So, I am reading – a decade a day – the late great Tony Husband’s book The 20th Century in Cartoons” (to be clear, he selected them, he didn’t draw them.) See also The Onion’s Our Dumb Century.
This decade, in my mind is one of… well, the war, obvs, and the trauma that never healed and gave us much more war (hot and cold)
What I didn’t know/didn’t know well:
Will Dyson William Henry “Will” Dyson (3 September 1880 – 21 January 1938) was an Australian illustrator, artist and political cartoonist who achieved international recognition. He initially worked as a freelance artist in Australia, developing a specialty as a caricaturist, notably in The Bulletin magazine. In 1909 Dyson married Ruby Lindsay and the couple settled in London soon afterwards. As cartoonist for The Daily Herald newspaper, Dyson became widely known as an illustrator and commentator supporting progressive social reforms in Britain.
Marconi Scandal The Marconi scandal was a British political scandal that broke in mid-1912. Allegations were made that highly placed members of the Liberal government under the Prime Minister H. H. Asquith had profited by improper use of information about the government’s intentions with respect to the Marconi Company. They had known that the government was about to issue a lucrative contract to the British Marconi company for the Imperial Wireless Chain and had bought shares in an American subsidiary.[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marconi_scandal
Andrew Fisher (Australian PM) saying they’d support the British “to the last man and the last shilling.” July 31 1914 – …”Turn your eyes to the European situation, and give your kindest feelings towards the mother country at this time. I sincerely hope that international arbitration will avail before Europe is convulsed in the greatest war of any time. All, I am sure, will regret the critical position existing at the present time, and pray that a disastrous war may be averted. But should the worst happen after everything has been done that honour will permit, Australians will stand beside our own to help and defend her to our last man and our last shilling … [loud applause]”
https://speakola.com/political/andrew-fisher-to-the-last-shilling-1914
The Masses getting shut down (hardly a surprise)
The Masses was a graphically innovative American magazine of socialist politics published monthly from 1911 until 1917, when federal prosecutors brought charges against its editors for conspiring to obstruct conscription in the United States during World War I. It was succeeded by The Liberator and then later New Masses. It published reportage, fiction, poetry and art by the leading radicals of the time such as Max Eastman, John Reed, Dorothy Day, and Floyd Dell.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Masses
Frank Little getting lynched.
1915 Peace Ship (Henry Ford)
Peace Ship was the common name for the ocean liner Oscar II, on which American industrialist Henry Ford organized and launched his 1915 amateur peace mission to Europe;[1] Ford chartered the Oscar II and invited prominent peace activists to join him.[2] He hoped to create enough publicity to prompt the belligerent nations to convene a peace conference and mediate an end to World War I,[1] but the mission was widely mocked by the press, which referred to the Oscar II as the “Ship of Fools” as well as the “Peace Ship”.[3] Infighting between the activists, mockery by the press contingent aboard, and an outbreak of influenza marred the voyage.[4] Five days after Oscar II arrived in Norway, a beleaguered and physically ill Ford abandoned the mission and returned to the United States.[5] The peace mission was unsuccessful, which reinforced Ford’s reputation as a supporter of unusual causes.[6] The ship was named after the former Swedish Monarch H.M. King Oscar II of Sweden (until 1905 also King of Norway) who, according to Ford, was a peaceloving monarch.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peace_Ship
Events I hoped/expected to see but were missing (but there’s only so much you can get in!): xx
Three best cartoons
- the child labour one. P41

- Henry Ford peace ship p53
3. Chimps at the zoo p35
Leave a comment