Drawings on the Foreign Desk

It ain't easy to maintain an isolationist foreign policy, even in 1923; so today's Graphical History Tour takes us on a whirlwind tour of the rest of the world that December.

"Blowing Off Again" by Dorman H. Smith for Newspaper Enterprise Assn., ca. Dec. 14, 1923

The triumvirat of Generals Álvaro Obregón Salido and Plutarco Elías Calles and Governor of Sonora Felipe Adolfo de la Huerta Marcor had overthrown the government of Venustiano Carranza in 1920. De la Huerta was interim president of Mexico for a few months after the revolution until Obregón won election to a four-year term. 

Following the assassination of Pancho Villa in July of 1923, the Harding administration was convinced that Mexico's long revolutionary wars were finally over and done with. The process of normalizing relations with the U.S.'s southern neighbor was finalized by Calvin Coolidge.

But de la Huerta, serving as Secretary of the Treasury in Obregón's cabinet, apparently thought he was in line to succeed Obregón as president in 1924. And when Obregón endorsed Calles instead, de la Huerta accused Obregón of corruption and launched an armed revolt against the government.

"Taking His Sword in Hand" by Dennis McCarthy in Fort Worth Record, Dec. 18, 1923

De la Huerta had the support of conservatives in the Mexican army and Catholic Church. The latter had protested the strong separation of church and state in the new Mexican constitution, land reforms that took property away from the Catholic Church, and the expulsion of Pope Pius XI's Apostolic Nuncio for conducting an illegal open-air mass. The Church feared that Calles would prove to be even more anti-clerical than Obregón.

"Nothing to Be Much Alarmed About" by Harold Wahl in Sacramento Bee, Dec. 20, 1923

Obregón had backing of farmers and laborers who had benefited from land reforms under his administration, as well as significant support from the United States. Wahl's assessment of the situation here may have been overly optimistic, but not by much. Aided by creation of a Mexican Air Force, Obregón was able to defeat de la Huerta, who fled into exile abroad, the following March.

"Speaking of Politics" by Sam Armstrong in Tacoma News Tribune, Dec. 10, 1923

Meanwhile, the Tory government of Stanley Baldwin called for general elections in Great Britain in December. One result noted by Sam Armstrong was the election of eight women to Parliament, a first since women were (mostly) granted the right to vote and to stand for election in 1918.

"A Tax on His Renowned Diplomacy" by J.P. Alley in Memphis Commercial Appeal, Dec. 6, 1923

Burdened by high unemployment, the Conservative Party lost their majority in Parliament. The Tories held onto 258 seats, while Labour won 191 and the Liberals garnered 158. None of the parties having a majority, each faced having to form a coalition with rivals with whom they had strong disagreement.

Eventually, the Liberals teamed up with Labour under Ramsey MacDonald. Liberal leader Henry Asquith gambled that Labour's policies would be its own undoing, to the Liberals' benefit; but as it turned out, the office Prime Minister would go back and forth between MacDonald and Baldwin for the next 14 years.

"All Froth" by Nelson Harding in Brooklyn Daily Eagle, Dec. 10, 1923

The German government of Chancellor Gustav Stressemann fell in December. Faced with hyperinflation, civil unrest, and unrelenting pressure from France to pay ever more exorbitant war reparations, President Friedrich Ebert turned to the centrist Catholic Party to form a new government. Reports that the murder of Baron Scarpi in a Munich performance of Tosca would be the cue for a second attempt at a Nazi putsch forced the canceling of a performance of the Puccini opera.

"When It Comes to Pullin' Off a Putsch, You've Got to Have Good, Old-Fashioned Lager" by Frank Godwin in Colliers, Dec. 29, 1923

The soldiers from French territories in Africa who were part of France's occupation of the Ruhr were a frequent topic of German cartoons. To German cartoonists, the Africans' presence was a supreme insult. Cartoons in the major satirical weeklies repeated scurrilous rumors of African soldiers molesting German women — rumors that were, like those which sparked lynchings in the U.S., undoubtedly blown way out of proportion, if not entirely fabricated. (The cartoons are more racist than I care to resurrect in a blog with my name on it.)

Here is an extremely rare appearance of a French West African soldier in an American editorial cartoon.

"How the World Moves" by Edward S. "Tige" Reynolds in Tacoma Daily Ledger, Dec. 14, 1923

Reynolds's cartoon allows us to leave distressing reports of wars and rumors of wars with the upbeat message that Christmas was coming. And, yes, we Americans could afford to be preoccupied with holiday shopping.