Dudden, ‘Men Against Monopoly’, 590. 14 Gillam, ‘The Protectors of Our Industries’, p. 368. 2

the country’s ‘most rapid cartoonist’, he had to inform the population as and when issues arose in politics and society.15 Thereby, the important and demanding aspect of his occupation meant any pursuit of his personal political thoughts bared less weight on this chromolithography due to the limited time and augmented tension in the air. Josiah Strong further argued that the ways these men operated and manipulated their power created ‘one of the darkest clouds on our industrial and social horizon’.16 Jay Gould, who was commonly perceived as an unscrupulous ‘robber baron’, used his power over the Western Union from 1881.17 Through his connections with congressmen, the press and the telegraph industry for the manipulation of the selling price of Western Union shares, he controlled most inland US telegraphs.18 Gould is attacked in this periodical because of how he presided over such an enormous corporation. Not only this, but in 1883 Gould addressed the state of labour and capital before a congressional committee and his testimony included defending his means of operating the telegraph system during the recent telegraph operators’ strike.19 Since the congress disapproved of his influence of power, Gould responded that government could buy his corporation for $80 million, essentially valuing his company in terms of how it was going to affect the future.20 Leaving the government speechless, Gillam satirizes Gould overpricing his company. Therefore, the language ‘protectors’ becomes freighted which points to the frictions between commerce and government which was an increasingly big issue and this source was one of many to contribute to the question of whether American industry ought to be nationalized. The cause for nationalization of especially the telegraph was in every paper at this time and generated debate of whether the government ought to buy Gould’s company off him.

The raft offers further shared views of various wage workers as it is made of many materials and textiles such as lumber, paper and oil, all made in the interest of capitalists thus keeping these captains of industry afloat.21 Gillam fortifies the workers’ troubles that these businessmen were benefitting from the wage workers. Many of these men felt the capitalist were often open to ‘sacrifice them and their families to his selfish gains’.22 Alexander Keyssar, contended that salary earners formed most of the population by this time yet joblessness was commonplace.23 Furthermore, textile manufacturers suffered severely, due to ‘cyclical downturns’.24 Perhaps this is why Gillam places ‘cloth’ and ‘linen’ in the forefront 15 Wright, The art of caricature, (New York, 1904), p. 19 16 Strong, Our Country, p. 104. 17 Richard R. John, Network Nation, (Massachusetts MA, 2010), p. 156 18 R. John, Network Nation, p.167. 19 John, Network Nation, p. 193. 20 Ibid, p. 193. 21 Strong, Our Country, p. 105. 22 Strong, p. 104. 23 Alexander Keyssar, Out of Work: The First Century of Unemployment in Massachusetts, (New York, N.Y.,1986), p.16. 24 Keyssar, Out of Work, p.118 3

of the print, indicating the issues of wage workers in those industries.25 One of the Robber Barons on top of this raft William H. Vanderbilt, a railroad leader, was heavily targeted by Puck cartoonists and he was commonly portrayed as ‘an overstuffed rich man and disrespectful of the idea that business leaders ought to protect industries and the public’.26 This harks back to the title of the source and the idea that Gillam has sympathy for the plight of the workers, earning only $6 to $11 a week. Furthermore, the use of exaggeration among cartoonist’s images to draw on popular perceptions was important to maintain circulation such as the conniving and avaricious Jew.27 The Jew stereotype comes through in this caricature as the industrial businessmen have accentuated Semitic features such as long unkempt beards and protruding noses whilst sitting on sacks of ‘millions’.28 This not only reinforces egotism and distrust in capitalism but also Vanderbilt’s demoralising attitudes on the values of a businessman. This displays contradictions that although he was not willing to protect his industries through supporting the industrialists, the workers he mistreated were, as shown by them holding back the ‘hard times’.29 The fact the idea of socialist imagery is present within this source leads to the argument that Gillam’s agenda not to portray these businessmen as moral people was significant. All the figures on top of the money bags are portrayed the same and their past actions and philanthropy are thereby not taken into account. Within a week of Vanderbilt’s death in 1885, the magazine Scientific American, reminded that ‘it is his generosity that we owe the transfer of the Obelisk to Central Park’, and that ‘he found his greatest pleasures within his family’.30 Cyrus Field who died in 1892, will arguable be enshrined in memory for the single-minded pursuit of his greatest achievement of laying the Atlantic cable which allowed unprecedented trade and commerce on either side of the Atlantic .31 Additionally, in the depression of the seventies, Gould’s personal credit and procedures of reshuffling his loans between various banks meant his major railroad construction program was the only viable one at the time, meaning he kept thousands in jobs amid the depression.32

25 Gillam, ‘The Protectors of Our Industries’, p. 368. 26 John. ‘Robber Barons Redux: Antimonopoly Reconsidered’, 11. 27 Samuel J. Thomas, ‘Teaching America's GAPE (Or Any Other Period) with Political Cartoons: A Systematic’, The History Teacher 37 (2004), 434. 28 Gillam, ‘The Protectors of Our Industries’, p. 368. 29 Ibid. 30 ‘The Death of William H. Vanderbilt, Scientific American, vol. 53, No. 25 (December 19 , 1885), p.389. 31 Josephine C. Dobkin, ‘The Laying of the Atlantic Cable: Paintings, Watercolours, and Commemorative Objects Given to the Metropolitan Museum by Cyrus W. Field’, Metropolitan Museum Journal 41 (2006), 166. 32 Julius Grodinsky, Jay Gould: His Business Career, 1867-1892, (Philadelphia, PA, 1957), p. 346. 4

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