“Added Logic” (August 1, 1948)
by William (Bill) Crawford (1913-1982)
15 x 22 in., ink and crayon on heavy paper
Coppola Collection

Crawford worked as a sports cartoonist and for the Washington Daily News and the Washington Post from 1936-38. He joined the Newark News as an editorial cartoonist and his cartoons were distributed to more than 700 daily newspapers by the Newspaper Enterprise Association. He was an active member of the National Cartoonists Society, serving as its president and vice-president. In 1956, 1957, 1958, and 1963 he was awarded “Best Editorial Cartoon” by the National Cartoonist Society, and in 1973 he received their Silver T-Square Award. Crawford retired in 1977.

As New York City grew, so did the demand for more and more convenient air routes in and out of the area. In 1948, the New York International Airport at Idlewild was dedicated. Years later, it would be renamed as the JFK.

Truman used the event to press his argument for the United Nations, which is reflected in the cartoon. The headline in the New York Times read “Truman dedicated Idlewild Airport; Hails it as ‘Front Door’ for the UN; 900 planes stage parade of air might.”

“President Truman dedicated the 4,900-acre New York International Airport yesterday before thousands of persons at Idlewild in Queens. He assured the world that the nation’s air might, demonstrated soon afterward in an hour-long sky review, was “convincing evidence of our determination to remain strong in the cause of peace.”

It was reported to be the greatest exhibition of air power ever staged in one spot in peacetime in the history of the US.

“Down and Out” (February 25, 1944) 1/19
by Silvey Jackson (SJ) Ray (1891-1970)
12 x 15 in., ink and white watercolor over graphite on pebble-grain Coquille board
Coppola Collection

S.J. Ray was a student at the Art Students League of New York and was a World War I veteran. He joined the Kansas City Star in 1915 as an advertising illustrator and became the Star’s editorial cartoonist in 1931. He served in that post until retirement in 1963, drawing an estimated 10,000 cartoons. He received honors from the U.S. Treasury Dept. for his cartoons during World War II in behalf of the National War Savings Program.

The Luftwaffe was a strength of the Wehrmacht.

On August 17, 1943, the US Air Force launched its deepest raid against the ball bearing factories at Schweinfurt and aircraft production factories at Regensburg. The bombs destroyed some of the factory complexes, but the Luftwaffe destroyed or damaged much of the bomber force.

After more raids, the Air Force made another massive effort to hit the Luftwaffe. On September 6, 262 bombers were sent against Stuttgart. Of those, 45 fell to fighters and flak. In October 1943, the US air losses became critical, forcing a reappraisal of the American daylight bombing Strategy.

The changes that paid off came from several sources.

Major General James H. “Jimmy” Doolittle took command of the US Air Force on January 6, 1944. Based on his extensive experience, the push for smart air superiority took on greater importance. In particular, American fighter escorts would aggressively attack the Luftwaffe as the Germans rose to attack the bombers. The American fighters would also proactively seek out the potential attackers.

Doolittle commanded attention to his success during the “Big Week” (February 22-25, 1944), with over 6000 sorties flown around the clock, delivering more tonnage than in all of 1943. By the end of the week, as many as 1,000 complete or nearly complete German aircraft were destroyed.

The loss ratio with the German fighter force began to reverse, and the German replacements were increasingly unskilled youths going up against against experienced American pilots.

On June 6, 1944, the Luftwaffe failed to menace the Normandy invasion, and the Allies enjoyed air superiority over the battlefield for the rest of the war.

Adolf Hitler and Reichsmarshal Hermann Goering were determined to retaliate against British cities, especially London, for Allied air attacks against German cities. A few years earlier, they would have ordered a series of massive air raids against London in reprisal. However, combat losses and the switch to fighter production for the defense of the Reich had drained the strength of the Luftwaffe’s once-powerful bomber fleets. Massive air strikes were no longer an option.

“Say A-Ah…” (May 25, 1945) 1/17
by Frederick Little Packer (1886-1956)
14 x 22 in., ink on heavy paper
Coppola Collection

Packer worked at the LA Examiner from 1919-1931, and then moved to the New York Daily Mirror in 1932.

His cartoons and posters for the World War II defense effort earned him citations from the Treasury Department and the War Production Board. He was awarded the Pulitzer Prize on May 5, l952 for his Truman Cartoon, “Your Editors ought to have more sense than to print what I say,” which appeared in the “New York Daily Mirror” of October 6, l951.

In August 1953, he was invited by the Library of Congress to make a gift of his original drawings to its permanent collection.

The campaign for some form of universal government-funded health care has stretched for nearly a century in the US. On several occasions, advocates believed they were on the verge of success; yet each time they faced defeat. Remarkably, the conservative lobby uses the same argument every time: the programs are a slippery slope towards institutionalized socialism.

Between 1906-1915, the “American Association of Labor Legislation” and the “American Medical Association” partnered on a bill. Rallying against it: the AFL repeatedly denounced compulsory health insurance as an unnecessary paternalistic reform that would create a system of state supervision over people’s health. They apparently worried that government-based insurance system would weaken unions by usurping their role in providing social benefits. The commercial insurance industry was also opposed. This effort came to an end when the US entered WWI and anti-German fever rose. The government-commissioned articles denouncing “German socialist insurance” and opponents of health insurance assailed it as a “Prussian menace” inconsistent with American values.

The Great Depression did not help for passing compulsory health insurance in the US. With millions out of work, unemployment insurance took priority followed by old age benefits. The FDR administration feared that including health care would jeopardize the entire Social Security legislation.

The Wagner National Health Care Act (1939) was introduced after the 1938 election put a resurgence of conservatives into office, and it died on the vine. Interestingly, a version of it was introduced for the next seven years.

The next major attempt, in 1943, was the Wagner-Murray-Dingell Bill. Although there was always a lot of debate, the coalition of organized labor, progressive farmers, and liberal physicians were constantly red baited as supporting socialist ways.

After FDR died in 1945, and Truman became president, the health care issue moved into the center arena of national politics and received the unreserved support of the new president. But the opposition had acquired new strength in the post-war world. Compulsory health insurance became entangled in the Cold War and its opponents were able to make “socialized medicine” a symbolic issue in the growing crusade against Communist influence in America.

On May 24, 1945, Wagner introduced, with Senator Murray, S. 1050, entitled “The Social Security Amendments of 1945.”  The bill provides for “the national security, health and public welfare.” Representative Dingell of Michigan introduced a companion bill (H. R. 3293) in the House at the same time. Wagner: “I particularly invite your earnest study of the provisions of the bill relating to health. There is absolutely no intention on the part of the authors to ‘socialize’ medicine, nor does the bill do so. We are opposed to socialized medicine or to state medicine.” The bill never made it out of the Senate.

In 1945, the AMA spent $1.5 million on lobbying efforts, which at the time was the most expensive lobbying effort in American history. They had one pamphlet that said, “Would socialized medicine lead to socialization of other phases of life? Lenin thought so. He declared socialized medicine is the keystone to the arch of the socialist state.”

The birth of the People’s Republic of China (1948), the growing threat of the Soviet Union, the Korean conflict and the backdrop of the McCarthy era, all combined to kill national health care as an issue until the focus on the elderly emerged as an action item in LBJ’s New Society, resulting in Medicare and Medicaid (1965).

“Wings over Romania” (September 11, 1940)
by Walter J Enright (1879-1969)
14 x 17 in., grease pencil on board
Coppola Collection

A native of Chicago, Enright studied at the Chicago Art Institute. He was listed as an artist in the 1900 census, while he was still living in parents’ household in Chicago. His first wife, Maginel, was an illustrator and the younger sister of architect Frank Lloyd Wright. In addition to his work for various newspapers, he also illustrated children’s books, including at least one by Wizard of Oz author L. Frank Baum: “Father Goose’s Year Book: Quaint Quacks and Feathered Shafts for Mature Children.” Enright was with the “Miami Herald” from 1933 to 1943, and the “Palm Beach Post” from 1943 to 1948.

The treaties that followed WW1 more than doubled the territory and population of Romania. France had historically protected Romania. But after the fall of France in June 1940, Nazi Germany supported the removal of Romanian territory, which happened within weeks.

On September 6, 1940, Romania’s King Carol II was forced to abdicate after the loss of northern Transylvania.

On September 11, 1940, Adolf Hitler sent German army and air force reinforcements to Romania to protect precious oil reserves and to prepare an Eastern European base of operations for further assaults against the Soviet Union, which you can see represented here.

And on November 20, 1940, Romania formally joined the Axis alliance.

“Benito’s Lesson” (Fall, 1943) 1/13
by Jacob Glushakow (1914-2000)
11.5 x 15 in., ink on board
Coppola Collection

Jacob Glushakow was a famous Jewish artist who lived in Baltimore, MD, who spent most of his life creating numerous drawings of the Baltimore area. He graduated from the Baltimore City College high school in 1933 and went on to the Maryland Institute College of Art and the Art Students League in New York, where he studied from 1933 to 1936. Jacob enlisted in the Air Force (December 17, 1941) and eventually served as a sergeant in England. On his enlistment materials, he is listed as an artist.

Jacob was initially trained and stationed at the Davis-Monthan (D-M) Air Force Base in Tucson, AZ. There are local newspaper reports in the Tucson Daily from June 11, 1942 (a painting of the Air Base selected to appear in the issue of Life Magazine during the first week of July); June 17, 1942 (painting signs for an Benefit Dance); and October 9, 1942 (a portrait of MacArthur unveiled, and working on a mural).

I have four of his cartoons, which I conclude were done for the Davis-Monthan Base newspaper. They say “Davis-Monthan” or “D-M Field” along with his name. One of them has a printing order sticker on the back with Davis-Monthan as the source. And if you look at the inferences you might draw from the topics in the cartoons, they could all reasonably fall in the last half of 1943, although that is speculation. They are not dated and there is no source publication to check. I also speculate that these must have been in his material belongings and released to auction by the family after he died. The Maryland Historical Society and the Jewish Museum of Maryland both have his works featured.

This cartoon looks pretty clearly to be the summer/fall of 1943. After the successful Allied campaign in North Africa, the threats to invade Italy began in May. The Allies followed through, taking Sicily in an assault that began on July 10. And on September 3, the invasion of the Italian peninsula began. The surrender had been pre-arranged, and was formally announced on September 8.