TOW #22: Information Wanted (Visual Text)

On June 4, 1898, about a month after Commodore Dewey’s stunning victory at Manila on May 1, a cartoon was published in Judge, an American satirical magazine. The cartoon depicts a rather shocked-looking Uncle Sam holding a dark-skinned baby, wearing what appears to be traditional native clothing. The cartoonist aims to show the bewilderment of America at the imperialistic position it got itself in due to the Spanish-American War.

Attached to the crying baby is a tag that says “Philippines with compliments of Dewey.” This implies that the Philippines was a territorial acquisition, a gift to America by a very capable commodore, not a land with its own people that ought to have independence. In the cartoon, Uncle Sam looks quite confused, likely because America went into the Spanish-American War with the intention of liberating Cuba from oppressive Spanish rule, but quickly became an imperialistic power of the same nature as the hated Spain. At the very bottom of the cartoon is written: “INFORMATION WANTED. Uncle Sam - ‘Now that I’ve got it, what am I going to do with it?’” The comment further supports the idea that America was unsure of its new position. America, a nation which had rejected colonization at its origin, was ending the nineteenth century a colonizing nation itself.

The cartoon is set up so that Uncle Sam and the baby are in the forefront. The depiction of America as the strong, old, white man, and the Philippines as a screaming baby of a darker skin tone, depicts America’s perceived relationship to the Filipinos - one of superiority. Surely one could argue that America was depicted as a man and the Philippines as a small child just to show the comparative strength of each on the world scale, but ultimately the baby is still crying, making it appear not only of weaker physical strength, but also of a weaker mental strength. The traditional garb appearing on the crying baby makes it seem as though the indigenous culture is inferior to the white man’s culture. Even though the cartoon is meant to be mocking to American government to some degree, it still highlights the perceived superiority of the white man.

Finally, in the background there are ships. I cannot tell for sure whether they are supposed to be Dewey’s recently victorious forces, or the German and other European navies that crept into the Manila harbor waiting to see if America would leave so that they might fill the power vacuum left by Spain. The fact that they are in the back and that Uncle Sam is facing away from them makes them appear as yet another problem brewing on the horizon, which, when Uncle Sam notices them, will direct his decision as to what is to be done with the Filipino baby. That is, they will affect America’s decision to grant the Philippines independence or to remain in control of them.