“The Finishing Touch,” November 2, 1912
Three days before the election, Harper’s Weekly, which endorsed Woodrow Wilson, suggested in this cartoon some of the reasons why he would win. Roosevelt supported protective tariffs, while Wilson called for tariff reform; Democrats also claimed that Roosevelt’s antitrust proposals were not sufficiently aggressive and that in 1904 he had taken a large campaign contribution from Standard Oil. Such controversies showed the nation’s accelerating momentum for reform. The man in the middle is Wilson’s campaign manager, William McAdoo. Harper’s Weekly, November 2, 1912, p. 26.