A. Not all political cartoons can be found in color, so this political cartoon, found in Puck magazine on September 7, 1904 and done by Udo Keppler, is one that caught my eye immediately while researching robber barons and captains of industry of the late 1800s/early 1900s. This political cartoon depicts John D. Rockefeller’s Standard Oil Company as a suffocating octopus. One of the arms of the octopus are seemingly grabbing at the U.S. Capitol Building, symbolizing the stranglehold Rockefeller had on Congress during this time period. Another of the tentacles of the octopus is extending towards the White House, another depiction of the political sway that Rockefeller and Standard Oil had, this time with the executive branch of the government. A third tentacle seems to be hindering the competition from entering the industry (foreground) altogether.
B. After viewing this image, I began to look up exactly what Standard Oil did to prohibit competitors from either entering or being a part of the industry. Through my research, it turns out that Rockefeller and Standard Oil, along with affiliates within the industry signed the Standard Oil Trust Agreement, which made it so that companies could be “purchased, created, dissolved, merged, or divided.” (Britannica – https://www.britannica.com/topic/Standard-Oil-Company-and-Trust) This made it easier to retain the 95% market share that Standard Oil had grown to possess during the late 1800s and early 1900s.
C. This political cartoon does not directly answer any of my guiding questions, but through analysis and discussion, it can help to do so. The pictorial representation of Standard Oil as an octopus and discussing what the tentacles of the octopus are doing would allow for students to make inferences as to whether or not John D. Rockefeller was a captain of industry or robber baron, and help explain what exactly a captain of industry or robber baron would look like.
Jeff Allen MAT 2016 