Another vampiric octopus. Poster circa 1917. “Freiheit Der Meere” (Freedom of the Seas), Subtitled: England Der Blutsauger Derwelt (England, The Bloodsucker of the World) (Morrow, 2005)

Image Source: Hoover Institute Political Poster Database (accessed 2nd Oct 2010)

Morrow, J.H., “The Great War: An Imperial History”, Routledge, 2005 p.176

Due to time constraints and very slow internet access, I can’t provide any contextual information for this just yet. Luckily, it doesn’t require much explaining. (Also expect more slackness on my part over the next two months.).

“Democracy and Bolshevism” by Louis Raemaekers, published June 28th, 1919 in “The Graphic” p875 (London). Borrowed (or if you’d prefer, blantantly stolen) from China Mieville’s rejectamentalist manifesto: “The water’s fine.”

A serving of propaganda and popular culture.

Here, in terse pictorial form, the panorama of Big Business in Modern Crime is presented in all its unvarnished truth. The adage “Crime does not pay” becomes a dubious slogan in the light of the authentic revelations which trace the growth of the crime octopus from petty larceny into America’s most profitable industry.

(via Stripper’s Guide)

 

“A Horrible Monster”, published in Daily Graphic, July 19th, 1880, New York.

(This has been on Vulgar Army previously; this is a clearer, more detailed from Super I.T.C.H.)

Cartoon criticising ‘the pollution of New York’s air by the Standard Oil plant at Hunters Point, New York. The caption reads “A Horrible Monster, whose tentacles spread poverty, disease, death, and which is the primal cause of nuisances at Hunters Point”.

• “Beautiful Villas on The East River Rendered Uninhabitable” (showing buildings by river with “To Let” signs)
• “Interrupted Pleasures” (Family & brass band holding cloths to nose & mouth)
• “Offensive to the Last” (“Hunters Point Ladies Cabin”, smoke stacks in background)
• “Disease and Death” (Mother grieving over dead child)
• “A Whiff From Hunters Point” (Diners holding handkerchiefs to mouths)

Original Image source: Kovarik, W. ”Industrial Revolution: 1810 – 1890″ Environmental History Timeline

“The Standard Oil Octopus”, Daily Graphic, Tues 4th Feb 1879, New York. Vol LXVIII, No.1.

Octopus constructed of pipes and barrels, and capitalist harpies in a wasteland. Very early (1879) octopus political cartoon. “$10,000,000 Profits in 4 Months.”

“Railroad monopolist & stock market manipulator William Vanderbilt is the top right vulture flying overhead. The other two vultures, are brothers William (left) and John ( lower right) Rockefeller, who owned the Standard Oil refinery. ” (SuperITCH)

Source: Super I.T.C.H. May 26 2010 (Accessed: 19th Sept 2010)

The Washington times. (Washington [D.C.]) January 06, 1918, FINAL EDITION

Don’t Allow This Octopus To Get a Strangle Hold Upon the Public Domain. Kill the “Relief” Provisions of Senate Bill No. 2812

“A Bill To Encourage and Promote the Mining of Coal and
Phosphate, Oil, Gas, Potassium and Sodium on the Public Domain.”

The “Relief” Provisions of this bill, in so far as they affect the
oil situation, would block any chance for real competition and confirm in the Standard Oil Company and its subsidiaries from ten to twenty thousand acres of producing lands, and in the Standard and other persons, whose rights are questionable, unlimited unproven acreage. It prevents any one but those granted “relief” from acquiring directly or indirectly, not only in the State of Wyoming, but in the entire United States, and from the Canadian Line to the Mexican Border, any larger area of the many millions of acres of public lands than 2,560 acres. No chance is given for an oil operator to grow to sufficient size to be considered a competitor. In short, monopoly is intrenched, fortified and insured against competition and when you sweep away the chance of competition, the public’s purse is at the mercy of monopoly. It is unnecessary to point out here the result from the consumer’s standpoint the public’s standpoint and it is because of the public’s knowledge as to the effect of such a bill, if enacted into law, that we depend upon the bill being defeated by an overwhelming vote unless suitable amendments are made that will eliminate “relief” and permit competition.