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

“Frank Advice” (May 28, 1938)
by Silvey Jackson (SJ) Ray (1891-1970)
12 x 14 in., ink on board

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.

Dr. Glenn Frank was a president of the University of Wisconsin–Madison (1925-1937), having previously been The Century Magazine’s editor-in-chief, which gave his views on education a wide audience.

His public criticism of FDR put him at odds with the La Follette administration, and the UW Board of Regents, mostly appointed by La Follette, requested Frank’s resignation in March 1936. Frank declined, and the Board held public hearings on his presidential competency before narrowly voting to remove him from office on January 7, 1937.

Frank joined Wisconsin political causes and began a bid for the Republican nomination for Senate. He bought Rural Progress, a national magazine distributed to farmers without cost, and became its editor. He considered it a springboard for his political ambitions. He turned the magazine into a success, and it brought his strong political voice to farmers, especially pushing the anti-New Deal stance.

In January 1938, he was elected as chair of the committee in charge of writing the Republican Party rules. During the Spring, Frank gained national attention during the Judiciary Committee hearings on the nomination of strongly pro-FDR and New Deal Senator and Judge Sherman Minton to the Supreme Court, Frank was accused as a propagandist, and Frank accused Minton and the committee of being terrorists (to the Press). He came to national attention in May 1938, when he appeared in front of the special Lobby Investigation Committee, chaired by Senator Sherman Minton, that was set up to look into questionable lobbyist groups. In practice, the committee’s investigations were politically motivated and directed against groups that were challenging New Deal legislation.

Minton led the committee to target a newspaper with national circulation, Rural Progress, accusing its publishers of improperly accepting large sums of money from corporations and the editors of undue influence from this money. As Frank was answering the questions, Minton and fellow Democratic senators began to shout him down. As he was saying that the money from the corporations was for advertising in the magazine, Minton beat his gavel and yelled, “This committee doesn’t intend to permit you to use this as a forum to air your Republican views.”

Minton did not realize that Frank had been president of the University of Wisconsin, and soon suffered retaliation for the way he had treated Frank. Frank went on NBC radio stations around the country and lambasted Minton for his rudeness. He made lengthy arguments accusing Minton of attempting to violate the Bill of Rights. Minton was outraged, but the arguments had an effect among voters in Indiana. In 1938, he sought funding to launch a massive nationwide investigation of media conglomerates for proof of Republican interference in the press. Democratic Senator Edward R. Burke led an effort to defeat the measure and privately accused Minton of damaging the Democrats’ cause, which led Minton to leave the Lobby Investigation Committee.

In July 1940, Frank announced his run for the Senate seat from Wisconsin. Frank and his son died in a car accident in September, two days before his Senate primary.

Minton survived, and was appointed to the Supreme Court in 1949 by Truman, where he served until 1956. He was replaced by William Brennan.

“Triumphal Entry” (March 13, 1938)
by Hugh McMillen Hutton (1897-1976)
13.5 x 18.5 in., ink and crayon on heavy board
Coppola Collection

Hugh M. Hutton (1897-1976) was an American editorial cartoonist who worked at the Philadelphia Inquirer for over 30 years.

Hugh Hutton grew up with an artistic mother. After attending the University of Minnesota for two years, Hutton enlisted in the armed forces and served in World War I. Hutton pursued coursework in art through correspondence school, the Minneapolis School of Art and the Art Students League.
He worked at the New York World from 1930 to 1932 and with the United Features Syndicate in 1932 and 1933, drawing illustrations and comic strips. Hutton relocated to Philadelphia and worked as the cartoonist at the Public Ledger in 1933 and 1934. He became the Philadelphia Inquirer’s editorial cartoonist in April 1934, where he stayed throughout his career, retiring in 1969.

In Mein Kampf (1924), Hitler said he would abolish the Treaty of Versailles. He thought it was an international agreement that was a “bad deal” for the Make Germany Great Again movement.

The Treaty of Versailles (July 1919) called for stiff war reparation payments and other punishing peace terms for defeated Germany. Having been forced to sign the treaty, the German delegation to the peace conference indicated its attitude by breaking the ceremonial pen. As dictated by the treaty, Germany’s military forces were reduced to insignificance and the Rhineland was to be demilitarized. The Locarno Pact (1925) reaffirmed the national boundaries decided by the Treaty of Versailles and approved the German entry into the League of Nations.

In 1929 (only 90 years ago!), however, Hitler and the Nazi Party seized full power in Germany, promising vengeance against the Allied nations that had forced the Treaty of Versailles on the German people. In 1935, Hitler unilaterally canceled the military clauses of the treaty and in March 1936 denounced the Locarno Pact and began remilitarizing of the Rhineland. Two years later, Nazi Germany burst out of its territories, absorbing Austria and portions of Czechoslovakia. In 1939, Hitler invaded Poland, leading to the outbreak of World War II in Europe.

The first way Hitler broke the Treaty was over Germany’s armed forces. In 1935, he openly held a huge rearmament rally, including YUGE military parades, and the other nations let him get away with it, which starts the open policy of Appeasement.

The second way Hitler broke the Treaty was over the Rhineland. In 1936, after a one-sided, conscripted vote to re-occupy, Hitler moved his troops into the zone, claiming not doing so was a threat to Germany’s safety from foreign (French) invaders. Again, there was no reply from the League of Nations.

The third way Hitler broke the Treaty of Versailles occurred in 1938. The Treaty forbade Anschluss (joining) between Germany and Austria. After a failed attempt in 1934, Hitler tried again. Austria asked both France and Britain for help, but was refused. Hitler invaded on March 12, 1938. Maybe he should have just offered to buy it?

Am I being too subtle? Hutton’s title for this image “triumphal” turns out to be an anagram for “hail trump.”