Above, Raising the Funds to Buy the Presidency, by artist Joseph Keppler, Sr., depicting Republican fund raisers in the guise of medieval clergy selling indulgences (i.e., back before/during Martin Luther, the church would sell tickets to Heaven, in which people could be absolved for any sin, for enough money “donated” to the church). Implied in this cartoon, is that donations could buy you government jobs and possibily pardons/absolutions for crimes. From the centerspread of the August 12th, 1884 issue of Puck magazine.

Below, and immediately above, cartoons from the October 1912 issue of Cartoons Magazine.

Above, a couple pages involving the controversy of the amount of money that the Standard Oil Company was pouring into the 1912 Presidential Race, and Teddy Roosevelt‘s public stance of not accepting money from monopolies, while being suspected of doing the opposite. Art by Herbert Johnson, Floyd Wilding Triggs, Ole May, Winner, Walter W. Blackman, Charles Henry Sykes, Camillus Kessler, and Gaar Williams.

Click on the above & below pictures, to view the cartoons in detail, and read their captions.

Below, cartoons on newspaper magnate William Randolph Hearst‘s efforts to dig up dirt involving T.R. and Standard Oil. Art by Nelson Harding, Triggs, and Jack Wilson.

Above, corporate interests versus the common voter, by Herbert Johnson, Gaar Williams, Stinson, and Barnett.

Below, from the November 1912 Cartoons Magazine, cartoons targeting George Walbridge Perkins — one of the chief bank-rollers of Teddy Roosevelt’s campaign. Today, Perkins would be a millionaire “Super-Pac” donor. Art by Kin Hubbard, W.A. Rogers, and Camillus Kessler.

To find prior episodes of this series,click on Wall Street Frauds Make Wonderful Cartoons. And, to find earlier posts concerning financial reforms in general, click here.

Doug Wheeler

ElectionComics Cartoons Magazine Centennial 1912 Financial Reforms