Riffing on World Affairs

Today's Graphical History Tour takes a quick check-up on the colonial world:

"Getting Down to Cases" by Wm. A. Rogers in Washington [DC] Post, August 1, 1925

When last we checked on international affairs, France had sent its military to help Spain quell a revolt in Morocco. Abd El Krim's Moroccan guerillas had stymied the Spanish army since 1921 in the mountains of Rif, effectively establishing the independent state of Rif and confining the Spanish to scattered fortified positions along the coast.

"And Still He Gets Away" by Wm. Hanny in Philadelphia Inquirer, August 3, 1925

With the entry of France into the Rif War, the European nations launched all-out war to extinguish the independent Berber nation. 

"Up Against It" by Wm. Hanny in Philadelphia Inquirer, August 22, 1925

Aside from being satisfied to stay removed from the conflict, U.S. cartoonists were divided in their sympathies. The U.S. had allied with France in the Great War, but France's punitive demands against Germany were widely seen as an impediment to a lasting peace; American impatience for France to repay wartime loans from the U.S. was mounting.

"The Iron Dove of Peace" by Douglas Rodger in San Francisco Bulletin, August 10, 1925

As for American attitudes toward Spain, memories of the Spanish-American War were fading — and the U.S. had emerged victorious anyway, so why hold a grudge? Still, it might be telling that, with no justification whatsoever, we blamed the country for the so-called Spanish flu.

"Take Care" by Winsor McCay, ca. August 28, 1925

On the other hand, Americans viewed Europe as a seat of civilization and Africa as part of a backward, benighted world requiring guidance and oversight by White People.

"One of Those English Jokes" by Tom Foley in Minneapolis Star, August 5, 1925

Meanwhile, did we mention war debts?

"Going Up" by Orville Williams for Star Company, ca. Aug. 6, 1925

In part due to protectionist tariffs and trade barriers in vogue between the World Wars, the U.S. demand for rubber to keep everybody's cars on the road had run up against the British Empire trade policy.

"Rubber-r-r" by Dorman H. Smith for Newspaper Enterprise Assn., ca. August 17, 1925

As long as we have the Philippines essentially as a U.S. colony, some Americans argued, why not promote rubber production there?

It has been a while since we have visited the archipelago taken by the U.S. along with Cuba and Puerto Rico as spoils of the Spanish-American War over a quarter century earlier. The U.S. occupation quashed initial independence movements, promising Filipino self-determination someday. Someday just got pushed a little further down the road.

In spite of a tide of isolationism, the U.S. had come to appreciate close ties with its colonial territories.

"Let's Do It Thoroughly" by Orville P. Williams for Star Company, ca. July 1, 1925

Just not too close.

War Is Over There, If You Want It

Last week's Graphical History Tour focused on the election of Paul von Hindenburg to the German presidency in 1925, which set some editorial cartoonists worrying about the possibility of a return to World War I.

"Still Abroad" by W.A. Rogers in Washington Post, May 5, 1925

There was plenty to worry about other than German politics, as it happened. Not the least of which was countries in Europe and North Africa inexplicably moving around willy-nilly underneath Mars's feet.

"The Soft Spot" by Dorman H. Smith for Newspaper Enterprise Assn., ca. Apr. 29, 1925

Let's start with trouble in the Balkans, in which, for the moment, Bulgaria had the starring role.

Bulgaria, a.k.a. the Balkan Prussia, had been racked with violence between the far right and far left in the years following World War I. Assassinations were almost commonplace: Tsar Boris III had narrowly escaped death in April; and two days later, a bomb killed 150 members of the Bulgarian political and military elite in Sofia as they attended the funeral of murdered General Kosia Gheorhieffe. Reportedly, Gheorhieffe had been assassinated with the expectation that the Tsar would be at his funeral, too.

"Spring in the Balkans" by Daniel Fitzpatrick in St. Louis Post-Dispatch, April 25, 1925

The right-wing Bulgarian government of Prime Minister Aleksandar Tsankov responded with a curfew and mass arrests of known and suspected communists, and accused the Soviet government of Russia of being behind the plot.

"To Sustain the body of Capitalism" by O.R. "O. Zim" Zimmerman in Daily Worker, Chicago, May 1, 1925

It should be noted that Tsankov had come to power in 1923 after a coup against his predecessor, Aleksandar Stamboliyski of the leftist Bulgarian Agricultural National Union. Stamboliyski wasn't just overthrown; he was tortured, killed and dismembered — and not necessarily in that order.

"Zim" Zimmerman at the Communist Daily Worker in Chicago drew a skeletal Fascist government of Bulgaria enjoying a refreshing glass of workingman's blood while a bloody hand of imperialism threatened to grab a handful of angry workers.

"The Chief Occupation of Socialists" by O.R. "O. Zim" Zimmerman in Daily Worker, Chicago, May 15, 1925

The Berbers of the Rif region of northern Morocco, led by Abd El-Krim, had been fighting a guerilla war against Spain since 1921. Rif was nominally a Spanish protectorate, dating from when Europeans parceled out chunks of Africa to each other in the 1880's, although Riffians had effectively resisted Spanish rule from the beginning. Riffians, however, saw none of the benefits of Spanish mining in their mountains, while providing most of the labor and suffering all of the environmental damage.

"The Riffians and the Ruffians" by Daniel Fitzpatrick in St. Louis Post-Dispatch, May 13, 1925

The Riffian guerrilla tactics won early successes, but Spain resorted to chemical warfare (as alluded to in Zimmerman's cartoon) as well as the first amphibious landing of armored tanks. Then France, a "protector" of other parts of Morocco, joined the war on the side of Spain. Franco-Spanish forces launched a final offensive against Abd El-Krim's vastly outnumbered forces on May 8.

Objection to the Franco-Spanish military action was led by Mussolini's fascist government in Italy. Not because he was standing up for Moroccan sovereignty, but because he insisted on Italy getting some of the spoils.

Turning now to the Pacific:

"Improving the Landscape" by Edmund Duffy in Baltimore Sun, May 11, 1925

After joint war games of the U.S. Army and Navy at Hawaii in May, the Chair of the House Naval Affairs Committee, Rep. Thomas Butler (R-PA), advocated turning the island chain into "the strongest military outpost in the world."

"I have always contended that Hawaii should be made our Helgoland in the Pacific," Butler announced, "east of which no enemy national would dare to come without first capturing it. I am prepared to vote to establish the greatest air base on Earth at Pearl Harbor."

"Scaring the Little Fellow in the Pacific" by Ed LeCocq in Des Moines Register, May 2, 1925

The New York Herald Tribune, in approving Rep. Butler's proposal, averred, "Under ordinary conditions, there would be little danger of an attack on Hawaii, since the attacking fleet would have to reckon, in the first instance, with the American fleet covering our coasts in the military sense, but far from them, perhaps in reality. ... But for the purposes of a base used either offensively or defensively, Pearl Harbor must be brought up to the mark."

At the time, access to Pearl Harbor was hampered by a narrow inlet at low tide. Ships had to wait outside the harbor for high tide, and ships within the harbor had to wait for one another for their turn to set sail. According to reporter Arthur Sears Henning (May 6, 1925), 

"When the American fleet reached Honolulu at the conclusion of the recent war games the destroyers, cruisers and lesser craft found anchorage at Pearl Harbor, but the battleships were compelled to anchor in the open ocean off the reef."

Addressing Senators and reporters invited to Hawaii to witness the war games, Admiral John D. McDonald thundered, 

"Turn and look yonder to the ocean. See those ships out there where they don't belong? That isn't their place — their place is in Pearl Harbor! They're not in Pearl Harbor, and the reason they're not in Pearl Harbor is because they can't get in. ...  If you want to find out whether or not they belong out there in the open water, just ask the captain of any one of those ships."

According to an Associated Press report on May 10, the Army-Navy assessment of the war games concluded that "the defenses of the island of Oahu cannot be relied upon to protect the Pearl Harbor base from an enemy investment in the event of such a surprise attack in force as was simulated in the maneuvers."

"Hula, Hula" by Homer Stinson in Dayton Daily News, May 18, 1925

Stinson may have had Rep. Thomas Butler confused with Sen. William Butler (R-MA), in office for only a few months to fill out the term of deceased Sen. Henry Cabot Lodge, and not, as far as I have been able to determine, one of the senators who got to go to Hawaii for the Army-Navy war games. 

Be that as it was, the Departments of the Army and Navy estimated the cost to bring Pearl Harbor "up to the mark" at $40 million (over $730 million adjusted for inflation today). Their proposal included upgrades to the base's military barracks, communications systems, and gun emplacements.

"Picturesque Hawaii, as the Militarists See It" by Nelson Harding in Brooklyn Daily Eagle, May 23, 1925

Well, no spoilers here about how Pearl Harbor fared when the war games got real. Tune in again next week, when we promise more pleasant diversions.

How about a trip to the zoo to visit family?

In Respect to Defense

With the passage and signing into law of the Respect for Marriage Act, the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act outlawing same-sex marriage has been overturned. I would like to have looked back at the passage of that earlier antigay legislation, but I didn't start drawing for the LGBTQ+ press until shortly after it was passed.

in InStep Magazine, Milwaukee Wis. Dec. 11, 1996

DOMA was passed in anticipation of a gay-friendly ruling by the Hawai'ian Supreme Court. Three same-sex couples had sued the state of Hawai'i in 1990 to respect their weddings in a case that became Baehr v. Miike. The court sent the case back to trial court with the state bearing the burden of proof that prohibiting same-sex couples from marrying "furthers compelling state interests and is narrowly drawn to avoid unnecessary abridgments of constitutional rights." In December of 1996, Hawai'ian Judge Kevin S.C. Chang ruled in favor of plaintiffs, but stayed his ruling in case it were reversed on appeal.

in InStep Magazine, Milwaukee, Wis., Sept. 18, 1996. My first cartoon for the LGBTQ press before I started drawing for them on a regular basis.

The U.S. Congress had already passed, and President Bill Clinton had signed, DOMA in September, guaranteeing that if same-sex marriage were legal in Hawai'i, it would not be recognized by the federal government or any state on the mainland. Then, in 1998, Hawai'i voters approved a constitutional amendment barring same-sex couples from marrying.

in InStep Magazine, Milwaukee Wis., January 8, 1998

The religious right pushed similar "Definition/Defense of Marriage Amendments" in state after state, a crusade supported enthusiastically by Republicans and acquiesced to by not a few Democrats.

A flyer I put together as Wisconsin legislature passed its DOMA in 1997

As a consolation prize, some people suggested that same-sex couples settle for "domestic partnerships." 

for Q Syndicate, April/August, 1998

But even that was anathema to the religious right. In Wisconsin and elsewhere, state legislatures passed laws to prevent municipalities (and in some cases, even private corporations) from offering domestic partnership benefits to same-sex couples.

for Q Syndicate, April/December, 1998

These last three cartoons are examples of ideas I originally drew for InStep Magazine of Milwaukee, but redrew when brought on to Q Syndicate for national distribution. The then-owner of the syndicate, David (Bianco) Benkof, wanted a portfolio of six cartoons he could show to potential customers; most of them were released for publication later on.

"And They Say We Threaten Their Families" above is my original version for InStep; the other two are the retreads. The "Special Rights" cartoon recast a local TV newsman and a fictional politician as ABC "Nightline" host Ted Koppel and Family Research Council head Gary Bauer.

for Q Syndicate, August, 1999

At weeks such as this one, when there doesn't seem to be enough time to handle all the tasks that pile up on top of each other, it would be nice to have a half dozen cartoons in reserve. But now more than ever before, it's hard to imagine what I could possibly draw in April that would still be fresh and relevant in August, let alone December.

Keep Calm and E Mālie

Hawai'ian Civil Defense has unveiled a new automated message.

Q Toon: Say It Ain't So, Jo

Hawaii State Representative Georgette "Jo" Jordan provides a curious sidebar to her state's passage of marriage equality this week. A lesbian who is "not part of any faith-based group," Jordan was appointed to the state legislature in 2011. When Governor Abercrombie called a special session to consider marriage equality, LGBT groups such as Equality Hawaii wanted her to be the face of the bill.

But Jordan decided that she did not want to be pigeon-holed as a representative of her state's lesbian and gay citizens. In an interview with Honolulu Magazine, she says,

"I know who I am, I’m grounded in who I am, I’ve never hid who I am. And when I walked in this door, the GLBT community came knocking on my door and they said, "We’re so glad you’re here. Come on in here." And I’m like, 'I’m Jo, I’m a legislator, those are my hats first.'
"I know what it meant to step in this room for a kid from Waianae, who graduated from public school, who has no background, to be a female and to be GLBT on top of that. And I didn’t want to come up the gate saying, "Look at me, here I am." Because it would distract from anything that I worked on. I have never waved my flag. I don’t wear it across my chest."

So determined was she not to be type-cast, that she proceeded to vote against marriage equality. Her claim is that there aren't strong enough provisions in the bill to allow people to discriminate against same-sex couples if they want to. Apparently, she was swayed by the "citizen's filibuster," in which 5,184 right-wing religious folks showed up to testify against the bill, repeating the same tropes over and over as long as they possibly could. Jordan found them to be nice people, unlike the people over at Equality Hawaii who felt betrayed and let her know it.

"I totally thought I was going to get blasted by the religious community. When I walked into the hearings, I was like, those faith-based guys are going to come out. And not one of them said anything. They were more about, 'Thank you, thank you for listening.' And they didn’t know who I was. Outside, I was Rep. Jordan sitting at the table. They had no idea who I was, or my lifestyle, and that’s why I like it. Can we get to know each other before you know the rest of the stuff?
"I was blasted by the GLBT community on Saturday, outside the door. That took me aback. At the time, I hadn’t stated my position, and I was still undecided. These were testifiers the day before, saying, 'How can you be undecided? You should be a 'yes.' Do you know what this means?' And I politely engaged with them: 'I have some problems with SB1.' I explained the issues and they slammed me again. 'It’s good. Just vote yes.' They started getting boisterous. My natural instinct is, I’m going to fly some words at you. But you can’t, so I’m like, 'Thank you.'"

 If Think Progres's figures on support for marriage equality in Hawaii and in Jordan's district are correct, come next election, her constituents may be like, "See you."

This Week's Sneak Peek

There was great news out of Illinois and Hawaii this week as the states joined the ranks of those with marriage equality. So as an editorial cartoonist making a career out of criticizing everyone else, I'm reminded of a Gilbert and Sullivan song from Princess Ida:

Oh, don't the days seem lank and long
When all goes right and nothing goes wrong,
And isn't your life extremely flat
With nothing whatever to grumble at!