Keep Kartooning with Koolidge

Having caught up with the LaFollette and Davis campaigns last week, today our Graphical History Tour checks in with President Calvin Coolidge and his whirlwind campaign for a full four years in the White House.

by Charles "Bill" Sykes in Life magazine, Oct. 2 1924

Charles Sykes here scoffs at President Calvin Coolidge's campaign message of "common sense" government. Coolidge whistles past the political issues burying ground, haunted by tariff troubles, scandals left over from the Harding presidency, the Ku Klux Klan, and "our foreign policy."

"The Wide Open Spaces" by Nelson Harding in Brooklyn Daily Eagle, Sept. 29, 1924

Of the four, the Klan was certainly not a dead issue. The secretive society wielded influence not just in the solidly Democratic south, but had also made significant inroads in the Republican Party, winning gubernatorial and senate primaries in Indiana and Maine. But Democratic and Progressive leaning cartoonists lambasted Coolidge for not speaking out against the Klan.

by Grover Page in Louisville Courier-Journal, Oct. 13, 1924

Coolidge supposedly believed that his best option was to ignore the Klan and thus deprive it of the publicity a presidential statement would afford. His running mate, Charles Dawes, did speak out against the Klan, and forcibly so; as did John Davis and Robert LaFollette, the presidential nominees of the Democratic and Progressive Parties, respectively. When Coolidge finally did condemn the Klan by name, it was fully a year after this election was over.

"Silence Gives Consent" by J.P. Alley in Memphis Commercial Appeal, Sept. 2, 1924

"Keep Kool with Koolidge" by Harold Talburt for Newspaper Enterprise Assn., ca. Sept. 13, 1924

In could be what we cartoonist call a "Yahtzee," J.P. Alley and Harold Talburt both depict a klansman proudly misspelling the Republicans' election slogan. Or perhaps Talburt brazenly swiped the idea from Alley, who drew it first.

"Still Klampaigning" by Harold Talburt for NEA, ca. Sept. 15, 1924

In fact, Talburt liked the idea so much that he made a week-long series out of it, adding a new character to the parade each day.

"Klampaigning—Knumber V" by Harold Talburt for NEA, ca. Sept. 17, 1924

By the end of the series, the parade behind the Klansman included former Ambassador to Great Britain George Harvey, Charles Dawes, New Hampshire Congressman Foster W. Stearns, campaign manager William Butler, and Coolidge himself bringing up the rear.

"The Actions of 'Silent Cal'" by Ed Gale in Los Angeles Times, Sept. 10, 1924

Okay, I was being sarcastic at the top of this post. "Silent Cal" waged no whirlwind campaign. He wasn't raising the roofs of auditoriums and airport tarmacs packed with cheering fans. To his mind, the way to be elected president was to get down to the work of being President.

"The Crew That Brought This Dirigible In" by Charles Kuhn in Indianapolis News, Oct. 17, 1924

Kuhn's cartoon here references the arrival at Lakehurst Naval Station of U.S. Navy dirigible USS Los Angeles, 81 hours after departing from its German construction site at Friedrichshafen, Germany. For those of you reading on tiny devices, the crew in Kuhn's cartoon are Stability, Prosperity, Common Sense Government, Economy, and Efficiency.

Oh, by the way, I have still not found any mention of the Klan from Mr. Kuhn.

"Ho, Hum" by J.P. Alley in Memphis Commercial Appeal, Sept. 20, 1924

Coolidge was satisfied to let his running mate take care of all the campaign speechifying, flesh-pressing, and, I presume, baby-kissing. If Dawes had any complaints about it, he confided them only to J.P. Alley.

Since I've brought up Mr. Dawes again, I'll mention that Iowa Senator Smith W. Brookhart touched off some fireworks by calling for Coolidge to dump him from the Republican ticket. Please excuse the mailing label here:

"What a Noisy World" by James Donahey in Cleveland Plain Dealer, Oct. 2, 1924

Brookhart, one of those pesky Progressive Republicans, opined that Coolidge should replace Dawes, a diplomat and former Director of the Budget lauded for his proposal to resolve Europe's war reparations dispute, with someone from the "Farm Bloc."

Not that the Iowa Senator had any particular farm bloc politician in mind, of course.