Lenin and Wilson

Graphical History Tour pauses this week to commemorate the passing 100 years ago of Vladimir Illyich Lenin and Thomas Woodrow Wilson.

"Lenin †" by Ernst Schilling in Simplicissimus, Munich, Feb. 11, 1924

Vladimir Ilych Lenin (deadname Ulyanov) died on January 21, 1924, nine months after suffering a stroke — his third — that left him partly paralyzed and unable to speak.

"The Inexorable Law He Could Not Defy" by Sam Armstrong in Tacoma News-Tribune, Jan. 24, 1924

Neither man's death came as a shock to the world. Lenin contemplated suicide even before his first stroke in May of 1922, and Wilson spent the last year of his administration as an invalid.

"The Headless Horseman" by Edward Gale in Los Angeles Times, Jan. 29, 1924

Yet neither man had adequately prepared his country for transition to a successor. Wilson (or at least Mrs. Wilson) entertained the notion that he could run for a third term as President of the United States despite being bedridden. For his part, Lenin didn't trust any of his fellow Bolsheviks enough to give any of them his blessing, and effectively undermined each of the more promising candidates.

"Jettisoned" by Albert T. Reid for Bell Syndicate, Jan. 30, 1924

He had felt strongly that Josef Stalin was ill-suited to leadership, but was apparently unaware of Stalin's moves behind the scenes to bolster his own position within the party. Leon Trotsky, whom Lenin regarded off and on as perhaps the best choice for Russia's future, was convalescing in the Caucasus and missed Lenin's funeral — later alleging that Stalin had sent him the wrong date.

"Changed in Name Only" by Fred Morgan in Philadelphia Inquirer, Jan. 30, 1924

Other potential successors then are obscure trivia now. One of the politburo members who spoke at the funeral was Grigory Zinovieff (who looked nothing at all like Fred Morgan drew him), chairman of the Communist International. He and Lev Kamenev allied with Stalin against Trotsky, eventually to turn against Stalin two years later. Things did not turn out well for him in the end.

The empires of old had primogeniture; the representative democracies that grew out of the Enlightenment had popular elections. The world waited to see how the Soviet Republic would select the next Red Father.

"Zeremoniell bei den Neuen Kroningstagen in Moskau" by Arthur Johnson in Kladderadatsch, Berlin, February 24, 1924

Two weeks after Lenin shuffled off his mortal coil, Woodrow Wilson died at home in Washington, D.C., 100 years ago today.

"His Eternal Resting Place" by Roy James in St. Louis Star, Feb. 4, 1924

Roy James gives us a rather tepid, neutral eulogy for the former president. Although he was not completely alone among editorial cartoonists, most expressed gratitude for a man who, while unable to "keep us out of war," led us successfully through that war once we were in it. And left the nation in a much better position than the countries who had been fighting it for years before our boys arrived Over There.

"Undying Fire" by Nelson Harding in Brooklyn Daily Eagle, Feb. 4, 1924

"Among Presidents Woodrow Wilson achieved one supreme distinction. If it cannot today be said of him, as Stanton said of the murdered Lincoln, 'Now he belongs to the ages,' it can be said that at the height of his power he dominated world affairs and world thought as no other president ever did in the history of the Republic. In its moral and physical aspects the crisis he faced was the gravest that civilization ever confronted, but he is dead before his work in meeting it can be fully measured." — Brooklyn Daily Eagle, Feb. 4, 1924

"His Work Shall Be Finished" by J.P. Alley in Memphis Commercial Appeal, Feb. 6, 1924

Harding and Alley can be counted as generally sympathetic to the Democratic Party, and their cartoons convey admiration for Wilson's ideals, particularly his commitment to establishing an international forum to maintain global peace. 

"Woodrow Wilson" by Arthur G. Racey in Montreal Star, Feb. 5, 1924

Despite clear evidence that his League of Nations was already proving incapable of that task, it was Wilson's intentions that mattered to Canadian cartoonist A.G. Racey. His Clio penned "He who activated by a noble purpose and a high resolve. He worked for peace."

"We Mourn a Truly Great Leader" by Harold Wahl in Sacramento Bee, Feb. 4, 1924

Harold Wahl's memorial cartoon of Warren Harding had said that the late Republican had "the respect and love alike of enemies and friends." From the viewpoint of today, his eulogy cartoon for Wilson is equally overstated.

But death will do that. Just weeks before, Wahl had drawn a cartoon with a fairer estimation of Wilson's postwar legacy:

"As Simple as a Mother Good Rhyme" by Harold Wahl in Sacramento Bee, Jan. 29, 1924

My point, however, is that whatever their political differences, until fairly recently, Americans generally set them aside when the Grim Reaper came calling. Here are a pair of cartoons by editorial cartoonists whose Republican Party bona fides were without question.

"The Chief Joins His Legions" by Carey Orr in Chicago Tribune, Feb. 4, 1924

I can think of quite a few of my colleagues who will have great difficulty coming up with anything nice to draw when Jimmy Carter or Joe Biden are called Up Yonder. I myself cannot imagine coming up with a respectful cartoon when Donald Trump goes the way of all flesh.

"That Peace Which in Life Was Denied Him" by J.N. "Ding" Darling in Des Moines Register, Feb. 4, 1924

I will note here that despite his Republican inclinations, "Ding" Darling approved of Wilson's designs for a League of Nations for world peace. Thus it is Peace herself left to grieve his loss. Are Death, Wars, and Hatred retreating into the heavens, or are they left to roam free throughout the cosmos?

Wilson's reputation has sunk considerably in the past few years. It is true that he held racist attitudes and opposed women's suffrage until that position was no longer politically feasible. But you won't find 100-year-old cartoons criticizing him upon his death.

Unless you look into some of the satirical German magazines.

"Wilson vor seinem Richter" by Theodor Th. Heine in Simplicissimus, Munich, Feb. 18, 1924

For a cartoon critical of Wilson's legacy, we have to turn to Germany and this cartoon of Wilson arriving before the devil; a demon displays Wilson's Fourteen Points as the evidence against him. 

Coincidental with Wilson's death were leaks ahead of publication by the French government of a "yellow paper" which would claim that French President Georges Clemenceau, Britain's Prime Minister David Lloyd George, and Wilson secretly agreed that France should occupy the Ruhr. This allegation was denounced by Clemenceau and Lloyd George, both by this time out of office. Lloyd George said that he was not in Paris at the time of the supposed pact; Clemenceau stated flatly that no such pact existed.

"La recherche de la paternité est interdite" by Oskar Theuer in Ulk, Berlin, Feb. 29, 1924

Wilson appears in a draped portrait on Marianne's wall in Theuer's cartoon, above portraits of Clemenceau and former Italian Prime Minister Antonio Salandra, whose government had brought Italy into World War I against the Central Powers.

An aside here: I've translated "Sieges-Rausch," literally "rush of victory," rather loosely; yet I think I'm getting close to the gist of the cartoon, since rausch can indicate euphoria or intoxication. (For that matter, the French "interdite" can also mean "dumbfounded" rather than "forbidden"; but if you see that word on a sign, assume that it's ordering you not to do whatever the verb next to it means.)

"Monuments of History" by Carey Orr in Chicago Tribune,  Feb. 5, 1924

Orr didn't attribute his poem, which I haven't found on line. Either it was so popular at the time that citation was unnecessary, or he made it up himself. You can judge for yourself whether time has left Wilson's boulder larger or diminished it instead.

Unfortunately, I have no examples of editorial cartoons from the suffragette or Black American press to include today. Instead, I will close with this from an editorial assessment of Wilson's legacy from a Black American newspaper:

"If Woodrow Wilson had been free to live up to the spirit of the letter he wrote to Bishop Alexander Walters before his elevation to the presidency, he might truly have been known as the 'President of Humanity.' But his southern antecedents and connections were too binding. Unfortunately some of the evils that grew out of these connections were handed down as a legacy to the Republican administration, which still suffers them to exist." —The New York Age, February 16, 1924