It’s been a year since we last took a peek inside local vanity cartoon books. This particular set of the 1%, somehow got left out the only other time I cross-referenced the Vanity Cartoons series, with the Wall Street Frauds series.

Background: In the early part of the 20th century, most American towns had at least one newspaper, and many of those newspapers employed their own cartoonist(s). Some newspapers took to publishing caricatures and short biographies of local figures. Other local persons of import (or, who at least felt they were important, most notably local manufacturers and businessmen), wanted in too, feeling such caricatures to be recognition in their community that they were part of the elite – in addition to simply being good advertising. The desire to be caricatured evolved into book collections of cartoons of local (mostly business) figures, who subscribed to that book collection, wherein everyone in the book bought at least one copy of the book, thereby paying for its creation, and advertising to everyone else receiving the book, who was “in” in their community.

Click on the above & below pictures, to enlarge the cartoons and view them in detail.

This first pair of caricatures — immediately above & below, were scanned from the 1906 collection Californians As We See ‘Em.

Above, a would-be Tea Party hero if ever there was one — back in an age when Child Labor was legal, workers could be expected to work 7 days a week, 12 hours a day, workplaces had zero safety standards, and employees were fired without compensation if they got injured — yes, back in that day — Alphonzo Benjamin Bowers, inventor of the hydraulic dredge, decided to have himself pictured as battling the “Hydra Headed U.S. Government Infringement Dragon”, with a sword emblazoned with the words, “For My Rights”! (The Tea Party would like to return us back to the state of laws before even this Alphonzo.) Bowers is known to have sued multiple companies for violating his patents. As these companies were doing government work, I’ll guess that’s where his animosity to the government is coming from.

Below, Stockton, California capitalist, H.H. Griffith.

Above & below, from the 1911 New York City Them As Is Because, are Wall Street stock brokers Bruce McKelvie and Derby Crandall. Bruce doesn’t care if his customers’ stocks goes up or down, as he’ll get their dough, either way.

Above & below, from the 1905 Southern Californians As We See ‘Em, are Los Angeles National Bank President, W.C. Patterson, and, Central National Bank President, William Mead, both flush with cash.

To find prior episodes of this series,click on Wall Street Frauds Make Wonderful Cartoons. And, to find earlier posts concerning financial reforms in general, click here.

Doug Wheeler

Financial Reform