"Shall Women Vote?" (Puck centerfold, 31 March 1909)
A man labelled 'Graft Politics' pays a tramp labelled 'Floater' at the end of a line outside a polling place while holding back a woman who is trying to speak for suffrage; vignettes around the edge show women in sweatshops, children minding children, tenements and arrests. The tell: the only evidence shown is hardship, and the answer to it is placed at the ballot box.
A full-colour double-page cartoon from Puck (Keppler & Schwarzmann, New York), dated 31 March 1909. A man labelled "Graft Politics" pays a tramp labelled "Floater" in a line outside a polling place while holding back a woman trying to speak for suffrage, and vignettes around the edge show women in sweatshops, children minding children, tenements and arrests. It argues for suffrage, with the printed caption voicing the opposing view ironically. Appeal to emotion and card stacking show in hardship as the only evidence offered.
Propaganda techniques used in this cartoon
- Date
- March 31, 1909
- Period
- Pre-1914
- Made by
- Puck (Keppler & Schwarzmann, New York)
Full record
Region, Country, Medium, Issuer type, Regime, Leader, Audience, Purpose, Themes, Event, Source, Rights
- Region
- North America
- Country
- United States
- Medium
- Cartoon
- Issuer type
- Media
- Regime
- Taft Administration
- Leader
- William Howard Taft
- Audience
- Domestic public
- Purpose
- Persuade or win support
- Themes
- Gender and suffrage, Elections and party politics
- Event
- US Woman Suffrage Campaign
- Source
- Identified Openly sourced: the speaker is who they say they are
- Source
- Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division, retrieved October 10, 2026
- Rights
- Public domain (published 1909, before 1931); LoC: no known restrictions on publication
Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division, LCCN 2011647454. "Shall Women Vote?" (Puck centerfold, 31 March 1909)
