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Some say that history repeats itself. Others say that it doesn't repeat itself, it just rhymes. 

In light of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, I'm departing somewhat from my usual review of cartoons hitting their century mark in order to look at works from the period of Soviet expansionism immediately after World War II, now that history is doing whatever it is that history does.

The Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact of 1939 erased Poland off the map of Europe, while assigning Lithuania to German control and Latvia and Estonia to the U.S.S.R.'s. By the spring of 1945, the USSR had occupied all three Baltic states and Poland. Viewing the Baltic states as errant parts of historical Russia, Stalin reincorporated all three into the Soviet Union.

The U.S. protested Stalin's move, but the Allies were preoccupied with the war's western and Pacific fronts. Opening up a new front with a supposedly allied nation was simply not going to happen. The U.S. never did recognize the USSR's annexation of the Baltic trio.

Likewise, Poland's fate was sealed before the defeat of Hitler. Once they were no longer of any use to Stalin, he had all of Poland's military officers summarily executed, and set up a puppet government in Warsaw. 

"Whose Move" by Walt Kelly in New York Star, 1948 

Stalin expected all of Germany would join the communist bloc as well. With Germany defeated, the Allies set up U.S., Great Britain, France and Russia zones of administration. Given the remarkable showing of the Communist Party in France's 1946 elections, Stalin figured that all he needed to do was subvert the British in their zone, and the U.S. would succumb to its isolationist partisans and withdraw out of his way.

"Blood from Turnips" by J.F. Meehan in Brooklyn Eagle, August 3, 1946

Ostensibly, what Stalin was interested in was war reparations from Germany and the weaker Axis powers. How he achieved it was by subjugating governments in Hungary, Bulgaria and Romania to control from Moscow. (Finland had German backing during its Continuation War against the USSR, 1941-44. But permanently reclaiming Finland for Mother Russia would remain just out of Stalin's grasp.)

"An Unlucky Day for the Traffic Cop" by Cyrus Hungerford in Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, June 13, 1947

Alarm over rampant Soviet expansionism in Europe all but silenced any remaining isolationists in the U.S. The Truman Doctrine of speaking up for the sovereignty of smaller nations was useless without the military might and foreign alliances to back it up.

"The Foot Is Familiar" by Herbert Block in Washington Post, February, 1948

In Czechoslovakia, where Hitler's quest to carve up and conquer his neighbors had begun, the Soviets engineered a coup, overthrowing the elected government in Prague.

"The Speaker's Platform" by Edwin Marcus in New York Times, 1949

Soviet adventurism was not confined to Europe alone; the Allies were supposed to return occupied Iranian territories to control of Shah Reza Pahlavi's government, but Stalin refused to withdraw from areas taken by Russian troops. Instead, the USSR encouraged breakaway socialist republics in Azerbaijan and Kurdistan.

"Aw, C'mon, Joe, Let It Cool Off" by Dorman Smith for Newspaper Enterprise Assn., ca. March 17, 1946

With U.S. and British support, Iran crushed the Azerbaijani and Kurdish rebellions in 1946 and 1947 respectively.

Meanwhile, Truman responded to Stalin's push to undermine the governments of Greece and Turkey with substantial foreign aid that would have had Republicans of the 1920's howling in protest. Remnants of isolation still existed (notably at Hearst papers and the Chicago Tribune), but most of the protests to the Marshall Plan came from Moscow.

"Advice from an Expert in Internal Affairs" by Clifford Berryman in Washington Evening Star, April 9, 1947

With nearly all of Europe reeling from World War II's devastation, the Marshall Plan stepped in to make sure that even the British Empire would be safe from the lure of Soviet domination.

"Great Expectations" by Edwin Marcus in New York Times, 1947

And the North Atlantic Treaty Organization was born: a mutual defense treaty that, again, would have been anathema to the American isolationists of the 1920's.

"Unintentional Cupid" by Richard Q. Yardley in Baltimore Sun, 1949

The founding countries of NATO in 1949 were Great Britain, France, Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, United States, Canada, Portugal, Italy, Norway, Denmark, and Iceland. Turkey joined in 1952, and West Germany in 1955.

"Observation Post" by Herbert Block in Washington Post, October, 1951

Stalin then, and Putin now, would characterize NATO as an offensive threat to Russia's existence. But for seven decades, Europe stayed at peace (for the most part) — possibly the longest respite from war the continent had seen since before the the cro-magnons met the neanderthals.

But it's all over now.

✍

Housekeeping note: My source for the Walt Kelly cartoon at the top of this post dates it in 1946, but every reference I can find about the "Pogo" cartoonist says that he first began drawing editorial cartoons in 1948, for the short-lived New York Star that began publishing in July of that year. Although events could have made that cartoon appropriate in either year, I can find no source mentioning that Kelly ever drew political cartoons for the Star's predecessor, PM, or any other publications before 1948.

V-J Semisesquicentennial

Surrenderback Saturday marks the 75th anniversary of the end of World War II, and I'll warn you right up front that there are going to be a lot of racist depictions of the Japanese in this cartoons. Depictions of Germans in American cartoons were nowhere near as grotesque as those of the Japanese, even by such progressive liberals as Theodore Geisel (Dr. Seuss, about which there has been plenty written already, so I don't need to add to it).

Coming into August, the American point of view was that Allied victory over Japan was inevitable but that the Japanese government and military refused to admit it.

"'Last Report from the Front' Honorable Sir" by Corte Madera (?), ca. August 9, 1945

Most of the cartoons in this post will be from a handful of U.S. cartoonists, and I'm curious about this first one. It, and some other cartoons I came across, appear to be signed "Corte Madera," which, as far as I have been able to tell, is a small town north of the bay from San Francisco, a command in Spanish to chop wood, and a peculiar name for a parent to have given a child. He (or she) may have been based in Texas, but that's just a guess.

"Is This Trip Necessary?" by Jesse Cargill for King Features, ca. August 9, 1945

The American caricature of the Japanese had him buck-toothed, nearsighted, and addressing others or being labeled as "honorable [such-and-such]" — whether warlord, ancestor, or even earthquake.

"Okay, You Win, in a Blast" by Dorman H. Smith for Newspaper Enterprise Assn., ca. Aug. 10, 1945

Dorman Smith was the conservative cartoonist hired by the Newspaper Enterprise Association (NEA) to replace Herbert Block when the latter moved to the Washington Post. Smith was a much better fit for his right-wing NEA editors, and you won't find any of his cartoons offering any credit to President Truman for bringing the war to an end.

"It Won't Be Long Now" by Cy Hungerford in Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Aug. 7, 1945

Cyrus Hungerford had been drawing for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette since World War I, and would continue there through the Watergate years. This cavalier attitude toward the killing of 80,000 civilians in Hiroshima (to which 40,000 would soon be added in Nagasaki) is by no means unique to Mr. Hungerford or his cartoons.

"The 64-Yen Question" by Harold Talburt in Washington Daily News, Aug. 6, 1945

Had the Axis Powers exploded a nuclear bomb over an Allied city, it would have been proof of German or Japanese barbarism. One American cartoon after another, however, proclaims that however horrific this new bomb was, the carnage was all the fault of Japan's leaders for, as Harold Talburt put it, continued resistance.

"Coffin Nails" by Harold Talburt in Washington Daily News, Aug. 7, 1945

As anyone who lived through the war will tell you, pursuing a conventional conclusion to the war instead of bombing Hiroshima and Nagasaki would have resulted in the deaths of tens of thousands of soldiers on both sides. 

"The Old One-Two" by Melville Bernstein in PM, New York NY, Aug. 9, 1945

A more sanguine reason was that the Soviet Union had just entered the war against Japan, and the Truman administration was loath to allow a Russian occupation zone in Japan as it had accepted in Germany.

"There's Not Room for This and You..." by Jim Berryman in Washington Evening Star, Aug. 7 1945

None of which is to say that cartoonists were oblivious to the long-term implications of such a weapon of mass destruction. The atomic bomb is held by Peace in Jim Berryman's cartoon, forcing War to think twice about intruding into her laboratory ever again.

"It May Do What Nothing Else Could Do" by Dorman Smith for NEA, ca. Aug. 11, 1945

Dorman Smith draws the A-bomb no bigger than a bottle of wine, yet it seems to be enough to get Mr. Globe-head to swear off war for good. Perhaps the bottle of wine is an apt metaphor; "Never again" is a familiar vow on many a morning after the night before.

"Rather Terrifying, Isn't It?" by Cy Hungerford in Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Aug. 8, 1945

Cy Hungerford's nuclear genie is more fearsome than Dorman Smith's wine bottle; he also acknowledges that our allies may have been impressed, but not altogether favorably.

"God's Atomic Power" by Cy Hungerford in Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Aug. 15, 1945

Nevertheless, with the announcement of Japan's acceptance of Allied surrender terms on August 15, Hungerford returned to the optimistic jingoism that has long proclaimed the U.S. as God's divine instrument on Earth.

"After Effect of the Atomic Bomb" by Jim Berryman in Washington Evening Star, Aug. 11, 1945

The just and lasting peace would last for just five years.

"We Are Going to Win the Peace, Too" by Clifford Berryman in Washington Sunday Star, Aug. 12, 1945

Jim Berryman's father, Clifford Berryman, continued drawing front-page editorial cartoons for the Sunday edition of the Washington Star until 1949; the son held forth on the front page the rest of the week.

Jim Berryman in Washington Evening Star, Aug. 15, 1945

"And so, unavoidably, came peace, putting an end to organized war as we'd come to know it." ― Beyond the Fringe

"A New Experience for the All Highest" by Dorman Smith for NEA, ca. Aug. 17, 1945

Uncaptioned, by Melville Bernstein in PM, NY, Aug. 15, 1945

In Search of Aunty Democracy

One of these Saturday posts last month included a pair of 1920 cartoons by Clifford Berryman featuring Miss Democracy, a common representation of the Democratic Party at the time but which has long since disappeared from the scene. Here she is with door-to-door book seller Vice President Thomas Marshall 100 years ago.

"Who Was He?" by Clifford Berryman in Washington Evening Star, February 17, 1920

It got me to wondering where she came from, and in spite of much digging and wandering down rabbit holes, I haven't been able to uncover anything written about her. There has been plenty written about the Democratic donkey, Republican elephant, Tammany tiger, Uncle Sam, Brother Jonathan, Columbia and so forth, but I haven't found any discussion of this lady.

"Lan' Sakes, What'll I Do with 'Em?" by Clifford Berryman in Washington Evening Star, November, 7, 1912

Berryman was not alone in popularizing the character, who was variously labeled "Miss Democracy" or "Aunty Democracy." The word "Democracy" here was a common reference not to the system of government but to the Democratic Party (as noted back in my posts about R.C. Bowman). A dowdy, usually bespectacled woman of a certain age, she typically dressed in frilly clothes that would have been fashionable in the mid- to late 19th Century.

"Hen(dricks)pecked" by Thomas Nast in Harper's Weekly, August 5, 1876

One often turns to Thomas Nast as the originator for such things, even though he did not invent either the Democratic donkey or the Republican elephant as commonly supposed. He did depict the Democrats' 1876 Vice Presidential candidate Thomas Hendricks as a frumpy "Mrs. Tilden" once or twice (nowhere near as often as he drew cartoons of the "rag baby" representing the Democrats' attempts to make a campaign issue of inflation), which hardly seems sufficient exposure to inspire the next generation of cartoonists to use "Mrs. Tilden" as a template for Miss Democracy. Besides, "Mrs. Tilden" was, ipso facto, married.

"Aunty Democracy" by Charles "Bart" Bartholomew in Minneapolis Journal, August 30, 1899

The earliest incontrovertible examples of Aunty/Miss Democracy my admittedly less than exhaustive research have turned up are by Charles "Bart" Bartholomew of the Minneapolis Journal in 1899. Here he is making a pun on "Aunty" and "Anti"; whether he was taking advantage of a name and character already in existence I cannot say for sure. Bart returned the character to half a dozen or so cartoons that year, and not always to exploit the pun.

"Modern Ulysses and the Siren" by Charles "Bart" Bartholomew, in Minneapolis Journal, September 28, 1899

Cartoonists often cast Miss Democracy in the role of a spinster eager for a mate, but also as the pursued maiden.

"And the Williams Still Pursued Her" by Fred Morgan (?) in Philadelphia Inquirer, 1904

Here she is fleeing William Jennings Bryan and William Hearst, by a Philadelphia Inquirer cartoonist I presume to be Fred Morgan. She's listing hosts of her party's presidential nominating conventions from 1896 to 1904. Does "First I tried New York" mean that she came into existence with the 1896 campaign?

"A Critical Inspection of the Candidates" by Bob Satterfield for Newspaper Enterprise Assn., 1904

Bob Satterfield offers an example of "Aunty Democracy" that isn't trying to make an "anti-democracy" pun — at least, I don't think she's trying to fry the Democratic hopefuls under her magnifying glass. That's twice former President Grover Cleveland under the table, and twice unsuccessful (thus far) nominee William Jennings Bryan in the waste barrel.

"Trying to Stick Them Together" by Rowland C. Bowman in Minneapolis Tribune, 1901

Aunty Democracy isn't seeking a mate in Satterfield's cartoon, or in this one by Bart's crosstown rival, my old pal Rowland C. Bowman. Bowman departs from convention by naming her "Dame Democracy," and in at least one other Bowman cartoon, she has children of her own.

"Iowa Has Done an' Dud Up 'at Old Dead Tat" by R.C. Bowman in Minneapolis Tribune, 1901

I like Bowman's use of alliteration, but among his peers, "Miss Democracy" was her most common moniker.

"Trespassing" by Thomas S. Sullivant for Hearst Newspapers, ca. May 12, 1908

Which brings up the question of why there wasn't a similar character to represent the Republican Party. Surely there were ample occasions when some Miss Republicanism might go a-courtin', or receive gentlemen callers, as in this cartoon in which Joseph Keppler compares Teddy Roosevelt's endorsement of William Howard Taft for the 1908 GOP nomination to The Courtship of Miles Standish.

"The Courtship of Bill Taft" by Joseph Keppler in Puck, April 24, 1907

I've always pictured Priscilla Mullins (a distant relative of mine, whom one of my aunts was named after) as a more attractive woman than this, given that Miles Standish and John Alden both fall for her. So I find it odd that Keppler drew her this way when in earlier cartoons, he had represented the Republican Party as an idealized female specimen.

"Shooing 'Em In" by Louis Dalrymple in Puck, June 1, 1892

But if Keppler couldn't decide what Miss Republicanism ought to look like, neither could his fellow Puck cartoonists.

"Her Pet" by Frederick Opper in Puck, April 13, 1892

Frederick Opper also gives Miss Republican two completely different guises. If these three influential cartoonists couldn't agree what Miss Republicanism ought to look like, what possible hope was there that she would ever catch on with the rest of the nation's ink-stained wretches?

"Their Time Has Come Again" by Frederick Opper in Puck, July 27, 1892

Returning to Miss Democracy, then. She gradually fell out of favor with the generation of cartoonists who followed Bart, Clifford Berryman, et al. (So too does the use of the word "Democracy" to refer to the Democratic Party.) One doesn't find her in the cartoons of the Ashcan School, or, for that matter, most leftist cartoonists using any media.

"What I Want I Can't Get" by Silvey J. Ray in Kansas City Star, 1952

The latest examples I've seen of her are in the 1950's, by which time everything about her is way out of date. She was incongruous to the party of organized labor, civil rights, and progressivism. Nevertheless she persisted, pursuing and being pursued.

"'Tis But Thy Name That Is My Enemy" by Herbert Block in Washington Post, February, 1950

Herblock, from what I've seen, used her only to represent the Dixiecrat wing of the Democratic Party, and hardly ever at that. He included the above cartoon in his first book, in a chapter largely about using stock characters versus caricatures of actual politicians; of this cartoon, he wrote nothing about her but mused that the joining of Dixiecrats with the G.O.P. might necessitate creation of a new stock character someday.

"Harry—What a Hat!" by Leo Joseph Roche in Buffalo Courier-Express, June, 1956

In conclusion, here is the most recent cartoon appearance of Miss Democracy that I know of, in which she is stunned by former President Harry Truman's receipt of an honorary degree from Oxford University.

Da Q Toon: Illinois Equality

We had a little difficulty getting this week's cartoon out this week -- I sent it to the syndicate at the usual time on Monday morning, but apparently the Chinese or the Iranians or North Koreans hacked into the internet and turned my cartoon into a plea to send C!ali$ to the crown prince of Kenya or something. My editors left alarmed messages on our answering machine Tuesday afternoon, followed by urgent emails. Eventually, I got these messages and quickly sent the cartoon out again, hoping against hope that I was not too late. At any rate, as the deadline ticked down to 00:00:00, my original emails turned up deep in the recesses of the spam folder of their firewall program's File Not Found repository.

All this for a cartoon that presumes a news event that isn't scheduled to happen until Thursday, and then only if all goes well.

That's when the Illinois House of Representatives has been scheduled to vote on a marriage equality bill that has already been passed in the state Senate and which Governor Pat Quinn has promised to sign. Advocates have been optimistic about its passage, but we've already seen -- in Maryland in 2010 -- that you can't always count on state representatives to vote the way they led you to believe they would. As of Tuesday, the bill's sponsors were still counting supporters and considering postponing a vote another week or so.

I could find myself in the company of the Chicago Tribune's famous "Dewey Defeats Truman" headline, but here's my cartoon anyway:

And, in case you're wondering, I certainly did have the "Dewey Defeats Truman" headline in mind as I drew the cartoon.