Gonna Party Like It's 1929

Spoilsportback Saturday is stuck in 1920 again, basking in a post-war wave of prosperity that surely must have been an election-year annoyance to the editorial cartoonists of the staunchly Republican Chicago Tribune.

"Suppose the Tide Should Go Out?" by Carey Orr in Chicago Tribune, April 12, 1920

Every silver lining has its cloud, however, and cartoonists found their cloud in "extravagance." The Committee on Public Information and its Office of Cartoons had been disbanded by presidential order in 1919; but if it had been still active, it could hardly have been more effective in promoting exhortations against extravagance among editorial cartoonists after the war.

"The Man Who Hitched Himself Up with the Calf" by Edward Gale in Los Angeles Times, February, 1920

Once armistice was declared, hardly a week went by without at least one cartoonist somewhere moralizing against the Evils of Extravagance. No matter if the cartoonist was one of the luminaries of the era or toiling in obscurity; a Republican or Democrat; stridently political or a bemused observer of the passing scene: sooner or later, he sat down at his drawing board and decided that folks were just getting too dang extravagant for their own good.

"Shooting at the High Cost of Living" by Ted Brown in Chicago Daily News, February, 1920

It's hardly surprising, then, that extravagance would be what the decade to come is chiefly remembered for. How quickly extravagance took hold can be explained by the fact that U.S. manufacturing was diverted to military production for a relatively short time. Production remained high but returned to domestic goods as our doughboys and pilots quickly returned to the workforce.

"Very Appropriate Platform..." by Harry J. Westerman in Ohio State Journal, April, 1920

Consumption also rebounded once wartime rationing was no longer necessary. After more than a full year of anti-extravagance moralizing, at least one cartoonist began to find those lectures tiresome.

Ted Nelson for Cartoons Magazine, Chicago, May, 1920

In case you need a refresher course in what extravagance of the 1920's looked like, this beaut of a motorcar put to shame even the swanky automobile Harry Westerman gave Uncle Sam up there.

"An Evolution" by Elmer Bushnell for Central Press Assn., April, 1920

If the cars were getting bigger, women's fashions were heading in the opposite direction.

"A Social Setback" by Bob Satterfield for Newspaper Enterprise Assn., ca. April 19, 1920

Still, not everyone had the sort of figure to rock Mlle. Thrift's shift, as we see in Bob Satterfield's cartoon. Since much of it is barely legible, I'll read it for you: Mrs. "Extravagance" is shocked by Mr. "Common Sense," clad in his overalls and wooden shoes. Satterfield's little bear says "Class, eh wot?" I can't make out what the bear's label says, but I note that he, too, is wearing overalls.

"The Standard of Revolt" by Nelson Harding in Brooklyn Daily Eagle, April 18, 1920

Overall Clubs became a thing in April of 1920, formed to protest the high cost of clothing by making a fashion statement out of men's overalls. The first such club was founded in Jacksonville, Florida in late March; the Birmingham, Alabama club, founded on April 9 and claiming 2,000 charter members, declared itself the national headquarters. The clubs very quickly spread throughout the South and thence across the rest of the country; men from students and laborers to professionals and public figures marched in parades and posed for group photos to show off how thrifty they were. The newly elected mayor of Emporia, Kansas, was inaugurated in a denim suit, and some fellow even wore overalls to the New York Metropolitan Opera. No wonder Mrs. Extravagance was shocked.

"Signs of the Times" by Bob Satterfield for Newspaper Enterprise Assn., ca. April 28, 1920

But, as the editors of the Pine Plains (NY) Ledger pointed out, "[I]t might be useful for every man to own a pair and and do some good hard work with the hands to justify such ownership, but it doesn't follow that they are appropriate for all places and for all occasions. ... Better... to wear your old clothes, patch them, and make them last a year or two longer." Besides, heightened demand for overalls could raise the price out of reach "for men who really have to have them." (April 29, 1920)

"In 1921" by William Sykes in Philadelphia Evening Ledger, April 19, 1920

In some markets, the price of overalls reportedly tripled overnight.

If Sykes was making economic predictions in his cartoon, his crystal ball was running eight years too fast. But he wasn't the only one alert to the signs of trouble ahead.

"Chasing Wild Cats" by William Donahey in Cleveland Plain Dealer, March, 1920

William Donahey might be one of the first cartoonists to warn against the perils of market speculation after "fake stocks." Wall Street's game was being played fast and loose, and for the time being, everyone wanted in on the action.

G.B. Inwood for Cartoons magazine, May, 1920