“Father Coughlin is already explaining it to the American people” (June 13, 1939)
by Mischa Richter (1910-2001)
13 x 9 in., ink and wash on watercolor paper
Coppola Collection

Eighty years ago, the growing cadre of fascists were providing support for an influential American to promote their agenda, favoring isolationism, anti-Semitism, and nationalism within the US, and keeping the US clear of participating in their rising ambitions in Europe.

Mischa Richter (1910-2001) was a well-known New Yorker, King Features, and PM newspaper cartoonist who worked for the Communist Party’s literary journal “New Masses” in the late 1930 and early 1940s, becoming its art editor in the 1940s.

In this piece, from the June 13, 1939 issue of the New Masses, you see a priest being taken away from a toppled church by German soldiers. Hermann Goering and Hitler are in the foreground, with one of them saying, “Father Coughlin is already explaining it to the American people.”

Father Coughlin was Charles Coughlin, the priest at the National Shrine of the Little Flower church, close to Detroit, and he was infamous. A social media (radio) misinformation giant of his time.

Coughlin was a harsh critic of FDR, accusing him of being too friendly to bankers. In 1934, he used his visibility to establish a political organization called the National Union for Social Justice. After hinting at attacks on Jewish bankers, Coughlin began to use his radio program to broadcast anti-Semitic commentary. In the late 1930s, he supported some of the fascist policies of Adolf Hitler, Benito Mussolini, and Emperor Hirohito of Japan. The broadcasts have been described as “a variation of the Fascist agenda applied to American culture.” His chief topics were political and economic rather than religious, using the slogan “Social Justice.” During this time, he came to the attention of the Nazis.

One of Coughlin’s campaign slogans was: “Less care for internationalism and more concern for national prosperity,” which appealed to the 1930s isolationists in the United States who turned a blind eye to the rise of fascism in Europe.

This cartoon, from June 13, 1939, just three months before the Nazi invasion of Poland, gives a clear sense of awareness about the goings-on in Europe and the awareness of influence and propaganda getting to the US population through Coughlin.

In October 1939, one month after the invasion of Poland, the Code Committee of the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) adopted new rules that placed rigid limitations on the sale of radio time to ‘spokesmen of controversial public issues’. Manuscripts were required to be submitted in advance. Radio stations were threatened with the loss of their licenses if they failed to comply.

This ruling was clearly aimed at Coughlin, owing to his opposition to prospective American involvement in World War II. In the September 23, 1940, issue of Social Justice, Coughlin announced that he had been forced from the air “by those who control circumstances beyond my reach.”

There is also a near-finished, signed alternate version of the drawing on the reverse, which does not feature the identifiable Nazi leadership.

“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.

1939.05.25 “Portrait of the Regard Dictators Have…” (May 25, 1939)
by L Day
15 x 20 in., grease pencil on board
Coppola Collection

I can find no other evidence for an L Day (or even more than a handful of “Day”s) as artists. This could be a one-off, although the complexity of the composition suggests otherwise. The fires of war stir up the brew of human suffering while the dictators soak in the admiration of others — even as they pour them into the cauldron.

Fascists believe that liberal democracy is obsolete, and they regard the complete mobilization of society under a totalitarian one-party state as necessary to prepare a nation for armed conflict and respond effectively to economic difficulties. Such a state is led by a strong leader—such as a dictator and a martial government composed of the members of the governing fascist party—to forge national unity and maintain a stable and orderly society. Fascism rejects assertions that violence is automatically negative in nature, and views political violence, war, and imperialism as means that can achieve national rejuvenation

Nazi Germany’s obvious political and military ally in Europe was Italy. The Italians had been governed by a fascist regime under Benito Mussolini since 1925. Italian fascism was very much the elder brother of Nazism, a fact Hitler himself acknowledged. And from the late 1920s, Mussolini had provided some financial support to the rising Nazi Party; he also allowed SA and SS men to train with his own paramilitary brigade, the Blackshirts. Hitler’s ascension to power in 1933 was publicly praised by Mussolini, who hailed it as a victory for his own fascist ideology.

Mussolini, who was prone to egomania, also had a low opinion of Hitler’s elevation to power, which he thought less glorious than his own. The first meeting between the two, held in Venice in June 1934, was disastrous. Mussolini spoke some German and refused to use a translator – but he had great difficulty understanding Hitler’s rough Austrian accent. The Italian was subjected to some of Hitler’s long monologues, which bored him greatly. Both men emerged from the Venice summit thinking much less of each other. But they were two peas in a pod, and the world is a big place to plunder. The Rome-Berlin Axis was formally announced on November 1, 1936, by Mussolini in a speech in Milan.

Hitler’s influence on Mussolini became evident in the Italian leader’s Manifesto of Race (July 1938). This decree, which proved very unpopular in Italy, stripped Italian Jews of their citizenship and removed them from government occupations. In September 1938 Mussolini was part of the four-nation summit on the Czechoslovakian crisis and a signatory of the Munich Agreement.

The Rome-Berlin Axis was formalized in May 1939 with the creation of another pact, in which Mussolini, the great phrasemaker, coined the Pact of Steel.

1939.05.22 “Surprise, Surprise!” (May 22, 1939)
by Paul D. Battenfield (1896 – 1985)
13 x 15.25 in., Crayon in varying densities, with painted white highlights, on pebble-grain Coquille board.
Coppola Collection

Battenfield (1896-1985) was a two-time Pulitzer finalist and a mainstay of the cartoonists’ bullpen at the Chicago Times.

The Pact of Steel, known formally as the Pact of Friendship and Alliance between Germany and Italy, was signed by Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini on May 22, 1939. The alliance originated in a series of agreements between Germany and Italy, followed by the proclamation of an “axis” binding Rome and Berlin (October 25, 1936), with the two powers claiming that the world would henceforth rotate on the Rome-Berlin axis.

The pact was initially drafted as a tripartite military alliance between Japan, Italy and Germany. While Japan wanted the focus of the pact to be aimed at the Soviet Union, Italy and Germany wanted it aimed at the British Empire and France.

Battenfield’s sarcastic take on the unconditional huggy-bear bromance between Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini. Battenfield equips the dictators with sappy dimwit grins of a sort one might associate with slapstick comedians.

The Leon T. Walkowicz’s Chicago-based archive: A patron of the arts and co-founder of the Alliance of Polish-American Veterans and the Polish-American Historical Society, Walkowicz (1898-1959) provided the basis of an influential collection at Loyola University.

“The Next Big Rescue Job” (April 30, 1939)
by Charles H. Kuhn (1892-1989)
15 x 13 in., ink of paper
Coppola Collection

His father ran a restaurant and proudly displayed his son’s drawings in the eatery’s window. At age 12, he decided to become a cartoonist when the sale of his first cartoon brought him 50 cents.

Kuhn was a cartoonist with Denver’s Rocky Mountain News from 1919 to 1921. In 1922, he signed on with the Indianapolis News, filling the position left open by Gaar Williams departed. Kuhn remained at the Indianapolis News as the paper’s editorial cartoonist for the next 26 years. He later recalled, “My original idea was to set the world afire with my oh, so super-dandy editorial cartoons.”

Kuhn was 55, in 1947, when he decided to change careers. He left editorial cartoons behind when he created “Grandma,” a comic strip inspired by his mother.

The social safety nets and work programs, created by the New Deal democrats, were (naturally) objected to by the republicans. Defense spending was at a post-WW1 low, and the progressive change in the tax structure of the US was new, and constantly seen as taxing the taxes at every step along the way. Farmers and truckers paid taxes on gasoline, passing along the costs to consumers, who paid taxes on the food.

Pulling out of the Great Depression was slow until Pearl Harbor, and this cartoon does such a lovely job of translating a text to images. The poor US taxpayer is under water thanks to high government spending and the threat of growing taxes, and it is up to the republications to come up with a rescue plan. The 1940 Tax Bill passed on June 19, 1939.

“Just Say Russia is Collapsing Three Times a Day” (April 25, 1939)
by Mischa Richter (1910-2001)
11 x 13 in., ink and wash on paper
Coppola Collection

Mischa Richter (1910-2001) was a well-known New Yorker, King Features, and PM newspaper cartoonist who worked for the Communist Party’s literary journal “New Masses” in the late 1930 and early 1940s, becoming its art editor in the 1940s.

Current Catchwords: One of [the current] catchwords or slogans that deserves deep examination is the demand that the US must fight against “dictatorships of both right and left.” What is meant, practically, by those who use this catchword is that the US must refuse to cooperate with the Soviet Union. Its consequence… is to oppose every step by President Roosevelt to align the US with the peace forces of the work to halt the aggressors. … Roosevelt’s measures against the aggressor governments are the main danger to the peace of America and of the world, a view fully shared by the axis powers. We of the Communist Party… consider that the President’s leadership in this movement has been his greatest single contribution… He must make a clean break with the bankrupt and discredited [appeasement] policy of Chamberlain.

The context for this cartoon is unclear. At this point, Russia was more or less allied with the US, although Stalin was also a more or less tyrannical leader. The editorial leadership would have been pro-Russia, so why does it help to think that Russia is collapsing?

The start of WWII was less than five months away. On April 13, Roosevelt had sent Hitler a telegram asking, “Are you willing to give assurance that your armed forces will not attack or invade the territory or possessions of the following independent nations?” Thirty-one countries were then listed. “If such assurance is given by your Government, I shall immediately transmit it to the Governments of the nations I have named, and I shall simultaneously inquire whether, as I am reasonably sure, each of the nations enumerated above will in turn give like assurance for transmission to you. Reciprocal assurances such as I have outlined will bring to the world an immediate measure of relief.” The message was ridiculed.

And on April 16, the Soviet Union proposed an alliance with Britain and France to contain German aggression in Eastern Europe. What we did not know is that the Soviets were working out their own non-aggression pact with the Nazis, which led directly to the invasion of Poland, and its subsequent division, at the end of August.

1939.04.14 “Drawing the Line” (April 14, 1939)
by Jack Patton (1900-1962)
12 x 14 in., ink and crayon on board
Coppola Collection

Jack Patton was originally from Louisiana. He worked as an editorial cartoonist from the 1910s through the 1930s. In the 1930s, he was a widely read editorial cartoonist for The Dallas Morning News. His last editorial cartoons appeared at the end 1939 and perhaps through the start of 1940. During the 1930s, he also began the newspaper strip ‘Restless Age,’ which was followed by ‘Spence Easley’.

As a child, Patton read a magazine advertisement offering easy lessons in drawing. He signed up for a brief course, and it was enough to whet his appetite for a lifetime of cartooning. Scraping together enough money to get to Chicago, he enrolled in the Academy of Fine Arts. While at the school, he received word that the old Dallas Journal, then the evening publication of The Dallas News, needed an assistant in the art department. Hurrying back to his hometown, Mr. Patton found to his delight that he would work with veteran News cartoonist John Knott. The year was 1918 and two years later his editorial cartoons won a place on page 1 of the Journal. In the early part of his career, Mr. Patton was one of the first men in the business to put out both an editorial cartoon and a comic strip daily. The editorial cartoons had a stinging wit, and the originals were frequently requested by the subjects, including Franklin D. Roosevelt, Herbert Hoover and John Nance Garner.

On April 14, 1939, FDR issued a letter to German chancellor Adolf Hitler, appealing to him to refrain from further aggression. Many of his speeches focused on the need to support American allies in Europe during the growing crisis. Shortly after Hitler formalized the annexation of Czechoslovakia, Roosevelt looked to build upon his transatlantic policy by directly contacting Hitler in an attempt to end the growing tensions in Europe.

His Excellency Adolf Hitler, Chancellor of the German Reich, Berlin, Germany

You realize, I am sure, that throughout the world hundreds of millions of human beings are living today in constant fear of a new war or even a series of wars.

The existence of this fear–and the possibility of such a conflict–are of definite concern to the people of the United States for whom I speak, as they must also be to the peoples of the other nations of the entire Western Hemisphere.

But the tide of events seems to have reverted to the threat of arms. If such threats continue, it seems inevitable that much of the world must become involved in common ruin. All the world, victor nations, vanquished nations, and neutral nations, will suffer. I refuse to believe that the world is, of necessity, such a prisoner of destiny.

 Because the United States, as one of the Nations of the Western Hemisphere, is not involved in the immediate controversies which have arisen in Europe, I trust that you may be willing to make such a statement of policy to me as head of a Nation far removed from Europe in order that I, acting only with the responsibility and obligation of a friendly intermediary, may communicate such declaration to other nations now apprehensive as to the course which the policy of your Government may take.

Are you willing to give assurance that your armed forces will not attack or invade the territory or possessions of the following independent nations: Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, The Netherlands, Belgium, Great Britain and Ireland, France, Portugal, Spain, Switzerland, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Poland, Hungary, Rumania, Yugoslavia, Russia, Bulgaria, Greece, Turkey, Iraq, the Arabias, Syria, Palestine, Egypt and Iran.

Such an assurance clearly must apply not only to the present day but also to a future sufficiently long to give every opportunity to work by peaceful methods for a more permanent peace. I therefore suggest that you construe the word “future” to apply to a minimum period of assured non-aggression-ten years at the least-a quarter of a century, if we dare look that far ahead.

I think you will not misunderstand the spirit of frankness in which I send you this message. Heads of great Governments in this hour are literally responsible for the fate of humanity in the coming years. They cannot fail to hear the prayers of their peoples to be protected from the foreseeable chaos of war. History will hold them accountable for the lives and the happiness of all—even unto the least.

I hope that your answer will make it possible for humanity to lose fear and regain security for many years to come.

A similar message is being addressed to the Chief of the Italian Government.

“First Things First” (March 18, 1939)
by Nathan Leo “Nate” Collier (1883-1961)
9 x 12 in., ink on board
Coppola Collection

An Illinois native, Collier studied at the Acme School of Drawing and at the Lockwood Art School. He did cartoons for the Chicago Journal, as well as the feature ‘Our Own Movies’ (1920), the decade in which he was most active.

The isolationists were a diverse group, including progressives and conservatives, business owners and peace activists, but because they faced no consistent, organized opposition from internationalists, their ideology triumphed time and again.

Roosevelt appeared to accept the strength of the isolationist elements in Congress until 1937. In that year, as the situation in Europe continued to grow worse and the Second Sino-Japanese War began in Asia, the President gave a speech in which he likened international aggression to a disease that other nations must work to “quarantine.” At that time, however, Americans were still not prepared to risk their lives and livelihoods for peace abroad.

As we know, things only got worse. The year 1938 started with the annexation of Austria and ends with Kristallnacht. By March 1939, Czechoslovakia was split up and taken.

“War Clouds Over Europe… Acting with characteristic vigor and with the same total disregard for the rights of other countries or existing pacts, agreements, Adolph Hitler, on behalf of the German Nation, staged another military coup last week-end, as a result of which he completed the annexation of Czechoslovakia and further extended his claims and ambitions in the Ukraine.”

“As a result of this action, which is resented by practically every independent statesman in Europe, Hitler has once more brought the world to the brink of a war of first-class magnitude, and six European nations have been partially mobilized to fight the issue. The United States of America has placed a virtual ban on German goods…”

“I’ve Been Hoarding this for Il Duce.” (March 5, 1939)
by Mischa Richter (1910-2001)
8 x 12 in., ink and wash on paper
Coppola Collection

Mischa Richter (1910-2001) was a well-known New Yorker, King Features, and PM newspaper cartoonist who worked for the Communist Party’s literary journal “New Masses” in the late 1930 and early 1940s, becoming its art editor in the 1940s.

Life in Mussolini’s Italy was little different from other dictatorships which existed between 1918 and 1939. Mussolini started the fascist party in 1919 and came to power as Il Duce (“the leader”) in 1922. The US initially supported of Mussolini’s ability to have wrangled Italy out of a nearly tribal period, but the charm faded, and relationships went sour as Italy moved on Ethiopia in 1935.

To a significant degree, both Nazi Germany and Stalin’s Russia were used (if not expanded) on the lessons of Fascist Italy. Mussolini’s muscle, the Blackshirts, maintained an iron rule. One favored way of making people conform was to tie a ‘troublemaker’ to a tree, force a pint or two of castor oil down the victim’s throat and force them to eat a live toad/frog, etc.

This technique was said to have been originated by Gabriele D’Annunzio or Italo Balbo. Colonial officials used it in the British Raj (India) to deal with recalcitrant servants. Belgian military officials prescribed heavy doses of castor oil in Belgian Congo as a punishment for being too sick to work. The Blackshirts elevated it to a new level, and many editorial commentary and cartoons made note of these practices.

Victims of this treatment did sometimes die, as the dehydrating effects of the oil-induced diarrhea often complicated the recovery from the nightstick beating they also received along with the castor oil; however, even those victims who survived had to bear the humiliation of the laxative effects resulting from excessive consumption of the oil. Inspired by the Italian Fascists, the Nazis used the torture method against German Jews shortly after the appointment of Hitler as the German Chancellor in 1933.

“Father was Right” (02/22/1939)
by Leo Iven Egli (1892-1966)
14 x 18 in., ink on board
Coppola Collection

The official start if WW2 was still months away, and Pearl Harbor even longer. Coming out of WWI, US isolationism was exceptionally high, and FDR’s belief that the US had a importance global role was tempered by popular opinion.

Egli was the cartoonist for the Ohio State Journal (1937-1947). Egli’s signature character, Leo the Lion Cub, appears here (Egli also worked at the Wichita KS Eagle 1932-1937; Licking County Weekly 1949-1951; and the Zanesville Times-Signal 1952-1953). His widow bequeathed their collection of more than 500 original cartoons to the Ohio State University libraries.