1936.07.18 “Reputation of a Fisherman”
by Jack Patton (1900-1962)
11 x 15 in., ink on board
Coppola Collection
Jack Patton was originally from Louisiana. He worked as an editorial cartoonist from the 1910s through the 1930s. In the 1930s, he was a widely read editorial cartoonist for The Dallas Morning News. His last editorial cartoons appeared at the end 1939 and perhaps through the start of 1940. During the 1930s, he also began the newspaper strip 'Restless Age,' which was followed by 'Spence Easley'.
As a child, Patton read a magazine advertisement offering easy lessons in drawing. He signed up for a brief course, and it was enough to whet his appetite for a lifetime of cartooning. Scraping together enough money to get to Chicago, he enrolled in the Academy of Fine Arts. While at the school, he received word that the old Dallas Journal, then the evening publication of The Dallas News, needed an assistant in the art department. Hurrying back to his hometown, Mr. Patton found to his delight that he would work with veteran News cartoonist John Knott. The year was 1918 and two years later his editorial cartoons won a place on page 1 of the Journal. In the early part of his career, Mr. Patton was one of the first men in the business to put out both an editorial cartoon and a comic strip daily. The editorial cartoons had a stinging wit, and the originals were frequently requested by the subjects, including Franklin D. Roosevelt, Herbert Hoover and John Nance Garner.
FDR, a liar? The great thing about editorial cartoons is how they are so Of The Moment.
July 16, 1938: Father Charles Coughlin follow the lead of Francis Townsend and denounced President Roosevelt as a "great betrayer and liar", saying, "He who promised to drive the money changers from the temple has built up the greatest public debt in the nation's history. Is that driving the money changers from the temple?”
Charles Coughlin, commonly known as Father Coughlin, was a Canadian-American Catholic priest based near Detroit. He was the founding priest of the National Shrine of the Little Flower. Dubbed "The Radio Priest " and considered a leading demagogue, he was one of the first political leaders to use radio to reach a mass audience.
After making attacks on Jewish bankers, Coughlin began to use his radio program Golden Hour to broadcast antisemitic commentary. In the late 1930s, he supported some of the policies of Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy. The broadcasts have been described as "a variation of the Fascist agenda applied to American culture." His chief topics were political and economic rather than religious, using the slogan "Social Justice."
Francis Townsend was an American physician and political activist in California. In 1933, he devised an old-age pension scheme to help alleviate the Great Depression. Known as the "Townsend Plan," his proposal was to pay every person over age 60 $200 per month, with the requirement it all be spent quickly. It was never enacted but the popularity of the plan influenced Congress to start the Social Security system, which involved much smaller amounts.
Townsend and FDR had a conflict in 1936. Townsend's Plan had gained significant popularity and pressure on Congress, prompting Roosevelt to act. While Roosevelt understood the need for an old-age insurance system, he ultimately passed the Social Security Act instead, which was a pay-as-you-go system rather than Townsend's more generous pension plan. In 1936, a Congressional committee investigated Townsend and found that his organization had raised over a million dollars and that he had received a salary of $12,000. Townsend's actions, including storming out of a hearing, led to his prosecution for contempt of Congress and a sentence of 30 days in prison, which was later pardoned by Roosevelt.
