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?

Space. The Final Vomitorium.

When I slap together these Graphical History Tours featuring my own cartoons, I usually dredge up one cartoon from each decade marker for the month. But when I started looking through the cartoons from April of 1985, I couldn't decide which one I wanted to write about.

So here are a whole bunch of them.

in UW-Parkside Ranger, Somers Wis., Apr. 25, 1985

With the current maladministration punishing any media that don't kowtow to Trumpspeak, here's a reminder of an earlier president's efforts to get reporters to echo the Official Line.

Unlike the Gulf of Mexico, which has bore that name for centuries, the Reagan administration's space-based "Strategic Defense Initiative" was brand new. But it was popularly called "Star Wars" after the film series. Reagan and spokesflack Larry Speakes were up against late-night comedians and editorial cartoonists. "Star Wars" was shorter than "Strategic Defense Initiative" and pithier than "SDI."

in UW-Parkside Ranger, Kenosha Wis., Apr. 4, 1985

This cartoon starred local Congressman Les Aspin (D-WI) in a triple role. The inset copies a cartoon I had drawn for the Ranger the previous November, after Aspin had debated Republican challenger Pete Janssen on the Parkside campus, cruising on his way to an eighth term. First elected in 1970 as a critic of the Vietnam War who had served as a U.S. Army officer in Vietnam and a Pentagon systems analyst under Robert MacNamara.

With some serious seniority under his belt in 1985, the Defense Department gadfly was named Chair of the House Armed Services Committee, and his more conservative positions soon came to the fore. I drew this cartoon after he voted in favor of Reagan's Star Wars program and the controversial MX missile system.

He would also support Reagan administration aid to the Contras fighting against the socialist government of Nicaragua, and later, George H.W. Bush's build-up to the Gulf War I. It got him deposed as Armed Services Committee Chair, but only briefly; it also got him named Bill Clinton's Secretary of Defense.

In the meantime, his House position in those days got us Blue Angel fly-overs on Fourths of July hereabouts.

in UW-Parkside Ranger, Kenosha Wis., Apr. 11, 1985

Wharton School of Business D-student Donald Trump has been wreaking havoc recklessly imposing and revoking draconian tariffs, eviscerating your 401k and college savings fund. It's all part of his cunning plan to undo decades of global free trade.

Forty years ago, the postwar American dominance of world markets was suddenly challenged by Japan. In the 1960's, Americans considered Japanese products cheap and of inferior quality; but after the energy crisis of the 1970's made gas-guzzlers unfashionable, Japanese automakers produced fuel-efficient cars while U.S. automakers were slow to retool.

The U.S. complaint was that Japan was not letting American goods into their country while underselling our domestic manufacturers. (And then buying our domestic manufacturers.) At the end of March, both houses of Congress voted overwhelmingly in favor of resolutions calling for retaliation against Japan unless it reduced its trade imbalance with the U.S. Over the course of the year, 300 protectionist bills were introduced in Congress by members of both political parties. 

So the Reagan, Bush, and Clinton administrations hammered out free trade agreements wherever they could; and thus Coke was able to teach the world to sing in perfect harmony. And domestic manufacturers moved all the jobs to Mexico, China, and wherever the median wage was a bushel of beans per month.

✍

I drew an alternating pair of comic strips for the Ranger that year. "Reductio and Absurdam" starred a man and a woman — I never established which was Reductio and which was Absurdam — who appeared in a variety of situations. They might be a couple, or co-workers, or teller and customer, as the gag warranted.

"Reductio and Absurdam" in UW-Parkside Ranger, Kenosha Wis., April 11, 1985

The only consistent conceit was that, except for any text, I drew the cartoon in charcoal. The problem with charcoal as opposed to india ink is that I couldn't go back and erase pencil marks showing around the charcoal. 

I called the other cartoon "Post Nasal Strip." That I drew with india ink, the medium I've relied on for most of my cartoons for not quite 60 years. 

"Post Nasal Strip" in UW-Parkside Ranger, Kenosha Wis., Apr. 11, 1985

"Post Nasal Strip" tended to be more topical than "Reductio and Absurdam," here highlighting a quote by Sen. Jake Garn (R-UT) upon his return from a jaunt into outer space on the space shuttle Discovery. NASA had publicly mused about sending a artist, journalist, or teacher as the first civilian into space, but gave the seat to the Chair of the Senate Subcommittee on Commerce, Justice, Science and Related Agencies instead.

Garn had flown as a pilot with the U.S. Navy and the Utah National Guard before winning election to Congress in 1974. Designated "payload specialist" for the Discovery flight, he was the guinea pig for experiments on Space Adaptation Syndrome. So basically, he was there to throw up.

And so he did. And the rest is History.

"Jake Garn was sick, was pretty sick. I don't know whether we should tell stories like that. But anyway, Jake Garn, he has made a mark in the Astronaut Corps because he represents the maximum level of space sickness that anyone can ever attain, and so the mark of being totally sick and totally incompetent is one Garn. Most guys will get maybe to a tenth Garn, if that high. And within the Astronaut Corps, he forever will be remembered by that."

Two side notes about my cartoon: I snuck in the Ranger Features Editor, Jim Niebuhr, as the fellow delivering the punch line in the final panel. And yes, having performed on a thrust stage, I know what a vomitorium really is.

in UW-Parkside Ranger, Somers Wis., May 2, 1985

Last week's Graphical History Tour was all about the fall of South Vietnam, so I'll close with this cartoon drawn for its tenth anniversary.

The cartoon was supposed to accompany an article about the anniversary. The article didn't run, but the Ranger ran my cartoon anyway, just below the cartoon I had drawn for the editorial page.

You'll notice that there is one president missing from my cartoon. There was a war in Vietnam (this time with China) during Jimmy Carter during his presidency, but the U.S. stayed out of if. Nor did Carter commit American troops to a shooting war anywhere else, so there was no particular reason for me to include Carter in this cartoon.

A.G. Racey

The Association of American Editorial Cartoonists are meeting with our Canadian brethren and sistren in Montréal this weekend, so today's Graphical History Tour celebrates the work 100 years ago this month of Montreal Daily Star editorial cartoonist A.G. Racey.

"The Firecracker" by A.G. Racey in Montreal Daily Star, October 1, 1924

Quebecker Arthur George Racey (1870-1941) drew editorial cartoons for Montreal's Daily Star and Witness for 40 years starting in 1899. According to his 1922 book, Canadian Men of Affairs in Cartoon, he "enjoyed a position of unique prominence and popularity as a chronicler of the world, events and men. His work in the Montreal Daily Star is known all around the British Empire and beyond."

"Where Does It Come From" by A.G. Racey  in Montreal Daily Star, October 18, 1924

So let's start beyond the British Empire. From the Far East: Japan threatened to scuttle a negotiated League of Nations agreement on armaments reduction. Meanwhile, civil war had erupted in China, which factored into the Japanese government's reluctance to agree to military cuts.

Racey's is one of the least racist cartoons about the Chinese crisis that I've come across; admittedly, American cartoonists set a pretty low bar in that regard.

"Churchill and His Hats" by A.G. Racey in Montreal Daily Star,  September 30, 1924

In this early cartoon of Winston Churchill, he's missing the cigar and extra pounds that we usually picture him with nowadays. Apparently, in an era when absolutely everybody wore hats, Churchill was known for also wearing hats.

Churchill, representing Dundee, Scotland in Parliament as a Liberal, had been ousted from office in the 1922 election by candidates of the Labour and Scottish Prohibition Parties. With new elections called in October of 1924, Churchill would be elected again, but this time as a Conservative representing Epping.

The Daily Star was an Anglophile newspaper, allied with the Conservative Party in London and Toronto — Canada being a subject of the crown a century ago — so a prospective change in Tory leadership involving the wartime Secretary of State for War was certainly of interest to its subscribers. As it happened, Winston Churchill would have to wait another 15 years to take the helm of his once and future party.

"The Foundering Ship" by A.G. Racey in Montreal Daily Star, October 4, 1924

The news dominating the British Empire, including Canada, were parliamentary elections called only nine months into the administration of Labour Prime Minister Ramsay MacDonald, the first of his party to hold the post. One of MacDonald's first foreign policy actions was to extend official recognition to the Soviet Union, and to open negotiations with the Russians toward a treaty on Anglo-Soviet trade and the repayment Imperial Russian loans to British bondholders.

MacDonald's minority government lost a vote of no confidence over the "Campbell Case," its decision not to prosecute the Communist Party Workers Weekly and its acting editor, J.R. Campbell, for a July 25 "Open Letter to the Fighting Forces" urging British servicemen to mutiny in the event of war.

"And He Needs It So Badly for Propaganda" by A.G. Racey in Montreal Daily Star, October 22, 1924

Clearly, Racey and his editors shared the view of Britain's Conservatives and Liberals against the MacDonald Soviet-friendly foreign policy, and his cartoons amplify the Red Scare issue that was central to the Conservatives' campaign.

"St. George for England" by A.G. Racey in Montreal Daily Star, October 27, 1924

In case it's too small to read on your device, the spear wielded by "Conservatism" against "Moscow Dominated Red Communism" is labeled "patriotism." I do not, however, believe that Racey intended to call the "British Electorate" a horse's ass.

"Mad Clear Through" by A.G. Racey in Montreal Star, October 28, 1924

Four days before the election in what we would today call an October surprise, the London Daily Mail published a letter, purportedly by Grigori Zinoviev, President of the Communist International (Commintern), intercepted by Great Britain's Secret Intelligence Service. The gist of the letter was that normalization of British-Soviet relations would facilitate the spread of Communist influence throughout the British Empire, culminating in revolution by its workers and soldiers.

"A Hallowe'en Tragedy" by A.G. Racey in Montreal Star, October 31, 1924

The letter is now believed to have been a forgery, but it nevertheless doomed the MacDonald government. Conservatives won a decisive majority in Parliament; Labour lost 40 seats.

Racey's cartoon overlooks one other development with the 1924 election: the Liberal Party lost 118 of its 158 seats in Parliament. Formerly the main rival to the Conservatives, the Liberals have been a  minority third party ever since.

"The Mote and the Beam" by A.G. Racey in Montreal Star, October 23, 1924

With so much excitement over the British elections, Racey hardly had time in October to address any Canadian issues. (In case you're wondering, he drew nothing about the election underway south of the border that month.) 

He did squeeze in this commentary on Canadian complicity in subversion of Prohibition in the United States. Here the province of Ontario, nose darkened by "manufacture of booze," lectures a grinning Quebec, whose nose is stained by "sale of booze."

The latest cartoons of Arthur Racey that I've found were in January, 1941; he died on December 21, 1941 after having been ill for several months. Just as the Parti Québecois was coming to power in Montréal, the Anglophile Montreal Star shut down in September, 1979, unable to recover from a strike of its press workers. 

Splendid Isolation

After Thursday's debacle — er, debate — no, I was right the first time — I for one am willing to try retreating to 1924 and all the global issues facing our presidential candidates that year.

"Der Januskopf de Präsidenten Coolidge" by Werner Hahmann in Kladderadatsch, Berlin, June 1, 1924

I had initially intended to use this German cartoon in my recent post with the cartoons of Republican vice presidential nominee Charles Dawes, since the face on the right speaking to the German people does not look much like the face on the left. The cartoon was drawn before Dawes was tapped for the second spot on the Coolidge ticket, but he would have been the face of the U.S. proposal for settling the European dispute over German war reparations.

The face doesn't look very much like Dawes, either. But on the other hand, Werner Hahmann probably did not have many photos of Dawes in profile to work from. And Coolidge was somewhat new to the world stage.

Either way, it's one (or two) very different depiction/s of "Silent Cal" than one usually sees from the period.

The tiny text at upper right explains the context of the cartoon:

(Auf dem Jaresdiner der "Liga für nationale Sicherheit" sagte Präsident Coolidge, "Swachliches Bertrauen auf die Rechsidee in der Welt hat wenig Wert.")

(At the National Security League's Annual Dinner, President Coolidge said, "Weak confidence in the idea of ​​law in the world is of little value.")

In looking for the original English version of Coolidge's statement, I found that he said in a letter sent to the Security League Annual Dinner, "I need scarcely tell you how vital I believe it to be in the interests of this country to maintain both the Army and the Navy. Feeble righteousness amounts to but little in this world." The letter said nothing about trusting in world justice; but in a speech at the dinner, his Secretary of the Navy, Curtis Wilbur, did express the administration's hope that eventually humanity would accept a World Court where some international disputes could be settled.

The face on the right doesn't look much like Curtis Wilbur, however. So let's move along.

"Has It Come to This" by Orville Williams for Star Company, ca. June 5, 1924

U.S. cartoonists continued to respond with indignation to Japanese protest against the Immigration Act of 1924 passed by Congress over Coolidge's veto. Orville Williams in the Hearst stable of cartoonists was a reliable critic of all things foreign.

"Keep Your Kimono On" by John Knott in Dallas Morning News, ca. June 5, 1924

The Immigration Act of 1924 drastically limited immigration from southern and eastern Europe (read Catholics and Jews), and prohibited immigration entirely from countries whose citizens "by virtue of race or nationality [were] ineligible for citizenship." Drawing on earlier legislation and a 1923 Supreme Court ruling, that language effectively included all natives of Asia. 

No Asian countries had enough military or diplomatic might to make their opinions of the Immigration Act heard on American shores, except for Japan. Japan was a military and colonial power in its own right.

John Knott's cartoon offers the unique view that the Japanese government did not share in that country's offense taken to the patently racist U.S. law. Yet if the Japanese government had not protested the Act, it is doubtful that it would continue to be a cartoonable issue weeks after it was signed into law.

In fact, Japanese Foreign Minister Matsui Keishirō instructed the Japanese ambassador to the U.S., Masanao Hanihara, to write to Secretary of State Charles Evans Hughes the Japanese government's dissatisfaction that "the manifest object of the [section barring Japanese immigrants] is to single out Japanese as a nation, stigmatizing them as unworthy and undesirable in the eyes of the American people. ... I realize, as I believe you do, the grave consequences which the enactment of the measure retaining that particular provision would inevitably bring upon the otherwise happy and mutually advantageous relations between our two countries."

"Unsophisticated in Foregn Diplomacy" by Arthur G. Racey in Montreal Gazette, June 10, 1924

I wouldn't be able to translate Japanese cartoons on the subject, assuming that there were some; but here are a couple cartoons drawn outside U.S. borders.

"Einwanderungs-Gesetz" by Arthur Johnson in Kladderadatsch, June 22, 1924

Arthur Johnson's cartoons were generally hostile to American administrations in spite of his American heritage. In this case, I think he's seizing the opportunity to twit both the United States and Japan, allies against Germany in the Great War.

"Better Nail Down the U.S." by Winsor McCay for Star Company, ca. June 12, 1924

I don't see a signature on this Winsor McCay cartoon, which I have sometimes interpreted to mean that he drew it at the behest of publisher William Randolph Hearst without entirely agreeing with it. 

Uncle Sam is shown ignoring voices calling to return to a more open immigration policy, to lend financial aid to Europe as it recovered from war's devastation, to "give up our Navy" — and to free the Philippines.

"While We're Giving" by Albert T. Reid in Rutland Herald, June 16, 1924

At this time, talk of liberating the Philippines, an American-governed territory since the Spanish-American War, was coming from the same the Asiatic Exclusion League that had pushed for the Immigration Act. As citizens of a U.S. territory, Filipinos were not barred from coming to the states — a loophole in the Whites Only law.

The Philippines status as a U.S. territory would nevertheless remain unchanged for at least another ten years.

My Country, White or Wrong

Today's Graphical History Tour returns again to the Roaring 20's just in time to check in with the war between the Ku Klux Klan and bootleggers in Williamson County, Illinois.

"Active Again" by Roy James in St. Louis Star, April 17, 1924

The mining community of Herrin had been the scene a few years earlier of a violent strike, and more recently of raids against taverns, speakeasies, and private homes. The raids were led by S. Glenn Young, a former guard at the Herrin mine who had gone on to work for — and get fired from — the U.S. Treasury Department's Prohibition Unit. Young enjoyed the enthusiastic support of the local Ku Klux Klan in his mission to wipe out every trace of alcoholic beverages in the county.

There were union miners on both sides of the "booze war" that ensued, and local law enforcement, which had quietly ignored violations of the Volstead Act, was caught in the middle. Klan sympathizers accused the the area's Italian immigrants of wantonly disregarding Prohibition, so the divide fell primarily between the county's Catholic and Protestant citizens.

Violence between the two sides resulted in at least two deaths, a hospital placed under siege by armed klansmen, and Young placing Herrin Mayor C.A. "Mage" Anderson, Williamson County Sheriff George Galligan, and 38 others under arrest for the murder of a pro-Klan police constable. Sheriff Galligan declared, "I'm through being the goat." He told the media that he had discharged all his deputies, replacing them with klansmen. "I turned the reins over and concentrated on my coming trial. As far as I am concerned, they can dig trenches and fight it out."

Local elections in Herrin on April 15 were marred by fist fights and gunfire, allegedly sparked by a Klan poll watcher challenging several Catholic voters, including a nun who had lived in Herrin for two decades. Klan candidates swept the election, and over the next several days, three klansmen and three anti-Klan combatants were killed.

Young and Herrin Police Chief John Ford placed under arrest Judge E.M. Bowen, who had called a grand jury before the election to indict over 20 klansmen for their booze war activities. Bowen was charged with election fraud.

"State Konvention Kostume" by Daniel Fitzpatrick in St. Louis Post-Dispatch, April 18, 1924

The issue of denouncing the Klan was brought before both major party state conventions in Missouri that April. An anti-Klan plank was rejected by Missouri Democrats, who also failed to take any position on other controversial issues of the day such as Prohibition and the League of Nations. Nor could they agree on endorsing any of the Democratic presidential candidates, falling back instead on long-winded, generally vague criticism of Republicans.

"The first demonstration of the character of leadership of Missouri Democracy," opined the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, "does not presage a winning battle nor results that are worth while if the battle should be won by default."

"Mouse" by Roy James in St. Louis Star, April 29, 1924

Meeting later that month, Missouri Republicans also presented themselves with a proposed anti-Klan plank. It passed, but without any mention within it of the Klan by name.

Considering that there were a number of splinter groups rivaling the Klan primarily on the basis of leadership squabbles and what sorts of violence they condoned, not adding credence to any of them might have been the most prudent tactic.

"Left at the Dock" by Dorman H. Smith for Newspaper Enterprise Assn., ca. April 26, 1924

Race played a significant role in congressional passage of Johnson-Reed Immigration Act of 1924. Placing draconian new limits on immigration into the U.S., especially from Italy and Eastern and Central Europe, it included the Asian Exclusion Act, which barred all immigrants from Asia.

Japan's Ambassador to the U.S., Masano Hanihara, conveyed to President Coolidge his government's strong objection to the bill, predicting "grave consequences" to relations between our two countries.

"Exclusion Laws and Japanese Pride" by John T. McCutcheon in Chicago Tribune, April 15, 1924

"And So the Board Is Nailed On" by J.P. Alley in Memphis Commercial Appeal, April 17, 1924

Ambassador Haniharo's letter backfired badly. Senators who had expressed skepticism about the bill took umbrage at what they viewed as foreign interference with U.S. domestic affairs. The bill passed with a veto-proof majority.

"No Discrimination Whatever" by Douglas Rodger in San Francisco Bulletin, April 18, 1924

There wasn't much sympathy for Japan's position among editorial cartoonists of the day. Orville Rodger, himself an immigrant from Scotland, appears to have dismissed Japanese complaints against the Asian Exclusion Act by pointing out that it excluded Chinese, the "Hindoo," and other Asians as well. (Chinese immigration and naturalization were already forbidden by the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1887.)

The Supreme Court had ruled in 1923 that Asians were not eligible for naturalization in United States v. Bhagat Singh Thind. Congress used the language of the Court's ruling, quoted in Rodger's cartoon, to achieve racist aims without actually referencing race or nationality in its bill.

"The Face at the Window" by Orville Williams for Star Company, ca. April 24, 1924

Orville Williams communicated the Hearst chain race-baiting against the "Yellow Peril" in this and other cartoons. In this instance, Hearst was uncharacteristically in league with the isolationist Chicago Tribune, too.

"Our Neighbor's Dog" by John T. McCutcheon in Chicago Tribune, April 16, 1924

Why, no, Mr. McCutcheon. I cannot imagine why Ambassador Haniharo's pride would have been hurt.

"Keep the Flag Waving, Charley" by Robert Minor, in The Liberator, Chicago, May, 1924

Taking a different tack to the Japan-as-dog motif, Robert Minor's cartoon seems to depict "Jap Immigration" to a loud, yapping pup on a leash held by Secretary of State Charles Evans Hughes. Hughes in fact opposed the Japanese Exclusion Act, but the political reality was that President Coolidge could not veto the bill without risking having his veto overridden. With the presidential election well underway and his nomination assured, Coolidge's main advantages were incumbency and, in contrast to the Democrats, party unity.

(Editor and cartoonist for the socialist The Liberator Robert Minor packs an awful lot of extraneous stuff into this cartoon. He includes Mexico — location of the Standard, Pan-American Petroleum, and Sinclair oilfields  — within Secretary Hughes's Japanese Exclusion Line. Oilmen connected to the Teapot Dome scandal encourage Hughes to keep waving his flag while they shelter in a teapot replacing the Capitol dome. James Pierpoint Morgan demands that Europe repay his wartime loans.

(Swimming off the coast of Florida, Washington Post publisher Ned McLean, a friend of disgraced former Secretary of the Interior Albert Fall, calls out "Yoo hoo! I haven't testified yet!" McLean had used his newspaper to defend Fall and counter other media's reporting of the Teapot Dome scandal.)

"An Ever Increasing Problem" by Sam Armstrong in Tacoma News Leader, April 21, 1924

Sam Armstrong lumped Japanese Exclusion in with another host of issues related only in the sense that our integrity of national borders lacked a force field keeping out undesirables. "The Excluded Jap" is encouraged by Mr. "Chinese Coolie Smuggler" to join the convoy of Mexican Peons, European Immigrants, The Dope Smuggler, Booze Smuggling, and Rum. His news note ominously predicts that smuggled Japanese would for some reason bring dope with them.

"He'd Better Look After that Back Fence" by Harold Talburt for Newspaper Enterprise Assn., ca. April 21, 1924

You didn't think Mexican immigrants were going to be overlooked, did you?

"We All Have Our Problems" by William C. Morris for George Matthew Adams Service, ca. April 24, 1924

At least Canada was happy to help stop the influx into the United States of Canadians, apparently.

I skimmed weeks' worth of Montreal Gazette front pages in search of help explaining William Morris's cartoon. The U.S. Asian Exclusion Act was front page news almost every day. Canadian worries about emigration to their south? Not so much.

"America, I Love Your" by Harold Wahl in Sacramento Bee, April 29, 1924

The Gentlemen's Agreement cited by Harold Wahl dated from 1907 and the Theodore Roosevelt administration. In it, Japan voluntarily agreed to limit the number of workers allowed to emigrate to the U.S. Since the Asian Exclusion Act rendered the Gentlemen's Agreement moot, the idea that renewing it would mollify Japan is ridiculous on its face.

"America of the Melting Pot Comes to an End," crowed the banner headline of an April 27, 1924 New York Times column by Immigration Act sponsor Senator David Reed (R-PA). Thanks to passage of his bill, Reed confidently predicted that “The racial composition of America at the present time thus is made permanent.”

Making the World Safe for Autocracy

John McCutcheon's cartoon at the end of last Saturday's Graphical History Tour alluded to a "dictatorship bug" from Europe, so this week's episode takes a look at what was bugging Europe in September of 1923.

"Will the Cop Let Him Get Away with It" by Sam Armstrong in Tacoma News-Tribune, Sept. 6, 1923

Corfu is a narrow, 40-mile (64 km) long island due west of the Greek-Albanian border. The two countries disputed where their border should extend, and took their case to a council of British, French, and Italian ambassadors, chaired by an Italian general, Enrico Tellini.

Greece accused Tellini of siding with Albania, so the Greeks were the suspected culprits when Tellini and four others traveling with him were ambushed and killed at a Greek-Albanian border crossing on August 27. Italy responded by bombarding and occupying the island on August 31, arresting the Greek prefect of the island. Mussolini announced that Corfu had belonged to Venice for four centuries before being ceded to Napoleonic France, then to Great Britain, and to Greece only since 1864.

"Another Successful Operation" by Keith Temple in New Orleans Times-Picayune, ca. Sept. 28, 1923

While much of  Europe was focused on the Corfu crisis, Yugoslavia was preoccupied by Bulgarian guerilla attacks in Macedonia. The Bulgarians wanted to reclaim territory lost to Serbia at the end of World War I (Bulgaria having sided with the Central Powers during the war).

Bulgarian communists reportedly tried taking advantage of the situation, attempting, but failing, to overthrow the government. Prime Minister Aleksandar Tsankov, who had just come to power through a coup in June, declared martial law, and there was some thought that the crisis may have been fabricated in order to justify the move.

"No Wonder He's Getting Tired" by John McCutcheon in Chicago Tribune, Sept. 14, 1923

On September 14, Spanish military officers staged a coup in Barcelona. King Alfonso XIII accepted the resignation of the cabinet of Prime Minister Manuel García Prieto and asked coup leader Captain Miguel Primo Rivera to form a new government. 

"The Passing Show" by Gustavo Bronstrup in San Francisco Chronicle, Sept. 15, 1923

Primo Rivera's military dictatorship would last through the rest of the decade.

In Germany, Chancellor Gustav Stresemann called off his citizens' passive resistance to French and Belgian occupation of the Ruhr; but France vowed to continue the occupation until German reparations were paid in full. Given the worthlessness of the Deutschmark, full payment of reparations any time soon was highly improbable.

"From the Frying Pan Into the Fire" by Winsor McCay for New York American, ca. Sept. 22, 1923

American editorial cartoons of this period expressed much more sympathy for the plight of former enemy Germany and growing hostility toward former ally France.

"Divided They Fall" by Elmer Bushnell for Central Press Assn., before Oct. 4, 1923

At the end of September, monarchist separatists in Bavaria and the Rhineland rebelled against the German government with plans to crown Crown Prince Rupprecht king.

But that gets us into October, and I'm not quite done with September yet.

"Poor Butterfly" by O.C. Chopin in San Francisco Examiner, Sept. 4, 1923

Not all disasters were man-made — at least, to begin with. An earthquake registering 7.9 on the Richter scale devastated Tokyo and Yokahama on September 1, 1923. The quake hit just before noon local time as many were cooking their meals, sparking massive firestorms and a fire whirl that incinerated a crowd sheltering in a department store. The death and destruction were compounded by landslides and a tsunami. The death toll surpassed 105,000 (including the American Consul General in Yokahama and his wife).

But man was responsible for making the disaster even worse. Sparked by rumors that resident Koreans in the Kantō region had poisoned local well water, the Japanese military, police, and vigilantes —condoned by some within the government — slaughtered an estimated 6,000 people that day. The victims of the Kantō Massacre were mainly ethnic Koreans, as well as Chinese and Japanese people mistaken to be Korean, plus Japanese communists, socialists, and anarchists.

"There's My Old Neighbor" by Clifford Berryman in Washington Sunday Star, Sept. 2, 1923

Since today happens to be Independence Day in Mexico, I can't let the day go by without mentioning normalizing of relations between that country and mine. Great Britain, France, Belgium and Cuba quickly followed suit in recognizing the Obregón government.

At home, President Álvaro Obregón was derided as un entreguista (a sellout, literally "delivery man") for agreeing to U.S. demands to renounce his country's intention to expropriate foreign oil companies in Mexican territory. A subsequent rebellion led by Obregón's former Finance Minister, Adolfo de la Huerta, would be harshly put down within months.