Setting the Signals

Grant Hamilton's cover depicts Uncle Sam atop the Capitol dome, hoisting two semaphore-style signal flags: a white pennant bearing "Big Crops / Prosperity" (red square) and a second reading "Business / Confidence" (yellow square). Below, crowds labeled Boston, Chicago, Cincinnati, New York, St. Louis, and other cities cheer from the surrounding landscape. The caption reads simply *Setting the Signals*. Published the day after Roosevelt's landslide victory over Alton Parker, the cartoon is straightforwardly triumphalist: the Republican administration has delivered agricultural abundance and commercial confidence, and the nation—coast to coast—is signaling back its approval. No ethnic caricature appears here; Hamilton keeps the imagery generic and celebratory, the flags functioning as both nautical metaphor and electoral scoreboard.