---
title: '"Good Government vs. Revolution: An Easy Choice" (Puck centerfold, 17 April 1901)'
url: https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/good-government-vs-revolution-puck-1901/
description: A woman with a fan marked 'Cuba' takes Uncle Sam's arm in a palm garden rather than going to a dandified Cuban man in a sash marked 'Revolution'.
section: Collection
---

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3. "Good Government vs. Revolution: An Easy Choice"

[!["Good Government vs. Revolution: An Easy Choice", 1901 US cartoon: A woman with a fan marked 'Cuba' takes Uncle Sam's arm](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/good-government-vs-revolution-puck-1901.jpg)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/good-government-vs-revolution-puck-1901.jpg)

# "Good Government vs. Revolution: An Easy Choice" (Puck centerfold, 17 April 1901)

A woman with a fan marked 'Cuba' takes Uncle Sam's arm in a palm garden rather than going to a dandified Cuban man in a sash marked 'Revolution'. The tell: two suitors are offered, and the choice is called easy before the viewer has been told what either would give her.

Puck, published by Keppler & Schwarzmann in New York, ran this centrefold cartoon on 17 April 1901, while the Cuban Constitutional Convention was debating whether to accept the Platt Amendment. A woman with a fan marked "Cuba" takes Uncle Sam's arm in a palm garden instead of going to a dandified man in a sash marked "Revolution". The title calls the choice "An Easy Choice" and names the alternatives "Good Government" and "Revolution". That is a false dilemma: two options are offered as the only ones, and the viewer is told which to take before either is described.

## Propaganda techniques used in this cartoon

[False dilemma](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/false-dilemma/)

## Full record

Region, Country, Medium, Issuer type, Regime, Leader, Audience, Purpose, Themes, Event, Source, Rights

[← Chile como el cuervo de la fábula (Chile as the Raven of the Fable)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/chile-como-el-cuervo-de-la-fabula-caras-y-caretas-1901/) [The Speaker, front page 'The Week', 22 June 1901: Hobhouse report and 'methods of barbarism' →](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/speaker-hobhouse-camps-methods-of-barbarism-1901/)

## More propaganda examples that use the same techniques

- [Take Your Choice (Judge, 12 May 1900)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/take-your-choice-1900/) (United States · May 12, 1900 · Transfer, Card stacking, False dilemma)
- ["Cuba's Choice" (Puck cover, 3 September 1902)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/cubas-choice-puck-1902/) (United States · Sep 3, 1902 · False dilemma)
- [Bonds-Which?](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/bonds-which-1918/) (United States · 1918 · Fear appeal, Card stacking, False dilemma)
- [Fight or Buy Bonds: Third Liberty Loan](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/fight-or-buy-bonds-third-liberty-loan-1918/) (United States · 1918 · Fear appeal, Glittering generalities, False dilemma)
- [Hun or Home? Buy More Liberty Bonds](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/hun-or-home-buy-more-liberty-bonds-1918/) (United States · 1918 · Fear appeal, Name-calling, False dilemma). Content note: A drawing of a girl holding a baby beside a spiked-helmet figure bending over a fallen person, as issued.
- [Will you fight now or wait for this (Australian recruiting poster, Norman Lindsay)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/will-you-fight-now-or-wait-for-this-1918/) (Australia · 1918 · Fear appeal, False dilemma)
- [Quien trabaja contra la unidad lucha en favor de Franco (Republican poster)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/quien-trabaja-contra-la-unidad-lucha-en-favor-de-franco-poster-1938/) (Spain · 1938 · False dilemma, Fear appeal)
- [Bonds or bondage: Everybody, every pay day, 10%](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/bonds-or-bondage-1941/) (United States · 1941 · Fear appeal, Bandwagon, False dilemma)