Udo Keppler, “Next!” (1904) Summary: Illustration shows a “Standard Oil” storage tank as an octopus with many tentacles wrapped around the steel, copper, and shipping industries, as well as a state house, the U.S. Capitol, and one tentacle reaching for the White House. The Standard Oil Octopus Cartoon. ... Josh Brown of the American Social History Project explains one cartoon about Standard Oil. It’s dedicated specifically to Octopus in Propaganda and Political Cartoons, and is the source of many of the maps in this post. This cartoon was published the day after Standard Oil’s proposal, which raised suspicions in many observers. With arms already wrapped around the steel, copper, and shipping industries; the United States Capitol; and a state capital building; it now stretches out yet another tentacle over the White House. antitrust laws. Standard Oil, U.S. company and corporate trust that from 1870 to 1911 was the industrial empire of John D. Rockefeller and associates, controlling almost all oil production, processing, marketing, and transportation in the United States. This political cartoon from 1904 well demonstrates American fears about the Standard Oil Company's vast and growing power over the American government. It originated in Cleveland, Ohio. They span the years from 1921, when the nation was one year into the “Noble Experiment,” to early 1930, when its path to repeal was hastened by the Great Depression. The Standard Oil Octopus is an example of the control that monopolies had over the economy and the government. It is indeed the devil-fish of our civilization, doing business, strange to relate, with the assent and consent of the Government, with just the merest disposition to occasionally try to nip a tentacle or put a drop of diluted blue vitriol on one of the monster’s ugly glands. To analyze a political cartoon, consider its: CONTENT. Four years later, Standard Oil offered a novel proposal to the State of Missouri that it form a partnership with Standard Oil to administer the company’s three subsidiaries in Missouri. It was called an octopus because Standard Oil controlled every aspect of oil production, refining and shipment, and tried to prevent others from competing. “Representing the liquor-traffic as an octopus is literally correct. The efforts of “trust-busting” Presidents Roosevelt, Taft, and Wilson had some success, including the break-up of Standard Oil in 1911. Sherman Antitrust Act to break up Standard Oil, but that effort failed. + the railroads, shipping, and what looks like people have also been taken control of by the standard oil octopus. This feature is no longer available. Tarbell Cartoon- +much like the cartoon in our books the standard oil company is symbolized as an octopus which has its far-reaching tentacles wrapped around all branches of the government. ... Watch historians analyze political cartoons on the gold standard, the presidential election of … In other words, a monopoly. By 1900, when this political cartoon appeared, trusts controlled around four-fifths of American industry. An 1882 political cartoon portrays the railroad industry as a monopolistic octopus, with its tentacles controlling many businesses. This cartoon was published in 1904 during Teddy Roosevelt's presidency. Ida Minerva Tarbell, a "muckraker" activist, wrote in 1904 "The History of the Standard Oil Company," detailing its unfair practices. Eight political cartoons examining Prohibition from P wet and dry perspectives appear on the following pages.