The Syndicate Is Busy

A tall, gaunt J. D. Rockefeller stands in a doorway lettered "Nicaragua Canal Swindlecate," looking down his nose at Uncle Sam, who has gone down on one knee at the threshold with a bulky scroll marked "Plans to Submit." The printed caption has Rockefeller brushing the nation off: the syndicate is busy, and the government will have to state its business in writing. Davenport turns the era's canal-financing intrigue into a plain humiliation, the people's representative made to wait like a supplicant on the tycoon's step. He spells the swindle out in the signage rather than trusting readers to catch it, a habit of his Hearst work. The pun on "syndicate" finishes the argument.