“Dig it Out and Let the Sun Shine In” (June 25, 1938)
by Frederick Little Packer (1886-1956)
15.25″ x 22.25″, ink on paper
Coppola Collection

End of the New Deal

By 1937 the economy had recovered substantially, and Roosevelt, seeing an opportunity to return to a balanced budget, drastically curtailed government spending. The result was a sharp recession, during which the economy began plummeting toward 1932 levels. By the middle of 1938 the crisis had passed.

By mid 1938 the New Deal was also outliving its welcome. Conservative Southern Democrats openly opposed its continuation, and Roosevelt’s attempt to defeat several of them in the 1938 Democratic primaries (September 1938) not only proved unsuccessful but also produced charges that the president was a dictator trying to conduct a “purge.” In the congressional elections that year the Republicans gained 80 seats in the House and 7 in the Senate.

Another major threat to FDR came from Father Charles E. Coughlin, a radio priest from Detroit. Originally a supporter of the New Deal, Coughlin turned against Roosevelt when he refused to nationalize the banking system and provide for the free coinage of silver. As the decade progressed, Coughlin turned openly anti-Semitic, blaming the Great Depression on an international conspiracy of Jewish bankers. Coughlin formed the National Union for Social Justice and reached a weekly audience of 40 million radio listeners. He also caught the attention of the Nazis.

Roosevelt was criticized for his economic policies, especially the perceived shift in tone from individualism to collectivism with the dramatic expansion of the welfare state and regulation of the economy. Critics would complain of being oppressed and under attack by “the CIO-PAC, Eastern reds and pinks.” The CIO, predecessor to the AFL-CIO, was the first Political Action Committee. Reds and pinks were the direct accusations to being communist sympathizers as it would for years. And the ALP was a small but influential political party (American Labor Party) populated by liberal Democrats and threw its support towards New Deal candidates who supported progressive social policies.

“Are You Just a Shadow Boxer?” (May 20, 1940)
by William (Bill) Crawford (1913–1982)
22″ x 19″ in., ink and crayon on heavy paper
Coppola Collection

Crawford joined the Newark News as an editorial cartoonist in 1938 and his work was widely distributed (to over 700 newspapers).

Don’t just complain about the system, get out and vote! The Crawford cartoon here hinges on noticing that the fellow doing the air boxing is complaining about the Hague machine, and this turns out to be a reference with a lot of connectedness to the political fortunes of FDR and his reelections.

Because of their populations and political connectedness, the New York and New Jersey metropolitan areas were important to FDR.

One of the most influential political figures in the region was Frank Hague, the major of Jersey City, who was a mob boss by any other name. Corruption, bribery, and election fraud were his stock in trade, but he also parlayed a lot of incoming support for his constituents and stayed in power for years. He had a meager public salary and an extravagant life. During the height of his power Hague’s political machine, known as The Organization, was one of the most powerful in the United States controlling politics on local, county, and state levels.

Hague initially opposed FDR’s run for the presidency in 1932, but blew with the wind, as it was clear that Roosevelt was a winning hand.

The Great Depression and the New Deal forged a mutually beneficial alliance between FDR and Hague. Each needed the other. Hague benefited from the federal funds he was allocated by the New Deal relief agencies. Channeling this government assistance through his political machine and ultimately become the dominant figure of the Democratic Party in New Jersey. In return, Hague pledged to secure New Jersey for Roosevelt in his reelection campaigns. For FDR, this necessitated a policy of willful indifference (plausible deniability, sir) towards Hague’s corrupt ways.

Hague was skilled with voter support, having been a strong and early advocate for Suffrage and peddling influence in other urban areas, particularly in Chicago.

Hague’s influence not only made him the most powerful Democrat in his state, it helped nominate FDR and delivered New Jersey’s electoral vote to Roosevelt in all four presidential elections in which Roosevelt ran. Critics condemned Hague as the “Hitler of Hudson County,” where he was also accurately called “the law” (and saw himself that way).

Roosevelt wanted to prosecute the machine’s criminals, but he also wanted to provide Depression relief and New Jersey’s electoral vote, both of which the mayor controlled. This reality proved crucial to Roosevelt’s election to an unprecedented third term in 1940. Thanks to 173,000 ballots produced by the mayor in Hudson County, Roosevelt overcame Wendell Willkie’s lead of 101,500 and won the state’s electoral vote by a plurality of 71,500. Although most of the ballots were legal, critics complained of extensive fraud.

A report from the New York Times summed it up this way:

NEW JERSEY: Boss
Monday, May 20, 1940

Last week, as New Jersey prepared for its primary, Democratic Boss Frank Hague wore the innocent expression of a gambler with a sure thing. Mr. Hague has come so close to running both parties that he has nearly reduced New Jersey to a one-party State.

The secret of Boss Hague’s success is as simple and austere as arithmetic. He holds tight control of Hudson County, where he is boss and mayor of Jersey City. New Jersey, outside of Hudson County, normally votes Republican; but year in, year out, populous, Democratic Hudson County holds the balance of power in New Jersey, and Boss Hague has Hudson County tucked in his neat derby hat.

“What a Headache We’re Building Up” (July 5, 1941)
by Grover Page (1892-1958)
9 x 11 in., ink on drawing board
Coppola Collection

Page was born a few days after the election of Grover Cleveland to the presidency. That’s how the future cartoonist got his name. He decided at age ten on his calling and began drawing at the Gastonia public schools. He completed his formal education at the Art Institute of Chicago and the Chicago Academy of Fine Arts. Page became an editorial cartoonist at age eighteen with the Baltimore Sun. After working for the Nashville Tennessean for two years, Page moved on to the Louisville Courier-Journal. He spent the next thirty-nine years there drawing pointed and strongly opinionated cartoons.

The year 1941 was a critical one in WW2. The Germans had turned on Russia, with Operation Barbarossa, on June 22, and the Nazis were carrying out the heaviest bombings on England with the heavy threat of invasion in the wind. The initial thrust of the invasion of Russia was strong for the Germans, and by July 3, Stalin made a broadcast calling on the people of the Soviet Union to pursue a scorched earth policy and conduct guerrilla warfare against the invaders.

Still sequestered and under the sway of the isolationists, FDR made an Independence Day broadcast warning that “the United States will never survive as a happy and fertile oasis of liberty surrounded by a cruel desert of dictatorship. And so it is that when we repeat the great pledge to our country and to our flag, it must be our deep conviction that we pledge as well our work, our will, and, if it be necessary, our very lives.”

There is contemporary evidence that Stalin might have been planning his own invasion of German territory, particularly boldened by a strong air force, but the long-planned Barbarossa quashed that immediately. Churchill reached out to Stalin as soon as Bararossa started, and, by July 12, he was in Moscow to sign a cooperation pact with Stalin. Still months before Pearl Harbor would bring the US into the conflict, the blueprint for Germany’s reach exceeding its grasp was being laid down.

This cartoon, from the day after FDR’s address, reinforces the critical neglect displayed by the US as country after country had fallen to the Nazis, and now, early in the invasion of Russia, there is a commentary of fear that Stalin will fall, also, as had those before him.

“The Man Who Caught the Wildcat” (December 22, 1939)
by Bill Saylor
10 x 12 in., ink on drawing board
Coppola Collection

Bill Saylor was the editorial cartoonist at the Houston Post, was a Corporal in the Marines during WW2, and retired from the Houston Post in the late 70’s.

The Battle of Summa was fought between the Soviet Union and Finland, in two phases, first in December 1939 and then in February 1940. It was part of the “Winter War” and was fought near the village of Summa (now Soldatskoye) along the main road leading from Leningrad to Viipuri.

The village of Summa was a gateway to the city of Viipuri. The Finns had built 41 reinforced concrete bunkers in the Summa area, and the defense line was stronger than elsewhere in the Karelian Isthmus. However, the Finns had made mistakes in planning and nearby Munasuo swamp, east of Summa, had a kilometer-wide gap in the line. At least 20 tanks drove through the line in the first day of battle, but the Soviets did not have proper co-operation between branches of service; tanks, artillery and troops fought their own battles. The Finns stood still in trenches and allowed the Soviet tanks to move behind the defense line on December 19th, as they did not have proper anti-tank weapons. After that the Finns repelled the Soviet main troops. Soviet tanks cut-off behind the line aimlessly attacked Finnish strongpoints, but once these were eliminated the threat was over. The Finns won the battle on December 22.

1940.10.08 “So Am I!” (October 8, 1940)
by Bill Saylor
10 x 13 in., ink on drawing board
Coppola Collection

Bill Saylor was the editorial cartoonist at the Houston Post, was a Corporal in the Marines during WW2, and retired from the Houston Post in the late 70’s.

With the outbreak of World War II in Europe in 1939, the US government began to try to enlarge the size of the regular army through normal, voluntary means. Conscription was still not a viable option, especially given that the United States had not yet entered the war. General Douglas MacArthur captured the sentiment of the American people when he said during this era, “The traditions of our people [permit no] compulsory military service in time of peace.”

Nevertheless, less than a year later, on September 16, 1940, a draft law that put in place the first peace time draft in the United States was passed. Like the World War I draft approach, this new system was implemented locally in order to cultivate a feeling of familiarity and community associated with military service. The registration system also developed quotas based upon the population of each designated zone.

Men were first selected after a national lottery based on age, then through local selection depending on men’s “marital status, dependency, occupation, education, and physical condition.” The World War II draft was not met with the same opposition that the Civil War draft was in large part because it was a gradual process – people were given time for the idea of the draft to set in, then time to register, and finally time to be in the army without having to participate in any fighting.

Roosevelt was mentally preparing the American people for war, he was also well aware that the United States was not equipped with the manpower it would need to fight in World War II. Though the plan originated in the army, Roosevelt formally declared his support for a draft on August 2, 1940.

“For purposes of defense, we have to have men who are already trained beforehand. In doing that we save lives – we save human lives. That is the important thing… you cannot get a sufficiently trained force of all kinds at the front, in the output, you cannot get it by just passing an Act of Congress when war breaks out, and you cannot get it by the mere volunteer system.”

Roosevelt’s logic rested on the assumption that the United States would inevitably be entering the war soon and that the draft was needed to defend the nation. The debate over a peace time draft raged throughout the third session of the 76th Congress. Those against the draft were ardent believers in the liberty of American citizens and their case rested upon their faith in freedom. In a radio broadcast from the floor of the House of Representatives, Congressman John C. Kunkel of Pennsylvania argued: “My experience is that most people tend to overlook the very real dangers which are presented by either alternative [volunteer recruitment or conscription]. People who oppose peacetime conscription have a tendency to ignore or minimize possible future danger from Hitler. People who favor conscription tend to take the view that we can adopt totalitarian methods and shed them at will, yet history in man, many instances has indicated that this can rarely be done.”