Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 40, Number 100, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 25 August 1908 — The McCutcheon Cartoons. [ARTICLE]

The McCutcheon Cartoons.

Cartoonsistg come and go but the great McCutcheon has come to stay. He is the cartoonist for the Chicago Tribune, and his daily pictures tell long stories of events, and they have been in the past and no doubt will be in the future, responsible for swaying the great vote of Chicago to the candidate that paper favors. McCutcheon does not tell falsehoods with his cartoons; he does not villify nor falsify; he tells the truth more forcibly than most people can write it, and he furnishes pictures that are studies and that one may look at by the hour and gather new ideas with each observation, and yet the main thing that the artist wishes to impress is so evident that one can see at a glance what it is. Now he is publishing a series of political cartoons. The first was in last Saturday’s Tribune. It was divided into two parts each showing Bryan appealing to the farmer for his vote. The upper section showed him addressing an audience of farmers in 1896, when he recommended free silver as the only savior for the tiller of the soil. Off to the right front was a farm house and back of it the wind mill and the barn; hitched to the fence in front was the farm team. On each there was a mortgage. The farm house was weighted down with mortgages and the surroundings were a true picture of the conditions in 1896. Back of Mr. Bryan’s speaking platform was a bill board and on it were advertised many sheriff’s sales, and over to the right and rear was Mr. Bryan’s own home, with a mortgage hanging over the roof. Bryan has some patches on his clothes and the little bunch of farmers that he is addressing are clad in old clothes and have a woe-begone look on their faces. They are distressed at the conditions and are willing to listen to any person that thinks he has a remedy. And Bryan is saying: “Free silver; that’s what I recommend; vote for it; nothing else will save you.” But the farmer recalled that he had had better times before the Wilson tariff measure became a law and he listened to the republican) orators and to the argument of William McKinley. Then the fanner didn’t like the dishonest Idea of paying off debts with 50 cent dollars and the farmer did not accept the Bryan proposition. The result of the campaign was the election of McKinley, and the of, the Dinglev tariff .frill and this resulted in the opening of the factories and the employment of American labor, and the prosperity of the farmer, the merchant, the mechanic, the manufacturer, the laborer, the professional man, and the pulling out from under the load of mortgages that had enthralled the farmer In 1896.

In 1908 Mr. Bryan returns to the same place and addresses the fanner and McCutcheon shows the picture again. This time It Is changed. Where the mortgaged house stood in 1896 there is now a fine new residence; the barn Is also new, the old wind mill has given way to a modern one with a combination milk and butter house below. The sheriff’s sale bill board has disappeared from behind the speaker and the mortgage has gone from Bryan's residence and he has a palatial home In Its place. The same crowd of fanners that listened to him in 1896 are listening to him again. They are not looking as they did then; the sorrow and worry hah disappeared and in Its place is written perfect contentment They are better clothed, and all are smoking cigars and bear e e y evidence of prosperity. One has on a I pair of goggles, and behind him Is an i automobile. In 1896 this same chap was the poorest looking of the lot but his haggard appearance of twelve years ago had given way to one of happiness in 1908. Bryan has gained in weight and has discarded tbs patches that be wore, and the ultra serious attitude that was his In 1896

has given over to a bland smile as he addresses Mr. Farmer In 1908. And he says: “Follow my recommendations and be saved; nothing else will save you.” In 1896 he told them how to keep from going broke; now he tells them how to get their just deserts. The picture is interesting because it is true to life. Then, how can the farmer who recalls the 16 to 1 fallacy of 1896 have any confidence in the forebodings of 1908. The farmer that would contribute to the democratic campaign fund that threatens to restore the mortgage to the farm, close the factory, withdraw home and foreign demand for the products of the farm, and set the country back to the condition it was in twelve years ago, needs a guardian, and that guardian should not be William Jenningß Bryan. For he has proposed only during republican management of the affairs of the government, and he would fail 1 himself with the old conditions.

Bryan may be able to fool a great many people again this fall, but those he fools will not be among the prosperous American farmers. The Tribune is -worth what it costs for the McCutcheon cartoons alone.