BECOMING MODERN: AMERICA IN THE 1920S PRIMARY SOURCE COLLECTION
* Chicago Daily Tribune
IN POLITICAL CARTOONS HE WENTIES T T Founded in 1847, the Chicago Tribune is one of the oldest American newspapers in circulation. In the 1920s its Republican editorial stand mirrored main- stream American political opinion.
Twenty-four political cartoons from the Tribune are
presented here—two per year from 1918 to 1929 — created by the longtime Tribune cartoonists John McCutcheon and Carey Orr, whose instantly recognizable work was widely reprinted through- out the country.
To analyze a political cartoon, consider its: CONTENT. First, basically describe what is drawn in the cartoon (without referring to the labels). What is depicted? What is happening?
CONTEXT. Consider the timing. What is happening in national events at the time of the cartoon? Check the date: what occurred in the days and weeks before the cartoon appeared? “A Little Premature, But—They’re Just Tuning Up” LABELS. Read each label; look for labels that are Chicago Daily Tribune, November 8, 1918 not apparent at first, and for other written content in the cartoon. SYMBOLS. Name the symbols in the cartoons. What do they mean? How do they convey the cartoon’s meaning? TITLE. Study the title. Is it a statement, question, exclamation? Does it employ a well-known phrase, e.g., slang, song lyric, movie title, radio show, political or product slogan? How does it encapsulate and enhance the cartoonist’s point? TONE. Identify the tone of the cartoon. Is it satirical, comic, tragic, ironic, condemning, quizzical, imploring? What adjective describes the feeling of the cartoon? How do the visual elements in the drawing align with its tone? POINT. Put it all together. What is the cartoonist’s point? QUESTIONS
How did the Tribune cartoons reflect the mainstream Republican stand of the 1920s? “When the Historians Meet to Name the Dying Decade” Which cartoon would you select as the most Chicago Daily Tribune, December 29, 1929
successful in delivering its point? Why?
* National Humanities Center: AMERICA IN CLASS®, 2012: americainclass.org/. Cartoons reproduced by permission of the Chicago Tribune. Title font for “The Twenties” (TestarossaNF) courtesy of Nick’s Fonts at FontSpace.com. Font used for CDT on this page (Old English Text MT) similar to but not identical to Tribune logo font. Complete image credits at americainclass.org/sources/becomingmodern/image credits.htm.
The New York Times, ca. 1922 reprinted in the Literary Digest, August 26, 1922
Cartoonist: Edwin Marcus
Labor. Capital. Labor Troubles. Common Sense. Opportunism. Obstinacy. Murder. Violence.
Reproduced by permission of the Marcus Family. Digital image courtesy of Google Books.
National Humanities Center The Twenties in Political Cartoons: Labor & Capital 12
“Democracy Doesn’t Breed that Kind”
Des Moines Register [Iowa], June 6, 1919 Cartoonist: Jay N. “Ding” Darling
Immigration. Laws. Congress. Uncle Sam. “Alien malcontent”: caricature of the bomb-wielding Russian Bolshevik radical.
Reproduced by permission of the Jay N. “Ding” Darling Wildlife Society. Digital image courtesy of the University of Iowa Libraries.
National Humanities Center Political Cartoons of the 1920s: Native & Foreign—The Issue of Immigration 2 Reproduced by permission by Reproduced
of the JayDigital Wildlife Society. the courtesy “Ding” UniversityIowaof N. Darling the image of Libraries. of
“A Simple Remedy for Insomnia for Those Who Lie Awake Worrying About Being Blown Out of Bed”
Des Moines Register, November 17, 1919 Cartoonist: Jay N. “Ding” Darling Industrial Magnates. U.S. INDUSTRIAL PROSPERITY. Don’t blow the safe / Here is the combination — D-I-V-I-S-I-O-N-O-F-P-R-O-F-I-T-S. Some of the cake. Some of the comforts. A dram of the [—]
National Humanities Center Political Cartoons of the 1920s: Prosperity
Advertisement for the National Association for the Promotion of Labor Unionism among Negroes
The Messenger, February 1922 Negro Labor. White Labor. Capital Profits. Agitator Dog.
The Messenger was an African American socialist magazine founded in 1917 in New York City by A. Philip Randolph and Owen Chandler.
“Agitator Dog”: Socialist and Communist [Bolshevik] labor activists were labeled “agitators” by opponents who charged them with aggravating labor unrest to pursue their goal of a total labor takeover of industrial property. Here the cartoonist uses the term to “agitate” white and African American workers to transcend racial competition and work together in labor unions to gain higher wages.
Courtesy of the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, New York Public Library.
National Humanities Center The Twenties in Political Cartoons: Labor & Capital 10
“Uncle Sam: ‘Am I Americanizing Them— Or Are They Europeanizing Me?’”
The Denver Post, September 30, 1920 Cartoonist: Albert Wilbur Steele
Immigration floodgate. Immigration laws. Flags: From Europe. From Asia. From Russia (?)
Copyright holder currently unidentified; search in process. Digital image from microfilm.
National Humanities Center Political Cartoons of the 1920s: Native & Foreign—The Issue of Immigration 3
“One Must Be Extinguished”
The Chicago Defender, March 31, 1923 African American newspaper. Cartoonist: Leslie Rogers.
Permission request in process. Digital image courtesy of ProQuest Historical Newspapers.
National Humanities Center Political Cartoons of the 1920s: Ku Klux Klan
“The Two Extremes”
Chicago Daily Tribune, December 12, 1920 Cartoonist: John T. McCutcheon
Reproduced by permission of the Chicago Tribune. Digital image courtesy of ProQuest Historical Newspapers.
National Humanities Center Political Cartoons from the Chicago Daily Tribune, 1918-1929 7
“UNANIMOUS”
Chicago Tribune, February 18, 1919 Cartoonist: Carey Orr
Bolshevik Agitator. I.W.W. Life of Trotsky. Labor. Farmer. Press. Legislator. Public. Capital [business/finance].
I.W.W.: International Workers of the World. Leon Trotsky: a Bolshevik leader of the 1917 Russian Revolution.
In February 1919, fear of Communist/Bolshevik agitation in the U.S. was heightened by the nationally covered Seattle general strike, the Senate Overman Committee investigation into Bolshevik activity in the U.S., and daily coverage of the escalatingl civil war in Bolshevik Russia and of Communist uprisings in other European nations.
Reproduced by permission of the Chicago Tribune. Digital image courtesy of ProQuest Historical Newspapers.
National Humanities Center Political Cartoons of the 1920s: The Red Scare 3 process.in request Permission Digital imageHistorical of Newspapers ProQuest courtesy .
“If the Daily Press Dared Tell the Truth”
The Chicago Defender, July 1, 1922 African American newspaper
National Humanities Center Political Cartoons of the 1920s: Race—Black & White in America
“The Cloud!”
The Atlanta Constitution, January 19, 1919 Cartoonist: Lewis Crumley Gregg
Anarchism. Bolshevism. U.S. Europe. Lightning bolts—Murder, Arson, Plunder, Rapine [pillage]. Bolshevik caricature: Russian fur hat, ragged beard, burly facial characteristics, bomb with lit fuse. (The commenting turtle was a characteristic feature of Gregg’s cartoons.)
On the day preceding this cartoon, the conference forging the World War One peace treaty convened near Paris, France. During the month of January, the brutal Russian Civil War expanded west and east, and a Communist uprising in Germany was suppressed.
Reproduced by permission of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Digital image courtesy of ProQuest Historical Newspapers.
National Humanities Center Political Cartoons of the 1920s: The Red Scare 2
“And We Also Have Class Unconsciousness”
Brooklyn Eagle, ca. Oct./Nov. 1919 as reprinted in the Chicago Tribune, Nov. 4, 1919 Cartoonist: Nelson Harding
Permission request in process. Digital image courtesy of ProQuest Historical Newspapers.
National Humanities Center The Twenties in Political Cartoons: Labor & Capital 6
Copyright holder of Service Newspaper Adams Copyright search process. content unidentified; in Digital courtesy of Newspapers. ProQuest image Historical
“Neglecting the Other Child”
Los Angeles Times, October 11, 1926 Cartoonist: Morris [George Matthew Adams Newspaper Service]
National Humanities Center Political Cartoons of the 1920s: Prosperity
“The South Will Soon Be Demanding Restriction of Migration of Its Labor”
Chicago Daily Tribune, May 10, 1923 Cartoonist: John T. McCutcheon
Reproduced by permission of the Chicago Tribune. Digital image courtesy of ProQuest Historical Newspapers.
National Humanities Center Political Cartoons of the 1920s: Race—Black & White in America
“The Happy Family”
Chicago Daily Tribune, April 13, 1924 Cartoonist: John T. McCutcheon
Reproduced by permission of the Chicago Tribune. Digital image courtesy of ProQuest Historical Newspapers.
National Humanities Center Political Cartoons from the Chicago Daily Tribune, 1918-1929 14
“We’ll Tell the World!”
Los Angeles Times, April 15, 1924 Cartoonist: Edmund Gale
U.S.: the melting pot. Our new immigration restrictions. Europe. Undesirables.
On April 12, 1924, the U.S. House of Representatives passed an immigration bill that restricted the number of immigrants admitted from any country to two percent of the 1890 U.S. population from that country, nearly eliminating immigration from southern and eastern Europe. The formula remained the law of the land until 1965, when the national origins quota system was replaced by a policy that based admission on skills and family ties with U.S. citizens. Reproduced by permission of the Los Angeles Times. Digital image courtesy of ProQuest Historical Newspapers.
National Humanities Center Political Cartoons of the 1920s: Native & Foreign—The Issue of Immigration 6
“They Have Ears but They Hear Not” [Psalm 135:17]
The Crisis, November 1920 African American periodical. Cartoonist: Albert Alex Smith.
Reproduced by permission of the Modernist Journals Project, Brown University and the University of Tulsa.
National Humanities Center Political Cartoons of the 1920s: Race—Black & White in America
“Getting Ahead of the Band Wagon!”
Los Angeles Times, November 24, 1928 Cartoonist: Edmund Gale
Reproduced by permission of the Los Angeles Times. Digital image courtesy of ProQuest Historical Newspapers.
National Humanities Center Political Cartoons of the 1920s: Prosperity