Ice Cream, Ice Cream Everywhere, Nor Any Drop to Drink

"The Navy's First Lord Passes the Grog" by Edmund Duffy in Sun, Baltimore, May 31, 1926

I enjoyed the characterizations of a seaman and Navy Secretary Curtis Wilbur in Edmund Duffy's cartoon, so it gets to lead off today's Graphical History Tour. 

The U.S. didn't have army bases all over Europe during Prohibition, but recruits in the U.S. Navy got to take shore leave in ports where beer, wine, and liquor were sold like, well, beer, wine, and liquor.  

To combat naval inebriation, Wilbur authorized the sale aboardship of chewing gum and the like as something to replace the sailors' appetite for booze. In Duffy's cartoon, Wilbur is mollifying a tar with the offer of an ice cream cone —vanilla, of course — just the thing for a tar's night on the town.

"The Circus" by T.E. Powers in New York Evening Journal, ca. May 7, 1926

T.E. Powers correctly pointed out that the Republican Party platforms of 1920 and 1924 were solidly in favor of Prohibition. He overlooked, however, that there was still significant support of Prohibition within the Democratic Party, particularly in the deep South and the West.

"Something Bound to Happen" by Harold Talburt for Newspaper Enterprise Assn. ca. May 23, 1926

A bipartisan proposal to allow the manufacture and sale of less intoxicating beverages such as beer and wine had support among Americans who were not so devoted to complete and total abstinence. Liquor would have remained illegal under most versions of modification, with acceptable levels of Alcohol By Volume (ABV) in legalized libations set by the government.

A primary election in Pennsylvania may have been a bellwether of actual public sentiment on the Prohibition issue.

"A Soaking" by Ed LeCocq in Des Moines Evening Tribune, May 20, 1926

Philadelphia Congressman William Scott Vare won the three-way Republican primary race for Senator over Dry candidates Governor Gifford Pinchot and incumbent Senator George W. Pepper on May 18. Vare ran on an anti-Prohibition platform, charging that the Volstead Act was resulting in a police state, and blaming Prohibition for a 300% rise in alcohol-related crimes in Philadelphia.

"The Ship of the Desert" by Nelson Harding in Brooklyn Daily Eagle, May 20, 1926

The Philadelphia Inquirer dismissed Vare's calls for relaxing, if not repealing Prohibition as a distraction from his well-earned reputation as a machine politician. Nicknamed the "Duke of South Philadelphia," Vare was cozy with gangsters Waxey Gordon and "Lucky" Luciano. The cartoons of its editorial cartoonist, William Hanny, while highly critical of Vare, were mostly predictions that voters would send him down to defeat. 

"And That's What Little Candidates Are Made Of" by J.N. "Ding" Darling in Des Moines Register, May 28, 1926

National cartoonists conveniently overlooked the other major race in Pennsylvania, to succeed Pinchot as Governor. John S. Fisher narrowly edged out former Lt. Governor Edward E. Beidelman, who, in his legal practice, was more closely associated with the Wet cause than Vare.

"The New Band Wagon" by Wm. Sykes in Life, May 27, 1926

Even at least one international cartoonist (albeit a half-American one) also took gleeful note of Pennsylvania's Republican Senate primary, and his cartoon graced the front page of one of Germany's leading satirical weeklies.

"Der Sieg de Nassen in Pennsylvanien" by Arthur Johnson in Kladderadatsch, Berlin, June 13, 1926

(Note: I've attempted to recolor some of Arthur Johnson's cartoon.)

There is a good chance that we shall return to Pennsylvania's Senate campaign in future Graphical History Tours, so let's not get ahead of ourselves there. Suffice it to say for today's purposes that Vare's plurality win encouraged a number of politicians elsewhere to voice their reservations against the Noble Experiment.

"Page Moses" by Gustavo Bronstrup in San Francisco Chronicle, May 29, 1926

But repealing — or modifying — a Constitutional Amendment was never intended to be an easy task. Any celebratory champagne toast would have to wait.

Chewing gum, anyone?

🍸

And so ends Graphical History Tour for another day. Be sure to check in again tomorrow for a much more recent editorial cartoon from your humble scribbler!

What's Shakin', Johnny Canuck?

Today's Graphical History Tour pays another visit to our neighbor to the north. Understanding Johnny Canuck will become increasingly important if we Yanks intend to welcome Canada as our 51st state.

Or declare war on them. Whatever.

"Enter March, 1925" by A.G. Racey in Montreal Daily Star, March 1, 1925

March, 1925 came in with an earthquake centered in the Charlevoix/Kamouraska seismic zone of southern Quebec at 9:21 the night of Saturday, February 28. Measuring 6.3 magnitude, it caused significant damage to buildings, widespread panic, but no fatalities. It was one of the strongest earthquakes ever to hit eastern Canada, and was felt as far away as La Crosse, Wisconsin and Florence, South Carolina.

"Coolidge's Common Sense Policy" by A.G. Racey in Montreal Daily Star, March 3, 1925

When we last took a gander at Arthur G. Racey's cartoons, he was casting aspersions aplenty across the line; but he greeted the inauguration of Calvin Coolidge with this cartoon recommending the American President's policies to Liberal Party Canadian Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King.

Racey, a Conservative Party stalwart, had little affection for King, seen here peering over the wall at Coolidge and his woodpile of waste and expensive deadwood. 

Imagine if Coolidge could have been equipped with a chainsaw instead of an axe! He'd have had time to make that wall taller, then tear it down, then build it up again, and down, and up...

"Has His Eye on It" by A.G. Racey in Montreal Daily Star,  March 30, 1925

By the end of the month, Coolidge was the one peering over Racey's fence, envious of a Scotsman's reputation for parsimony. If there was an actual World Thrift Championship in March, 1925, I have not been able to find contemporary news reports of it.

"What Is He Saying" by A.G. Racey in Montreal Daily Star, March 4, 1925

Racey could easily have chosen to take offense at a February 24 speech at a Women's Conference on National defense and Peace Insurance in Washington D.C. by U.S. Navy Rear Admiral William Phelps, but chose to use the occasion to highlight the alliance between the U.S. and the British Empire. Racey's cartoon paraphrases Phelps: "An Anglo-American War is in sight. It can only be prevented by a strong U.S. Navy."

Phelps's address, given with Coolidge’s Secretaries of War and State in attendance, came amid debate in Washington whether to boost defense construction of battleships or aircraft. His views reflected the isolationist views ascendant in U.S. politics, as well as the Anglophobic drumbeat of William Randolph Hearst's media empire:

"One of the primary objectives of the League of Nations, under the leadership of England, is to devise some policy to destroy the American favorable balance of trade. ... There are serious differences brewing between England and the United States over shipping policies. These differences can be prevented from developing into a conflict only by a strong American Navy. That America determines to build up a great merchant marine fleet has created against us the bitter animosity of the English shipping interests."

"The Wasp's Nest" by Sam Hunter in Toronto Star Daily, March 3, 1925

Phelps's superiors quickly distanced themselves from the Rear Admiral's remarks, and Toronto cartoonist Sam Hunter joined A.G. Racey in downplaying their significance. 

The Daily Gleaner of Frederickton, New Brunswick, editorialized on March 3: "We have no doubt [Phelps] succeeded in keeping his audience awake. For the rest, we surmise that the 'brew' came from a brainstorm or something stronger than salt water."

"Whatcha Mean If" by James B. Fitzmaurice in Vancouver Daily Province, March 5, 1925

Suffice it to say that Coolidge's inaugural address contained no such incendiary predictions of a return to the War of 1812. This cartoon by James B. Fitzmaurice leaves me wondering whether he found Coolidge's vision of world peace inspiring or merely quaint. Is this how culturally nice Canadians mock someone?

"Some Demander" by Sam Hunter in Toronto Star Weekly, March 7, 1925 

For a more forthright critique of American foreign relations, Sam Hunter mocks congressional demands that America's Entente allies step up their repayment of wartime U.S. loans. He also took a dim view of the U.S. prescribing its own European peace and reparations plan after refusing to participate in the League of Nations (the brainchild of an earlier U.S. President).

Opium was the fentanyl of the day. I do not, however, believe that the Coolidge administration or Republican Senate were blaming Canada specifically for the supply of opium to the United States, the way that the present maladministration and Congress pretend is the issue from up north. 

Back to Mr. Racey...

"And Easy to Make It So" by A.G. Racey in Montreal Star, March 19, 1925

Here's another Yankee innovation Racey thought Canadians should emulate: Daylight Saving Time. From the standpoint of keeping Québec and New York in the same time zone, it must have made a great deal of sense to him. He might also have been intrigued by the prospect of daylight hours extending even further into the evening than we're used to south of the border.

Those of us still straining to get used to waking up an hour earlier every morning since springing ahead last Sunday might beg to differ that Daylight Saving Time makes everybody happy, however.

Now, lest you think Racey was going entirely soft on the Yanks:

"Such a Fine Business Proposition" by A.G. Racey in Montreal Daily Star, March 6, 1925

Racey remained suspicious of U.S. designs on Canada's electricity and lumber, as you surely remember from this stop on the Graphical History Tour.

"Super Power" in this cartoon refers to U.S. Commerce Secretary Herbert Hoover's proposal to eliminate barriers to interstate transmission of electricity, supplemented as well by power lines bringing in hydroelectricity generated in Quebec and Ontario. 

Racey may also have had in mind efforts by a Chicago speculator who had bought controlling interest in numerous electric companies across the U.S. and was interested in acquiring Canadian power companies as well. To counter the Chicagoan, two Montreal stockbrokers founded The Power Company of Canada in April, 1925 to consolidate Canada's many regional power companies.

In case you're ever asked, the United States is the leading consumer of lumber in North America, and Canada is the leading supplier: Canada supplied roughly 30% of the lumber used in the United States last year. The four largest North American softwood lumber producers operate in both countries.

Little did A.G. Racey suspect that 100 years later, that electrical power and lumber would become a weapon in Canada's battle to fend off United States hegemony.

Flights of Fancy and Fleeting Fame

Okay, so the Great War is over, and all those guys your army and navy trained to be airplane pilots are returning home. Sopwithback Saturday hearkens once again to 1919 and the question of how are you gonna keep 'em down on the farm after they've looked at clouds from both sides now?

Detail from "The Rectangle" by Frank O. King in Chicago Tribune, January 26, 1919

Back in 1913, the London Daily Mail offered a reward of £10,000 to the first person or team to complete a transatlantic flight from the U.S. or Canada to the British Isles. The contest was suspended for the duration of the Great War; but with the cessation of hostilities, American and British aviators resumed the contest, capturing the imagination and enthusiasm of cartoonists on both sides of the pond.

"A Fair Sky and May the Best Bird Win" by Homer Stinson in Dayton Daily News, May, 1919

Transatlantic travel being relatively routine these days, it's worth pointing out the challenges faced by those aviation pioneers in their rickety flying machines and their open-air cockpits. Consider this description from Cartoons Magazine of

"...the hazards of travel in a machine that for weeks must wait at its hangar for fair weather, and then when it sets out travel so fast that it overtakes the last spell of bad weather on its way eastward. ... [I]t is not to be wondered at that the less daring souls, who make out their wills before attempting a passage by forty-thousand ton steamers should not book a passage by Sopwith until the pilot can carry on his machine an automatic storm control." 

"Over the Top" by John Cassel in New York Evening World, May 19, 1919

John Cassel's cartoon accurately describes the preferred route for transatlantic flights in the northern hemisphere, but it's not the route chosen by the first American team to mount a successful attempt. A team led by U.S. Navy fliers Commander John H. Towers, Commander Patrick Bellinger, and Lt. Commander Albert C. Read, Sr., chose a route hopscotching from New York to Newfoundland, and thence across the Atlantic with a stop in the Azores.

 

The team took off from Long Island on May 8, 1919 in three NC Curtiss "flying boats." At Trepassey, they were met by the U.S.S. Aroostook, sent there ahead of time to refuel and relubricate the three planes for the longest leg of the journey.

"This Quite Gets Over Me" by Wood in Manchester Chronicle, England, May, 1919

The 15-hour flight from Newfoundland to the Azores would require flying overnight, so 22 navy ships were stationed along the route, shining searchlights into the sky to mark the flight path. Two of the planes, the NC-1 and NC-3, were forced to ditch at sea when the planes encountered a fog bank. Happily, all aboard were rescued, and while the NC-1 unfortunately sank, the NC-3 eventually rode the waves to port.

"First Sitting of the Big Four to Discuss the Atlantic Flight" by Strum in London Daily Express, May, 1919

That left only Read's NC-4 to complete the journey (the NC-2 having been cannibalized for parts at the outset of the trip). After losing over a week due to mechanical problems, the NC-4 took off for Lisbon on May 27.

"Th' Nerve of 'Em" by Bill Sykes in Philadelphia Evening Ledger, May 20, 1919

Read's plane made the flight from São Miguel Island to Lisbon in under ten hours, thus becoming the first plane to complete a transoceanic flight. Great fanfare greeted Read when his plane finally landed in Plymouth, England on May 31.

"Mercury!" by John H. Cassel in New York Evening World, May 28, 1919

But he didn't win the £10,000 prize.

Terms of the Daily Mail contest stipulated that the award would be given to "the aviator who shall first cross the Atlantic in an aeroplane in flight from any point in the United States, Canada, or Newfoundland to any point in Great Britain or Ireland, in 72 consecutive hours." Read's total actual flight time from Trespassey to Plymouth was 26 hours, 46 minutes, but spread out over eleven days.

Instead, the prize was won by the British team of Capt. John Alcock and Lt. Col. Arthur Whitten Brown, who completed a non-stop flight from Newfoundland to Ireland in a Vickers Vimy biplane in 16 hours, 27 minutes on June 15-16.

"The Dawn of a New Era" by Grover Page in Louisville Courier-Journal, May, 1919

But I suppose that's a whole 'nother story.

So Long, Chum

My hat is off to our United States Navy Seals. They did an excellent job Sunday night.

Hooyah!

Q Toon: The Exorcist

There must be a tie-in to the new Anthony Hopkins movie here...

This week's cartoon was inspired by this article by Candace Chellew-Hodge at religiondispatches.org. Chellew-Hodge excerpts an interview of former Navy chaplain Gordon Klingenschmitt on the David Pakman show in which he describes having "exorcised" the gay out of a lesbian sailor:

"I looked into her eyes and said 'You foul demon of lesbian homosexuality, come out of this woman in Jesus’ name!' She began to weep and she loved Jesus. She began reading her Bible, became the best evangelist in our church. She got baptized and started dating boys."

Klingenschmitt, who was discharged from the Navy for wearing his military uniform to partisan political events (that's a no-no), frets that the end of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" will mean that other chaplains will no longer be allowed to exorcise those foul demons of lesbian homosexuality from the service members in their care.

Who ya gonna call? Ghost busters?

Q Toon: To Bawdily Go Where No Man Has Gone Before

When I drew this cartoon, I thought that I would have to link here to the obscure news story about a Navy Captain (at the time, executive officer) who made and showed a bunch of puerile films to the sailors under his charge. As it turns out, the story blew up to be a major, if ephemeral, news event, and the Navy has quickly yanked Captain Owen P. Honors, Jr., from command of the USS Enterprise.

I'm sure that most of the crew of the USS Enterprise found XO Honors's films funny and a relief from shipboard routine. For that matter, editing himself in as multiple characters appearing simultaneously was indeed cleverly done. So, while Capt. Honors may not have much of a future as an officer in the U.S. Navy, or as a Hollywood filmmaker, perhaps we can look forward to seeing his videos on future seasons of Saturday Night Live.