This cartoon highlights the Initiative and Referendum crusade aimed to allow citizens to place issues on the ballot and vote for them directly, thereby circumventing the special interests influencing the legislature. Republican opponents in the legislature contended that such measures challenged representative government and successfully killed the measure in 1911.]]>
This cartoon represents Illinois women gaining the right to vote in presidential elections in 1913 leading to an explosion of voter registrations.]]>
This cartoon is in response to Deneen's political allies's reliance on political patronage and vote buying to secure their power. As Deneen prepared to attempt an unprecedented third term as governor, Republican infighting and the veil of political corruption helped Democrat Edward F. Dunne beat Deneen in 1913.]]>
Chicago Mayor Fred Busse's tenure (1907-1911) in office was marked by scandal and corruption. After his 1907 election, Busse was accused of using the power and wealth of his coal company to garner votes.]]>
The cartoon is in response to the resignation of Chicago Police Chief John McWeeny over a Chicago Vice Commission report in 1913.]]>
The cartoon illustrates the Illinois General Assembly's 1913 deadlock over the selection of a new United States Senator during debates over tariff reform in Washington, D.C.]]>
Divorce restrictions in the United States slowly softened during the first half of the twentieth century. Couples could now voluntarily cease a marriage and women could establish an identity outside that of their husband and leave an unsuitable marriage.]]>
This cartoon represents Joseph M. McCormick, former Republican congressman; Frank H. Funk, unsuccessful Progressive Party candidate for governor (1912) and U.S. Senate (1913); and University of Chicago professor of political science Charles E. Merriam, jockeying for the 1919 Republican nomination for U.S. Senator. McCormick went on to win the 1919 Senate election.]]>
Governor Edward F. Dunne (1913-1917) makes his way to Springfield to whip the state administration back into shape, in this political cartoon by Harold R. Heaton. ]]>
Political cartoonist Harold R. Heaton illustrates the precarious position of Governor Charles S. Deneen (1905-1913), a Republican governor caught between warring party factions (Conservative and the Progressive Republicans), and the whim of machine politics.]]>
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Political cartoonist Harold R. Heaton depicts the two warring Republican factions, those supporting University of Chicago political scientist Charles E. Merriam and sitting governor Charles S. Deneen (1905-1913), blocking the path to the capital, while the Democrats look on from the sidelines.]]>
President William H. Taft surveys the fractured political landscape in Illinois, likely after the bitter Republican presidential primary, in which ex-president and progressive leaning Theodore Roosevelt, and progressive/socialist senator Robert Maron La Follette of Wisconsin, both challenged Taft. Taft was unable to mend the political fences and suffered defeat at the hands of the Democrats.]]>
In 1911 the Illinois legislature signed a bill abolishing deputy game wardens, or rabbit shepherds, and granting their powers to local law enforcement officials.]]>
La Follette, a Progressive Republican Senator from Wisconsin, ran unsuccessfully for president in 1912 as a Republican and in 1924 under the Progressive Party ticket.]]>
Though Theodore Roosevelt and sitting president William H. Taft were once friends and political allies, ideological differences drove the two against each other. Roosevelt established the Bull Moose Party (Progressive, 1912) and ran on his own after failing to capture the 1912 Republican nomination from Taft.]]>