Group+2

Kyle Kaufmann Ryan McGinty Kristen Moisey

Big Business and Labor Leaders

Present Day Cartoon 1

The cartoon is about President Obama's Economic Plan. President Obama is the doctor, while a man is dying, which symbolizes the economy. The significance of this cartoon is that people displeasure of the new economic plan. The main idea of this cartoon is the fact that the economy is on life support which is considered all the money that has been filtered into the economy.



The first quote is a complete mockery of this cartoon. After reading the conversation, it’s clear that the author of this cartoon doesn’t think they are too great. These two men are talking about the difficulty of sitting on a stool. They are two very wealthy and powerful men that are pictured as smart accomplished political figures by the public. The fact that they are talking about such a pointless matter shows that they really aren’t that smart after all. The man on the right is William Tweed, a wealthy business tycoon that has ownership in numerous companies. The man on the left represents just how smart America's political figures are. It is significant to the time period we are studying, because Tweed was in his prime during this time period.

The cartoon shows how ignorant, wealthy, and powerful Rockefeller was. The globe shows that he was a very powerful man. The standard oil monopoly shows how he was selfish and just cared about money. This cartoon is about John D. Rockefeller. Rockefeller was in power during the industrial revolution.



This cartoon is about George W. Bush. It perfectly displays how ignorant he was towards political issues, because he isn't even thinking about his troops. He was the past president, and was not pictured as a good president.

Thomas Nast

This cartoon is by Thomas Nast. The cartoon shows a man from the north going to the south to profit from the Reconstruction Era, this person was called a carpetbagger. The cartoon shows a man holding a sack on his back, which I assume is full of money. This people had a bad image. Why, because they were considered not to be helping the reconstruction process, but by slowing it down by making people pay more for something. Most of the carpetbaggers were wealthy business men that wanted to make tons of money off the rebuliding South. That is why Thomas Nast makes the person in the cartoon look like they where just evil, businessmen.

Cornelius Vanderbilt

This cartoon shows Cornelius Vanderbilt an entereprenur who was very wealthy, and was in the railroad business, and ships. This cartoon shows Vanderbilt playing a puppet-master who is controlling the railroad industry, with two other men. This cartoon implies that the railroad industry is a Monoply which is controlled by Vanderbilt. The significance of this cartoon is to show that the railroad industry was controlled by a couple of people which made this people very wealthy.

J.P. Morgan was a financer and a philanthropist who built the largest private bank in the United States. He would buy businesses in distress, fix them, then profit from the new business. In this picture you can see that there is a child laboring factory and someone feeding profits into J.P Morgan's mouth. This shows that people thought that Morgan would sit around while workers worked 11 hours a day and just gain money for nothing. The picture shows him fat from all the profits he made. The is also a person feeding him the money which shows how people thought that he did not do any work for himself but had people do it for him. In the time period, it shows how he was a big business man who gained from all of the hard working people who worked long ours to help him gain money.



John D. Rockefeller established the Standard Oil Company. He was considered to be the richest man in the United States in that time period. In this picture you can see Rockefeller standing on a tank of standard oil, since he established the company he is staning on top of it in the cartoon. He is dressed as a king because he was such a wealthy man. He is also wearing a crown with oil tanks and rail road companies on it. This shows how he controlled many railroad companies and oil companies. In the time period it implies how a man could control a big part of a country just by starting companies and buying smaller ones.



John McCain ran for president in 2009 and for his vice president he chose Sarah Palin. This cartoon shows Mccain making a speech for his campain saying how if he is ever unable to do his job Palin would have the qualifications for it. In the cartoon Palin is wearing a Miss Congeniality sash and a crown, this shows how people thought that Palin was as qualified as a beauty queen and not in the area of politics. It shows how people are still being judged by their apperance and personalities instead of policts, and in other situations wealth.