“There’s Your Answer, Adolph.” (November 27, 1942) 11/10
by Wallace Heard Goldsmith (1873-1945)
13 x 15.5 in, ink on board
Coppola Collection

Goldsmith was a Boston institution, working over his long career at the Herald, the Post, and the Globe. This editorial cartoon is from his 25-year period at the Post.

At the turn of the century, the Boston Herald just couldn’t make up its mind whether it wanted to run a syndicate. Their homegrown comic section was born and died at least four different times. The Adventures of Little Allright came in the third version of their Sunday section and ran from March 6 to June 26 1904. There really wasn’t much to set the strip apart from any other kid strip — the starring kid saying “all right” a lot seems an almost ridiculously weak hook. Goldsmith took the dubious credit for this stinker. The strip was rebooted as Little Alright (the second ‘L’ was dropped), and ran from November 11 1906 to April 14 1907. He was well known for illustrating Oscar Wilde’s “The Canterville Ghost.”

After the Fall of France and the Armistice of 1940, France was divided in two zones, one occupied by the Germans, and the “Free Zone”. Officially, both zones were administered by the Vichy regime. The armistice stipulated that the French fleet would be largely disarmed and confined to its harbors, under French control. The Allies were concerned that the fleet, which included some of the most advanced warships of the time, might fall into enemy hands and so the British attacked the French Fleet at Mers-el-Kebir on July 3, 1940, and at the Battle of Dakar on September 23, 1940.

On November 8. 1942 the Allies invaded French North Africa. It is thought that General Dwight Eisenhower, with the support of FDR and Winston Churchill, made a secret agreement with Admiral François Darlan, commander of Vichy Naval forces, that Darlan would be given control of French North Africa if he joined the Allied side.

Hitler responded to the invasion by sending in his forces, with the intent of capturing the French fleet and turning it over to Italy. As the German and Italian troops closed in on the port of Toulon, a plan was already in place: turn them back; and if that did not work, scuttle the fleet.

The French played along, looking like it was strengthening its defenses against the Allies. On November 12, Darlan called for a declaration of defection.

German combat troops entered Toulon early on November 27. By about 5 AM, German tanks rolled through, and the lead French ship immediately transmitted the order “Scuttle! Scuttle! Scuttle!” by radio, visual signals and dispatch boat. French crews evacuated, and scuttling parties started preparing demolition charges and opening sea valves on the ships.

In the final accounting, 77 vessels were scuttled. Another 39 were damaged and disarmed. Some of the major ships were ablaze for several days, and oil polluted the harbor so badly that it would not be possible to swim there for two years.

“Bucking Bronco” (June 3, 1942)
by Paul Frederick Berdanier (1879-1961)
15 x 21 in., ink on board
Coppola Collection

Paul F. Berdanier was a cartoonist, illustrator, etcher and painter. He worked as an advertising artist in the 1920s. He illustrated for pulp magazines in the ’30s, while also drawing for the St. Louis Post-Dipatch. He did art on various features for United Feature Syndicate from the 1930s throughout the 1950s. At United Features comic books, he contributed to Tip Top Comics with features like ‘Sparkman’ (1943-45) and ‘The Triple Terror’ (1943-46). Berdanier was also a teacher at Washington University.

In the 1930s, Mexico and the United States were unlikely allies. In 1938, Mexico’s president nationalized the country’s oil industry, which angered powerful U.S. oil companies. Plus, many Mexicans still resented the United States for the loss of 55 percent of Mexico’s territory after the U.S.-Mexican War.

But as the war in Europe began to disrupt trade routes around the world, Mexico and other Latin American countries found themselves in economic peril.

Japan’s surprise attack on Pearl Harbor in December 1941 brought the war to the Western Hemisphere for the first time. Mexico cut diplomatic ties with Japan on December 9, 1941; it broke with Germany and Italy by December 11. In January 1942, at the Conference of Foreign Ministers held in Rio Janeiro, Brazil, Mexico’s delegation argued forcefully that all the nations of the Western Hemisphere must band together in mutual cooperation and defense.

That May, German U-boats sank two Mexican oil tankers in the Gulf of Mexico. Germany refused to apologize or compensate Mexico, and on June 1, 1942, President Manuel Ávila Camacho issued a formal declaration of war against the Axis Powers.

“New Deal Arithmetic” (October 14, 1940)
by Milton Rawson Halladay (1874-1961)
15 x 16.5 in., ink on board
Coppola Collection

Halladay was a native of Vermont and a noted political cartoonist for the Providence Journal (Rhode Island) for nearly fifty years (1900-1947). His cartoons were published in countless other newspapers and magazines. He has been called “one of the deans of American political cartooning.” His cartoon commemorating the death of Thomas A. Edison was a runner-up for the Pulitzer Prize.

The US economic recovery from the Great Depression was built upon taxes, and particularly by taxing those who trafficked in greater amounts of money: the high income earners and businesses.

Public, No. 801, Second Revenue Act of 1940, approved October 8, 1940, amends the Internal Revenue Code by increasing the normal corporate tax rate of corporations having a normal tax net income in excess of $25,000.

“Snap Judgment” (May 25, 1939)
by Milton Rawson Halladay (1874-1961)
12 x 14.75 in., ink on board
Coppola Collection

Halladay was a native of Vermont and a noted political cartoonist for the Providence Journal (Rhode Island) for nearly fifty years (1900-1947). His cartoons were published in countless other newspapers and magazines. He has been called “one of the deans of American political cartooning.” His cartoon commemorating the death of Thomas A. Edison was a runner-up for the Pulitzer Prize.

“It is difficult to resist the temptation to form a snap judgment after reading the first reports of a great disaster.”

The armchair-Generals on this train are all reading about the sinking of the Squalus of the New Hampshire coast on May 23, 1939.

The keel of the submarine named Squalus was laid on October 18, 1937 at the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard in Kittery, Maine. It was the only ship of the United States Navy named for a type of shark. The Squalus was launched on September 14, 1938 and commissioned on March 1, 1939.

On May 12, 1939, Squalus began a series of test dives off Portsmouth, New Hampshire. After successfully completing 18 dives, she went down again off the Isles of Shoals on the morning of May 23. Failure of the main induction valve caused the flooding of the aft torpedo room, both engine rooms, and the crew’s quarters, drowning 26 men immediately. Quick action by the crew prevented the other compartments from flooding.

Squalus bottomed out in 243 ft of water. The ship was was raised, renamed, and recommissioned on May 15, 1940 as Sailfish. During the Pacific War, the captain of the renamed ship issued standing orders if any man on the boat said the word “Squalus,” he was to be marooned at the next port of call. This led to the crew referring to their ship as “Squailfish.” That went over almost as well; a court martial was threatened for anyone heard using it.