The Wasp — 1895 — page 724: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

This 1895 cartoon satirizes California's new Labor Commissioner, Hon. E. L. Fitzgerald. The caption describes his "towering ambition to grace a pedestal in the Gallery of Sandlot Celebrities." The central figure appears to be Coxey (likely Jacob Coxey, who led the 1894 "Coxey's Army" unemployed workers' march on Washington). He's being knocked off a pedestal by Fitzgerald, depicted as an aggressive figure wielding a sword. Various caricatured figures represent "Sandlot Celebrities"—presumably other labor agitators or radical figures of the era. The satire mocks Fitzgerald's apparent eagerness to become prominent among labor activists by displacing existing radical leaders. The chaos of competing figures suggests anxiety about labor unrest and populist movements of the 1890s.