What the H

Yesterday's post led off with an image of the Pittsburg Press, which made me curious about how the editor, publisher, and countless copy editors in the Steel City newspaper could not have known how to spell the name of their own hometown. I thought perhaps it was some misguided effort to deGermanify the name when the U.S. entered the Great War.

"Pittsburgh, PA: The Steel City Once-overed" by Bob Bell in Cartoons Magazine, June, 1919

It turns out that the "burgh" is Scottish, not German, and the idea of dropping the "h" came 23 years before the war. In 1891, the United States Board on Geographic Names decided that any "burgh" ought to drop the "h" to conform with all the other "burgs" around the country. The Pittsburg Press was already using the aitchless spelling; the Pittsburg Leader and Pittsburg Dispatch also conformed with the official federal standard. The Pittsburgh Sun, Pittsburgh Gazette Times, Pittsburgh Post and Pittsburgh Chronicle Telegraph did not.

The Board on Geographic Names reversed its decision twenty years later under pressure from Senator George Oliver (R-PA). Why the Press didn't correct their flag until after yet another ten years, in August, 1921, I have no idea.

Hungary for More

Pittsburg (sic) Press, March 25, 1919

As The Great War drew to a close, citizen revolts in the component parts of the multi-ethnic Austro-Hungarian Empire combined with Entente offensives to overthrow Emperor Karl Hapsburg and shatter the empire into pieces. In Hungary, the Aster Revolution led by Miháli Károlyi brought about the Hungarian People's Republic, whose leaders expected his country to include territories of the pre-war Kingdom of Hungary. When, on March 20, 1919, the Entente powers notified the them that Hungary would lose significant territories to Romania, Czechoslovakia, and what would later become Yugoslavia, the Hungarian Prime Minister was forced to resign.

"Why Wait for the Millennium?" by Jay "Ding" Darling in New York Tribune, March 29, 1919

Károlyi called on the Social Democrats to form a new government, unaware that they had secretly entered into a coalition with the "Party of Communists from Hungary" (Kommunisták Magyarországi Pártja). On March 21, the new government declared the Hungarian Soviet Republic. Before long, the Communists purged the Social Democrats from leadership positions; the communist government's de facto leader, Commissar of Foreign Affairs Béla Kun, coordinated policy directly with Vladimir Lenin.

"Turning the Dog Loose" by Cyrus Hungerford in Pittsburgh (sic) Sun, March, 1919

The establishment of a second communist government was cause for alarm in the U.S. and its European allies, but Cy Hungerford's cartoon misses the mark. The Hungarian Soviet Republic was closely allied with Soviet Russia, not with the German government, and hoped for its eastern neighbor to back Hungary's territorial aspirations. Issuing calls for workers of the world to unite against the powers that be, Béla Kun could hardly have cared less about German reparations one way or the other.

"German Measles (Bolshevism)" by John H. Cassel in New York Evening World, March 28, 1919

New York World cartoonist John Cassel blamed the Hungarian situation on the Germans...

"Menetekel beim Länderschmaus" by Arthur Johnson in Kladderadatch, Berlin, April 6, 1919

Meanwhile, in Germany, cartoonist Arthur Johnson blamed it on the Entente powers. In a cartoon mixing biblical references, the handwriting on the wall charges that "Hungary was driven to Bolshevism," while the caption quotes from Psalm 2:10: "So nehmet nun Verstand an, ihr Könige, und lasset euch warnen, ihr Richter der Erde!" (SCH1951; "Now therefore, O kings, be wise; be warned, O rulers of the earth!" NRSV)

"Das Selbstbestimmungerecht der Völker" by Eduard Thöny in Simplicissimus, April 8, 1919

Bolshevik-inspired revolts rocking Berlin and Munich could only have been encouraged by the new government in Budapest, but establishment voices there were just as alarmed as those of the Entente. I've been trying to figure out whom Eduard Thöny caricatured in the above cartoon, but without success. It doesn't resemble any member of the Kun government; and certainly not Karl Hapsburg, who had been deposed as both Emperor and King. If the guy in the cartoon is supposed to represent 19th-Century Hungarian rebel leader Prince Francis II Rákócsy, he doesn't look much like the guy on the 500 forint bill.

"Dassent Spank Me Now!" by Nelson Harding in Brooklyn Daily Eagle, March 28, 1919

"How Things Are Going" by Percy H. "Poy" Fearon in London Evening News, March, 1919

With the Paris Peace Accords still being hammered out and the League of Nations agreed to only in theory, the Hungarian Soviets' stated intention of reclaiming land the Entente powers had given to Hungary's neighbors, a resumption of war loomed as a likely possibility.

"The Wood-Shed-Switch Cure" by William Hanny in St. Joseph (MO) News-Press, April 1, 1919

"In the Manger" by Burt Thomas in Detroit News, March, 1919

The saying "a dog in the manger" isn't as common these days as it was a century ago; referring to the fable about the dog hoarding the other animals' manger out of spite even though he had no use for the hay himself. I do like the drawing of the horse.

"The Red Peril" by John T. McCutcheon in Chicago Tribune, March 25, 1919

As I mentioned last week, there were a lot of cartoons like John McCutcheon's here. The Red Peril could be a spider, a snake, a back-alley cutthroat, smoke, shadow, or whatever other nightmarish image struck the cartoonist's fancy. I only see most of these cartoons in grayscale images, so I have to wonder whether McCutcheon convinced the Chicago Tribune publisher to run this cartoon in red.

"The Poison Gas Attack" by Ted Brown in Chicago Daily News, March, 1919

But not everybody was alarmed by the Bolshevik takeover of Hungary. Ryan Walker, cartoonist for the socialist New York Call, was delighted.

"Henry Dubb No Longer" by Ryan Walker in New York Call, March 25, 1919

Q Toon: Misguidance Counselor

I usually try to avoid addressing the same topic in two syndicated cartoons in a row; but keeping Transgender Awareness Day this coming Sunday in mind, I figured it was worthwhile to point out Senator Joe Manchin's (D-WV) reasoning for coming out as the lone Democrat in the Senate against the Equality Act.

Besides, he's got one of those faces (and haircuts) that just begs for caricature.

As far as Manchin is concerned, it's another case where we're not allowed to have nice things because, you know, public school bathrooms.

I strongly support equality for all people and do not tolerate discrimination of any kind. No one should be afraid of losing their job or losing their housing because of their sexual orientation. After speaking with local education officials in West Virginia, I am not convinced that the Equality Act as written provides sufficient guidance to the local officials who will be responsible for implementing it, particularly with respect to students transitioning between genders in public schools.

Call me a skeptic, but I sincerely doubt that any "guidance to the local officials" that could be amended to the bill wouldn't provide Senator Manchin further reason to withhold his support.

As last week's cartoon illustrated, the Equality Act has virtually no chance of making it through the McConnell-controlled Senate anyway. Still, it does shine a light on who supports LGBTQ rights and who doesn't. Republicans across the nation have instead been pushing "religious liberty" laws to promote discrimination against LGBTQ people.

This is especially important as some states consider laws that would deliberately create a license for businesses, adoption and foster care agencies, health care providers and others to discriminate against LGBT people. Human Rights Watch has documented how these so-called “religious liberty” laws deny LGBT people goods and services, deter them from the marketplace for fear of facing discrimination, and send a signal that they are unwelcome in their state. By clarifying that religious protections cannot be used to discriminate, the Equality Act would better ensure that both religious believers and LGBT people are protected under federal law.
It would also make anti-discrimination laws clear and uniform, which is necessary if these laws are to be effective. LGBT people should not need a law degree to determine whether they are protected from discrimination when they apply for a job, rent an apartment, or eat at a restaurant in the places they happen to live, visit or travel through.

If, as I suspect, the only way to get Senator Manchin on board is to carve out a broad exception for public schools, that would inevitably be followed by a demand that private schools also be exempted. And if private schools, then also landlords, businesses, adoption and foster care agencies, health care providers and — perhaps you see where this is going.

If You're Listening

So Attorney General William Barr issued his book report on the Mueller report, saying, essentially, "Move along, folks. Nothing to see here."

If the Republicans have their way, we may never see Bob Mueller's actual report; but Barr's summary finds it necessary, in the four paragraphs about Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. Presidential election, to iterate and reiterate four times that "the Special Counsel's investigation did not find that the Trump campaign or anyone associated with it conspired or coordinated with Russia."

Yet for all the crowing by the Corrupt Trump Administration that Mueller's report "totally vindicates" the president (except for that sentence in which Barr's summary expressly says it does not), his investigation has yielded a remarkable number of indictments and guilty verdicts for Trump cronies.

As for the central issue of Trump campaign collusion with Russia, who can forget Don Jr.'s "if it's what you say I love it, especially later in the summer" meeting at Trump Tower to discuss Russian intel on Hillary Clinton? And of course, there was Don Sr. a month later publicly egging the Russians on to publish Mrs. Clinton's emails. And his telling Jr. to lie that the meeting was about adoption policies.

But move along, folks.

This Week's Sneak Peek

And what about Naomi?

Women's Hystery, 1919

It's Sisterhoodback Saturday! Since I resurrected some cartoons from 1919 for African-American History Month in February, it's only fair to do the same for Women's History Month in March.

"Far Reaching Effects of This War" by Jay N. "Ding" Darling in New York Journal, March 15, 1919 

By March of 1919, U.S. soldiers were coming home to find their wives and girlfriends had taken their place in the workforce. Such would be entirely normal in a rural, agrarian setting, but was novel to the urban factory and service worker.

"Corporal Jones..." by William C. Morris for Matthew Adams Syndicate, by March 18, 1919

Cartoonists pressed a social expectation that the soldiers who had left productive jobs to serve in the military ought to be rehired for those same jobs when they returned home, whether those jobs had been filled in the meantime by women or by men. No doubt some women were content to go back to housework, but others discovered that they had a knack for business outside the home.

"Follies of the Passing Show" by Charles D. Mitchell in Philadelphia Evening Public Ledger, by March 28, 1919

The 1920 census found 8.3 million women still in the workforce.

The figures show that women’s work was, on the whole, segregated in familiar sectors: clerks, bookkeepers, stenographers, laundresses, waitresses. “Professional” women were most often schoolteachers. Most of the women working in “transportation” were telephone operators. (In the 1920 Census, there was no separate occupational category for communications workers. Telephone and telegraph workers were classified as part of “Transportation,” because of telegraphy’s early relationship with railroads.)

Let us not forget that women, too, served in the Great War. They were nurses, medics, switchboard operators and ammunition workers; and, unlike in previous generations, they served in uniform.

"Off With That Uniform..." by Robert Lemen in St. Louis Post-Dispatch, ca. March, 1919

So if women's roles were changing thanks to the war, what about the suffragettes?

Having passed the House, and in spite of President Wilson having come around on the issue, the 19th Amendment to guarantee women the vote fell one vote short of the required two-thirds majority in the Senate on February 10, 1919.

"The Cold Stove" by William Hanny in St. Joseph (MO) News-Press, February 11, 1919

Two days later, on the other hand, the Wisconsin legislature passed its own version of women's suffrage by veto-proof majorities, joining a growing number of states already allowing women to vote in local and primary elections.

From what I've seen, however, American editorial cartoonists at that moment in history were preoccupied with the peace negotiations in Paris, the new tax bill, and the spread of Bolshevism from Russia to Hungary, Germany, and the U.S. labor movement. (Oh, so many cartoons decrying the Bolshevik menace!) William Hanny's cartoon is the only one I've found about the February defeat of the women's suffrage amendment.*

So, in the absence of any other cartoons on the amendment's latest failure, here's one more cartoon about those hobble skirts.

"Any Where, Any Time!" by C.J. Hopp in Cartoons Magazine, Chicago, June, 1919

________

* P.S.: If I had just kept looking a little further before posting this, I would have found Bill Sykes's cartoon pointing out that the League of Nations was more forward thinking than the U.S. Senate:

"What Would George Washington Say!" by William Sykes in Philadelphia Public Ledger, March 28, 1919

Q Toon: I Hear You Knocking

Democrats in the House and Senate have introduced the Equality Act to extend existing federal anti-discrimination protections in employment, housing, credit, jury selection, and education to include persons on the basis of gender identity and sexual orientation. The measure seems certain to pass in the Democrat-controlled House of Representatives.

Chief Senate sponsor Jeff Merkley (D-OR) has a tougher row to hoe. Among Republicans, only Maine's Susan Collins has signed on to the bill; and one of the Democrats' own, Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia, has announced that he will vote against the bill. His problem with the bill seems to come from its inclusion of transgender students among those whose rights it would protect.

Manchin had not made his decision known as I was drawing this cartoon Sunday night. Had I chosen to make him the focus of the cartoon, I suppose I would have drawn the other Democrats calling down a coal mine shaft.

As far as Yertle McConnell is concerned, however, when he eventually comes out of his shell, we'll find out whether it is to attach some poison pill amendment (say, protecting the rights of Clockwork Orange "reparation therapists") or to kill the Equality Act outright.