“Anchor’s Away!” (August 31, 1935)
by Burris A. Jenkins, Jr. (1897-1966)
11 x 14 in, ink and crayon on board

Burris Jenkins Jr. was the son of a prominent Kansas City minister, war correspondent and newspaper editor. Jenkins Jr. was a popular sports cartoonist, whose work appeared in the New York Journal-American from 1931. His humorous published verses were also popular. Although best known for his sports themes, Jenkins was also a skilled courtroom illustrator and editorial cartoonist.

Jenkins was not afraid to provoke, and he has some strong WW2 examples, including one of the rare direct commentaries on concentration (death) camps. Among his best-remembered cartoons are his angry piece on the discovery of the dead Lindbergh baby, and his sentimental image of Babe Ruth’s farewell to Yankee Stadium.

He was fired from his first job at the Kansas City Post for a series of pessimistic Christmas cartoons, a firing that prompted his father’s resignation from the same newspaper.

His father was an interesting guy. Jenkins, Sr (1968-1945) was ordained in 1891 and served as a pastor in Indianapolis. He received advanced degrees from Harvard and went on to serve as a professor and president of the University of Indianapolis and president of Kentucky University. He left Kentucky to return to Kansas City as pastor of the Linwood Boulevard Christian Church. The church burned in 1939, and Jenkins chose Frank Lloyd Wright as the architect for the church’s new home overlooking the Country Club Plaza.
Jenkins served as editor of the Kansas City Post from 1919 to 1921, hoping to fight for the establishment of the League of Nations. The Jenkins, Sr., biography tells the story about his leaving the Post slightly differently that for the son: “After two years, it became necessary for him to choose between the newspaper and his pulpit and, without hesitation, he resigned from the Post.”

“Live dangerously!” Jenkins would thunder from the pulpit, embracing his own philosophy against all adversaries. Unconventional in nearly every aspect of his chosen field, Jenkins often preached from non-Biblical texts, such as the latest book or his travels abroad. The church frequently hosted motion pictures, dances, card games, and fundraising boxing matches. These activities led to opposition to Jenkins and his Community Church from other churches in the city.

FDR instituted radical tax reforms as a way to get the US out of the Great Depression.

Major Revenue Acts appeared in every year of his first administration.

The Revenue Act of 1935 was signed into law on August 30, 1935, and raised federal income tax on higher income levels, by introducing the “Wealth Tax.” It was a progressive tax that took up to 75 percent of the highest incomes (over $1 million per year.).

The Act was signed into law over strong opposition from (quelle grande surprise!) business, the rich, and conservatives from both parties. The 1935 Act also was popularly known at the time as the “Soak the Rich” tax. It took two more years to shut down the tax loopholes used by some in those aforementioned categories.

The revenue had to be raised, but a legitimate concern for the effects on a strapped country was being raised, too.

“So Sweet of Him” (August 27, 1935)
by Lucius Curtis “Lute” Pease, Jr. (1869 -1963)
12 x 14 in., ink on heavy paper

Pease was a cartoonist for the Newark Evening News from 1914 to 1954, and received the 1949 Pulitzer Prize for Editorial Cartooning. He was a miner in Alaska for 5 years before beginning a career in art. He was an illustrator for the Oregonian and famously interviewed Mark Twain. From his retirement in 1954 until his death in 1963, he devoted himself to fostering his skills as a painter of portraits and landscapes.

On May 27, 1935 (“black Monday”), a conservative Supreme Court struck down a key provision of Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s New Deal. Essentially, the high court ruled that the federal government had no role in regulating the economy.

Furious, the progressive president staged a scorching press conference in the Oval Office, memorably complaining for more than an hour that the court was returning to a “horse and buggy” definition of interstate commerce.

It was a losing battle, though. Roosevelt spent the rest of the 1935–36 Congressional session watching his signature legislative achievements dismantled — everything from social security to farming regulations and labor rights — based on a narrow reading of the Constitution’s due process clause. The end of the 1935 Congressional session was August 26.

The war between FDR and the Congress was two-sided. He won legislative battles, too.

And the reverse side of this drawing shows the White House loading its veto cannon with four likely targets floating over the Congress for the next session: a bill about silver, one about soldier bonuses, a bank deposit fail bailout, and a farm mortgage bill.

The “soldier bonus” was a back-pay plan for WW1 vets that had been around for a while. It was passed on January 22, 1936 and vetoed on January 27.