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.

Meanwhile in Europe

It has been a busy week Chez Bergetoons, so today's Graphical History Tour will just be a quick run-down of 1925 getting underway over there in Europe. To start, let’s check how the armistice is holding up, shall we?

"Open All Winter" by Nelson Harding in Brooklyn Daily Eagle, January 30, 1925

"Digging Out the Old Stuff" by Rollin Kirby in New York World, ca. Jan. 4, 1925

Yes, prospects for peace were pretty dim, according to Rollin Kirby at Joseph Pulitzer's New York World and Nelson Harding at the Gennison family's Brooklyn Daily Eagle.

"Das Nuejahrsprosten" by Erich Wilke in Kladderadatsch, Jan. 4, 1925

Munich cartoonist Erich Wilke depicted international relations as a soap opera. Whenever all the characters gather together, plot twists are in the offing.

You'll notice that Wilke hasn't yet updated his character stock book in a while; Uncle Sam is still Brother Jonathan.

"They're Out Again" by William Hanny in Philadelphia Inquirer, Jan. 25, 1925

U.S. Secretary of State Charles Evans Hughes resigned after successfully negotiating an agreement on postwar reparations between Germany and the Entente nations, leaving it to his successor to get the agreement past the isolationists in Congress. Fortunately for President Coolidge, the Progressives were personae non gratae among their more orthodox Republican colleagues just then after their disappointing showing in the 1924 election.

"Zangengeburt" by Thomas Theodor Heine in Simplicissimus, Munich, Jan. 19, 1925

December elections in Germany — the second in seven months— produced a coalition government of multiple parties from left, right, and center. Nazis and Communists lost seats in the Bundestag. The Social Democratic Party had the most seats, but far from a majority, and without any of the right-wing, Catholic, or monarchist parties willing to join with it.

After lengthy negotiations and bargaining among party leaders and dissidents, a coalition government was led by Centre Party, the radical nationalist German National People's Party, the conservative German People's Party, and Catholic-centered Bavarian People's Party.

"Getting Away with It, Too" by William Hanny in Philadelphia Inquirer, Jan. 12, 1925

In Italy, Benito Mussolini launched his dictatorship in a speech to the Italian Chamber of Deputies. He took responsibility for his Blackshirts, who had rioted and attacked newspaper offices, resulting in three deaths. Mussolini dared anyone to try removing him from office, and promised to restore order to Italy within forty-eight hours.

"Retreat from Moscow" by Daniel Fitzpatrick in St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Jan. 25, 1925

Soviet leader Joseph Stalin fired Leon Trotsky as Kommisar for Military and Naval Affairs. Trotsky was well known outside his country, but few American cartoonists were learning how to draw Stalin yet.

There will always be an England. 

"And Still Poor Old Decadent England Leads the World" by Arthur G. Racey in Montreal Star, Jan. 3, 1925

And according to A.G. Racey, there has always been a faction lamenting that Old Blighty's best days were behind her.

It's a lovely exercise in period costumes, however..

What Kind of Nation Elects a Fascist?

The answer may depress you.

I'll give you a hint: not a great one.

for Q Syndicate, Oct. 2004

Today's Graphical History Tour kicks off with a cartoon I drew 20 years ago when George W. Bush was sailing on a swiftboat to reelection. It expressed my feelings about his GOProud supporters then, and seems a propos to the several demographics who, having witnessed the shitshow that was Donald Berzelius Trump's first term, decided to ask for another.

Rather than the usual recap of my cartoons from 40, 30, 20, and 10 years ago, I feel that I just can't ignore the foreboding of what's in store during the next four.

When the outcome of last week's election could no longer be denied, I changed my personal Facebook photo, which had been of my "I Voted Today" sticker and buttons for three of the people I voted for, to this cartoon that I had drawn the first time our Electoral College handed the nation over to Donald Trump:

for Q Syndicate, November, 2016

I soon learned that my esteemed colleague, Jack Ohman, had just published an extremely similar cartoon, based on the same Bill Mauldin classic that had inspired mine.

That is what we in the editorial cartoon biz call a "Yahtzee." Jack and I independently came up with the same idea, based on the same subject matter familiar to both of us, to express the same reaction to (more or less) the same news event. Or, in this case, the recrudescence of the same news event eight years later.

To be quite honest, however, neither of our Lincoln Memorial Barfing cartoons quite capture my reaction this time around. The election of Trump for a second reich, this time with the support of an actual majority of my fellow Americans, feels more like seeing a dog eating its own vomit.

I’m not drawing that cartoon. 

Pat Bagley drew a slightly more sanitized version of that sort of idea anyway, and it was still too risqué for his editors at the Salt Lake Tribune. I don't like to swipe my colleagues' work here, but I think you need to see what I’m talking about.

"Lap Lap Lap..." by Pat Bagley for Salt Lake Tribune, Nov. 9, 2024

At this point, we’ve moved on from the initial shock and horror of Trump’s election, to the ever-accumulating nausea and dread of one outrageous cabinet appointment after another to the impending cabinet of Dr. Tarr and Professor Fether.

I tried warning everyone about it with last week’s Graphical History Tour, but obviously, I wasn’t forceful enough. 

I didn't include this next cartoon last week lest it prove prophetic:

January, 2021

Perhaps I should have.

It has been noted that if you've ever wondered what you would have done when the Nazis took over Germany, congratulations, you're doing it now.

"'De Notenkraker' Een Hitler vanu Speculaies" by George van Raemdocnk in De Notenkraker, Amsterdam, ca. February, 1933. My rough translation.

Having seen the cartoons of Ben Garrison, Chip Bok, Gary Varvel, Henry Payne, and others gloating over the November 5 results, I'd suggest my colleagues substitute the word "drawing" for "doing."

Since this post is supposed to be about history, here's a little taste of what Germany's cartoonists were drawing when Hitler came to power on January 30, 1933.

"Die Meistersinger (Dritter Aufzug) by Werner Hahmann in Kladderadatsch, Berlin, Feb. 12, 1933

The Garrison types were in charge at the Berlin satirical weekly Kladderadatsch, where Hitler's rise to power was greeted with the above paraphrase of the poet Hans Sachs, a leading character in Richard Wagner's Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg. (February, 1933 happened to be the 50th anniversary of Wagner's death, so there were a number of cartoons referencing the composer at the time.)

"Immer Sein Kampf..." by Karl Arnold in Simplicissimus, Munich, Feb. 5, 1933

Simplicissimus, published in Munich since 1896, was a center-left counterpart to Berlin's Kladderadatsch. Its satire became less pointed during The Great War, under pressure to be patriotic; it was no friend of the Nazis during the Weimar period, however.

I don't know whether the date on their February 5, 1933 issue is when it hit the newsstands, or the date until which it was intended to remain on the newsstands, but the cover cartoon's intention was clearly to mock the prospect of a Hitler chancellorship on the strength of a bunch of hayseeds from the Teutoburg forest area.

"Zur Verfassung des Deutschen Reiches" by Karl Arnold in Simplicissimus, Stuttgart, March 12, 1933

Shortly after Hitler's rise to power, Simplicissimus had found it necessary to decamp from Munich to Stuttgart.

"Wagner in Walhall" by Thomas Th. Heine in Simplicissimus, Munich, February 12, 1933

Having already spent time in prison for publishing a cartoon critical of Kaiser Wilhelm in 1898, editor Thomas Theodor Heine appears to have shied away from satire targeting individual politicians. I don't detect a political subtext in his tribute to Wagner; yet Heine still had commentary to offer about the new government's plans to fix the German economy.

"Vierjahresplan" by Th. Th. Heine in Simplicissimus, Munich, Feb. 26, 1933

Within months, Heine, a Jew, was ousted from the magazine and would flee to Czechoslovakia. When that, too, proved unsafe, he moved to Norway, and finally to Sweden, where he died in 1948. His last cartoon in Simplicissimus was in the April 1, 1933 edition, under the appropriate title, "Epilogue." 

"Epilog" by Th. Th. Heine in Simplicissimus, Stuttgart, April 1, 1933

Zurück zum Zeichenbrett

When our Graphical History Tour last visited July, 1924, the Democratic National Convention had just struggled for two weeks to settle on its presidential nominee, rejecting its leading suitor, William McAdoo, in favor of John W. Davis.

"Americanische Wahlqualen" by Arthur Johnson in Kladderadatsch, Berlin, July 27, 1924

The debacle made the front page of Berlin's satirical weekly Kladderadatsch, where cartoonist Arthur Johnson was happy to enjoy the schadenfreude of the misfortunes of politicians of any other country.

"Die Schnüffel-Kommission" by Arthur Johnson in Kladderadatsch, Berlin, July 13, 1924

Especially since the alternative was to cartoon about the humiliation of his own country. (Johnson's father was American; but Arthur was German-born and grew up there raised by his German mother.) 

The title of this cartoon derives from a word that can mean either "snoop" or "sniff"; I've chosen the former, since Marianne, John Bull, Uncle Sam, and the Italian (King Vittorio Emanuele III, probably), representing the Reparations Commission, are using a magnifying glass rather than their olfactory senses to examine Michel's gesäß.

"Morgens.. in der Berliner Kunstuastellung" by Arthur Johnson in Kladderadatsch, July 13, 1924

Johnson, renowned for his monstrously distorted caricatures of Germany's foes, was certainly capable of more flattering depictions of the human form, as shown in "Die Schnüffel-Kommission." I may not know much about modern art, but I know what Johnson liked.

"Der Dolchstoss von Hinten" by Oskar Theuer in Ulk, Berlin, July 18, 1924

Only months after the failed Beerhall Putsch, the Never Hitlerer cartoonists warned that the danger had not truly passed. Oskar Theuer's cartoon on the front page of Ulk depicted industrialists and royalists behind the bushes on the left and Nazis on the right, both waiting to ambush the young lad labeled Peace. Little Boy Peace's backpacks are labeled "reconstruction" and "reconciliation."

Theuer ironically took the blame-laying phrase used by those right-wingers, turning it back against them as the title of the cartoon.

"Der Fall Willstätter" by Thomas Theodor Heine in Simplicissimus, Munich, July 28, 1924

Publishing his magazine in the heart of Nazi country, Theodore Heine's play on words recalls the horrors of World War I's chemical warfare for his cartoon. Yellow Cross gas, or Gelbkreuzgas, was Germany's variant of mustard gas with an antifreeze agent for use in winter; Hakenkreuz is another word for "swastika."

Richard Willstätter was a Nobel Prize winning German chemist who determined the composition of chlorophyll in plants. Asked in 1915 to help develop poison weapons for the German government, he refused to work on anything beyond protective measures. He received the Iron Cross for his work on gas mask filtering systems.

In protest of increasing anti-Semitism, Willstätter, a Jew, announced his retirement as director of the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Chemistry in 1924, and subsequently refused all offers of employment. He eventually fled Munich for Switzerland in 1938, where he died four years later, ten days shy of his 70th birthday.

"Faschismus" by Arnold Lindloff in Kladderadatsch, Berlin, July 6, 1924

Looking beyond Germany's borders again, Arnold Lindloff has Italy's Benito Mussolini quoting The Sorcerer's Apprentice, although Il Duce (at right) appears to enjoy the work of the monsters he has set loose. 

Only the industrialist seems perturbed; wouldn't it have made more sense to have him the one who summoned the two spirits? Indeed, the fellow with a dagger appears to be a German brownshirt; and whereas Mussolini has a club, the industrialist is armed only with a baton. 

A magic wand, even.

"Die Ältesten und die Jüngsten von U.S.A." by Karl Arnold in Simplicissimus, Munich, July 7, 1924

Here's another cartoon in which the wrong person seems to be speaking. Karl Arnold's comment on the U.S.'s Japanese Exclusion Act is one of many cartoons through history that have proposed that Native Americans erred in ever allowing Europeans to settle the new continent.

It appears that the tribal elder in the foreground should be the one talking, but the caption makes more sense said by the Japanese gentleman. I wonder why the speaker wasn't identified as McAdoo and Mussolini were in the above cartoons, or if an editor changed the caption.

I don't always get German humor, largely because I don't speak the language. Relying on an on-line translation of "Die Yankees machen sich jetzt mausig" gave me "The Yankees are making a mess of things now." But from what I've been able to tell, the word "mausig" doesn't translate neatly into English. It combines senses of being unruly, obstinate, and deliberately combative. (One translator also gave me "mousy.")

"Ihr" can mean "you," "her," or "their." Only one of those pronouns makes any grammatical sense in the caption, so I stuck with "you."

✍

Well, that's our review for today of German cartoons from July of 1924. Hope you enjoyed the grammar lesson and the Jugenstil. Come back next week, and I promise to go back to having stuff in English.

Crime and Punishment

Today's Graphical History Tour takes us to April of 1924 to visit some of history's notorious villains.

"Down and Out Club" by T.E. Powers for Star Company ca. April 4, 1924

The Teapot Dome scandal continued to take its toll on holdovers from the Harding administration with the resignation of Attorney General Harry Daugherty. T.E. Powers depicts him walking past the "Little Green House on K Street" where many of the Teapot Dome deals were reportedly made; then meeting disgraced Interior Secretary Albert Fall, Gaston Means, and Dr. Frederick Cook.  Finally, Daugherty escapes to assume the role of elder statesman in Ohio Republican politics.

Coolidge replaced Daugherty with Harlan A. Stone, whose first action in office was to clear the place of Daugherty cronies. Coolidge would later appoint Stone to the Supreme Court; Franklin Roosevelt elevated him to Chief Justice in 1941.

(Means and Cook were only tangentially connected to the Teapot Dome case. Means, an agent of the Department of Justice, testified to the Senate in March that he had collected large bribes for Daugherty crony Jess Smith from a wide variety of persons interested in avoiding federal prosecution; Smith  committed suicide in May of 1923 — although as later with Vincent Foster, some raised doubts. Dr. Frederick Cook, a trustee of the Petroleum Producers Association, was convicted of illegally transferring some oil-producing properties in Texas to himself and his wife.)

"A Cabinet Officer Who Might Escape Congressional Criticism" by John T. McCutcheon in Chicago Tribune, April 2, 1924

Having no connection to any of the scandals then in the headlines, the actual Secretary of the Treasury, Andrew Mellon, would serve out the Harding and Coolidge administrations, and well into that of Herbert Hoover. 

Side note: Attorney General Stone would launch an anti-trust investigation into Aluminum Company of America (now Alcoa), owned by the Mellon family, but it would be 14 years before any charges were filed.

"Who's Been Running It Night and Day" by J.P. Alley in Memphis Commercial Appeal, April 6, 1924

With Daugherty's resignation, the Coolidge administration was now free of any officers directly connected to the Teapot Dome scandal, the Veterans Bureau scandal, and other taint left over from the Harding administration.

by Charles Henry "Bill" Sykes in Life, April 10, 1924

Not that the scandals were about to stop generating headlines, of course. But the administration and Congress could at least claim to be doing what they could to expose and repair the damage.

"Still 'Demonstrating'" by Bill Sykes in Philadelphia Public Ledger before April 12, 1924

Turning to other issues: Citizens of the mining town of Lilly, Pennsylvania repeatedly disrupted a Ku Klux Klan rally the week of April 6, spraying water from firehoses at the klansmen as they paraded through the town. The klansmen responded with gunfire, killing two and injuring several others.

Police in the town arrested 24 of the reportedly 500 klansmen as the group left Lilly by train, and confiscated some 50 firearms. The 24 were held without bail on murder charges. Four Lilly residents who were arrested for inciting a riot were released on their own recognizance. Trials were scheduled for May and June.

"The Penalty of Treason" by Roy James in St. Louis Star, April 2, 1924

Meanwhile, in Germany, verdicts came down in the trial of the Beer Hall Putsch leaders. General Erich Ludendorff, the figure most recognizable to American readers, was found not guilty.

These last cartoons are by German cartoonists; the first hangs on punning the city of Dusseldorf and the brash insult "Dusseltier," roughly, "dumbass."

"Großherzig" by Lindloff in Kladderadatsch, Berlin, April 13, 1924

Among the nine putsch leaders found guilty were Nazi leaders Adolph Hitler and Rudolph Hess. They were to serve their terms in fortress confinement (festungschaft); there was talk of assigning deaf guards to watch over Hitler so that he couldn't talk them into freeing him.

"Der Erste April" by Thomas Theodor Heine in Simplicissimus, Munich, April 1, 1924

Thomas Theodor Heine's front page cartoon in the Munich satire weekly Simplicissimus — the issue dated the very day of the verdict — saw Hitler as the stuff of April Fool's jokes.

Released from his festungschaft after only nine months, Hitler had just enough time to write Mein Kampf and to plot a more successful entry into Berlin.

"Treue um Treue" by Oskar Garvens in Kladderadatsch, Berlin, April 13, 1924

The other character in Oskar Garvens's cartoon is Gustav Ritter von Kahr, Generalstaatskommissar of Bavaria, who was giving a speech in the Bürgerbräukeller when Hitler's Nazis stormed the beerhall and began their attempted coup. Von Kahr shared Hitler's desire of overthrowing the national government in Berlin to set up a dictatorship, but one led by himself, Lt. General Otto von Lossow of the Reichswehr, and Bavarian police commander Hans von Seisser.

But the triumvirate of von Kahr, von Lossow, and Seisser acted to thwart Hitler's putsch, calling out the police to disperse the putschists before they could march on Berlin. For that, von Kahr lost the support of Bavarian right-wingers. Ten years later, he was arrested by the Schutzstaffel (SS) in the "Night of Long Knives" and shot to death in detention.

Lenin and Wilson

Graphical History Tour pauses this week to commemorate the passing 100 years ago of Vladimir Illyich Lenin and Thomas Woodrow Wilson.

"Lenin †" by Ernst Schilling in Simplicissimus, Munich, Feb. 11, 1924

Vladimir Ilych Lenin (deadname Ulyanov) died on January 21, 1924, nine months after suffering a stroke — his third — that left him partly paralyzed and unable to speak.

"The Inexorable Law He Could Not Defy" by Sam Armstrong in Tacoma News-Tribune, Jan. 24, 1924

Neither man's death came as a shock to the world. Lenin contemplated suicide even before his first stroke in May of 1922, and Wilson spent the last year of his administration as an invalid.

"The Headless Horseman" by Edward Gale in Los Angeles Times, Jan. 29, 1924

Yet neither man had adequately prepared his country for transition to a successor. Wilson (or at least Mrs. Wilson) entertained the notion that he could run for a third term as President of the United States despite being bedridden. For his part, Lenin didn't trust any of his fellow Bolsheviks enough to give any of them his blessing, and effectively undermined each of the more promising candidates.

"Jettisoned" by Albert T. Reid for Bell Syndicate, Jan. 30, 1924

He had felt strongly that Josef Stalin was ill-suited to leadership, but was apparently unaware of Stalin's moves behind the scenes to bolster his own position within the party. Leon Trotsky, whom Lenin regarded off and on as perhaps the best choice for Russia's future, was convalescing in the Caucasus and missed Lenin's funeral — later alleging that Stalin had sent him the wrong date.

"Changed in Name Only" by Fred Morgan in Philadelphia Inquirer, Jan. 30, 1924

Other potential successors then are obscure trivia now. One of the politburo members who spoke at the funeral was Grigory Zinovieff (who looked nothing at all like Fred Morgan drew him), chairman of the Communist International. He and Lev Kamenev allied with Stalin against Trotsky, eventually to turn against Stalin two years later. Things did not turn out well for him in the end.

The empires of old had primogeniture; the representative democracies that grew out of the Enlightenment had popular elections. The world waited to see how the Soviet Republic would select the next Red Father.

"Zeremoniell bei den Neuen Kroningstagen in Moskau" by Arthur Johnson in Kladderadatsch, Berlin, February 24, 1924

Two weeks after Lenin shuffled off his mortal coil, Woodrow Wilson died at home in Washington, D.C., 100 years ago today.

"His Eternal Resting Place" by Roy James in St. Louis Star, Feb. 4, 1924

Roy James gives us a rather tepid, neutral eulogy for the former president. Although he was not completely alone among editorial cartoonists, most expressed gratitude for a man who, while unable to "keep us out of war," led us successfully through that war once we were in it. And left the nation in a much better position than the countries who had been fighting it for years before our boys arrived Over There.

"Undying Fire" by Nelson Harding in Brooklyn Daily Eagle, Feb. 4, 1924

"Among Presidents Woodrow Wilson achieved one supreme distinction. If it cannot today be said of him, as Stanton said of the murdered Lincoln, 'Now he belongs to the ages,' it can be said that at the height of his power he dominated world affairs and world thought as no other president ever did in the history of the Republic. In its moral and physical aspects the crisis he faced was the gravest that civilization ever confronted, but he is dead before his work in meeting it can be fully measured." — Brooklyn Daily Eagle, Feb. 4, 1924

"His Work Shall Be Finished" by J.P. Alley in Memphis Commercial Appeal, Feb. 6, 1924

Harding and Alley can be counted as generally sympathetic to the Democratic Party, and their cartoons convey admiration for Wilson's ideals, particularly his commitment to establishing an international forum to maintain global peace. 

"Woodrow Wilson" by Arthur G. Racey in Montreal Star, Feb. 5, 1924

Despite clear evidence that his League of Nations was already proving incapable of that task, it was Wilson's intentions that mattered to Canadian cartoonist A.G. Racey. His Clio penned "He who activated by a noble purpose and a high resolve. He worked for peace."

"We Mourn a Truly Great Leader" by Harold Wahl in Sacramento Bee, Feb. 4, 1924

Harold Wahl's memorial cartoon of Warren Harding had said that the late Republican had "the respect and love alike of enemies and friends." From the viewpoint of today, his eulogy cartoon for Wilson is equally overstated.

But death will do that. Just weeks before, Wahl had drawn a cartoon with a fairer estimation of Wilson's postwar legacy:

"As Simple as a Mother Good Rhyme" by Harold Wahl in Sacramento Bee, Jan. 29, 1924

My point, however, is that whatever their political differences, until fairly recently, Americans generally set them aside when the Grim Reaper came calling. Here are a pair of cartoons by editorial cartoonists whose Republican Party bona fides were without question.

"The Chief Joins His Legions" by Carey Orr in Chicago Tribune, Feb. 4, 1924

I can think of quite a few of my colleagues who will have great difficulty coming up with anything nice to draw when Jimmy Carter or Joe Biden are called Up Yonder. I myself cannot imagine coming up with a respectful cartoon when Donald Trump goes the way of all flesh.

"That Peace Which in Life Was Denied Him" by J.N. "Ding" Darling in Des Moines Register, Feb. 4, 1924

I will note here that despite his Republican inclinations, "Ding" Darling approved of Wilson's designs for a League of Nations for world peace. Thus it is Peace herself left to grieve his loss. Are Death, Wars, and Hatred retreating into the heavens, or are they left to roam free throughout the cosmos?

Wilson's reputation has sunk considerably in the past few years. It is true that he held racist attitudes and opposed women's suffrage until that position was no longer politically feasible. But you won't find 100-year-old cartoons criticizing him upon his death.

Unless you look into some of the satirical German magazines.

"Wilson vor seinem Richter" by Theodor Th. Heine in Simplicissimus, Munich, Feb. 18, 1924

For a cartoon critical of Wilson's legacy, we have to turn to Germany and this cartoon of Wilson arriving before the devil; a demon displays Wilson's Fourteen Points as the evidence against him. 

Coincidental with Wilson's death were leaks ahead of publication by the French government of a "yellow paper" which would claim that French President Georges Clemenceau, Britain's Prime Minister David Lloyd George, and Wilson secretly agreed that France should occupy the Ruhr. This allegation was denounced by Clemenceau and Lloyd George, both by this time out of office. Lloyd George said that he was not in Paris at the time of the supposed pact; Clemenceau stated flatly that no such pact existed.

"La recherche de la paternité est interdite" by Oskar Theuer in Ulk, Berlin, Feb. 29, 1924

Wilson appears in a draped portrait on Marianne's wall in Theuer's cartoon, above portraits of Clemenceau and former Italian Prime Minister Antonio Salandra, whose government had brought Italy into World War I against the Central Powers.

An aside here: I've translated "Sieges-Rausch," literally "rush of victory," rather loosely; yet I think I'm getting close to the gist of the cartoon, since rausch can indicate euphoria or intoxication. (For that matter, the French "interdite" can also mean "dumbfounded" rather than "forbidden"; but if you see that word on a sign, assume that it's ordering you not to do whatever the verb next to it means.)

"Monuments of History" by Carey Orr in Chicago Tribune,  Feb. 5, 1924

Orr didn't attribute his poem, which I haven't found on line. Either it was so popular at the time that citation was unnecessary, or he made it up himself. You can judge for yourself whether time has left Wilson's boulder larger or diminished it instead.

Unfortunately, I have no examples of editorial cartoons from the suffragette or Black American press to include today. Instead, I will close with this from an editorial assessment of Wilson's legacy from a Black American newspaper:

"If Woodrow Wilson had been free to live up to the spirit of the letter he wrote to Bishop Alexander Walters before his elevation to the presidency, he might truly have been known as the 'President of Humanity.' But his southern antecedents and connections were too binding. Unfortunately some of the evils that grew out of these connections were handed down as a legacy to the Republican administration, which still suffers them to exist." —The New York Age, February 16, 1924