Night at the Rapallo

We were discussing the Genoa Convention last week: a meeting of European and Japanese leaders (plus those of various British commonwealths) in April of 1922 with the goal of reintegrating Germany and Russia into their number.

"Weltfrühling" by Arthur Johnson in Kladderadatsch, Berlin, April 30, 1922

Compared to the very successful recent naval conference in Washington D.C., things in Genoa were not going so well. France demanded continued heavy reparations from Germany which Germany protested it could not possibly afford. 

"None So Blind" by Winsor McCay for Star Company, by April 12, 1922

As for Soviet Russia, other European leaders were eager to resume commercial activity, and Russia, having finally vanquished the country's royalists, was eager to get Japan out of Siberia. But the allies' made normalization of relations conditional upon Russia paying back the tsarist national debt, compensating other nations for property confiscated by the Soviets, and abandoning its communist form of government.

"The Russian Reply to Allies' Demands" by Elmer Bushnell for Central Press Assn., by April 26, 1922

While they felt that the debt issue could be negotiated, abandoning Marxism was unacceptable to the Russian delegation led by Soviet Foreign Minister Georgy Chicherin. The allies believed, however, that they held the upper hand against both Russia and Germany.

"Deutschland und Russland" by Ernst Schilling in Simplicissimus, Munich, May 10, 1922

What the allies hadn't counted on was Germany and Russia signing a mutual agreement in nearby Rapallo, renouncing all territorial, financial, and legal claims against each other. The two countries resumed normal diplomatic and consular relations. Germany found a way to play East against West, and Russia found itself a friend beyond its borders.

"The Russo-German Cherubs" by Clifford Berryman in Washington (DC) Evening Star, April 18, 1922

I usually find Clifford Berryman's cartoons somewhat pedestrian, if generally useful for following events at our nation's capital; but I love this parody of the Two Cherubs in Raphael's Sistine Madonna.

"The Same Old Game" by John Knott in Dallas Morning News, April 20, 1922

John Knott reflects the commonly held belief among Americans that European governments couldn't be trusted to deal fairly. That the U.S. intercepted on cables sent home and received by other countries' negotiators at the Washington D.C. Naval Conference proves that underhanded dealing was not limited to those wily Europeans.

"The Rival Attraction" by John T. McCutcheon in Chicago Tribune, April 19, 1922

And what Rapallo proved was that perhaps the British and French were just too clever for their own good.

"The Burning Question" by Gustavo Bronstrup in San Francisco Chronicle, April 19

A cartoonist's aside here: Gustavo Bronstrup's cartoons in the San Francisco Chronicle always had to accommodate the top of the paper's "The Morning's Morning" column, a collection of quick opinions and brief observances. I would be so annoyed if I had to allow for a print column to cover up the lower right corner of my cartoon day after every fricking day.

"Rockin' the Boat" by Dorman H. Smith for Newspaper Enterprise Assn., by April 25, 1922

At any rate, the Genoa Conference, thanks to the Rapallo Pact, has gone down in history as a colossal diplomatic failure.

"Mon Dieu! The Cook's Gone Off with the Butler" by Art Young in The Nation, May, 1922

Saturday Pot Pourri

I'm keeping this week's Saturday History Tour short and sweet and in search of any unifying theme today, so let's just get started.

Last week, I happened to see celebrity news about some actor or musician or social influencer or whoever he was posting photos of himself and his son because it was Father And Son Day. I had never heard of the celebrity or the Day before, so naturally, I looked up Father And Son Day. 

It turns out that Father And Son Day was founded seven years ago by cancer survivors Jack Dyson and Daniel Marks to raise awareness of and funds for cancer research. I'm still a little confused about when the day is, but it certainly seems that it's for a worthy cause.

"Father and Son Week" by Dorman H. Smith for Newspaper Enterprise Assn., by Nov. 4, 1921

So imagine my surprise a day or so later to run across this 100-year-old cartoon about Father And Son Week!

Whenever this year's F&S Day might have been, Dorman Smith's F&S Week was definitely in the fall (note the tree). So, really, you can celebrate it whenever you want and for a day or a week or a fortnight if you want. Heck, celebrate it throughout Daylight Savings Time.

Nobody's going to argue with you about it.

And wasn't it nice to start out today's post with something nobody needs to argue about for a change?

"The Storm Centers" by Magnus Kettner for Western Newspaper Union, by Nov. 11, 1921

On the other hand, Magnus Kettner presents us with a cartoon that I find deceptively sweet, hiding an inner core of rural antipathy toward their urban compatriots — a hostility that has festered into today's Red-Blue divide.

Not that there was anything new about that in 1921; you can trace the attitude all the way back to Aesop's city mouse and country mouse.

But I have one more bone to pick with Mr. Kettner: one of the major news stories of November, 1921 was a big strike by coal miners, few of whom lived in "the city." You just don't find many coal miners living in New York City, Philadelphia, or Chicago, but rather in small towns like Hazard, Kentucky; Welch, West Virginia; or Diamondville, Wyoming.

"Pruning the Wrong End" by John Baer, by Nov. 2, 1921

Cartoonist and former Congressman John Baer was part of a self-named Nonpartisan movement that attempted to forge links between rural farmers and urban and small-town laborers. The 1920's would be tough on the Nonpartisan movement, and its non-partisan angle slowly closed. Labor interests became increasingly aligned with the Democratic Party, and farmers have, a century later, become a reliably Republican voting bloc.

If there's nothing new about ginning up animus between country and city mice, there's nothing new about the top 1% pitting the bottom 99% against each other's interests, either.

"Slow, But So Is Congress" by Art Young, by Nov. 3, 1921

You know what else is not new? It's Joe Manchins and Kyrsten Sinemas blocking popular legislation because all they see is the price tag. 

If you asked the average man or woman on the street or in the field in 1921, you would have found overwhelming support for the idea that the United States owed a debt to its Great War veterans who lost health or limb making the world safe for democracy. Art Young here wonderfully satirizes how long it was taking for legislation to give these veterans "bonus" payments to get anywhere, even given that the Republican Party had control of the White House and both houses of Congress.

Lastly, this Veterans' Day marks the 100th anniversary of the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Arlington, Virginia receiving its first occupant; so, without further comment, I close with a few examples of the nation's editorial cartoonists marking the event.

"Armistice Day" by Leo Bushnell for Central Press Assn., by Nov. 11, 1921

by Clifford Berryman in Washington DC Evening Star, Nov. 11, 1921

"The Unknown Mother" by John Cassell in New York Evening World, Nov. 11, 1921

"Lord God of Hosts..." by Cleon Larson, "a Salt Lake school boy," in Deseret News, Nov. 11, 1921

"My Boy" by Charles Dana Gibson in Life Magazine, Nov. 10, 1921