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The Panama Canal was built to shorten the distance that ships had to travel to pass between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. The canal permits shippers of commercial goods, ranging from automobiles to grain, to save time and money by transporting cargo more quickly. Prior to the completion of the canal, a ship sailing between ports in New York and San Francisco had to sail around Cape Horn, the southernmost point of South America. This 12,000-mile trip took 67 days. After the canal was completed, approximately 8,000 miles were eliminated from the trip. Nearly 14,000 ships and other watercraft, some as long as three football fields, carry 280 million tons of cargo through the canal every day, states Popular Mechanics magazine.

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The issue that this political cartoon is about is the digging of the Panama Canal. The cartoonist’s message is that Teddy Roosevelt, larger than life, is doing the digging of the canal by himself. In the political cartoon, he is shoveling dirt on Bogota which is a reference to the fact that Panama seceded from Colombia with the help of the United States for the purpose of establishing the Panama Canal Zone. Others might see this cartoon and think that Teddy Roosevelt just wanted to get the canal dug. The techniques that the cartoonist used to make it persuasive are labeling, and symbolism. The cartoon shows labeling because Bogota is labeled, and it shows symbolism because Teddy Roosevelt is throwing the dirt he dug from the ditch onto it. The cartoon supports my position on American Imperialism because the United States was behind the action that caused Panama to secede from Columbia.