Brian Coppola :: WW2 Era

1943.05.28 "Shoot if you must this old grey head!” by Chuck Werner

Artist: Chuck Werner (All)

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1943.05.28 Shoot if you must this old grey head!” by Chuck Werner Comic Art

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Artwork Details

Title:	1943.05.28 "Shoot if you must this old grey head!” by Chuck Werner
Artist:	Chuck Werner (All)
Media Type:	Pen and Ink
Art Type:	Illustration
For Sale Status:	NFS
Views:	209
Likes on CAF:	0 1
Comments:	0
Added to Site:	10/22/2019
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Description

Shoot if you must this old grey head!” (May 28, 1943)
by Charles (Chuck) Werner (1909-1997)
12 x 15 in., ink on paper

Charles (Chuck) Werner won the Pulitzer Prize for Editorial Cartooning in 1939 for a cartoon he did for the Daily Oklahoman titled “Nomination for 1938” which allowed for the transfer of the Sudetenland to Hitler's Germany (October 6, 1938). At age 29, Werner was the youngest person to win the Pulitzer. Werner left the Daily Oklahoman to be the Chief Editorial Cartoonist at the Chicago Sun in 1941 before leaving for the Indianapolis Star in 1947. Throughout his nearly sixty-year career, many U.S. Presidents expressed interest in Werner's cartoons, including Lyndon B. Johnson and Harry Truman requesting cartoons for their presidential libraries.

Taxation concerns took a back seat to the needs for building up the military, in short order, following Pearl Harbor. The highest fraction of the GDP to ever be spent on defense happened in 1943-45 (41%), double the WW1 spike (22%) and well over the norm of 5-10%, which persists to this day.

The sense of borrowing from Peter to pay Paul was a real concern, that the War would cost so much that it would take years to settle the accounts.

Originally known as Hi-Catoctin, Camp David was built as a camp for federal government agents and their families by the WPA. Construction started in 1935 and was completed in 1938. In 1942, FDR converted it to a presidential retreat and renamed it "Shangri-La."

On May 12-25 1943, Churchill met with President Franklin D. Roosevelt at "Shangri-La" in the first of many high-profile summits involving the leaders of the Allied powers. As the leaders passed through Frederick, MD, FDR told Churchill the Civil War story of Union patriot, Barbara Freitchie. Then FDR recited a few lines from John Greenleaf Whittier’s poem about her. Churchill responded by reciting the entire Freitchie poem from memory to the astonished American President.

In the poem “Barbara Frietchie”

“Shoot, if you must, this old gray head,
But spare your country’s flag,” she said.

Lincoln and Churchill held a shared magnanimity toward conquered foes, a philosophy Whittier reflected. The wartime budget asks for similar magnanimity from the Congress as it anticipates the move into the future.

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Joined:	March 2009
Last Login:	September 2025
Country:	UNITED STATES
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