Christmas 1925

Welcome to our Graphical History Tour Christmas Special! We're just about through with the year 1925, when peace, goodwill, and sobriety reigned, and all was right with the world.

"Merry Christmas" by William Hanny in Philadelphia Inquirer, Dec. 25, 1925

I'm going to let Bill Hanny represent all the cartoonists who updated their Thanksgiving for General Prosperity cartoon for the next holiday on the calendar. The happy recipient of an overstuffed stocking here was Father Penn, the cartoon personification of the state of Pennsylvania, and not the guy on the Quaker Oats canister.

"Uncle Sam's Dream of Christmas" by Edward G. McCandlish in Washington Post, Dec. 25, 1925

McCandlish at the Washington Post expands on Hanny's theme, depicting a serving of Plenty, a Christmas tree festooned with Peace, Security, and No Foreign Entanglements; and, at lower right, an agreement between labor and management averting a coal miners' strike. That agreement hadn't actually materialized yet when this cartoon was drawn, however.

"The Very Thing He Wanted Most" by Clifford Berryman in Washington Evening Star, Dec. 25, 1925

Up the road at the Star, Clifford Berryman's Everyman had a more limited wish list. To his delight, Congress had passed the Coolidge administration's tax cut, to take effect in 1926.

"Good Will to Men" by Gustavo Bronstrup in San Francisco Chronicle, Dec. 24, 1925

Gustavo Brunstrup shared the San Francisco Chronicle's optimism that the U.S. Senate would overcome three years of obstruction by its "irreconcilables" and join Europe in agreeing to participate in the World Court.

"Christmas Bells" by Daniel Fitzpatrick in St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Dec. 24, 1925

Critics of the Coolidge administration such as Daniel Fitzpatrick might begrudge Republicans their peace and prosperity; they could still celebrate the Locarno agreements among the major European powers putting an end to war (offer not valid in Morocco, Syria, and Iraq), and the Geneva Protocol, drafted in June, banning chemical and biological weapons.

"The Face at the Window" by Ed LeCocq in Des Moines Register, Dec. 24, 1925

Ed LeCocq used the celebration of "the new spirit of mutual cooperation" and "comforts of capital and trade intercourse" in Europe to point out one country that was left out: Russia. 

"The Face at the Window" used to be a common cartoon theme in the Christmas season. In most such cartoons I've seen, that Face is a pitiable, sympathetic figure, left out of the warmth, feasting, and bonhomie inside, reminding readers of the plight of the poor. The cultural references that Google up for this forgotten cliché, however, are tales of criminals, murderers, and ghosts plotting their way in.

Perhaps that's why cartoonists stopped using "The Face at the Window" as a caption.

"Besorgnis" by Arthur Krüger in Kladderadatsch, Berlin, Dec. 13, 1925

A pair of German cartoons took skeptical views in varying degrees of Europe's newfound international comity. In Arthur Krüger's cartoon, Germany, France, Britain, Belgium, and Italy merrily dance around their Christmas tree, with its "Peace on Earth" topper, but Not-So-Jolly St. Nicholas worries that they are about to carelessly kick the whole thing over. In an age when candles, not LED lights, lit up the Christmas tree, knocking the tree over was liable to get it considerably too lit up.

"Der Untaugliche Nussknacker" by Werner Hahmann in Kladderadatsch, Berlin, Dec. 27, 1925

Werner Hahmann's Angel of Peace found the League of Nations (Völker Bund) not up to the task of cracking Disarmament (Abrüstung). 

These German cartoonists in the 1920's really were a bunch of sour pusses. It's as if they knew they were between the Wars.

"In the Hollow of His Hand" by Jesse Cargill for King Features Syndicate, ca. Dec. 24, 1925

Returning to America, I'm not sure what to make of Santa Claus holding the globe in the hollow of his hand. Does Jesse Cargill's Santa Claus look as annoyed to you as he does to me? He almost looks like he's getting ready to throw it at someone.

"Aw-w, There Ain't No Santa Claus" by Leslie Rogers in Chicago Defender, Dec. 26, 1925

There's no mistaking Leslie Rogers's intentions. Rogers's cartoon for the African-American newspaper the Chicago Defender ran alongside an editorial decrying the lynching in Clarksdale, Mississippi of Lindsey Coleman after a jury had acquitted him of murder charges. This while southern Senators were successfully filibustering the Dyer Anti-Lynching Bill for the third consecutive Congress.

"The Night Before Christmas" by Sam Hunter in Toronto Star, Dec. 24, 1925

Meanwhile, in Canada, the Progressive and Liberal Parties had both lost seats to the Conservatives in October elections, but not enough of them for the Conservatives to have a majority. Robert Forke's third-place Progressives had lost 36 of their previous 58 seats in Parliament, but held the balance of power between William Mackenzie King's Liberals, with whom they were more ideologically inclined, and Arthur Meighen's Conservatives.

"The Spirit of a White Christmas" by James Fitzmaurice in Vancouver Daily Province, Dec. 24, 1925

Shunting politics aside, James Fitzmaurice gets us back to some Christmas Spirit. The cartoon's "Mr. Citizen" had finished his shopping, subscribed to the newspaper's charitable fund (charity drives were a common newspaper practice at Christmastime), and apparently had a couple of libations he doesn't want to talk about. 

"Minus Whiskers and Reindeer" by Roy James in St. Louis Star, Dec. 24, 1925

Roy James noted that Santa was not the only one doing the heavy lifting for the holiday. 

"The Annual Daze" by Chester Gould in Chicago Evening American, ca. Dec. 25, 1925

The editorial cartoons of Chester Gould, later creator of "Dick Tracy," have appeared here before. This cartoon predates the pointy-chinned copper by about five years, and seems at first glance to be a light-hearted little gag about office employees not having their minds on their work between Christmas and New Year's.

Then one notices the little dingbat in the lower left corner. What Lincoln getting shot has to do with anything else in Gould's cartoon is completely beyond me.

So let us wrap up this week's Graphical Holiday Tour with a simple Christmas card with no weirdness, politics, faces at windows, or diareses

"Merry Christmas to Our Readers" by J.T. Alley in Commercial Appeal, Memphis Tenn., Dec. 25, 1925

And likewise to mine.

No Kings, Canadian Style

Last month, we took our Graphical History Tour to the special election in Wisconsin that sent Robert La Follette Jr. to the U.S. Senate. That was so much fun, that today, we're heading north of the border to kibbitz on the  general election Canada held one month later.

"Are We Downhearted" by James Fitzmaurice in Vancouver Daily Province, Oct. 1, 1925

Liberal Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King was forced to call for a general election after the budget presented by his government was rejected by the Canadian Parliament in September, 1925. King's party held the most seats in Parliament (118), but claimed a majority only because of the tepid support of the four-year-old Progressive Party (58 seats). The Conservatives led by Arthur Meighen came to the October 29 election with only 49 seats; another five seats were held by Independent Labour and United Farmers of Alberta.

"Sweeping Everything Under the Bed" by Sam Hunter in Toronto Star, Oct. 5, 1925

The Conservatives' number one issue was their proposal to raise tariffs on imported goods, a policy opposed by the Liberals and especially the Progressives, whose constituency of prairie province farmers would be hurt by barriers to imports and exports. The issues swept under the bed here were railway and ocean rates and Senate reform.

"The Idol and the Sacrifice" by Arthur G. Racey in Montreal Star, Oct. 2, 1925

Conservative stalwart A.G. Racey depicted the Liberals' low-tariff policies in the direst of ways: in one cartoon after another, his eastern Canada was at the mercy alternately of a dagger to the heart, a bludgeon to the head, and a rope to the throat.

"What a Protective Tariff Wall Has Done for the U.S.A." by Arthur Racey in Montreal Star, Oct. 12, 1925

In contrast, Racey pointed across the line to Calvin Coolidge's United States, where high tariffs appeared coupled with unparalleled prosperity. He could not, or would not, foresee how Herbert Hoover's United States would fare.

"Her Favorite Song" by Sam Hunter in Toronto Star, Oct. 28, 1925

Racey's endorsement of Smoot-Hawley-style tariffs was shared by the conservative Toronto Evening Telegram, which may or may not have had an editorial cartoonist of its own; its archives for 1925 are not available on line. Sam Hunter at the Toronto Star twits the rival newspaper's editorial enthusiasm for copying the U.S. model by depicting "Tely" accompanying Meighen and Ontario Premier G. Howard Ferguson as they sing the U.S. national anthem.

"When Forke Pulls the Rope, What Happens" by Arthur Racey in Montreal Star, Oct. 1, 1925

In case depicting Prime Minister King stabbing, bludgeoning, and garroting hapless Quebeckers didn't work, A.G. Racey had another line of attack: arguing that the real threat came from Robert Forke, leader of the Progressive Party, the junior partner in the Prime Minister's governing coalition.

The Progressives were a fractious bunch, having suffered from party defections in the few years in elective office. By and large, however, their power center was in the central plains provinces, and were more opposed to high tariffs than the Liberals were.

"Devinette" by Passepoil (?) in Le Canada, Montréal , Oct. 8, 1925

Across town at the francophone Le Canada, its cartoonist answered Racey's October 1 question with a cartoon depicting a masked man festooned with dollar signs (a Yankee, I presume) wielding the rope around the necks of Meighen and his Québécois lieutenant, Esioff-Léon Patenaude, a former Conservative cabinet minister and member of the province's National Assembly.

I have not found any background of the cartoonist who signed his cartoons as Passepoil — son nom de plume? — if I'm reading it correctly. (I've cleaned up the out-of-focus scans of Le Canada as much as I can; I could be mistaken about the name.) The character thumbing his nose and replying "Not a darn!" is Baptiste Ladébauche, originally created by Hector Berthelot in 1877. A boisterous, roguish, and merry old peasant popularized by Albéric Bourgeois, Baptiste was the personification of French Canada, roughly the equivalent of Uncle Sam for the U.S.

Baptiste’s retort here, in English, is as it appeared in the original cartoon.

"That Meighen-Nationalist Alliance" by Sam Hunter in Toronto Star, Oct. 16, 1925

For his part, Liberal cartoonist Hunter warns his Toronto readership that Meighen would be beholden to Patenaud and his Québécois supporters. The wedding car of Meighen and “Nationale” is tailed by “Compulsory French in Canada's Schools," "Anti-Imperialism" (opposition to British and U.S. influence), and "Quebec First.”

"What the Solid Bloc Would Let Quebec In For" by Arthur Racey in Montreal Star, Oct. 22, 1925

Was it the Liberals and Progressives themselves that A.G. Racey feared, or was he merely trying to gin up Quebecker resentment of Canadians out west? He certainly opposed "anti-imperialism," instead charging that Quebec would be shaken down by "Western Domination." 

The one supposedly wasteful project he listed, "the useless Hudson Bay Railway," is an 810-mile (1,300-km) track connecting Churchill, Saskatchewan to Flin-Flon, Manitoba begun some twenty years earlier to open up grain exports to Europe. Its construction was suspended during World War I, and it didn't yet reach Hudson Bay until construction resumed in 1926. The Canadian government would take over the line in 1929, eventually selling it to private ownership in 1997.

"Les Croque-Morts" by Passepoil in Le Canada, Montréal, Oct. 23, 1925

Baptiste Ladébauche holds a sheet of figures purporting to show how well the economy is doing, while the black hooded figure behind Rodolphe Monty (a Conservative candidate in Montreal), Meighen, and Patenaude holds a picket with the Conservatives' slogan, eerily prescient of one of the U.S. presidential candidates last year: "The country is in ruins; only Meighen can save it."

"A 'Party' Call" by Sam Hunter in Toronto Star, Oct. 26, 1925

Sam Hunter also predicted that Canada would not be receptive to Conservatives' Cassandra calls of "blue ruin."

"My Moose, Mr. King" by Sam Hunter in Toronto Star, Oct. 30, 1925

But when the votes were counted on October 29, Hunter had to acknowledge that the outcome was, at best, in doubt. Liberals lost 18 seats to the Conservatives, including Mr. King's. Progressives fared even worse, losing 36 of the 58 seats they started out with.

Yet even though the Conservatives more than doubled their previous representation in Parliament, they still fell eight members short of a majority, with none of the other parties interested in a coalition with them.

"On the Carpet" by James Fitzmaurice in Vancouver Daily Province, Oct. 31, 1925

Instead of leaving office, Prime Minister King persuaded a member of his caucus in a safe riding to resign so that King could stand for election there. The minority coalition government of Liberals and Progressives would be short-lived, thanks to a scandal already brewing in the Customs Department; but at three days, the Conservative government of Arthur Meighen that followed has the distinction of being the shortest in Canadian history.

Raise the Hindenburg!

I had intended to post this last week, but if we have any motto at Graphical History Tours Ltd., it's "Better Late Than Never."

So here are the late election reports from Weimar Germany.

"Im Katastrophenjahr" by Thomas Theodor Heine in Simplicissimus, Munich, May 4, 1925

He wasn't a candidate in the first round of Germany's presidential election in March, and he only reluctantly accepted the German People's Party nomination a week later, but when the votes were counted, Field Marshal Paul von Hindenburg had been elected President of the Weimar Republic.

Heine was probably being facetious captioning his cartoon "A united Germany has its President"; Hindenburg received less than half (48.3%) of the votes cast. 

"Goose Stepping Again" by Bill Hanny in Philadelphia Inquirer, April 28, 1925

Hindenburg was familiar to Americans (and no less to the French and the English) as the leader of the Imperial German Army during World War I. The 77-year-old Generalfeldmarschall’s military career dated from the Austrian-Prussian War in 1866; he tried retiring in 1911 only to be called back to active duty by Kaiser Wilhelmina. 

His electoral victory speech warned the extreme right and left against "rash adventures," and promised that he would govern as an independent.

"Let no one by any chance imagine that henceforth I shall take orders from any political party. The battle is over, and I honestly and unreservedly declare that I am ready to offer my hand to every German for the common task, and I include my former opponents." (Translation per O.D. Tolischus, Washington Herald, April 28, 1925)

"Der Lotse Besteigt das Schiff" by Arthur Johnson in Kladderadatsch, Berlin, May 10, 1925

Arthur Johnson's cartoon updates a famous cartoon by Sir John Tenniel in Punch, "Dropping the Pilot," depicting Otto von Bismarck, dismissed as Chancellor by Kaiser Wilhelm in 1890, heading down those stairs. 

"Dropping the Pilot" by John Tenniel in Punch, or the London Chiavari, March 29, 1890

The Tenniel cartoon is well-known in both Britain and Germany, and has been parodied many times when some powerful politician resigned or fell out of favor. It used to be an occasional reference in American editorial cartoons, too; but nowadays it would be an inside joke understood mainly by fellow editorial cartoonists. Your average editor today is more likely to understand a cartoon of Homer Simpson retreating into foliage.

"That Morning After Feeling" by James Fitzmaurice in Vancouver Daily Province, April 28, 1925

Speaking of cartoons that today's editors might have liked, Fitzmaurice's ambivalent regard of Hindenburg's election was very much an outlier among cartoonists in the nations of World War I's Entente. From what I've seen he doesn't seem to have been one for forceful opinions.

"Willie Has Hopes" by Douglas Rodger in San Francisco Bulletin, Apr. 29, 1925

Hindenburg was a declared royalist, and ex-Kaiser Wilhelm Hohenzollern applauded his election, but a return by the Kaiser to the throne six years after the armistice was a far fetched scenario.

"Peek-a-Boo" by Edmund Duffy in The Independent, Boston, May 16, 1925

Alfred von Tirpitz, Admiral of the German Imperial Navy during the war, was responsible for convincing Hindenburg to enter the presidential race.

We left Erich Ludendorff singing forlornly on a mountain in a previous GHT. Coming in dead last in the first heat of the 1925 presidential election, Ludendorff, a vocal proponent of the Dolchstosslegende, the idea that Germany lost the war because of traitorous Germans "stabbing it in the back," withdrew from public affairs. He wasn’t missed. 

"The Black Eye" by A.G. Racey in Montreal Daily Star, Montreal, April 29, 1925

A.G. Racey's strong reaction against Hindenburg's election was typical of most western editorial cartoonists. But in fact, the German presidency was somewhat of a figurehead. The president had no authority to initiate policy, and the coalition behind him in the multi-party legislature did not hold a plurality of seats.

"In der Saddle Again" by Harold M. Talburt for Scripps-Howard, ca. Apr. 29, 1925

Harold Talburt proposed that the election of a monarchist president would be bad for the Germans themselves, burdened as they were with debt and reparations payments. The Kaiser, in the background, hopes to be pulled out of the mud, although nobody in the foreground appears to be equipped for a tow.

"Scaring France and Hurting Germany" by Carey Orr in Chicago Tribune, April 28, 1925

Reaction to Hindenburg's election was especially hostile in France. Le Temps of Paris declared, "The election of von Hindenburg is a defiance to the allies and to America. It is not the political genius of the old man which is disquieting, it is the force of brutal revenge which is behind him." 

Poles and Czechs also responded with trepidation. The Austrian press were disappointed in Hindenburg's election as well, opining that it was a setback in hopes for a union of Austria with Germany. (I'm going to have to look up that Austro-Prussian War someday.) 

"The New Helmet Cover" by Grover Page in Louisville Courier-Journal, April 28, 1925

For his part, Hindenburg sought to reassure the outside world:

"I affirm before the whole world that it has always been my holiest endeavor to prevent new horrors of war and to help to the utmost the victims of past wars. This aim can best be attained by unity, and to serve my people as leader in this sense will be my holiest task." — as reported by Associated Press

"His Hopes May Be Stronger Than His Ship" by Homer Stinson in Dayton Daily News, May 1, 1925

Perhaps alone among western cartoonists, Homer Stinson sang a note of optimism. 

Spoiler alert: Paul von Hindenburg might not have been what the rest of Europe needed to worry about.

What's Shakin', Johnny Canuck?

Today's Graphical History Tour pays another visit to our neighbor to the north. Understanding Johnny Canuck will become increasingly important if we Yanks intend to welcome Canada as our 51st state.

Or declare war on them. Whatever.

"Enter March, 1925" by A.G. Racey in Montreal Daily Star, March 1, 1925

March, 1925 came in with an earthquake centered in the Charlevoix/Kamouraska seismic zone of southern Quebec at 9:21 the night of Saturday, February 28. Measuring 6.3 magnitude, it caused significant damage to buildings, widespread panic, but no fatalities. It was one of the strongest earthquakes ever to hit eastern Canada, and was felt as far away as La Crosse, Wisconsin and Florence, South Carolina.

"Coolidge's Common Sense Policy" by A.G. Racey in Montreal Daily Star, March 3, 1925

When we last took a gander at Arthur G. Racey's cartoons, he was casting aspersions aplenty across the line; but he greeted the inauguration of Calvin Coolidge with this cartoon recommending the American President's policies to Liberal Party Canadian Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King.

Racey, a Conservative Party stalwart, had little affection for King, seen here peering over the wall at Coolidge and his woodpile of waste and expensive deadwood. 

Imagine if Coolidge could have been equipped with a chainsaw instead of an axe! He'd have had time to make that wall taller, then tear it down, then build it up again, and down, and up...

"Has His Eye on It" by A.G. Racey in Montreal Daily Star,  March 30, 1925

By the end of the month, Coolidge was the one peering over Racey's fence, envious of a Scotsman's reputation for parsimony. If there was an actual World Thrift Championship in March, 1925, I have not been able to find contemporary news reports of it.

"What Is He Saying" by A.G. Racey in Montreal Daily Star, March 4, 1925

Racey could easily have chosen to take offense at a February 24 speech at a Women's Conference on National defense and Peace Insurance in Washington D.C. by U.S. Navy Rear Admiral William Phelps, but chose to use the occasion to highlight the alliance between the U.S. and the British Empire. Racey's cartoon paraphrases Phelps: "An Anglo-American War is in sight. It can only be prevented by a strong U.S. Navy."

Phelps's address, given with Coolidge’s Secretaries of War and State in attendance, came amid debate in Washington whether to boost defense construction of battleships or aircraft. His views reflected the isolationist views ascendant in U.S. politics, as well as the Anglophobic drumbeat of William Randolph Hearst's media empire:

"One of the primary objectives of the League of Nations, under the leadership of England, is to devise some policy to destroy the American favorable balance of trade. ... There are serious differences brewing between England and the United States over shipping policies. These differences can be prevented from developing into a conflict only by a strong American Navy. That America determines to build up a great merchant marine fleet has created against us the bitter animosity of the English shipping interests."

"The Wasp's Nest" by Sam Hunter in Toronto Star Daily, March 3, 1925

Phelps's superiors quickly distanced themselves from the Rear Admiral's remarks, and Toronto cartoonist Sam Hunter joined A.G. Racey in downplaying their significance. 

The Daily Gleaner of Frederickton, New Brunswick, editorialized on March 3: "We have no doubt [Phelps] succeeded in keeping his audience awake. For the rest, we surmise that the 'brew' came from a brainstorm or something stronger than salt water."

"Whatcha Mean If" by James B. Fitzmaurice in Vancouver Daily Province, March 5, 1925

Suffice it to say that Coolidge's inaugural address contained no such incendiary predictions of a return to the War of 1812. This cartoon by James B. Fitzmaurice leaves me wondering whether he found Coolidge's vision of world peace inspiring or merely quaint. Is this how culturally nice Canadians mock someone?

"Some Demander" by Sam Hunter in Toronto Star Weekly, March 7, 1925 

For a more forthright critique of American foreign relations, Sam Hunter mocks congressional demands that America's Entente allies step up their repayment of wartime U.S. loans. He also took a dim view of the U.S. prescribing its own European peace and reparations plan after refusing to participate in the League of Nations (the brainchild of an earlier U.S. President).

Opium was the fentanyl of the day. I do not, however, believe that the Coolidge administration or Republican Senate were blaming Canada specifically for the supply of opium to the United States, the way that the present maladministration and Congress pretend is the issue from up north. 

Back to Mr. Racey...

"And Easy to Make It So" by A.G. Racey in Montreal Star, March 19, 1925

Here's another Yankee innovation Racey thought Canadians should emulate: Daylight Saving Time. From the standpoint of keeping Québec and New York in the same time zone, it must have made a great deal of sense to him. He might also have been intrigued by the prospect of daylight hours extending even further into the evening than we're used to south of the border.

Those of us still straining to get used to waking up an hour earlier every morning since springing ahead last Sunday might beg to differ that Daylight Saving Time makes everybody happy, however.

Now, lest you think Racey was going entirely soft on the Yanks:

"Such a Fine Business Proposition" by A.G. Racey in Montreal Daily Star, March 6, 1925

Racey remained suspicious of U.S. designs on Canada's electricity and lumber, as you surely remember from this stop on the Graphical History Tour.

"Super Power" in this cartoon refers to U.S. Commerce Secretary Herbert Hoover's proposal to eliminate barriers to interstate transmission of electricity, supplemented as well by power lines bringing in hydroelectricity generated in Quebec and Ontario. 

Racey may also have had in mind efforts by a Chicago speculator who had bought controlling interest in numerous electric companies across the U.S. and was interested in acquiring Canadian power companies as well. To counter the Chicagoan, two Montreal stockbrokers founded The Power Company of Canada in April, 1925 to consolidate Canada's many regional power companies.

In case you're ever asked, the United States is the leading consumer of lumber in North America, and Canada is the leading supplier: Canada supplied roughly 30% of the lumber used in the United States last year. The four largest North American softwood lumber producers operate in both countries.

Little did A.G. Racey suspect that 100 years later, that electrical power and lumber would become a weapon in Canada's battle to fend off United States hegemony.