Cartoons Magazine‘s centennial continues with still more extracts from its January 1912 first issue.

Above, from the newspaper Denver Republican, we see a group of “reformers” engaged in what hardly looks like “reforming”. Below, Political News Faker, by Ole May, appropriately re-presented in time for the upcoming South Carolina primary, known for particularly dirty tricks played against opposing candidates, regardless of which political party they belong to.

Click on the above & below pictures, to view them in detail, and read the accompanying text.

Below, three of the four cartoons, including the top left by artist Robert Minor, Jr., concern the December 11th, 1911 Big Cross Mountain mine disaster, in Briceville, Tennessee. Click on the link, and scroll down to 1911, to read a local article on this incident.

The fourth cartoon below — Never mind, I will clean the street, by W.A. Rogers — hilights what occurred back before government became involved in public health programs — i.e., the kind of thing the Tea Party calls for the elimination of, now that few alive today remember the reasons why government became involved in the first place.

Beneath, A Problem, published in the Indianapolis News, illustrates the eternal conflict between public servants hoping for a raise, and the public, who wishes to receive their services, without paying for them. Update the clothing, and this cartoon could be run in numerous newspapers today.

Finally, next is a group of cartoons about Dr. Harvey Washington Wiley, the first commissioner of the Food & Drug Association. The top left cartoon, published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, depicts “Adulterated Food Interests” and “Patent Medicine and Quack Interests”, as a pair of thugs, kidnapping Dr. Wiley, and ready to jump the young FDA.

The bottom right cartoon more clearly depicts one of the reasons for the FDA — that before it, addictive drugs, such as cocaine, were legal, and was used as an ingredient both in quack medicines, and as a food additive (most famously, in Coca Cola, which got its name from its cocaine contents). Again, another example of why agencies which Republican presidential candidates and the Tea Party want to eliminate, were created.

More extracts to come…

Doug Wheeler

ElectionCartoons