Government v. Press

This week's Graphical History Tour bravely sallies forth against censorship of newsmedia in the United States.

As a political cartoonist who has just been among a few dozen other political cartoonists, Your Humble Scribbler has a vested interest against censorship of editorial cartoons in particular. 

During the First Golden Age of my profession, in the late 18th Century and into the next, newspaper publishers saw the popularity and influence of the Thomas Nasts and Johannes Kepplers drawing for the national weeklies, and hired some of the best editorial cartoonists to grace their newspapers' front pages. And not incidentally, to push the publishers' political agendas.

"No Honest Man Need Fear Cartoons" by Homer Davenport in New York Journal, Apr. 22, 1897

Local politicians did not take kindly to being lampooned on those front pages. Upset by Homer Davenport's cartoons of influential Republican Mark Hanna, New York political boss Senator Thomas Platt, pushed a bill in the state assembly to ban cartoon depictions of real persons without their consent.

Davenport drew the parallel with Platt's predecessor, William Tweed, who had famously complained that although his constituents didn't read the papers, they saw "them damn pictures." Platt's bill failed to pass, but that didn't stop similar bills from cropping up elsewhere.

"The Governor Has His Revenge" by Robert Edgren in San Francisco Examiner, Feb. 25, 1899

A copycat bill by California Republicans failed to pass on its first go-around, but was passed during the next legislative session and signed by newly elected Republican Governor Henry Tifft Gage. As in New York, the partisan Democratic cartoons in Hearst newspapers were a major impetus for the bill; specifically, a cartoon of Gage being led on a leash by railroad magnate C.P. Huntington.

Having been signed into law, California's anti-cartoon bill was laughed — and ignored — into obscurity. Hearst cartoonist Robert Edgren offered an unusual motive for Governor Gage to sign the anti-cartoon bill: that the cartoonists were not drawing him any more.

Frankly, the man was a caricaturist's dream. Too bad he was voted out of office after one term.

by Walter McDougall in North American, Philadelphia, Jan. 30, 1903

Responding to daily cartoons in Philadelphia's North American by Charles Nelan depicting gubernatorial candidate Samuel Pennypacker as the pet parrot of Republican Party boss Senator Matthew Quay, Pennypacker's inaugural address demanded censorship of the "disreputable" North American. Obligingly, State Representative Frederick Pusey introduced a bill outlawing publication of any cartoon 

"portraying, describing, or representing any person, either by distortion, innuendo, or otherwise, in the form or likeness of beast, bird, fish, insect, or other unhuman animal, thereby tending to expose such person to public hatred, contempt, or ridicule."

The North American's other editorial cartoonist, Walt McDougall, responded with a cartoon stretched across the top of the front page depicting Quay, Pusey, and Pennypacker as a series of inanimate objects. (I have folded his cartoon to fit into a square format.) In an accompanying editorial, McDougall exhorted his fellow cartoonists, "Every cartoonist has a Noah's Ark full of worn, broken, and decrepit animals, bugs, and such, but the fresh vegetable field is untouched."

Pusey's bill nevertheless passed the Pennsylvania legislature and Pennypacker signed it into law. It was promptly repealed after Pennypacker was defeated in the next election.

by Frank Spangler in Montgomery [Ala.] Advertiser, Feb. 3, 1915 

As part of a package of election regulation laws, the Alabama legislature entertained a bill sponsored by Samuel D. Weakly prohibiting the caricature of any "prominent" man or politician. "It will make the average newspaper reader smile," the Advertiser editorialized, 

"that a sacred class is to be made of officeholders and office seekers, for they are the bulk of prominent people whom newspapers cartoon. A cartoon is a semi-editorial expression, and a powerful method of reaching public opinion, because ridicule and sarcasm are vividly presented to the eye. Both weapons are enormously effective on the stump, and there is no reason why the press should be deprived of their use. In fact, such a bill is a distinct effort to muzzle the press, and is an infringement of its constitutional powers."

As far as I have been able to determine, Weakly's proposal did not make it into the final bill. The Act (#171, § 11) did require cartoons expressing an opinion on any candidate or election issue to include "upon its face" the name of the newspaper's owner or the chief executive of its corporation.

"The Light that Must Not Fail" by Harry Murphy ca. May 5, 1917

U.S. entry into World War I opened the doors for government censorship of newspapers, and not just for their cartoons.

The Espionage Act of 1917 made it a crime to publish with intent to interfere with the operation or success of the armed forces of the United States or to promote the success of its enemies during wartime; to cause or attempt to cause insubordination, disloyalty, mutiny, refusal of duty, in the military or naval forces of the United States; or to willfully obstruct military recruiting or enlistment.  The Act also gave the Postmaster General authority to impound publications that he determined to be in violation of the Act.

"That Wooden One" by Nelson Harding in Brooklyn Daily Eagle, May 5, 1917

The U.S. was drawn into Europe's war due in part to the sinking of the R.M.S. Lusitania by a German U-boat. Nelson Harding, in a single-column cartoon on the Brooklyn Eagle's front page, turned the incident back against advocates for press censorship.

"Is This Somewhere in Germany or Somewhere in America" by Beaumont Fairbank in Brooklyn Sunday Eagle, May 5, 1918

In the same newspaper on the same day, Beaumont Fairbank drew his cartoon in support of an amendment to the 1917 Espionage Act by Sen. Henry Cabot Lodge (R-MA) stating, 

"The use of the mails should not be permitted to any newspaper, magazine, periodical, circulars or pamphlets which are printed in whole or in part in the German language." 

Fairbank was by no means alone in advocating governmental censorship of the foreign language press. While that amendment had failed to be included in the final bill, local officials outlawed German-language newspapers in several cities in New Jersey and Long Island.

"Wenn Uns Jetzt Unsere Vorväter Sehen Könnten" by John Lenz in Vorbote, Chicago, Oct. 31, 1917

Protest against this censorship was almost exclusively limited to the foreign language newspapers themselves. The banner behind Congress in John Lenz's cartoon translates to "Freedom of Speech, Press Freedom, Right of Assembly." The rolled parchments beneath George Washington represent the Constitution and First Amendment.

"O Sorry Plight" by Arthur Young in Masses, New York, September, 1917

The Creel Commission also employed the U.S. Post Office to censor publication of material counter to the official line. Art Young's cartoon above appeared in the September issue of  the marxist, antiwar Masses after Burleson's USPS had declared the August issue "unmailable under the Act of June 15, 1917."

"A Convenient Perch" by Ted Brown in Chicago Daily News, May, 1918

If Art Young expected other publications to rally in solidarity with Masses, he would be sadly mistaken. The Committee on Public Information headed by George Creel created a Bureau of Cartoons, which produced a weekly bulletin for cartoonists to direct their attention to matters the Wilson administration wanted them to draw about. By and large, cartoonists and their publishers fell right in line.

Masses ceased publication after its November/December issue.

"It's Nothing Important" by Bill Sanders in Milwaukee Journal, Dec. 20, 1972

Jumping ahead over half a century, President Richard Nixon tried very hard to force newsmedia to slant the news the way he wanted it reported. His administration enlisted the Federal Communications Commission to pressure television networks, cut funding to public broadcasting, and took newspapers to court. He was stymied, however, without a cooperative Congress or courts.

Instead, his communications team went on to found Fox News.

"Ask Me Anything" by Pat Oliphant in Denver Post, Nov. 15, 1973

In the meantime, we learned that President Richard Nixon kept an "enemies list" of critics of his administration, including many journalists. Nixon had always had a testy relationship with the media well before being elected president. As the Watergate scandal unfolded, it was revealed that he used the Justice Department, FBI, and Internal Revenue Service to open investigations against individuals on that list — although at least he never barred Jack Anderson, Daniel Schorr, or Mary McGrory from White House press briefings. 

for Bergetoons blog, August, 2018

There has been no assault on the media and the facts to rival the Absolutely Corrupt Donald Trump Regime's campaign to quash any reportage that doesn't fawn upon Dear Misleader. The two terms of his presidency have seen government websites erased, responsible reporters banned first from the Pentagon and now the White House, and weaponization against the media of both the Justice Department and the Federal Communications Commission, this time with general compliance on the part of Congress and the Supreme Court.

for Q Syndicate, February, 2025

Unless approved by Trump himself, it's all just fake news.

"They give me only bad publicity, press. I mean, they’re getting a license. I would think maybe their license should be taken away, ... That’s all they do. If you go back, I guess they haven’t had a conservative on in years or something, somebody said. But when you go back, take a look, all they do is hit Trump. They're giving me all this bad press, and they're getting a license. When you have a network and they have evening shows and all they do is hit Trump, that's all they do — that license, they're not allowed to do that!" — Donald Joffrey Trump, September 16, 2025

Was Ist Los in Translation

Keep your babel fish handy today: our Graphical History Tour jets overseas to check up on what cartoonists in Germany were drawing a century ago. But first: a brief layover in the Netherlands!

"Labour en Het Communisme" by Leendert J. Jordaan in Notenkraker Amsterdam, Oct. 10, 1925

I came across this Dutch cartoon some time ago and saved it on the chance that I could use it here once October, 2025 came around. Now that it has, here it is.

Leendert Jordaan had been cartoonist for the satirical magazine Die Notenkraker (The Nutcracker) since 1909. His fiercely critical cartoons against Hitler would be published by the Netherlands’ underground press during World War II. Unlike Die Notenkraker, he survived the war, cartooning for Het Parool and Vrij Nederland until his retirement in 1961.

This got me wondering why I had not been finding any cartoons by the great Dutch cartoonist Louis Raemaekers in the U.S. press after the Armistice was signed, given how celebrated he had been stateside during the Great War. After all, he was still drawing cartoons up to and during World War II.

My guess is that in the years between the wars, isolationist sentiment in the U.S. meant that there was little interest in Raemaekers’s belligerently anti-German cartoons. Even in his home country, Raemaekers was unable to find a Dutch publisher for his 1927 collection of cartoons.

"Zeit-Ie-Wat" by Louis Raemaekers in De Telegraaf, Amsterdam, Oct. 15, 1925

So here is what I could find that Raemaekers was getting published in Amsterdam in those days (American audiences having enough trouble sussing bee's knees, spifflication, and gams without pondering the lingo of the guys and dolls overseas, too).

I will merely Yanksplain Raemaekers's joke by pointing out that "slang" is the Dutch word for "snake." Get it?

Moving on to Germany so that I may impress you with my ability to googlen sie deutsch:

"Souvenir de Locarno" by Thomas Theodor Heine in Simplicissimus, Munich/Stuttgart, Oct. 26, 1925

The major European news for the month was an international conference of continental leaders in Locarno, Switzerland. Over the next few months, conferees would hammer out a series of agreements, notably establishing new mutual borders of France, Belgium, and Germany, and admitting Germany into the League of Nations.

The cut lines in Thomas Heine's imagined photographs read:

"[Italy's Benito] Mussolini, who decided to smile occasionally at the conference."

"[Belgium's Émile] Vandervelde during a performance of The Marseillaise in the hotel .”

"[German Foreign Minister Gustav] Stresemann happily reports to [Chancellor Hans] Luther that he has been greeted by a French journalist."

"[France's Aristide] Briand striking a comma from the press release."

"[Britain's Foreign Secretary Sir Austen] Chamberlain choosing his tie."

Speaking of British decorum... 

"Selbsterkenntnis" by Oskar Garvens in Kladderadatsch, Berlin, Oct. 4, 1925

The cut line accompanying Garvens's cartoon identifies the caption as something David Lloyd George said during a debate on expanding the British fleet. If so, Lloyd George was quoting Rev. David Martyn Lloyd-Jones in a statement that has since been misconstrued as the Welsh pastor's characterization of the former Prime Minister.

"Helden des Sports" by Werner Hahmann in Kladderadatsch, Berlin, Oct. 11, 1925

Garvens continued his concern for dark-skinned peoples a week later, citing a French report about an American sports personality who had joined the Franco-Spanish air attacks in Morocco, where Rif rebels had established an independent Islamic state.

The tiny paragraph explaining the cartoon doesn't cite the source of the French report or name the American jock, so I can't tell you with certainty who he was. A September feature article for the Philadelphia Public Ledger by Charles G. Reinhart, however, names ten American fighter pilots, most of them World War I veterans, flying for France. Reinhart's article mentions that one of them, Charles Wayne Kerwood ("Chuck"), was an amateur athlete in Philadelphia.

"Just Can't Keep Them Out of War" in Salt Lake Tribune, September 6, 1925. Kerwood is seated under the W in the headline.

They weren't just flying reconnaissance, by the way. The Associated Press reported on September 11, 1925: 

"The American aviators of the Sherifian esquadrille, in their bombing of Sheshuan, Riffian stronghold, are reliably reported to have killed more than 100 warriors. Their bombs also greatly damaged the Riffian military establishment and disorganized the troops concentrated there."

"Sie Hält Es Nicht Mehr Aus" by Werner Hahmann in Kladeradatsch, Berlin, Oct. 11, 1925

I haven't seen much celebration of the 140th birthday of the Statue of Liberty this month, but her 40th anniversary caught the eye of Kladderadatsch cartoonist Werner Hahmann. I would guess that he used the occasion to twit the United States over Prohibition, and New York City in particular for its air pollution.

"Polen und der Sicherheitspakt" by Arthur Krüger in Kladderadatsch, Berlin, Oct. 4, 1925

The Danzig (Gdansk) Corridor, affording Poland access to the Baltic Sea but separating East Prussia from the rest of Germany, was a sore point for Germans between the wars. Krüger portrays the corridor as a knife in the shoulder of Michel, the cartoon personification of Germany; an unkempt Poland urges France to join in a security pact with the condition that the knife stays in place.

“Danzig” by Emil Weiss(?) in Kladderadatsch, Berlin, Oct. 11, 1925 

I’m sure this was funnier in the original German, but at least I shouldn’t have to explain what the cartoonist was trying to say.

Cartoons from the Foreign Desk

Since Trump was dreaming about annexing Canada as a 51st state, today's Graphical History Tour's first stop is with our northern neighbors for a quick reality check.

Tell us how you really feel, Johnny Canuck. And don't hold back.

"The Black Hand of Foreign Domination" by Arthur G. Racey in Montreal Star, Dec. 5, 1924

100 Decembers ago, U.S. Commerce Secretary Herbert Hoover endorsed a "Super Power Project" to meet Atlantic states' growing energy needs with power from Canada's hydroelectric dams along the St. Lawrence River. The Montreal Star fretted that "These official prognostications from across the boundary will sooner or later be directed upon Canada with pressure that any government will find it difficult, if not impossible, to resist."

That the project would benefit states far from the river and its watershed, such as Massachusetts, rankled some Canadians. These days, there is a compact among states and provinces bordering the Great Lakes and St. Lawrence River; it is still exceedingly rare for Canadian interests to scuttle any U.S. plan to bend the rules of the compact in its favor.

"Ye Merrie Yuletide" by A.G. Racey in Montreal Star, Dec. 10, 1924

Racey returned to the theme of Yankee bullying of his home country a few days later; this time in the timber industry.

In his chapter of Sketches from an Unquiet Country: Canadian Graphic Satire 1840-1940, Christian Vachon put forth the case that the popular image of Uncle Sam was invented by Canadian cartoonists and copied by Thomas Nast. Here, Racey appears to have copied his personification of "American Interests" from U.S. cartoonist Frederick Burr Opper’s turn-of-the-century characterization of the Trusts.

"Wahlnot" in Kladderadatsch, Berlin, Dec. 7, 1924

In case you have been overwhelmed by the constant barrage of campaign fund-raising emails that continue unabated regardless of the election having past, consider the plight of der geplagte Michel 100 years ago this month. Germany held elections for the Reichstad on December 7 — for the second time in six months. Nazis, Communists, monarchists, Social Democrats, and "Catholic Centrists" all competed for voters' affections.

At least none of them had discovered Mailchimp. 

"Die beiden Unzufriedenen" in Kladderadatsch, Berlin, Dec. 21, 1924

When the ballots were counted, the parties on the left and right extremes had lost seats in the Reichstag; the Social Democrats under Hermann Müller gained almost as many seats as the Nazi party and Communists lost combined.

I haven't been able to definitively credit these two cartoons, initialed rather than signed. Kladderadatsch had abandoned its occasional practice of printing a credit above its cartoons; with the prospect of one or another radical element coming to power, it's understandable that a cartoonist might want some degree of anonymity. 

Of Kladderadatsch's regular cartoonists, Oskar Garvens, Werner Hahmann, Arthur Johnson, Hans-Maria Lindloff, M. Richter, and the occasional Egon Erwin Kisch, I would rule out Hahmann, who initialed his cartoons in the same style as his signature, and Johnson, whose drawing style doesn't match. The signed cartoons of Czech-born Kisch have a quickly sketched quality to them, but some of his other published work is more thoroughly polished. I can't dismiss Lindloff, Garvens, or some other cartoonist.

"A Confiding Old Gentleman..." by William Hanny in Philadelphia Inquirer, Dec. 9, 1924

Turning to U.S. cartoonists, here's William Hanny's take on the news from France, which arrested and deported 60 members of the French Communist Party in December.

Hanny's cartoon makes reference to the supposed "Zinoviev letter" that had helped bring down the first Labour government of British Prime Minister Ramsey MacDonald in October. Although the letter is now believed to have been forged, it was still widely accepted as genuine at the time.

"Declaring Himself In" by William Hanny in Philadelphia Inquirer, Dec. 13, 1924

British-French relations also come up in another Hanny cartoon a few days later. The British government announced that it would like France to repay $3 billion in loans to finance the Great War, which concerned the Coolidge administration because the U.S. was waiting for France to cough up $4 billion to repay loans from America.

The French, for their part, were impatiently expecting reparations from Germany, anticipated to be facilitated under the Dawes Plan, namesake of the U.S. Vice President-elect.

"Who'll Get the Short End" by J.P. Alley in Memphis Commercial Appeal, Dec. 14, 1924

As illustrated by J.P. Alley, the U.S. concern was that France would be unable to meet its obligations to both the U.S. and Great Britain, necessitating negotiation of a deal more favorable to France than the one already in effect regarding repayment of British wartime loans from the U.S.

Retiring French Ambassador to the U.S. Jean Jules Jusserand promised that his country's debt to the U.S. would be repaid "to the last cent," but protested that five sixths of the money borrowed was spent in the U.S., and besides, "I think you will not forget that we spent more blood than any of the Allies, much treasure, and further, that we were the only country that supplied a battlefield."

"It Was 'Nearly Over With'" by J.P. Alley in Memphis Commercial Appeal, Dec. 17, 1924

The London Post opined that U.S. pressure on its allies over wartime loans was out of line, and that it was America that owed a debt to the Entente powers: "Is it sound morality or even good business to mulct France of sums lent to her for helping to save America, and incidentally the Monroe Doctrine, from the clutches of Germany?"

Maybe we should've just sicced tariffs on them all instead.

Oh, that's right. We did.

Churchill: A Life in Cartoons

This week's Graphical History Tour is yet another book report: just in time for the 150th anniversary of Winston Churchill's birth, cartoon historian Tim Benson offers over 300 editorial cartoons from the British wartime leader's career in Churchill: A Life in Cartoons.

Back in October, I was curious about an Arthur G. Racey cartoon from 1924 that held up Churchill's propensity for wearing hats as something out of the ordinary, even though just about everybody wore hats in those days. The mystery is explained in Benson's introduction to the book: at the dawn of Churchill's career, cartoonists thought that unlike his father, Lord Randolph Churchill, he lacked "the features which lent themselves to easily recognisable conventional treatment" (— cartoonist Francis Carruthers Gould, August, 1904). 

Benson writes that heeding the advice of Gould and other cartoonists,

"Churchill started wearing a variety of hats, all of which were distinctive in that they were too small for his head. Churchill once claimed that this was a deliberate strategy, beginning in 1910 when he caused a stir by donning a felt cap several sizes too small in front of photographers."

"Our Choice of Political Leaders" by Victor Weisz in News Chronicle, London, Nov. 23, 1945

He later adopted the cigar (never smoked down more than an inch) and the V symbol for the same reasons, although by then cartoonists had sufficiently honed their caricatures of the man that they really didn't need the extra clues. But, as Donald Trump is always drawn with an extra-long red tie, the cigar was de rigueur in any Churchill cartoon.

When I ordered this book, I expected it to be full of David Low cartoons (like the one on the cover), but Benson has deliberately sought out cartoons which, according to the back page, "have not seen the light of day since they were first published." Low is not overlooked entirely, but you'll find many more cartoons by George Whitelaw, Victor "Vicky" Weisz, Clive Uptton, and Leslie Illingworth.

There are also plenty of cartoons from the United States, Germany, Italy, Australia, and the U.S.S.R.; even a few from Brazil, India, South Africa, Netherlands, and Mexico. What struck me, having just read and reviewed a book about Canadian editorial cartoonists, is that there is only one cartoon in this book from Canada. (The book has no index; if anyone finds a second Canadian cartoon in there, please let me know.)

"Das Alte Lied" ("The Old Song") by Arthur Johnson in Kladderadatsch, Berlin, Sept. 12, 1943

The cartoons published in nations that were Britain's enemies, such as this one by Arthur Johnson (sadly, not in color in Benson's book) in which it's the U.S. flag that Churchill is obliged to carry, serve as a welcome counterpoint to the patriotic wartime cartoons from the homeland. Benson notes as an aside that this is one of the few German cartoons that alluded to Franklin Roosevelt's polio — an absolute no-no in U.S. and allied cartoons, photographs, and reportage. 

If I have any complaint about the book, it is that there are a few cartoons that, when printed two per page, include print that is too small for these old eyes to read. Typically, that involves labels identifying politicians who are long forgotten or simply unknown this side of the pond. Since the text accompanying every cartoon does a more than adequate job of explaining their context and external references, my not being able to identify the Labour councilman from Westgloughingham is a very small point.

Churchill: A Life in Cartoons helps greatly in the understanding of the two World Wars from a British point of view (especially as distinct from the U.S. perspective). With a half century of cartoons dating from 1904 to 1954, including a number drawn by cartoonists who have graced our Graphical History Tour over the years, Benson's is a remarkable and praiseworthy contribution to the celebration of Churchill's sesquicentennial.

Now, I'm not one to tell you to run right out and buy this book. But Christmas is right around the corner and you might have someone in your life who is interested in cartooning, or history, or England; and perhaps that is something they would tell you.

Christmas '23 Skidoo

This week's Graphical History Tour turns the clock back 100 years to find out what America's editorial cartoonists drew for their papers on Christmas Eve and Day, 1923:

"The Message of the Bells" by Oscar Chopin in San Francisco Examiner, Dec. 25, 1923

"I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day" remains one of my favorite Christmas songs long after the others have been played ad nauseam since Hallowe'en. It is a setting of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's Civil War poem "Christmas Bells," written as his son Charley lay in hospital, having been shot during a skirmish in the Mine Run Campaign on December 3, 1863.

I heard the bells on Christmas Day
Their old, familiar carols play,
And wild and sweet
The words repeat
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!
....
And in despair I bowed my head;
“There is no peace on earth,” I said,
“For hate is strong,
And mocks the song
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!”

Then pealed the bells more loud and deep:
“God is not dead, nor doth He sleep;
The Wrong shall fail,
The Right prevail,
With peace on earth, good-will to men.”

"When the World Sees Us at Our Best" by John T. McCutcheon in Chicago Tribune, Dec. 25, 1923

I can't say whether Oscar Chopin had the Longfellow poem in mind when he drew his Christmas Day cartoon, but I'm sure that many of his readers were instantly reminded of it. It was much more widely familiar then than now.

The Great War was receding in Americans' memories by 1923, and John McCutcheon kept his front page Christmas Day cartoon cheerful and optimistic.

"Enlightening the World" by Nelson Harding in Brooklyn Daily Eagle, Dec. 24, 1923

As did just about all of his fellow editorial cartoonists. The American economy was booming, and nearly every cartoonist had drawn at least one cartoon in December (if not one per week) advising readers to get their shopping and mailing done early.

"Everybody Ready?" by Alfred W. Brewerton in Atlanta Journal, Dec. 24, 1923

Not everybody was consumed by crass commercialism.

"St. Louis Has Filled It" by Daniel Fitzpatrick in St. Louis Post Dispatch, Dec. 25, 1923

Daniel Fitzpatrick was one of several cartoonists whose space on Christmas Day celebrated their newspaper's Christmas charity gift drives (the San Francisco Chronicle's Gustavo Bronstrup being another example). 

Written on the stocking is "Post-Dispatch Christmas Festival," an annual charity event since 1900. The newspaper's 1923 festival distributed "well-filled dinner baskets" to 3,000 "worthy families," as well as "pipes and tobacco for homeless men ... at municipal and benevolent lodging houses." There was entertainment for children, featuring mechanical waltzing dolls, ponies, and of course, Santa. Donors' names and contributions were all listed in the Sunday edition, although receipts by December 26 had fallen nearly $1,000 short of the budget.

"With Gifts Galore" by Douglas Rodger in San Francisco Bulletin, Dec. 24, 1923

Scottish-born Douglas Rodger was a recent immigrant to the U.S. Before coming to California in 1922, he had served in the British Army during World War I and the post-war occupation of Germany. His experience of the Great War, therefore, was considerably more immediate than that of the other cartoonists included in today's post. (Even that of McCutcheon, who did some wartime reporting from Europe.) Described as mischievous and good-natured, Rodger was haunted by wartime nightmares for decades afterward. He took his own life in 1962.

I don't want to end this holiday post on such a downer, so let's have some cute little kids or something like that.

"'Twas the Night Before Christmas" by William Ceperley in Davenport Democrat, Dec. 24, 1923

That's more like it, isn't it?

"Merry Christmas Every-Body" by J.N. "Ding" Darling in Des Moines Register,  Dec. 25, 1923

Whew! All this merry-making is hard work.

"Please Let Me Sleep" by Clifford Berryman in Washington Evening Star, Dec. 25, 1923

Oh, but now I'm just slapping old cartoons up on the internet without providing insight or adding value to them in any way! Well...

"Gone for Day" by Tom Foley in Minneapolis Star, Dec. 25, 1923

See you next week.

Someday Mein Prince Will Come

"Rough Going" by Grover Page in Louisville Courier-Journal, Nov. 6, 1923

Turning our attention to foreign affairs in November, 1923, we find Germany in danger of splintering apart. A separatist movement in the Rhineland was actively supported by a vindictively hostile France (to the horror of its erstwhile Entente allies). There were Monarchists in Bavaria loyal to Crown Prince Rupprecht, and Socialists in Saxony inspired by Vladimir Lenin.

"The Prodigal's Return" by Grover Page in Louisville Courier-Journal, Nov. 5, 1923

Roiling the Liebfraumilch further, Crown Prince Friedrich, the son of ex-Kaiser Wilhelm II, returned from exile, although his visa was for a Christmas visit only. 

"Life Iss Choost Vun Ting After Anuder" by Dorman H. Smith for Newspaper Enterprise Assn, ca. Nov. 26, 1923

German President Ebert fired General Otto von Lossow as commander of the Reichswehr in Bavaria only to have Lossow reappointed by Bavarian dictator Dr. Gustav von Kahr.

in Kladderadatsch, Berlin, Nov. 4

Then came the Beer Hall Putsch.

Staatskommissar von Kahr was giving a speech denouncing Marxism at the Bürgerbräu Keller in Munich when General Erich von Ludendorff and an Austrian named Adolph Hitler burst in and took over the bar. Hitler declared himself ruler of Bavaria and Chancellor of Germany.

"Die Gefahren der Münchener Bräuskeller" by Oskar Garvens in Kladderadatsch, Berlin, Nov. 18, 1923

Oskar Garvens's cartoon here recalls the socialist Mathäser beerhall putsch of 1918 (also in Munich), and suggests a royalist coup in the not distant future.

"Kicking His Dog Around" by Tom Foley in Minneapolis Star, Nov. 14, 1923

The Bürgerbräu putsch was soon put down — by that same General Lossow whom President Ebert had tried to dismiss. Hitler and Ludendorff were arrested and charged with high treason; Hitler would serve nine months in jail, but Ludendorff was acquitted of all charges.

"The Distress Signal" by Roy James in St. Louis Star, Nov. 10, 1923

I may easily have missed another, but James's "The Distress Signal" is the earliest U.S. editorial cartoon I have come across in which Hitler himself makes an appearance. He showed up in earlier German cartoons of course, and there are earlier American cartoons about Nazism. But if another American cartoonist drew him before this one, I haven't seen it.

"Ein Trost" by Oskar Garvens in Kladderadatsch, Berlin, Nov. 11, 1923

We shall use this Garvens cartoon, in which Uncle Sam towers over representatives of France, Japan, Russia, Italy, and an especially diminutive Great Britain, to pivot to a couple other events of note around the world in November.

"My Way Works Better" by Rollin Kirby in New York World, ca. Nov. 13, 1923

The Republic of Turkey was declared on October 29, 1923, bringing the Ottoman Empire to its official end. Field Marshall Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, who was already President of the Assembly, Cabinet, and Popular Party, was named President of the new Republic, without opposition. 

"The Multiple Dictator" by Ernest H. Shepard in Punch, London, Nov. 7, 1923

E.H. Shepard's take on the multitasking President borrows a stanza from "The Yarn of the Nancy Bell" by W.S. Gilbert — ironically, a poem originally rejected by Shepard's publisher because its subject was cannibalism at sea.

"Sittin' Pretty" by Dorman H. Smith for Newspaper Enterprise Assn., ca. Nov. 1, 1923

I still see the occasional flurry of visits to this blog from students studying Philippine history, so here are a couple cartoons updating that topic.

A quarter century after the Spanish-American War, the Philippines remained a territory of the United States of America. Retired Major General Leonard Wood, a good friend of Teddy Roosevelt in the day and credible Republican presidential contender in 1920, was appointed Governor General of Philippines by Warren Harding in 1921.

His was a contentious governorship; he vetoed 16 actions of the Filipino legislature in his first year in office. His reinstating of a fired American police detective in Manila provoked Wood's entire cabinet to resign in July, 1923. His policy aimed at selling publicly owned railroads and agricultural operations to U.S. capitalists, was in stark contrast with the policies of his Democratic predecessor.

"Stay With It, Leonard" by Wm. Morris for George Matthew Adams Service, ca. Nov. 9, 1923

I believe, however, that these cartoons concern the Moro rebels on Mindanao and Sulu, an Islamic minority not effectively represented in either the American administration or the Filipino legislature of the time. (I find contemporary newspaper reports in the U.S. referring to the Moro rebels as "pagans," a generic term likely used to describe anything and everything outside of Judeo-Christian religion.) Wood had some experience there as the U.S. Governor of Moro Province from 1903 to 1906.

An Associated Press report of November 26, 1923 charged the Moro uprising was a symptom of generalized Filipino disagreement of General Wood, and perhaps an excuse given by the General and the Coolidge administration to ignore the Philippine legislature's request that Wood be recalled home.

"One defense of the present policy in the Philippines is that the trouble in the islands is all religious, that the Moros will not consent to being governed by Christian governors. ... The fact is, during the World War when American troops were practically withdrawn, and when [Francis] Harrison was Governor General, there was very little in the Philippines that could be twisted into resembling a religious war. But every policy must have its argument in justification."

✍

Before I sign off: lest one forget on this Veterans' Day:

"Lest You Forget" by Tom Foley in Minneapolis Star, Nov. 10, 1923

"No War for Him, Let's Hope" by Bob Satterfield for Newspaper Enterprise Assn., ca. Nov. 10, 1923

But the old man would not so, but slew his son,
And half the seed of Europe, generation by generation.