Digital Library

Title:

"Captains courageous"

Collection:

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Description:

President Roosevelt fires a cannon to send a lifeline to a ship in distress on rough seas with dark clouds labeled "Prejudice" forming overhead. The rope spells out the word "Tolerance." A rainbow shines on the left with the word "Liberty." In the lower right corner is a quotation from "The President's Reference to Immigrants."

comments and context

Comments and Context:

President Roosevelt's "reference" to immigrants, and a welcoming, reasonable, national policy, was contained in a note to Secretary of State John Hay, not identified by depicted in this bold cartoon.

The era of Roosevelt's presidency -- that is, the first decade of the Twentieth Century -- was to that time the high-water mark of immigration to America. Unlike previous "waves" of English, Irish, Scots-Irish, Scandinavians, and Germans, this decade saw many immigrants arriving from Italy, Poland, and Russia. And unlike earlier influxes many of these newcomers settled in urban areas. (1910 was also the first census year when urban Americans outnumbered rural Americans.)

America was remarkably welcoming as it absorbed these foreigners, and Roosevelt was determined to keep his nation open-minded and tolerant.

John Hay, once the private secretary of President Abraham Lincoln, and now Roosevelt's Secretary of State, is somewhat unjustly neglected as a figure who implemented Roosevelt's policies but was himself a consequential policymaker. (The title of the cartoon was inspired by Rudyard Kipling's story of that name, which was popular at the time.)

Creation Date:

1903-07-01

Creator:

Keppler, Udo J., 1872-1956

Citation (Chicago Style):

"Captains courageous". Prints and Photographs division. Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division. https://www.theodorerooseveltcenter.org/Research/Digital-Library/Record?libID=o277299. Theodore Roosevelt Digital Library. Dickinson State University.
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