Q Toon: The Center for Deforming Arts

Unsatisfied with crowning himself Emperor of the United States and Canada, Donald Joffrey Trump last month executed a hostile takeover of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.

Trump seized control of the Center's board, firing its chair and several members of its board of trustees and its president. In their place, he named himself chairman, and Ric Grenell, who was Ambassador to Germany, Special Envoy to Kosovo and Serbia, and White House liason to the LGB-minus-T community in Trump's first term, the Kennedy Center's president. Attorney General Pam Bondi, musician Lee Greenwood and Trump Chief of Staff Susie Wiles are among the new board members.

Trump, who boycotted all four Kennedy Center Honors award ceremonies during his first term, ostensibly launched his Kennedy Center Coup because a drag performance with the Gay Men's Chorus of Washington D.C. had been scheduled May 21 and 22. Promptly canceling the show, the Philistine in Chief screamposted on Trump Social:

"The Kennedy Center is an American Jewel, and must reflect the brightest STARS on its stage from all across our Nation .... For the Kennedy Center, THE BEST IS YET TO COME!"

Trump's idea of the brightest STARS from all across our Nation? Why, the J6 Insurrectionist Felons Glee Club, of course. And possibly another 39-minute concert from Trump's campaign rally iPod playlist.

In response, several other members of the Center's board quit in protest, including actress-producer Issa Rae and TV producer Shonda Rhimes, and as artistic advisor, musician Ben Folds. Mystery novelist Louise Penny, the cast of "Finn," and and the Alfred Street Baptist Church Christmas Show were among artists announcing that they would cancel their scheduled appearances.

JFK Center ticket sales for remaining shows have plummeted by half. 

It will be interesting to see how the JFK Center's Mark Twain Prize for American Humor ceremony for Conan O'Brien (host of Sunday's Academy Awards) comes off less than a month from today. Given that Trump and his sugar daddy Elon Musk consider themselves hilariously witty, this may be the last Mark Twain award ceremony worth watching for at least four years.

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I had some difficulty drawing the bust of Kennedy in this week's cartoon. Trying to depict the rough surface of the bronze casting in pen and ink utterly obscured the facial features. Attempting to portray the bust's texture in Photoshop, first in grayscale and then in color (I provide both versions separately), took hours. 

Later that day, well after I had sent my cartoon to Q Syndicate, I read a column by Jack Ohman about the death of Clint Hill, the last survivor of John and Jacqueline Kennedy's Secret Service detail that fatal day in Dallas. Jack's column includes a graphic description of President Kennedy's assassination, and it occurred to me that my drawing of that bronze bust lying on the floor might be upsetting to readers for reasons I had not intended.

I am not quite old enough to have my own memories of JFK, and most of my editors are even younger. It will be up to them to decide whether or not to print my cartoon, and I will respect their decisions either way.

Readers are likewise free to complain. That's what free speech is all about. 

I only ask that they do not call for a boycotts, firings, and banning my or anyone else's cartoons from syndication. (Or here on Blogger.) That is what cancel culture is all about.

Drawings on the Foreign Desk

It ain't easy to maintain an isolationist foreign policy, even in 1923; so today's Graphical History Tour takes us on a whirlwind tour of the rest of the world that December.

"Blowing Off Again" by Dorman H. Smith for Newspaper Enterprise Assn., ca. Dec. 14, 1923

The triumvirat of Generals Álvaro Obregón Salido and Plutarco Elías Calles and Governor of Sonora Felipe Adolfo de la Huerta Marcor had overthrown the government of Venustiano Carranza in 1920. De la Huerta was interim president of Mexico for a few months after the revolution until Obregón won election to a four-year term. 

Following the assassination of Pancho Villa in July of 1923, the Harding administration was convinced that Mexico's long revolutionary wars were finally over and done with. The process of normalizing relations with the U.S.'s southern neighbor was finalized by Calvin Coolidge.

But de la Huerta, serving as Secretary of the Treasury in Obregón's cabinet, apparently thought he was in line to succeed Obregón as president in 1924. And when Obregón endorsed Calles instead, de la Huerta accused Obregón of corruption and launched an armed revolt against the government.

"Taking His Sword in Hand" by Dennis McCarthy in Fort Worth Record, Dec. 18, 1923

De la Huerta had the support of conservatives in the Mexican army and Catholic Church. The latter had protested the strong separation of church and state in the new Mexican constitution, land reforms that took property away from the Catholic Church, and the expulsion of Pope Pius XI's Apostolic Nuncio for conducting an illegal open-air mass. The Church feared that Calles would prove to be even more anti-clerical than Obregón.

"Nothing to Be Much Alarmed About" by Harold Wahl in Sacramento Bee, Dec. 20, 1923

Obregón had backing of farmers and laborers who had benefited from land reforms under his administration, as well as significant support from the United States. Wahl's assessment of the situation here may have been overly optimistic, but not by much. Aided by creation of a Mexican Air Force, Obregón was able to defeat de la Huerta, who fled into exile abroad, the following March.

"Speaking of Politics" by Sam Armstrong in Tacoma News Tribune, Dec. 10, 1923

Meanwhile, the Tory government of Stanley Baldwin called for general elections in Great Britain in December. One result noted by Sam Armstrong was the election of eight women to Parliament, a first since women were (mostly) granted the right to vote and to stand for election in 1918.

"A Tax on His Renowned Diplomacy" by J.P. Alley in Memphis Commercial Appeal, Dec. 6, 1923

Burdened by high unemployment, the Conservative Party lost their majority in Parliament. The Tories held onto 258 seats, while Labour won 191 and the Liberals garnered 158. None of the parties having a majority, each faced having to form a coalition with rivals with whom they had strong disagreement.

Eventually, the Liberals teamed up with Labour under Ramsey MacDonald. Liberal leader Henry Asquith gambled that Labour's policies would be its own undoing, to the Liberals' benefit; but as it turned out, the office Prime Minister would go back and forth between MacDonald and Baldwin for the next 14 years.

"All Froth" by Nelson Harding in Brooklyn Daily Eagle, Dec. 10, 1923

The German government of Chancellor Gustav Stressemann fell in December. Faced with hyperinflation, civil unrest, and unrelenting pressure from France to pay ever more exorbitant war reparations, President Friedrich Ebert turned to the centrist Catholic Party to form a new government. Reports that the murder of Baron Scarpi in a Munich performance of Tosca would be the cue for a second attempt at a Nazi putsch forced the canceling of a performance of the Puccini opera.

"When It Comes to Pullin' Off a Putsch, You've Got to Have Good, Old-Fashioned Lager" by Frank Godwin in Colliers, Dec. 29, 1923

The soldiers from French territories in Africa who were part of France's occupation of the Ruhr were a frequent topic of German cartoons. To German cartoonists, the Africans' presence was a supreme insult. Cartoons in the major satirical weeklies repeated scurrilous rumors of African soldiers molesting German women — rumors that were, like those which sparked lynchings in the U.S., undoubtedly blown way out of proportion, if not entirely fabricated. (The cartoons are more racist than I care to resurrect in a blog with my name on it.)

Here is an extremely rare appearance of a French West African soldier in an American editorial cartoon.

"How the World Moves" by Edward S. "Tige" Reynolds in Tacoma Daily Ledger, Dec. 14, 1923

Reynolds's cartoon allows us to leave distressing reports of wars and rumors of wars with the upbeat message that Christmas was coming. And, yes, we Americans could afford to be preoccupied with holiday shopping.

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.

The World Facing Coolidge

100 years ago this week, the United States was mourning the death of one president and wondering what to expect from its new one.

"His Heritage" by Harold Talburt for Newspaper Enterprise Assn., ca. Aug. 7, 1923

People may have known that as Governor of Massachusetts, Coolidge had called in the National Guard to put down a strike by police in Boston, but he never made much news as Vice President. He was, however, the first Veep to attend cabinet meetings, so he wasn't coming into office unaware of what lay ahead. Nor was he apt to make significant changes to administration policy, as a few Vice Presidents in his position had done before him.

So what was going on in the world and the nation in 1923?

"The Beneficent Despot" by Max Beerbaum, by June 23 1923

This Max Beerbaum cartoon depicts Italy's King Vittorio Emanuele III commending Fascist Prime Minister Benito Mussolini to British monarch George V. The cartoon comes from a display that accompanied Beerbaum on a tour of the U.S. in the spring of 1923.

Although Beerbaum was not among them, Mussolini had his supporters in both Great Britain and the U.S. They included the Chicago Tribune, William Randolph Hearst, and U.S. Ambassador to Italy Richard W. Child, who were impressed with Mussolini's anti-Bolshevik policies. Child would report home with approval that results of Mussolini's first year in power “have been excellent, and during the last twelve months there has not been a single strike in the whole of Italy.”

A law passed by the Italian parliament in June with the intent of consolidating Fascist rule provided that the party gaining the largest share of the votes in the next year's elections – even if it won only 25% of the votes – would gain two-thirds of the seats in parliament.

"Hakenkreuz und Sowjetstern" by Werner Hahmann in Kladderadatsch, Berlin, August 12, 1923

Meanwhile, in Germany, as the text above Werner Hahmann's cartoon explained, "A lively exchange of opinions [took] place between Nationalists and Communists about their common points of agreement."

"The Old Passive Cow" by Elmer Bushnell for Central Press Assn., ca. Aug. 17, 1923

1923 came to be known in Germany as the Year of Crises. Citizens living under French and Belgian occupation in the Ruhr valley continued resistance with workers' strikes and industrial sabotage. German Chancellor Wilhelm Cuno was replaced with Gustav Streseman on August 13.

"One Place Where a Dollar Buys More'n Enough" by Dorman Smith for Newspaper Enterprise Assn., ca. Aug. 1, 1923

Dorman Smith's depiction of German hyperinflation was not far off-base. Germans did indeed have to transport their rapidly depreciating currency by cart just to buy basic necessities. The cost of a loaf of bread, .25 Reichsmark in 1918, had risen to 700 Reichsmarks January of 1923, only to soar past 1,200 RM in May, 100,000 in July, two million in September, 670 million in October, and 80 billion in November.

"Waiting for the Signal Bell" by Elmer Bushnell for Central Press Assn., ca. Aug. 18, 1923

Closer to home, Coolidge would continue moves begun by the Harding Administration to extend official recognition to the regime of Álvaro Obregón in Mexico. That Pancho Villa had been killed in a government-set-up ambush in July helped foster the impression in Washington that political stability was replacing the Mexican Revolutionary Era. Full recognition came soon after Mexico and the U.S. signed the Bucareli Treaty in August, spelling out the rights of the Mexican government and U.S. oil companies.

I doubt, however, that Mexican people or politicians would have agreed with cartoonist Elmer Bushnell's sign alleging that Mexico's "huge tracts of territory need colonists." They wouldn't have gone so far as to set up floating razor wire in the Rio Grande to keep American and Canadian capitalists out, though.

"Looks As If Some of the Boys..." by J.N. "Ding" Darling in Colliers, June 16 1923

Domestically, the change of administration made little difference to Coolidge's fellow Republicans who opposed U.S. joining the League of Nations. Coolidge believed that staying out of the League was a settled issue, although he did support U.S. participating in a World Court.

"Wiping His Feet on It" by Rollin Kirby in New York Evening World, ca. June 10, 1923

The terrorist lynching of Black Americans by the Ku Klux Klan and its open flouting of the law would continue throughout the Coolidge presidency. The decade saw Klan influence at its peak, particularly at the 1924 Democratic National Convention.

"High Finance" by Hal Coffman for International Feature Service, Aug. 9, 1923

Coolidge would be blessed with a booming economy, but there were those who cautioned that soaring stock market gains would not be sustainable. Cartoonists such as Hal Coffman who had been preaching thriftiness and a solid work ethic foresaw hard times ahead.

The decision by the small investor atop the stack that "After this, I better put my money in a savings bank" would, sadly, not be much help when the tide indeed went out.

It's Not Easy Being Red

Today's Graphical History Tour takes up a couple of the threads that your humble scribe left carelessly strewn about last month.

We're now up to the month of April, 1923, where our forebears in the West discovered that reports of Vladimir Lenin's death were slightly exaggerated.

"Lenine's Obituary Score" by Cyrus Hungerford in Pittsburgh Sun, ca. April 9, 1923

Cy Hungerford notes how many times Mexican revolutionary Pancho Villa was reported to have been killed over the previous couple of decades. 

By April of 1923, Villa was living in comfortable retirement in a 25,000-acre government-donated hacienda near Hidalgo del Parral. (His retirement was soon and abruptly to come to an end, but that's another story for another day.)

"Whatski Are You Gonna do About Itsski" by Wm. K. Patrick in Fort Worth Star Telegram,
April 6, 1923

I'm still not quite ready to declare what exactly were the rumblings of Bolshevism Carey Orr was detecting in Wisconsin a couple weeks ago. Certainly, one would have thought the trial in Michigan of communist William Z. Foster for violating the state's syndicalism law ought to have been the rumbling to catch Orr's attention.

Orr, however, had ceded the Chicago Tribune front page editorial cartoon space back to veteran John McCutcheon when the latter returned from vacation at the beginning of April, so Orr didn't get a chance to clarify which of Illinois's northern neighbors was more in danger of communist vipers bursting through the soil.

William Foster's trial, in which Michigan Assistant Attorney General O.L. Smith produced a Communist Party manifesto proclaiming that "The real Communist avails himself of every weapon to strike a blow at Capitalism, but with the firm conviction that the final onslaught will be made, not with ballots but with bullets."

Foster's defense attorney, Frank P. Walsh, argued that the manifesto had been brought forth and approved thanks to a U.S. Secret Service agent who had infiltrated the Communist Party. The trial ended in a hung jury.

"Et Tu, Brute" by Wm. C. Morris for George Matthew Adams Service, ca. April 9, 1923

The American Communist Party cultivated ties with the American labor movement, but was pointedly repudiated by the American Federation of Labor. The AFL, headed by Samuel Gompers, was at this point urging President Harding to reject a proposed "open shop" plank in the Republican Party's 1924 campaign platform, and any hint of communism within its ranks would certainly hurt the AFL's cause.

"Outraged Humanity" by Elmer Bushnell for Central Press Assn., ca. April 10, 1923

Also making news from Russia were its show trials of clergy and religious leaders, accused of hoarding wealth in violation of state mandates to turn over all church property.

I apologize that Bushnell's cartoon here is difficult to read; I'll keep trying to find a better reprint to scan. In the meantime: the toga-clad woman is labeled "Civilization"; I really can't tell what the creature labeled "Bolshevism" is supposed to be. I presume that the "Program of Religious Persecution" object is a torch, since the "Christianity" cross is on fire.

"Futility" by Dorman H. Smith for Newspaper Enterprise Assn., ca. April 21, 1923

Here's Dorman Smith's optimistic take on Russian religious persecution. He would eventually be proven right, I suppose, if not in his own lifetime.

Dashing Through to 1920

It's Sledback Saturday at Bergetoons, and with an election year right around the corner, it's time to check out who's running for president in 1920.

"The First Snow of the Season" by Cy Hungerford in Pittsburgh Sun, December, 1919

In December, 1919, The Republican Party selected Chicago as the site for their national convention in June. There was no shortage of Republicans angling for their party's presidential nomination. These first three cartoons include one past president — William Howard Taft — and three future presidents — Herbert Hoover, Calvin Coolidge, and the 1920 winner, Warren Harding. At the moment, in December of 1919, the favorite according to conventional wisdom was General Leonard Wood, who appears in the forefront in these three cartoons.

"The Early Bird" by Grover Page in Louisville Courier-Journal, December, 1919

Other Republican contenders in these cartoons include Senators Hiram Johnson of California, Miles Poindexter of Washington, William Borah of Idaho and Henry Cabot Lodge of Massachusetts; and Governors William C. Sproul of Pennsylvania and Gov. Frank Lowden of Illinois.

Cy Hungerford adds Democrats Sen. Atlee Pomerene of Ohio, former Ambassador to Germany James Gerard, and former Treasury Secretary William MacAdoo in his cartoon. Can you guess which one of them won the Democratic nomination?

"The Line at the Ticket Window..." by J.N. "Ding" Darling in New York Tribune, December 17, 1919

Okay, that was a trick question. But I will have to return to the Democrats another day.

Instead, here's a quick run-through of the major issues candidates in both parties would address:

"Jump" by Magnus Kettner for Western Newspaper Union, by December 20, 1919

First and foremost among issues of the day was the High Cost of Living, which was commonly abbreviated "H.C.L." in cartoons and newspapers of the time. ("H.C.L." virtually disappeared from cartoons and newspapers in December for some reason* — pressure from holiday advertisers perhaps? — even though cartoons critical of profiteers did not.)

I neglected to explain the acronym a few weeks ago when I posted a John McCutcheon cartoon depicting "H.C.L." as a woman at Uncle Sam's Thanksgiving dinner. One reader's first thought was that McCutcheon was depicting Senator Henry Cabot Lodge in drag, a connection I had missed and which I doubt ever occurred to McCutcheon, either.

"The Closed Shop" by Edwin Marcus in New York Times, ca. November, 1919

If profiteers caught some of the blame for the High Cost of Living, few cartoonists expressed any sympathy for workers doing anything collectively to catch up with it. Coalmen, railroad shop workers, food producers, steel workers and the Boston police were among some 3,600 strikes declared in 1919, and were roundly condemned by all but the socialist press. Even the New York Times smeared "strikers" as "labor radicals" deaf to "Reason."

"Where Do We Go From Here?" by Nelson Harding in Brooklyn Daily Eagle, December 15, 1919

Turning now to foreign policy: negotiations between the Democratic administration and the Republican Congress over the Versailles Peace Accord and League of Nations completely broke down. With neither side willing to compromise, the issue was sure to remain on the table throughout the 1920 campaign.

"The Mexican Merry-Go-Round" by Ted Brown in Chicago Daily News, December, 1919

A rash of kidnappings for ransom of U.S. citizens by Pancho Villa's rebels returned U.S.-Mexican relations to the front burner. Villistas demanded $150,000 ransom for the release of a U.S. consular official; other kidnap victims included oilmen and cattle ranchers.

"Put Up the Bars" by Fred O. Seibel in Knickerbocker Press, November, 1919

Finally, immigration was another hot-button issue — not so much against Mexicans, but rather against leftist agitators from eastern and central Europe, and especially Italy. Cartoonists, as well as other journalists, politicians, and the Attorney General, drew no distinction between communists, socialists, anarchists, and union leaders. Dangers real and imagined made immigrants, who up to this point could come to America at will (except for the Chinese), increasingly suspect and unpopular.
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* P.S.: I found one.

"The Weapon and Point of Attack" by John T. McCutcheon in Chicago Tribune, December 18, 1919

I'm 100% positive that McCutcheon and his editors were not accusing Henry Cabot Lodge of burglary.

Hercule Perot

in UW-Milwaukee Post, April 27, 1992

I had something else planned for this week's Sucking Soundback Saturday post; but with the passing this week of H. Ross Perot, it can wait.

in Racine Journal Times,  May 26, 1992

Diminutive in stature, billionaire Texan Perot burst upon the political scene in 1992 as a larger-than-life character. Both major party presidential nominations were pretty well decided (although Jerry Brown hadn't quite surrendered to Bill Clinton on the Democratic side) when Perot announced his intention to mount an independent campaign for the general election.

He shot to the top of national polls — in part because Republicans were associated with one set of interests and Democrats were associated with another, but potential voters could project onto Perot whatever priorities appealed to them.

in UW-M Post, September 28, 1992

Then in July, he abruptly pulled out of the race, only to change his mind again in October.

in UW-M Post, October 12, 1992

The Perot campaign concentrated primarily on buying half-hour blocks of television prime time for him to display graphs and charts illustrating his signature issues against the national debt and the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). He and his running mate, Admiral James Stockdale, had qualified to appear in the presidential debates; he also held a few rallies.

in UW-M Post, October 26, 1992

Come November, Perot failed to carry any states, but he did come in second in Utah and Maine. Most of his voters were male, overwhelmingly white, and just over half self-identified as moderates. With nearly 19% of the popular vote, Perot was guaranteed to be a factor in 1996, and some Republicans blame him for denying Bush 41 a second term.

in UW-M Post, November 8, 1993

He was no ally of the Democrats, however, and emerged as a primary spokesman against the Clinton administration (until he was overshadowed by Newt Gingrich). He debated NAFTA with Al Gore on the Larry King Show, on which he famously declared, "Now, when you've got a seven-to-one wage differential between the United States and Mexico, you will hear the giant sucking sound!"

in Gaze Magazine (Mpls.), January 7, 1994

Perot founded his Reform Party in 1995 and bore its standard in the 1996 election. He won only 8% of the vote the second time around, but that was still enough to guarantee the Reform Party federal matching funds next time around. He opened his party's nomination to others in 2000 (Donald Trump was one of the candidates who put his name forward) and ended up forsaking the Reform Party and endorsing George W. Bush. Pat Buchanan would be the party's presidential nominee that year and go all America First as he plunged it into obscurity, while still managing to avenge Bush 41 by denying Al Gore Florida's electoral votes.

in UW-M Post, March 28, 1996

Given the hyperpartisanship that has been the hallmark of the 21st Century, I often wonder how different the political landscape would be today if Perot's Reform Party had not gone off the rails into ugly nativism, but had instead continued as a centrist alternative to the Democrats and Republicans. Imagine how things might be different if there were a Reform Party to welcome the likes of John McCain, Jeff Flake, Joe Manchin, and Mikie Sherrill.

But the truth is that Perot's forceful opposition to NAFTA opened his party's doors to the xenophobes who have lately been taking over the Republican party under Trump. Recent experience has shown that hard-core extremists outshout and outlast moderates and pragmatists, and if you don't think so, explain to me how Susan Collins is a leader rather than a follower.

The Reform Party certainly was not immune. If it were still around today, we might well have the Reform Party for Know-Nothings, the Republican Party for Corporate Theocrats, and the Democratic Party for Urban Sophisticates.

Pulling on Loose Threads

Back in 2010, I posted several cartoons from a very old book, left to me by my Aunt Barbara, of editorial cartoons R.C. Bowman drew for the Minneapolis Tribune in 1900. Over the years since, there have been regular spikes in page views of the post displaying his cartoons about the Philippines, leading me to conclude that there is a history teacher somewhere referencing this page for his or her students.

With that in mind, good morning, class! The Philippines were back in the news 100 years ago this spring. Having suspended their campaign for independence during the Great War, the Filipino legislature renewed their efforts in a "Declaration of Purposes" published on March 17, 1919 with the blessing of the U.S. Governor General of the Philippines.

"And Those Who Run May Read Thereby" by William Sykes in Philadelphia Public Ledger, April 5, 1919

The Declaration of Purposes stated the Philippines' case with all due deference, and then some.

"Through the joint labor of Americans and Philippinos, the history of your occupation of the islands is replete with achievements great, and result splendid. You have truly treated us as no nation ever before treated another under its sway. And yet you — and none better than you — will understand why, even under such conditions, our people still crave independence, that they, too, may be sovereign masters of their own destinies.
"When our national independence shall be granted us, the world will know that the people of America are indeed 'bearers of the good will, the protection, and the richest blessings of a liberating rather than a conquering nation,' and that it was our liberty, not your power, our welfare, not your gain you sought to enhance in the Philippines."

In the Shade of the Sheltering Palm" by Bob Satterfield for Newspaper Enterprise Association, March/April, 1919

Republicans were skeptical of Filipino readiness for independence, and Democrats were more in favor of it. But before one credits those Democrats with higher motives, one must note that many in the Democratic Party were against taking so many non-white people into the American fold. Bipartisan U.S. interest in containing Japan's imperial ambitions in Asia and the Pacific meant that neither party was ready to grant Philippine independence just yet.

"Will He Pass This Year?" by Wm. C. Morris for George Matthew Adams Service, April/May, 1919

Congress had passed the Jones Act (formally the Philippine Autonomy Act of 1916), replacing the American-dominated Philippine Commission with an elected Senate, establishing a bill of rights that included voting rights for all literate Filipino males, and promising eventual independence. An appointed Governor had veto power over the legislature, which Governor Francis Harrison rarely used.

The 1918 elections put Republicans in control of the U.S. Congress, however, and Republicans would win the next three presidential elections; any further moves toward Filipino independence were moved to the back burner as far as the United States was concerned.

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"That Pesky Cat Again!" by Gustavo Bronstrup in San Francisco Chronicle, April, 1919

It has also been a while since we've checked in on the situation in Mexico 100 years ago. As it happens, we're coming up on the centennial of two high-profile deaths: one of a general who has gone down in Mexican history as a villain; the other of a national hero.

"Blooming Again" by Nelson Harding in Brooklyn Daily Eagle, April 6, 1919

In March, General Aureliano Blanquet returned from exile in Cuba to support Felix Díaz's revolt against the government of Venustiano Carranza. He arrived with only six followers, but the return of this former vice president caught the attention of Mexico's neighbor to the north. Before Blanquet could meet up with the Diacistas, however, he was mortally wounded during a skirmish with government forces on April 7 when his horse stumbled into a ravine. After his death a week later, the Carrancista general had Blanquet's head decapitated and put on display in Mexico City and photographed for all the newspapers. As one of course does in such situations.

"A Coming Event" by William C. Morris for George Adams Syndicate, April, 1919

On the left, Emiliano Zapata, a sometime ally of Pancho Villa, met his end on April 10, tricked into a meeting with a Carrancista colonel he believed would defect to his peasant army. His letters had been intercepted by the colonel's superior officer, so he instead walked into a trap and was riddled with bullets. Yet while this made Zapata a martyr to his many supporters, several of his generals would eventually accept the government's promises of amnesty. Some were even given governorships and other posts in Carranza's administration.

If you're still not sure who was the hero and who was the villain, here's a hint. Anthony Quinn played the title role in ¡Viva Zapata!, but there will never be a film version of ¡Viva Blanquet!