Judge — February 8, 1890 — page 9: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

This Puck magazine cartoon satirizes American policy regarding Alaska's resources. The figure on the left, labeled "Uncle Sam," is being stopped by another character holding a sign reading "Alaska Seal Fishery Profits 20 Years $100,000,000!!" The satire criticizes the granting of monopoly rights over Alaska's seal fishery to English syndicates and investors rather than benefiting American workers. The cartoon protests that a Congressional act awarded exclusive fishing rights that generated enormous profits ($100 million over twenty years) while enriching foreign business interests instead of American laborers or the public. The "HALT!" command suggests stopping this exploitative arrangement. This reflects late 19th-century American anxieties about foreign corporate control of natural resources and concerns that American workers were being excluded from economic benefits of territorial expansion.