Meanwhile in Europe

It has been a busy week Chez Bergetoons, so today's Graphical History Tour will just be a quick run-down of 1925 getting underway over there in Europe. To start, let’s check how the armistice is holding up, shall we?

"Open All Winter" by Nelson Harding in Brooklyn Daily Eagle, January 30, 1925

"Digging Out the Old Stuff" by Rollin Kirby in New York World, ca. Jan. 4, 1925

Yes, prospects for peace were pretty dim, according to Rollin Kirby at Joseph Pulitzer's New York World and Nelson Harding at the Gennison family's Brooklyn Daily Eagle.

"Das Nuejahrsprosten" by Erich Wilke in Kladderadatsch, Jan. 4, 1925

Munich cartoonist Erich Wilke depicted international relations as a soap opera. Whenever all the characters gather together, plot twists are in the offing.

You'll notice that Wilke hasn't yet updated his character stock book in a while; Uncle Sam is still Brother Jonathan.

"They're Out Again" by William Hanny in Philadelphia Inquirer, Jan. 25, 1925

U.S. Secretary of State Charles Evans Hughes resigned after successfully negotiating an agreement on postwar reparations between Germany and the Entente nations, leaving it to his successor to get the agreement past the isolationists in Congress. Fortunately for President Coolidge, the Progressives were personae non gratae among their more orthodox Republican colleagues just then after their disappointing showing in the 1924 election.

"Zangengeburt" by Thomas Theodor Heine in Simplicissimus, Munich, Jan. 19, 1925

December elections in Germany — the second in seven months— produced a coalition government of multiple parties from left, right, and center. Nazis and Communists lost seats in the Bundestag. The Social Democratic Party had the most seats, but far from a majority, and without any of the right-wing, Catholic, or monarchist parties willing to join with it.

After lengthy negotiations and bargaining among party leaders and dissidents, a coalition government was led by Centre Party, the radical nationalist German National People's Party, the conservative German People's Party, and Catholic-centered Bavarian People's Party.

"Getting Away with It, Too" by William Hanny in Philadelphia Inquirer, Jan. 12, 1925

In Italy, Benito Mussolini launched his dictatorship in a speech to the Italian Chamber of Deputies. He took responsibility for his Blackshirts, who had rioted and attacked newspaper offices, resulting in three deaths. Mussolini dared anyone to try removing him from office, and promised to restore order to Italy within forty-eight hours.

"Retreat from Moscow" by Daniel Fitzpatrick in St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Jan. 25, 1925

Soviet leader Joseph Stalin fired Leon Trotsky as Kommisar for Military and Naval Affairs. Trotsky was well known outside his country, but few American cartoonists were learning how to draw Stalin yet.

There will always be an England. 

"And Still Poor Old Decadent England Leads the World" by Arthur G. Racey in Montreal Star, Jan. 3, 1925

And according to A.G. Racey, there has always been a faction lamenting that Old Blighty's best days were behind her.

It's a lovely exercise in period costumes, however..