Items from "Domestic/International Issues": 24

1948 marked the historic presidential election between Dewey and Truman. Walking with their arms linked, Truman and Dewey seem pretty buddy-buddy. The anonymous chap labeled “J. Public,” looks pretty happy too. For once all the parties AND the public can agree on something!

The budget for Harry Truman’s presidential inauguration in 1949 was the “most elaborate and expensive Inauguration” to date. Truman’s Inauguration was also the first ceremony to be broadcasted live on television. Truman is pictured in the cartoon next to a statue of Andrew Jackson, who was President in 1829. Jackson’s…

What hit New England? A nasty hurricane that’s what. This cartoon was published September 22, 1938, one day after the worse storm in New England history. “The Yankee Clipper,” “The Long Island Express” “The Great New England Hurricane.” All were nicknames given to the deadly storm. As a result of the rains of the storm sections of Falmouth and New…

Hurricanes are scary, we know. And this one is particularly dangerous. Junta in Spanish means “a military council that rules after a coup de etat.” The several Latin American countries seen in the cartoon were all under the rule of a military council at some point in the 20th century. Military councils are famously unstable and, much like a…

Gen. F. Edmunds, “Dealer in John Bull Scarecrows,” was actually a senator from Vermont during the years from 1866-1891. As senator, Edmunds was known for being an economic protectionist. Protectionists supported high tariffs on foreign imports in order to protect American products and industries. Protectionists policies kept the price of foreign…

In 1884 British forces engaged in a military campaign at the Suez Canal to put down a rebellion by the native population. This campaign was led by Sir Garnet Wolseley, a British military hero of the time. The general message of the cartoon below is confusion on the casualties and records of the conflict. The soldier on the right is depicting a…

The stock market can be a bear or a bull. A Bear market is one which prices are expected to fall. During 1937-1938 the American economy experienced a minor recession. No date was provided for this cartoon but based off of the theme of the image it is likely that this image was produced during this time period.

Do you think the man on the left will be able to catch the “butterfly” on the right? The man with the net was Secretary of the Treasury Henry Morgenthau Jr. Morgenthau served as secretary under both President Franklin D. Roosevelt and President Harry S. Truman. During these years Morgenthau struggled to balance Federal spending and borrowing. …

The American government contains three branches: the executive, the legislative and the judicial. Each of these branches is represented in this cartoon in regards towards the creation of legislation. It is the responsibility of the Supreme Court to determine if legislation that has been created is constitutionally sound.

In the eyes of many American citizens the legislative measures enacted by the Roosevelt Administration to help bring an end to the recession were nothing more than “wild spending” and new taxes. The attitude of the cartoonist was that these programs simply aggravated the “hornet’s nest” that was the current economic downturn and increased the…