...In with the Old

In keeping with the turn to a fresh calendar this week, Our Graphical History Tour moves on to a New Year: 1926

"The Cut-in Dance" by Fred G. Cooper in Life, New York, Dec. 31, 1925

Judging from most cartoonists of the time, Americans entered 1926 with a carefree optimism for the future that we who dwell in it can only envy.

"Yes, Sir, He's Our Baby" by J.T. Alley in Commercial Appeal, Memphis, Tenn., Jan. 1, 1926

As with every other holiday that year, editorial cartoonists celebrated the nation's apparent prosperity. Senate Republican leader Charles Curtis promised the Washington Times,

"Our nation greets the New Year healthy and prosperous with the benefits of a kindly Providence scattered far and wide. The outlook for the next twelve months is particularly encouraging, with all signs pointing to a continuing prosperity for all alike. The present wave of prosperity, in which all the people are sharing, will last throughout the year."

Senator Curtis would be Vice President when the wave of prosperity washed out in 1929.

"The Morning After" by Jim Ring in Washington [DC] Times, Jan. 1, 1926

In the meantime, Jim Ring depicted Father Time ditching the robe and scythe in favor of an apron and broom, the better to sweep away the bad habits of 1925.

"The New Broom" by Grover Page in Louisville Courier-Journal, Jan. 1, 1926

According to Grover Page, that was more appropriately the New Year Baby's job.

"The Skeptic" by H.T. Webster for New York World Pub. Co., Jan. 1, 1926

Harold Webster's New Year Kid was not about to settle for the post of janitor. The little man was already out of diapers and ready to take over as Operations Manager.

"I Wish Old Man '25 Had Left a Clean Desk" by William C. Morris for George Matthew Adams Service, Jan. 1, 1926

Would sitting down at Mr. Globehead’s desk bring the kid back down to size?

We have covered some of the tasks in Morris’s cartoon before: from coal mine strikes and lockouts, to French wartime debts, to colonial wars in Morocco and Iraq, to worldwide disarmament, to crime and Prohibition in the U.S., to whether to join the World Court.

But we haven’t mentioned the Tacna-Arica Situation, a border disagreement between Peru and Chile that would be settled by the Lima Agreement of 1929. So now you know.

"With Best Wishes for a Happy New Year" by J. Conagher in Life, New York, Dec. 31, 1925

J. (or F.?) Conagher's cartoon has little to do with the new year save for its caption. Rather, it's a complaint against the social reformers who brought about Prohibition and were pressing for further laws against smoking, restricting content of movies, and so forth.

And while we're on the topic of unresolved problems carrying over into the new year, Leslie Rogers had a specific issue:

"A Satisfactory Year for Him" by Leslie Rogers in Chicago Defender, Jan. 2, 1926

There had been 12 Black Americans lynched in 1925 by the Chicago Defender's count. A Rogers cartoon about the most recent, of Lindsey Coleman in Clarksdale, Mississippi, appeared in our Graphical History Tour just before Christmas.

"Low and Order at Last" by Fred B. Watson in Afro-American, Jan. 2, 1926

A jury had found Coleman, a Black veteran of World War I, innocent of the axe murder of plantation store manager Grover Nicholas, brother of one of the men who then seized Coleman as he was leaving the courthouse. They dragged him into their car, drove him out of town, and shot him 26 times.

Tom Nicholas, J.T. Trayham, H.S. Blockley and G.O. Kane were arrested and charged with Coleman's murder. But while it must have come as a disappointment to Fred Watson, it should come as no surprise to students of history today that the charges against the four were dropped before the case was ever brought to trial.

As for Grover Nicholas's murder, two Black men, Ray Ford Leonard and John Fisher were found guilty on the testimony, later recanted, of Albert Hobbs. Another alleged party to the crime, Smith Bunns, died in jail, supposedly from an epileptic fall, within hours of his arrest.

"Happy New Year" by Orville P. Williams in New York Evening Journal (?), Jan. 1, 1926

White editorial cartoonist O.P. Williams offered his readers a cartoon encouraging tolerance in the new year. I've posted a number of his cartoons against the Ku Klux Klan, so I'll give him credit for as much sincerity on the issue as I'll give President Coolidge, who may have inspired this cartoon.

Toward the end of his December 8, 1925 annual message to Congress, Coolidge had this to say about racial, ethnic, and religious tolerance in the U.S.:

"Our country has many elements in its population, many different modes of thinking and living, all of which are striving in their own way to be loyal to the high ideals worthy of the crown of American citizenship. It is fundamental of our institutions that they seek to guarantee to all our inhabitants the right to live their own lives under the protection of the public law. This does not include any license to injure others materially, physically, morally, to Incite revolution, or to violate the established customs which have long bad the sanction of enlightened society.

"But it does mean the full right to liberty and equality before the law without distinction of race or creed. This condition can not be granted to others, or enjoyed by ourselves, except by the application of the principle of broadest tolerance. Bigotry is only another name for slavery. It reduces to serfdom not only those against whom it is directed, but also those who seek to apply it. An enlarged freedom can only be secured by the application of the golden rule. No other utterance ever presented such a practical rule of life."

"Speeding the Transient" by Gustavo Bronstrup in San Francisco Chronicle, Jan. 1, 1926

On that note, I'm afraid it's time to slide along ourselves. Thanks for coming along on this sweep through history!