political+cartoons+-+Grt+Dep

ATG President Herbert Hoover led the United States into the Great Depression and became a symbol of negativity for many Americans throughout the Great Depression. The part of this political cartoon I would like to focus on, is what I feel is the center point of the cartoon, behind President Hoover is a man exchanging painting on the wall. The old painting is depicted of having statistics of the drop in the economy, while the new painting the new painting that is going on the wall is not important. Hoover became known as the president that did nothing for the suffering people of the United States. Many people not only lost their jobs, but in turn lost their homes as well. For many Americans, all hope was lost at the turn of the economy and all the while President Hoover was doing nothing to help the situation. The purpose of this cartoon is to show Americans that not only was the president of no help, but that change was needed. Hoovervills, shanty towns, as they were called, popped up in areas all across the United States. The cartoon would represent and carry the United States and its people on to the next election, with the rise of president Roosevelt. does not reflect APPARTS

APC: "The Trojan Horse At Our Gate"

In the 1930's, Carey Orr represents President Roosevelt's effectiveness of the programs of the New Deal to get the nation's economy working again. The majority of people were supportive of the economic progress the New Deal promised yet in newspapers and magazines around the country, many of the political cartoons were clearly against the New Deal. The cartoon published in the New York Post shows the anti-New Deal sentiment of publishers during the Great Depression. In his first 99 days, Congress quickly decreed the New Deal to deliver relief to the unemployed and those in danger of losing farms and homes, recovery to agriculture and business, and reform. With the New Deal, President Herbert Hoover was defeated by Franklin D. Roosevelt in the election of 1932. Hoover, who had been blamed for the stock market crash and the depression, strongly opposed Roosevelt's New Deal legislation, in which the federal government assumed responsibility for the welfare of the nation by having a high level of economic activity. According to Hoover, Roosevelt had been slow to reveal his New Deal programs during the presidential campaign and worried that the new president would bring the nation into a larger deficit to pay for the New Deal. Roosevelt never consulted Hoover, or involve him in government in any way during his presidential term. The Works Progress Administration was established in 1935 to provide work for the unemployed. The New Deal also greatly influenced the American Labor Movement. The projects, and others ideas to help the country were expensive, and the government was not making enough money to stop deficit spending. To fund all the new legislation, government spending rose. Spending in 1916 was $697 million and in 1936 it was $9 billion. The government modified taxes to use wealthy people the most, who it was believed would not suffer from the rise in taxes. The deficit was made up in part by raising taxes and borrowing money through the sale of government bonds. Meanwhile, the national debt climbed to new heights. The nation saw progress by 1935, but businessmen and bankers increasingly opposed the New Deal. The president's experiments frightened them. The rich, conservatives, numerous businessmen (or all three) opposed the New Deal. They were upset by his toleration of budget deficits and his removal of the nation from the gold standard, and were upset by legislation leaning towards labor. As the world prepared to fight the Axis powers, Roosevelt began to turn his attention away from domestic policies and toward helping the Allies, while keeping an isolationist position towards entering World War II. With America’s eventual entry into the war, the nation’s economy began improving. does not fully reflect APPARTS

JML:  John Baer, who had been credited with coining the term “New Deal” though this cartoon was not about that, drew this cartoon in 1931 to express his view that Hoover’s benefits of recovery only helped the big businesses and not the poor. He made this cartoon for the National Railroad Union’s paper //Labor// in 1931. So it was relevant to the Great Depression under Herbert Hoover and Hoover’s policies, also because he was writing for a union’s newspaper his audience probably was not getting benefits from Hoover’s policies and would therefore agree with Baer’s assertion that the policies only benefited big businesses. Audiences would first have encountered it in //Labor//. This cartoon addresses the issues of trickle-down economics and the tendency for the government to help the rich and not the poor and overall problems during the Great Depression and Hoover’s presidency. It would help to know that Hoover did attempt to help everyone by helping the big businesses but really ended up only helping the big businesses. It would also help to know how devastating the Great Depression was. The man feeding the big business pigs, which as labeled represented industry, rail road companies, utilities, and other big corporations, while ignoring the pigs labeled “rest of us” which represented the average American, is Uncle Sam which represents America, or in this case American government. As this cartoon was created for //Labor// it was created for mainly the common National Railroad Union member, a person who would be part of the “rest of us” and would likely already feel similarly to Baer and feel outraged with him against the government, making the cartoon somewhat unreliable as it catered to the interests of its audience. The union members would likely pay attention to this cartoon because it was in this newspaper and addressed an issue they would feel attached too. The union members would have agreed with Baer’s cartoon and been angered at the government with him and the government and big businesses would have disagreed and been angered at Baer. Baer drew this cartoon at the point of time that he did because he wanted to express his views on the current situation and possibly make Hoover look bad in time for the next election in 1932. Baer argues that Hoover’s policies only help the rich big businesses and ignore the rest of the country’s people. The cartoon suggests government policies that take preference over helping the rich over the poor are wrong. Baer’s point is that Hoover’s polices only help the rich and do nothing for the rest and that this is bad. This cartoon is important because it deals with Hoover’s policies and the negative reaction toward them. It implies that Hoover’s political policies are bad and do not really help the failing economy. It may have affected the election of 1932 which Hoover lost because it portrayed his policies negatively.

SMR- “The Way to Prosperity”

John Cassel created this cartoon in October of 1931. Not much is known about Cassel, but it can be inferred from this cartoon that he did not agree with contradicting advice from the government. “The Way to Prosperity” was created following the Great Depression. As a result, the cartoon depicts contradicting guidance on what to do financially. This cartoon addresses the debates between rugged individualism and the New Deal. Hoover advocated voluntary individual action with little government interference, while Roosevelt fought for immediate relief. The different ways in which the government tried to quell public fear helped me understand the cartoon more, because Hoover was adamant on “letting the ship right itself,” while Roosevelt used government funds to help decrease the unemployment rate. The sign that reads “Just around the corner” is an illustration of Hoover’s approach to the Depression. The “spend” sign also illustrates his support for individual action, for he encouraged consumerism. However, Roosevelt’s Civilian Conservation Corps helped create jobs and keep young men off the streets. The “hire” sign is a symbol for the most successful aspect of the New Deal—the CCC. This material was aimed at the general American public, who had lost all their money. The majority of Americans had done everything right financially, yet they found themselves broke, which led to confusion of how to proceed. The very small populations of Americans who still had money were affected, however they had not lost everything. They were not as hopeless of everybody else. “The Way to Prosperity” shows the conflicting guidance. The cartoon shows how people who did everything right, have no clue what do to. The cartoon address the economic need to right the wrongs on buying on margin. The most important aspect of the market is investing only what one can afford to lose. The Depression is an example of how people invested more money than they had, and lost it all.

SLW--How the South Interprets the New Deal This political cartoon was published in a black Chicago newspaper, the Chicago Defender, on January 27, 1934, during the first term of Franklin D. Roosevelt’s presidency. L. Rogers, who created this cartoon, was a prominent writer for this Chicago newspaper who had contributed a series of political cartoons about anti-New Deal sentiments. This cartoon deals with feelings over one of the first New Deal establishments, the National Recovery Administration (NRA). This organization was created to eliminate corrupt business practices and bring more rights to workers incuding a minimum wage and maximum hours. The top panel of this cartoon shows a father happily telling his wife and children that the factory, which employed him, had subscribed to NRA codes. In the bottom panel, the father and fellow workers are shown to be outside of the factory reading a sign that declared, “Under the 'NRA' this factory shall advance wages and minimize hours of all employees. Henceforth we shall employ white help only.” Because the factory did not want to afford black people any more rights than they already had, it discriminated against them by refusing to hire them. Through this editorial, L. Rogers expresses his belief that white racists used programs under the New Deal, like the NRA, to further discriminate against low wage black labor. Throughout the 1930s, discrimination and racist beliefs about blacks continued to thrive and practices such as lynching and wage discrimination were prevalent. Blacks even referred to the NRA as “Negroes Ruined Again”. Rogers created this cartoon because he wanted to spread the word to fellow blacks, who were readers of the Chicago Defender, that the New Deal programs under Roosevelt were actually aimed at only helping white folk. Rogers believes that Roosevelt failed to recognize that blacks were just as affected by the Great Depression as whites and that racism in the US resulted in black laborers suffering even more than white laborers.

WMA

Published in August 1931 this political cartoon by C.W. Anderson reflects upon the stock market crash two years prior and its lasting impact. Anderson was primarily an author of children’s books and horse artist. The fact that he was creating political cartoons that addressed the economy implies that the horse drawing market was not particularly booming during the Great Depression. The cartoon was created two years after the stock market crash and before Roosevelt’s presidency, a period in which most Americans were not very optimistic. The cartoon depicts a boss’s assistant replacing a graph that details the recent failures of either the boss’s company or the stock market with a happier image, showing a rising sun. The cartoon also encourages readers to be more confident, implying that otherwise the economy will be unable to recover. A factor contributing to the Great Depression was a lack of confidence in stocks, dissuading people from buying stocks and supporting corporations. In turn these corporations were unable to continue operating, resulting in a loss of jobs. The cartoon was most likely targeting Americans that bought and sold stocks. Individuals who lost large sums of money during the stock market crash, though, may not be convinced by the cartoon as the shock of losing entire savings may have been too much. This cartoon displays optimism in a period of time in which the majority of Americans lacked hoped, instead of merely addressing the recent economic trouble Anderson proposes a solution and tells Americans to look forward to the future. does not fully reflect APPARTS

CHE: “Scuse me, Buddy, is this the bread-line or a run on a bank?” – Chester Garde The above cartoon was created by Chester Garde, whose background and point of view are not known about. However, it can be assumed that Garde, like the majority of Americans, was greatly affected by the Great Depression. This was published in 1931, during the Great Depression. In this cartoon, a man questions whether the long line leads to food or a bank-run; the cartoonist points out that the economic situation had gotten so bad that these lines were normal occurrences. The “bread-line” is self-explanatory; people had lost their jobs and run completely out of their savings, and they had to rely on charity simply to eat. Bank runs occur when bank customers withdraw their money from banks in fear that their banks are becoming bankrupt; the cycle is vicious as the number of withdrawals and a bank’s likelihood of default are directly proportional. These bank runs only perpetuated the severity of the Great Depression. Directed towards all Americans, this was produced to poke fun yet note the severity of the situation; bank runs and bread-lines were so common that Garde was able to make a cartoon in which an American citizen (who looks impatient and worried, just like everybody else) is not able to distinguish which line he is waiting in. During the Great Depression, Americans were similar to each other in that they were all hungry, poor, and worried; the significance of the above cartoon’s production is that it adds to the community in which everyone felt lost. ﻿does not fully reflect APPARTS

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GEB

The author of this cartoon was Clifford K. Berryman, a renowned cartoonist who spent a good deal of his career at the //Washington Post.// Berryman was the man who drew “Drawing the Line in Mississippi” which prompted the name Teddy for Theodore Roosevelt as well as the creation of the teddy bear. His point of view on politics is unclear because he would comment on presidents both Republican and Democrat alike, mocking many different Acts or legislation. This particular cartoon was produced in 1933 in regard to FDR’s New Deal Program. The meaning of this drawing would have been clear to people in the 1930s as it is to the world to this day: FDR implemented many different programs and plans, knowing that some would fail but others would succeed. There were split views on FDR’s New Deal, some felt it was wonderful that he was doing something, a dramatic shift from Hoover’s action plan, but others felt that it was a waste of money to create all these programs that a number of which were bound to fail. A widely recognized symbol that Berryman used in this drawing was FDR as a little kid and Santa was Uncle Sam. FDR is asking Uncle Sam for something to work, one of his many plans. Uncle Sam is a representative for America, so FDR is throwing out all these programs for the people and it is up to America to participate and really trust FDR in his New Deal. The primary audience of this cartoon would have been the middle aged man, common or wealthy. Berryman’s drawings were featured in widespread newspapers so this would most likely have been available to a large population and the fact is that everyone knew what the New Deal was and what was going on. Surprisingly, this is not a cartoon that stretches the truth or belittles a president, the cartoon depicts, in a comical way, what was actually happening. The reason for the production of this cartoon would have been because of how big a deal FDR’s programs were. They employed millions, provided relief across the United States, and so much more that there were numerous cartoons coming out about FDR and the New Deal. The main idea of this is quite clear and is basically that FDR threw out a plethora of programs and is seeing which one stick and work (he is pretty much telling Uncle Sam that something //has// to work).

APC: "President Hoover's Response to the Stock Market Crash of October 29, 1929"



Though author of this political cartoon is unknown, this cartoon was found in the New York Daily Investment News. This picture depicts President Herbert Hoover showing different options Americans can choose to cope with the crash. Here President Hoover is hitting the sign DETOUR because the only advice he has for Americans is to just wait and let everything right itself. There is supposedly nothing that the government can do to fix the damage of the stock market crash. Also, the BUSINESS BOULEVARD shows that the government expects people to go back to their daily lives as if nothing happened. Then, there is a sign that reads SPECULATION STREET, where those who want to know why and how to fix the stock market crash go. These people were not liked by the government because according to the Hoover Administration, the economy would fix itself and all Americans do is just wait. While the stock market crash was the beginning of The Great Depression, there were many other factors. First, easy money policies had encouraged heavy unpredictable investment in the stock market. Second, productivity had far exceeded wages. Buying on credit encouraged consumption, but also created large amounts of consumer debt. Thirdly, tariff and war-debt policies had greatly diminished foreign markets for American goods. One of the key factors of earlier panics which developed into major depressions was a wave of bank failures. This fact contributed to the perception that the economy was not entering a major depression; rather it was repeating the same relatively brief, yet harsh disruption of the 1921 depression. Hoover’s response to the stock market crash was to try and temper the effects of the financial panic on other sectors of the economy. This would be done primarily through the cooperation between business and labor, with the assistance of federal and local governments. These efforts were largely based on his experiences with the depression of 1921. Ultimately these efforts did not prevent the country from going into the Great Depression, although they represent a significant departure from the laissez-faire attitudes of previous presidents and laid the groundwork for Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal policies.

 KHW: "Jus' Mindin' His Business and Goin' Along!" by Clifford K. Berryman

Clifford K. Berryman was born in Clifton, Kentucky on April 2nd 1869 and died on December 11th 1949. Berryman worked as a cartoonist for his entire life first for the //Washington Post// from 1891-1907 and then for the //Washington Star// from 1907 until his death. He was credited with the creation on the “Teddy Bear” during Theodore Roosevelt’s presidency and was awarded the Pulitzer Prize in 1944 for one of his cartoons. In “Jus’ Mindin’ His Business and Going Along!” Berryman is expressing the rapid progress FDR made in his first term as president. Elected in the midst of the depression Roosevelt was a firm believer that action was the only way to fix the dire economic situation that Americans were facing. After Hoover’s policy of waiting for the economy to fix itself the people were happy to see a President who was trying to do something. FDR was very active in his first term sending fifteen proposals to congress between March and June in 1933, a period which is referred to as the Hundred Days Congress. Congress accepted all fifteen of his proposals which lead to some concern that Roosevelt was becoming too powerful. Despite suspicions of FDR’s tactics the Hundred Days laid a foundation for his New Deal Programs which re-established the confidence that the public had in their government. In this cartoon published in the //Washington Star// in 1933 FDR is pictured taking congress by the hand and rushing with his new policies to the farmers and forests. The farmer’s had faced economic disparities since the twenties and Roosevelt sought to aid ailing farmers through the Agricultural Act of 1933. By paying the farmers to produce less FDR hoped to decrease the surplus of food and raise the prices that farmers could sell their products for in order to reach the standards from 1909-1914. The Agricultural Adjustment Administration (AAA) was put in place to see that the program was effective and was one of the many organizations Roosevelt created to provide jobs. In the cartoon, “Forest” refers to the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) created on March 31st 1933. The CCC was responsible for employing over three million men between 1933 and 1941 and offered a variety of jobs which aimed to conserve the environment. Men between the ages of 18 and 25 worked on flood control projects, built public parks, planted trees and were paid $30 a month, $10 of which were sent to their families. The program was a huge success but the progress did not quell the fears of some that Roosevelt was becoming a tyrant. This cartoon illustrates the beginning of opposition to Roosevelt’s ideas and during his second term the Supreme Court found many of his early programs to be unconstitutional which forced FDR to adjust his New Deal policies. Again the confidence Americans had in FDR resulted in his election for a third and fourth term which would be his last as he would die in office. The //Washington Star// was a widely read newspaper established in 1852 and was first and foremost a reliable source of news in the Washington D.C. area. The credibility of the newspaper and Berryman’s reputation made this a reliable interpretation of FDR’s enthusiastic spirit. Some regarded his enthusiasm as determination while others viewed it as his attempt at grabbing power. Regardless FDR and his programs were a massive part of aiding Americans struggle through the Great Depression.

SAF

Although the author of such cartoon is unknown, most political cartoonists of the time when focusing on FDR presented partisan positions on different controversies, such as the Court Packing Bill, and properly presented the essentials of a given matter to the public when taken as a whole. This cartoon was published circa May 10, 1937 in The Washington Star and titled “Teacher’s Pet”. Satirizing both democrats and republicans the newspapers did not show any particular bias but was however well known for its political cartoons. This cartoon was meant to represent a vacation taken by FDR, the teacher, and to have come back to an unruly classroom of students, congress, who have been acting up in his absence. Some students clearly well behaved and being calmed by FDR but others still acting inappropriately. Mainly appealing to voting adults who were aware of FDR’s New Deal and policies, like many other political cartoons of the time simply represented behaviors by both the president and congress and would alienate those who did not have previous knowledge on the politics of the situation. Overall, this cartoon was made to represent the overall conflictory relationship between FDR and congress and the power struggle between the two. Often with FDR’s radical proposed policies congress did not agree with him, the same struggle appeared in the supreme court which led to FDR’s Court Packing Bill.

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