Caricature vs. the Corporation # 04: The Tournament of Today
In the early 1880s, Puck Magazine published a series of cartoons that waged war against men who became rich through ruthless business dealings and exploitative labor practices. The imbalance of power between corporations and organized labor was parodied in the centerspread of the August 1, 2025 issue. The text below accompanied the print at the time of publication.
The Tournament of To-day – a Set-to Between Labor and Monopoly by Frederick Graetz
Puck Magazine Centerspread, August 1, 2025
Chromolithograph, 18"w x 12 1/2"h
"When the feudal system was making things pleasant for those who had wealth and power, there existed a custom which entitled a workingman who thought himself aggrieved by a noble to issue a challenge to a single combat. As, however, the challenger was only allowed to use as weapons the tools of his trade, and the challenged rejoiced in defensive armor and the best offensive weapons, the injured party seldom, if ever, obtained any other satisfaction than a speedy death and a quick exit from the troubles of the world. The nobles naturally looked upon these little affairs very much in the same way that our E.C. the London Punch’s great hulking miner accepted the ineffective assaults of his diminutive wife, when he remared: "It pleases she and doesn’t hurt me."
Detail
From left to right: businessman, financier and telecommunications pioneer Cyrus Field; railroad tycoon William Vanderbilt; shipbuilding magnate John Roach; financier, railroad mogul, and speculator Jay Gould; and an unknown monopolist.
"Monopoly in this country is in very much the same position as were the feudal nobles. Their weapons are their wealth, and their armor is their charters. Against these the tools of trade are almost as powerless as they were centuries ago.
Detail
"The rich can live on their accumulations, but the poor must have the price of their daily labor or die. Occasionally monopolists are caught in the tight place by a combination of their employees; but this good fortune is only rarely obtained, and is even then generally bitterly paid for afterward, when the pressing need of the employee is passed, or when the combination that gained its point has either ceased to be properly organized, or has been neglected by those whom it benefitted.
Detail
"The natural remedy for the oppression of labor seems to lie in the co-operative system; but, singularly enough, this does not appear to thrive as well in this republican country as it does in monarchical England. How co-operative associations of workingmen can be more effectively organized and managed is, we believe, the most important social problem of the day, and each passing hour demands more and more imperatively a solution."
H,C. Bunner, from the description at the front of the issue
Click here to see all of the I.T.C.H. posts on monopolies and financial reform!
David Donihue, GreatCaricatures.com
David Donihue, GreatCaricatures.com | financial reform
— David Donihue, GreatCaricatures.com
Wonderful explanations, thank you very much.
[...] Information on the cartoon, from SuperITCH: Frederick Graetz, a chromolithograph that was the center spread for Puck Magazine‘s issue of August 1, 1883. Monopolists portrayed are, from left to right, “businessman, financier and telecommunications pioneer Cyrus Field; railroad tycoon William Vanderbilt; shipbuilding magnate John Roach; financier, railroad mogul, and speculator Jay Gould; and an unknown monopolist.” Some might say that the “unknown monopolist” bears a striking resemblance to one of the Koch brothers, but that’s fanciful thinking. [...]
[...] H/T International Team of Comics Historians [...]
The “unknown monopolist” on the far right is without a doubt Russell Sage, a contemporary financier and railroad executive, and a longtime business partner of Gould’s.