Graphical History Tour Inc. couldn't let April get away without celebrating the centennial of J.N. "Ding" Darling's return to the drawing board after a year battling peritonitis.
Jay N. Darling, "Ding," returns to the Register's front page this morning with the first cartoon he has drawn after more than a year's absence. Mr. Darling has completely recovered his health, following the serious illness with peritonitis with which he was stricken March 19, 1925. Ed LeCocq, the young cartoonist who substituted for Mr. Darling, will draw cartoons for the Evening Tribune.
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| "If You Don't Think the World Moves..." by J.N. "Ding" Darling in Des Moines Register, April 5, 1926 |
In Ding's first cartoon upon return, he appears undaunted by the challenge of catching up with the whirlwind of world events since his pen fell silent.
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| "Things Seem Just About Where We Left Them a Year Ago" by J.N. "Ding" Darling in Des Moines Register, Apr. 6, 1926 |
But one day later, he realized that it was still the 1920's after all. Prohibition was still the law of the land, if not universally observed; the Democratic Party was still out of power and searching for some winning issue; Congress was still promising aid to farmers but not delivering; isolationists were still thwarting Uncle Sam trying to fetch peace off the shelf; and, apparently, President Coolidge was hard at work sawing logs.
Darling approved of Calvin Coolidge, which is why he is the only figure not beset by cobwebs in the cartoon.
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| "Looks As Though He'd Adopted Something" by J.N. "Ding" Darling in Des Moines Register, Apr. 13, 1926 |
Darling returned to his drawing board just in time for the culmination of Democrat Daniel Steck's challenge to overturn Republican Senator Smith Brookhart's 1924 election victory.
Brookhart was elected to the Senate in 1922 to fill out the term of William S. Kenyon, and immediately challenged Senate norms, preferring cowhide shoes and overalls to suits and ties. A progressive "radical," he publicly backed Robert La Follette's 1924 presidential campaign over Coolidge's reelection while running for a full Senate term of his own. Republican party leaders withdrew their support over this unforgiveable defection from party loyalty.
Election night returns appeared to indicate that Steck would be the first Democrat elected to the Senate by Iowans since the Civil War; but late results from rural counties gave Brookhart a 754-vote margin of victory. Brookhart was sworn into office on March 4, 1925.
Steck, backed by the Iowa Republican Party, filed an official challenge with the Senate Committee on Elections and Privileges. On April 12, 1926, 16 Senate Republicans figured they would rather have another Democrat in the minority than Brookhart within their caucus, and joined their 29 Democratic colleagues voting to recognize Steck as the winner of the 1924 election.
Brookhart promptly announced that he would challenge Iowa's Senior Senator, Albert Cummins, in 1928. He did so, successfully.
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| "First Blood" by Ed LeCocq in Des Moines Evening Tribune, Apr. 13, 1926 |
Since "young cartoonist" Ed LeCocq has graced our pixels repeatedly over the past year, I thought it only fair to let him comment on Brookhart's ouster here. I wonder if he had been prepared to draw a glum Miss Democracy in case the Senate vote had gone the other way. His GOP Elephant could have remained disappointed in either event.
LeCocq's editors at the Evening Tribune seemed to view Steck's victory as a portent of Democratic victories yet to come. It wasn't; even the Great Depression couldn't get Steck reelected in 1930.
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| "To Retrieve the Family Fortunes" by J.N. "Ding" Darling in Des Moines Register, Apr. 7, 1926 |
Getting back to those Things Where We Left Them a Year Ago, the Democratic Governor of New York, Al Smith, was a champion of the "Wets," pushing for loosening, if not repeal, of Prohibition. In the spring of 1926, the Wets proposed decriminalizing beer and "light wines" (5.5-10% Alcohol By Volume), while leaving hard liquor fully illegal.
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| "Important If True" by J.N. "Ding" Darling in Des Moines Register, Apr. 20, 1926 |
One argument in favor of loosening Prohibition laws was that organized crime was trafficking profitably — and violently — in contraband hooch. It was well known that powerful crime bosses had help from corrupt elected officials, law enforcers, and judges, not to mention otherwise upstanding citizens.
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| "The Voice of Authority" by J.N. "Ding" Darling in Des Moines Register, Apr. 25, 1926 |
This Darling cartoon points out a powerful force within the "Dry" constituency: the Women's Vote.
Prohibition became law because of a coalition of Progressive social reformers, religious conservatives, Southern Democrats, and wives tired of their husbands coming home drunk all the time.
Moving on to foreign affairs...
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| "The Audience Will Kindly Refrain from Applause Until the Act Is Over" by J.N. "Ding" Darling in Des Moines Register, Apr. 9, 1926 |
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| "All There Was" by J.N. "Ding" Darling in Des Moines Register, Apr. 10, 1926 |
The Coolidge administration reached agreements with World War I allies France and Italy for their repayment of war debts to the U.S. Both countries were left heavily damaged after the war, yet many editorial cartoonists and their publishers demanded prompt repayment in full and would settle for nothing less. Darling took a more nuanced view of things.
I really like how, in his cartoon about settling the debt from France, he draws your eye from the oversized trapeze artiste, to the gentleman reaching to catch her, to the Master of Ceremonies on the ground, and finally to the expectant crowd.
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| "No Wonder the Neighbors Are Beginning to Talk" by J.N. "Ding" Darling in Des Moines Register, Apr. 23, 1926 |
By the way, it was another month before Darling resumed drawing cartoons for Collier's. He tweaked one of the above cartoons for this last one.
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| "Putting It Up to Papa" by J.N. "Ding" Darling in Collier's, May 29, 1926 |
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