This cartoon concerns the 1922 midterm elections. Although the Republicans won the 1920 congressional and Presidential elections by a landslide, by 1922 the Republican Party was fighting desperately to retain control of Congress as the midterm elections approached. The Republicans were prepared to lose some of their seats, but they lost many more than expected and emerged from the election with only a slim majority in both houses. As the beaten and battered elephant in the cartoon suggests, another attempt to maintain the Republican majority through such a brutal election cycle would likely end in defeat.