Thanksgiving Leftovers

This week's installment of Stuffingback Saturday takes another rummage through the ancient vaults in search of the answer to the question: "What Thanksgiving gags did editorial cartoonists draw before we all drew about political fights dividing the family at the dinner table?"

"Cousin Ed's Folks from Town" by Burt Thomas in Detroit News, November 1916

I usually try to keep these cartoons as close to their centennial as possible, but my source for these first three, Cartoons Magazine, tended to run holiday-themed cartoons (for any holiday) from earlier years. The December, 1919 edition, for example, included the above Burt Thomas cartoon, which is clearly dated 1916. That's quite understandable, with Thanksgiving coming after the December edition's deadline; who would still be interested in Thanksgiving cartoons when the January edition came out?

In 1919, their dilemma was that a lot of cartoons drawn for Thanksgiving 1918 expressed thanks that the boys would be coming home soon from the War that had ended two weeks earlier. Thus, it's hard for me to tell what year the other cartoons in that issue were from.

"The Good Old Days" by Ted Brown in Chicago Daily News, Nov. 1919?

Here's a cartoon by Ted Brown from the December, 1920 edition; there's a chance that Cartoons Magazine might have saved it from 1919 when complaints about the cost of living were in vogue. (So this is the thanks the First Americans get for inviting the pilgrim colonists to the First Thanksgiving!)

"Breaking into the Big League" by Archibald Chapin in St. Louis Republic, Nov. 1918 or earlier

I don't know what things were like in the Chapin household, but I hope the young lady in this cartoon soon figured out that there are many reasons why it's a bad idea to keep a birdcage over the stove.

"Ain't It a Grand and Glorious Feelin'" by Clare Briggs in New York Tribune, Nov. 27, 1919

In the Briggs household, the kids had to wait until the adults were done eating before they were permitted to come to the table. And if this were not at least a fairly common practice, don't you think Briggs's readers would have shamed him en masse after this cartoon was nationally syndicated?

No, I suppose that if your apartment wasn't large enough to accommodate a separate children's table, you had to make do by teaching the children The Virtue Of Patience. We know now that the grown-ups in 1919 who feasted while their children's stomachs growled in the next room would, just as those kids became adults, bequeath them the Great Depression.

But would those kids snark "OK, Homer" at them? I think not.

"What Are You Thankful For" by William Hanny in St. Joseph News-Press, Nov. 27, 1919

Editorial cartoonists looking to tie the holiday in with serious issues could, like William Hanny, bemoan the strikes by workers demanding a greater share of corporate profits now that the War was over. Few cartoonists displayed sympathy for striking coal miners, steel workers and trainmen, since most homes were heated by coal, and the private automobile was only just beginning to rival train travel.

What the deal is with "The Common Pee-ple," I have no idea. Perhaps Hanny's original idea involved likening the strikes to a urinary tract infection.

"The Long and Short of It" by Nelson Harding in Brooklyn Daily Eagle, Nov. 25, 1919

As I mentioned before, the high cost of living was a frequent theme of 1919 editorial cartoons. Nelson Harding offers plenty of drumstick for the holiday — emphasis on the stick.

"The Vacant Chairs" by John McCutcheon in Chicago Tribune, Nov. 27, 1919 

John McCutcheon's Uncle Sam celebrated the holiday with Extravagance, Unrest and the High Cost of Living, but at least half of the invited guests were AWOL. Why Uncle Sam invited any of them in the first place is anyone's guess.

Well, I suppose it was only charitable of him to invite Hunger and Hard Times to dinner.

But since I can't leave you with the impression that Thanksgiving in 1919 was all grousing and peevishness, let us close with a cartoonist who, like Clare Briggs above, perceived his era through quaintly rose-colored spectacles:

"The Thrill that Comes Once in a Lifetime" by Harold T. Webster in New York Tribune, November 27, 1919

After all, the era would have wanted to be remembered that way.

1919's Rash of Lynching

Mercurial President Donald Trump brought up the subject of lynching earlier this week, so Sweptback Saturday takes the occasion to travel just slightly over a century into history to a time when lynching was running rampant in the U.S.

The Chicago race riots that we discussed here in August were just one episode out of many that would lead to a resurgence of the Ku Klux Klan. The "Red Summer" continued well into the fall; the entire nation would be shocked by a mob riot in Omaha, Nebraska, on Sunday, September 28.

"Held Up!" by John H. Cassel in New York Evening World,  September 30, 1919

A white mob set fire to the Douglas County Courthouse and hanged Mayor Edward Smith from traffic light, demanding that he release to them one William Brown, a black man accused of attacking a white woman. Authorities released some hundred or so prisoners being held at the four-story courthouse onto the roof. According to some accounts, the mob pushed past Sheriff Clark and seized Brown in a corridor; Clark's own account to the press was that other prisoners pushed Brown off the roof into the mob below.

"Dawn in Omaha" by Daniel Fitzpatrick in St. Louis Post-Dispatch, October, 1919

Mayor Smith ended up in the hospital, and Brown ended up in the morgue, shot twice, hanged, and burned. (There are photographs, if you can stomach them, but I will neither include nor link to them here.) Army units under General Leonard Wood were sent to Omaha to restore order, effecting an undeclared martial law over the next two weeks.

But the most deadly riot of the Red Summer was in Elaine, Arkansas two days after the Omaha lynching, when whites panicked over a rumor that blacks were planning an armed insurrection. As many as 237 African-American residents of the small town may have been killed by the white mob. As a further injustice, 72 African-Americans were tried and convicted of murder, and twelve of them sentenced to death.

"Just a Nightmare" by Claude Shafer in Cincinnati Post,  October, 1919

What strikes me about the editorial cartoons I came across about these race riots and lynchings is that so many of them completely overlook the racial component central to the violence. Even John Cassel, whose cartoons praising African-American soldiers I've pointed out before, ignores the issue of race in his cartoon about the Omaha riot.

To some extent, that is because there were at the same time a number of workers' strikes beset by violence (largely blamed on the strikers, although the brutal tactics of law enforcement public and private certainly contributed to that mayhem). And the issues overlap: the official inquiry into the Elaine lynchings admitted no African-American testimony, but historians agree that there was no plot of armed revolt. Rather, black sharecroppers were attempting to organize union-style for more equitable terms from their white landowners. Elsewhere, employers brought in African-Americans as "scab" laborers during labor strikes, only exacerbating racial animosity.

Conflating a host of issues, Sidney Greene, below, cites "mob maniacs" as just the bottom-most of many things which might embarrass the U.S. in front of visiting royalty.

"Hide These 'Sights' from the Belgian King" by Sidney Greene in New York Evening Telegram, October 3, 1919

Not surprisingly, the one cartoon I've found specifying race as its topic was by an African-American cartoonist, Leslie Rogers of the Chicago Defender.

"Sightseeing" by Leslie Rogers in Chicago Defender, October, 1919

For what it's worth, not every lynch mob resulted in mass murder. On Hallowe'en, hundreds of white citizens of Corbin, Kentucky, sparked by a report of a robbery, forced every black resident they could find in town out of their homes and into a train bound for Knoxville.

Rattling off a list of other lynchings in a October 1, 1919 editorial, the Philadelphia Public Ledger gave this mealy-mouthed sort-of condemnation of one of them:

"In Mt. Holly, N.J., there is talk of lynching a negro who attacked a white woman. If anything justifies a lynching, it is the crime with which this negro is charged. But nothing justifies a lynching. Lynching may be too good for the criminal. It is the damnable effect that it has on the mob and the reaction on the country at large that make it wholly bad."

"Oh, Little Brother" by Gaar Williams in Indianapolis News, October, 1919

Sen. John Sharp Williams (D-MS) leapt to the defense of the lynch mobs, harrumphing,

"In all the debates we have had here over these race disturbances, no mention has been made of the fact that they had, in most instances, their inception in attempts by negro men to violate white women. I will go as far as any man along the path of peace, and I will arbitrate any dispute which I think can be settled by peaceful means, but when it comes to a man regardless of his color, violating women, I surrender him to the first crowd."

As shocking as Senator Williams's statement is today, I suspect that the "attempts by negro men to violate white women" that incensed him and his mobs would elicit from even the most hypersensitive of today's #MeToo warriors a hesitant "Is that all?"

"At the Other End of the Lynchers' Rope" by J. N. "Ding" Darling in New York Tribune, October 3, 1919

Consider also that, as a later grand jury in the Omaha case found, "Several reported assaults on white women had actually been perpetrated by whites in blackface," charging that figures in organized crime "premeditated and planned" the rioting. Their evidence included police reports that at least one white rioter was arrested wearing blackface.

Yet no white person was ever found guilty of participation in the riot.

Dear Old Golden Rule Days

Scholarback Saturday gives politics a rest today to resurrect some century-old back-to-school cartoons.

"Gee! Old September's Here!" by Charles Ash in Dayton Journal, September 1918 or 1919.

There isn't a great depth of meaning to these cartoons. One does note that overwhelmingly, the stars of these cartoons are little boys, forced against their will to forsake the dog and the swimming hole in favor of a cravat, shoes, and a bundle of books.

"The Melancholy Days Will Soon Be Here" by William Hanny in St. Joseph News-Press, Sept. 5, 1919

If girls back then were expected to spend summer helping Ma around the house, perhaps little Marie wasn't as sorry to see the arrival of Fall. But then, little Johnnie was expected to perform his chores, too; there is no shortage of summertime cartoons of little boys glumly peeling potatoes on the porch or hauling water from the well. All of that, however, was forgotten when September rolled around.

"When a Feller Needs a Friend" by Clare Briggs in Chicago Tribune, Sept. 1918 or 1919

I've allowed for the possibility that some of these cartoons were a year old when Cartoons Magazine included them in its October, 1919 edition. Cartoons Magazine often ran cartoons from the previous year when putting together a round-up of holiday and seasonal work; the cartoons in the July, 1919 edition's celebration of Independence Day and Bastille Day were clearly drawn while American and French soldiers were fighting side by side on the battlefield.

"When a Feller Needs a Friend" by Clare Briggs in Chicago Tribune, Sept. 1, 1919

This episode of Claire Briggs's "When a Feller Needs a Friend" series does indeed date from 1919. I can't imagine a lad of this feller's age going to school in shoes like those today. Or, for that matter, wearing a neckerchief like that. Even on Class Photo Day.

To balance off the cartoons that might have been from 1918 instead of 1919, here are a couple that might have been from 1920.

"School Days!" by Fred Seibel in Knickerbocker Press, Sept. 1919 or 1920

Fred Seibel's signature crow gives a shout-out to Clare Briggs in this cartoon that predates the concern that overloaded backpacks were giving our youth scoliosis. Nowadays, of course, the entire Library of Congress fits in Junior's shirt pocket, and we know that poor posture has nothing to do with how many volumes he had to carry from the classroom to Mom's car and back again.

"Called to the Colors!" by Billy Ireland in Columbus Dispatch, Sept. 1919 or 1920

Even though Cartoons Magazine printed this Billy Ireland cartoon in 1920, the military recruitment aspect of "Your country needs you!" makes me wonder if they hadn't sat on this cartoon for two years. Americans surely hadn't forgotten conscription by 1920, but it wasn't particularly immediate in people's minds.

Yet it is the phenomenon of the American educational system forcing young boys go to the dentist that truly deserves further study.

"Wanderlust" by Magnus Kettner for Western Newspaper Union, Sept. 1918 or 1919

Finally, some cartoons that recognize that little girls had to go to school, too.

It looks to me as though Magnus Kettner's schoolboys could get away with going off to school barefoot. Briggs's schoolboy might have loved to hop the train just to get off at Kettners's school.

"G'wan Now!—G'wan Home!" by George W. Rehse in New York World, Sept. 1918 or 1919

Now, don't George Rehse's little girls look perfectly happy to be going back to class?

"A New Version of September Morn" by Wm. C. Morris for George Matthew Adams Service, Sept. 1919 or 1920

Well, Bill Morris settles it, then. Girls just adore going to school. Any excuse to wear a bow the size of a sewing basket in their hair.

In the Good Old Summer Time

As vacation season winds to a close, Summerback Saturday takes a break from wars and riots and bombings to remark on a phenomenon I noticed while searching for century-old cartoons about all that heavy stuff. See if you can figure it out.

"Sketches from Life" by Harry C. Temple in Cleveland Plain Dealer, summer, 1919

One more cartoon should do it.

"When They Were Making Their Vacation Plans" by Wm. Morris for George Matthew Adams Service, summer, 1919

They called the phenomenon "The Summer Widower." It appears to have been a common enough thing to be the premise of plenty of cartoons, just like cartoons of young lads splashing in swimming holes and of the same lads woefully toting bundles of books to school in September.

"The Summer Widowers' Party" by Sid Chapin in St. Louis Republic, summer, 1919

I'm not sure whether Chapin's cartoon ran in June or July; if it was the latter, Henry must still have had some prohibited beverage there in the basement, which would explain why he's prudently staying outside the frame.

"When the Family's Away" by R.M. Brinkerhoff in New York Evening Mail, summer, 1919

Perhaps Dad staying home while the rest of the family goes merrily away on vacation seems perfectly normal to you, but growing up, I recall only one time when Mom took us kids off without Dad. We took the train up to see her parents once; I think Dad went separately to a churchwide assembly or somesuch. (Not most people's idea of summer fun.) Otherwise, Dad drove us in the car whenever we went traveling.

"Tragedy of the Summer Widower" by Kenneth Chamberlain in Cincinnati Press, summer, 1919

If summer widowerhood were all poker games and loafing around, it would have been called summer bachelorhood. Having the house all to oneself had its downside, however, especially in those days when Papa couldn't figure out how to operate a dishcloth.

"Portrait of the Man Who Told His Wife..." by Wm. C. Morris for George Matthew Adams Service, summer, 1919

To get serious for a moment, the reason these summer widowers weren't joining their families on vacation is that they probably wouldn't have had a job when they got back. Even if they did happen to belong to a union, unions were still working to win their members an eight-hour day and a 40-hour week; guaranteed vacation time wasn't even under consideration.

Not that it was unheard of. President Taft had proposed in 1910 that workers should have two to three months of vacation time every year, only to have the proposal go nowhere. Not until the Great Depression did employers start to see the value in letting their workers take some time off to recharge their batteries: first white-collar workers, then eventually blue-collar workers as well. Unions began to see vacation time as a valuable bargaining chip, and by 1943, 60% of American workers were entitled to paid vacation.

But unlike much of the rest of the world, the U.S. has no law guaranteeing paid vacation time for anyone but members of Congress and state legislatures.

"A Midsummer Day's Dream" by H.H. Perry in Portland Oregonian, August, 1919

P.S.: We mustn't forget the working women of 1919 ... although I doubt their husbands were off with the kids to play with the Esquimaux.

Your Teeming Masses

Since the Corrupt Trump Administration is now bowdlerizing Emma Lazarus and criminalizing legal immigrants, Stigmaback Saturday takes a wide-ranging look back at the United States's anti-immigrant hypocrisy.

I just bought myself the fifth volume of the comprehensive collection of daily and Sunday "Pogo" comic strips by Walt Kelly. The foreword by Jake Tapper includes this non-Pogo strip Kelly drew in response to the Displaced Persons Act of 1948.

Cartoon by Walt Kelly (in New York Star?), ca. June, 1948

Refugees admitted to the United States under this program were also aided by voluntary social service agencies, accredited by the Displaced Person Commission. Most of these agencies were created by religious and ethnic groups, who gave assurances that the admitted refugees would not become “public charges” and that they, the agencies, would help oversee the resettlement of the refugees.

In spite of being a nation of immigrants, the U.S. has a long history of citizens convinced that immigration got out of hand once grandpa and grandma had stepped off the boat.

I don't have a cartoonist, publication, or date for this cartoon (credit Culver Pictures), but it probably dates from the fin de siècle, and quite possibly Judge magazine.

"Where Is the Blame" by Grant Hamilton in Judge, ca. 1891

The cartoonists at Judge appear to have a long-standing animus against immigrants. The protagonist in Judge Art Editor Grant Hamilton's 1891 cartoon points at a horde of ne'er-do-wells labeled "German socialist," "Russian anarchist," "Polish vagabond," "Italian brigand," "English convict," and "Irish pauper,"  and tells Uncle Sam, "If Immigration was properly Restricted you would no longer be troubled with Anarchy, Socialism, the Mafia and such kindred evils!"

"The Unrestricted Dumping Ground" by Louis Dalrymple in Judge, ca. 1901 or '02

Another Judge cartoonist, Louis Dalrymple, portrays immigrants "direct from the slums of Europe" swarming ashore as so many rats. Italians figure rather prominently in this cartoon; so too does anarchist Leon Czolgosz, represented by the rat with the red bandanna and a dagger labeled "assassination" in its teeth. Looking through the clouds is the president he assassinated, William McKinley. (The real Czolgosz used a gun, but I guess the Socialist rat swiped it from him in this cartoon. To each according to his needs.)

"The High Tide of Immigration" by Louis Dalrymple in Judge, 1903

Dalrymple returned to a maritime metaphor in 1903, widening his paranoia to a more inclusive array of national stereotypes. Now, I'm not saying his anti-immigrant preoccupation was itself a manifestation of mental disease or defect, but as it happens, Dalrymple died of paralytic dementia just two years later, aged 44. Let that be a warning to Stephen Miller.

"Put Them Out and Keep Them Out" by Fred Morgan in Philadelphia Inquirer, June, 1919

Since this here blog has a thing about keeping track of what cartoonists were drawing 100 years ago, let's now skip ahead to 1919. A series of terrorist attacks by communist sympathizers began with several explosive devices mailed to prominent Americans, including Attorney General A. Mitchell Palmer and billionaire John D. Rockefeller, intended to be delivered on May Day. A few arrived early and others were not delivered due to insufficient postage. One delivered to a senator from Georgia did explode, injuring his wife; another delivered to the mayor of Seattle was a dud. The rest were intercepted before anyone was hurt.

"An Ounce of Mosquito Netting..." by J. "Ding" Darling in New York Tribune, June 6, 1919

If you want something done right, you have to do it yourself. Bombers delivered explosive devices themselves in eight U.S. cities shortly after midnight on June 2, including at the homes of Attorney General Palmer, of judges in New York City, Pittsburgh and Boston, of a Massachusetts congressman, and of the mayor of Cleveland. The Church of Our Lady of Victory in Philadelphia was another target. Two were killed in the New York bombing, one of them reportedly the bomber himself.

"Mary, Mary, Quite Contrary..." by Nelson Harding in Brooklyn Daily Eagle, June 8, 1919

Residual panic over bombings of military and port facilities by German sympathizers during the war easily shifted to red hysteria, especially since communism was associated not only with Russians, but with Germans — especially German-American academics and socialists in elected office.

"The Hook" by Bob Satterfield for Newspaper Enterprise Association, June, 1919

Many cartoonists were able to express their condemnation of the bombers without painting immigrants with the same brush, pen or charcoal. But for many Americans, it was taken for granted that immigrants were behind the violence and that sending them back to Europe was the obvious solution — a sentiment the Ku Klux Klan would be able to exploit in the decade to come.

"There Is Some Carpenter Work for Us to Do" by Billy Ireland in Columbus Dispatch, June, 1919

But let us step back another 50 years to close with a more hopeful "Can't we all just get along?" sentiment, from German-American immigrant Thomas Nast.

"Uncle Sam's Thanksgiving Dinner" by Thomas Nast in Harper's Weekly, November 20, 1869

Why, he even allowed the Irish guy a seat at the table!

Race Riots and High Prices

Non Sequiturback Saturday looks at race riots and the cost of living a century ago, and the editorial cartoonists' response to both. We'll start with the heavy stuff.

"Prohibition Hasn't Sobered the Headlines" by John T. McCutcheon in Chicago Tribune, August 16, 1919

Chicago experienced a week of rioting after a Black youth, Eugene Williams, swimming off a de facto whites-only beach, was stoned by White youths until he drowned. Police refused to arrest the man witnesses identified as the instigator of the stoning, which sparked rioting by Black gangs and unmeasured retaliation by White ethnic gangs. 23 Blacks and 15 Whites were killed, over 500 injured. White arsonists burned 1,000 Black families out of their homes between July 27 and August 3, 1919, as lamented by Black cartoonist Leslie Rogers.

"Stamp Him Out" by Leslie Rogers in Chicago Defender, August, 1919

Racial tension and violence was by no means limited to Chicago. White veterans returned home to find their pre-war jobs filled by immigrants and by Blacks who had migrated north and west from southern states. 1919 would see racist resentment spur riots in Washington, DC; Knoxville, TN; Longview, TX; Phillips Co., AR; and Omaha, NE.

"Following the Advice of the 'Old Crowd' Negro," unsigned, in The Messenger, August, 1919 

"The 'New Crowd Negro' Making America Safe for Himself," unsigned, in The Messenger, August, 1919

Although my selection of editorial cartoons here clearly hold White hoodlums responsible for the rioting, there were editorial writers who insinuated that some Blacks had fallen under the influence of Bolshevik rabble-rousers.

"The Slave of Violence" by Sidney Joseph Greene in New York Evening Telegram, July 31, 1919

Moving on to much less serious matters, but one that held more cartoonists' attention: high prices of commodities have been a perennial concern since the days of the cowry shell. Attacks on shipping before the U.S. entered the war, and the need to supply our soldiers after that had necessitated shortages on various goods; Americans were unpleasantly surprised not to see a return to Taft-era prices. As a writer for the Brooklyn Daily Eagle quipped, "The roar against the high cost of necessities is accompanied by a howl about the necessities of high costs."

"Faith, Hope and Charity" by Sidney J. Greene in New York Evening Telegram, August 3, 1919

I have to note here that while Sidney Greene's cartoon may have run in the Milwaukee Sentinel, he drew it for the New York Evening Telegram; the Sentinel did not have a cartoonist of its own in 1919.

It was not standard practice, as it has been as long as I can remember, for cartoonists to include a credit line for their newspaper or syndicate in the body of their cartoons. One possible exception is William C. Morris, who included an encircled "A" in the cartoons he drew for the George Matthew Adams Service.

"Let the Sun Shine on It" by Kenneth Chamberlain in Cleveland Press, August, 1919

Concern over the high cost of living was so pervasive that headline writers routinely used "H.C.L." instead of spelling it out. The public, press and politicians focused their ire on profiteering by producers withholding foodstuffs, coal, and other commodities from the market. Grocers, for their part, replied that, thanks to the new practice of allowing customers to fill their shopping baskets rather than having the grocer fetch things for them, those consumers were choosing only the most attractive meats and vegetables and leaving the rest to rot on market shelves.

"Under the Old Family Umbrella" by Donald McKee for Associated Newspapers, August 7, 1919

Surplus food supplies held by the War Department also contributed to raising costs, so it was a relief to consumers when the government began selling these supplies to the public by parcel post in mid-August. Attorney General A. Mitchell Palmer proposed reinstating wartime controls over supplies and costs.

"Another Victory Day" by Elmer A. Bushnell for Central Press Assn., Cleveland, August, 1919

To give you an idea what consumers were complaining about, here are excerpts from letters to the Telegraph-Herald of Dubuque, Iowa:

"I recently paid forty-three cents a pound for pork loins and thirty-eight cents a pound for pork shoulder. While I do not know the exact costs of handling this meat, still I feel sure that these prices are excessive..." —An Old Subscriber
"This morning my wife bought a pound of boiled ham and do you know what she paid for it? Eighty cents! I was sure there was a mistake, but I found that the price ranged from sevety-five to eighty cents, and the very poorest cuts for twenty-five cents." —A Plain Citizen
"I see by the papers that the government has been requested to look into the high prices of food. If they would pay Dubuque a visit, they would find plenty to investigate right here. Yesterday our butcher charged me thirty-eight cents for fresh beef. But the bacon takes the prize. It cost me seventy cents a pound." —A Regular Reader
"Somebody has this town by the throat and is trying to choke it. Here's why. Today I paid a dollar a peck for potatoes. I also bought a hundred-pound sack of flour for seven dollars and thirty-five cents. Is that fair?" —One of the Consumers

"The Fickle Public" by Albert W. Steele in Denver Post, August, 1919

Since it may be hard to read this Denver Post cartoon, "The Fickle Public," the dancing man being booed on stage is "High Cost o' Livin'," and President Wilson's ribbon identifies him as "Stage Manager." I can't imagine that the fickle audience had cheered Mr. Livin' at any point during his performance, so I'm guessing — wildly, mind you — that Miss League of Nations is disappointed that the audience isn't booing her any more.